Malibu, Lily's Cafe and Zuma Beach

After an exciting morning of World Cup Soccer (USA, USA!) at my friend Austin's in Redondo, my friend Steve and I headed up to Malibu for the afternoon.  Steve was house sitting in Malibu and I wasn't about to pass up an invitation to hang out.  Steve had been raving for weeks about a burrito from Lily's Cafe in the Point Dume shopping center so we decided to hit it up before the beach.

As I walked in I noticed a bottle of Tapatio on each table which is always a good sign.  Even with all of Steve's hype, Lily's carne asada burrito managed to delight.  It was huge and delicious and I didn't have time to snap a photo before I had demolished it.  The only thing it was lacking was cheese, but it almost got away without it.  I highly recommend it if you are up near Zuma Beach, and I hear their breakfast burrito is also highly coveted.  Lily's on Yelp 

With our bellies full, Steve and I headed to the beach.  And chilled.  Zuma beach is beautiful.  It is much more laid back and peaceful than the hustle and bustle of Santa Monica beach.  With colorful life guard towers and beautiful blue water, Zuma is definitely a gem.

Steve and I threw around the football for a while, channeling our inner manlyness.  We were soon joined by Laura.

We were soon treated to a show by several dolphins! It was so cool, one of them even caught a wave.  I have certainly never seen a dolphin surf, but aparently it happens at Zuma.  There were also seals out there having fun.  Soon the sun was setting and we got this view

It was so relaxing and such a needed break from the city.  I was happy, can you tell?

After the beach we went back to the house Steve was watching.  It was determined we needed buns for our hot dogs so it was off to the local grocery store.  And guess who we saw?  Ok you will never guess.  Ben Stein! Who? Ben Stein of Ferris Bueller fame, and Win Ben Stein's money... the dude with the annoyingly dry voice. Ya you know who I'm talking about.  Anyways, fun day.

Nike Shoe release party

Only in LA right? On Thursday Jaime's brother Jon was back in LA and invited me to come out to this shoe release party.  The shoes were designed by two professional skateboarders.  Jon (DJ StaticJon) and rapper Andre Nickatina, were the special guest performance.  Jon asked me to do a little filming.  It was a short show but the crowd loved it.  It was a really interesting mix of people.  Mostly white skaters.  After the show I hung around for a little bit with Jon, his girlfriend Katy and friend Kristin.  The venue was really interesting.  It was a converted old smog check station, so it is aptly named Smog Shoppe.  It is apparently a green venue. Whatever that means.  All in all I will say it was an interesting and strange experience.  It hardly seemed to be about the shoes, but maybe they presented them before I got there.  It was fun to see Jon & Co. and I got out of my apartment.  So...good times.

http://www.smogshoppe.com/   

The Prominade and Santa Monica Beach

So this seems like an obvious one, but I haven't posted it before.  This past weekend my back was somewhat out of commission so I didn't feel up to doing anything too crazy. Yeah I know, I'm getting old.  I had to get out of the apartment though, especially since the sun finally came out.  So I decided to take a book down to the beach.  I parked at work and walked to the promenade.  For those who have never been, the 3rd Street Promanade is an outdoor shopping strip spanning an entire 5 blocks.  It has been closed to cars, so pedestrians can wander back and forth from shop to shop.  There is quite the crowd there, especially on weekends.  It attracts quite an eclectic group of street performers, from the incredibly talented to the "oh my god I will pay you to stop doing that".  On Wednesday and Saturday there is also a fairly impressive farmers market.  I tend to think it is fairly pricey, but I guess there is a price to be paid for premium produce in LA.  PS, this picture doesn't do it justice.  They were packing up. 

 After a research trip to the Apple Store, I headed down the pier and onto the beach.  The Santa Monica Pier is world famous but really better experienced with a friend.  As I was a loner on this outing, I stayed away from the rickety carnival and headed for the sand.

I wasn't very diligent in my picture taking, so I will have to update this post later, because there are some interesting parts to this beach, including the muscle beach exercise area.  I had a nice relaxing afternoon lounging on the sand and enjoying a book (that's right a book! No scripts this weekend!).  The weather was perfect.  I will admit this wasn't all that adventurous, except for when I tried to get up off my back, but this is a quintessential Santa Monica experience and it's what you pay a premium for when you live close to the ocean.  But in my opinion, it is so worth it.