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.