Santa Monica

Last night we went to a popular little Japanese restaurant across the road from our hotel but made the mistake of ordering a recommended meal which turned out to be far too much - ramen noodle dish, fried rice with beef and coleslaw with mayo. Staggered back to the hotel and fell asleep pretty quickly. 

Tackled the LA metro system today with a trip to the coast at Santa Monica. One of the benefits of the elderly is cheap public transport - $0.75 each way!

The area seemed pretty busy although it's probably much more crowded in the summer time. We wandered down onto the pier with all the other tourists. The pier has the typical roller coaster, buskers, souvenirs, etc. We then headed south along the beach walkway past the "Muscle Beach" area and further towards Venice Beach while avoiding cyclists, skaters, skateboarders and joggers sharing the walkway. 

The beach is very wide with combed, level sand but nobody in the water which was pretty choppy and dirty - probably due to all the rain they've had recently. Then a walk back to the pier area and on to a local shopping boulevard. 

After the trip back to the hotel we rested up before venturing out for dinner.