Liberals and Hippies: Santa Monica and Venice

I am currently sitting in Planned Parenthood waiting for an appointment to get birth control. IT'S FOR MEDICAL REASONS, DAD. JESUS. Anyway, the Santa Monica PP is in a mall. That's right. It is in the middle of a shopping mall. There are zero protesters outside and while you're waiting for your Plan B, you can pick up a sensible yet hip blazer from Express. Win win.

Yesterday, I got the brilliant idea to walk from Santa Monica to Venice along the shore. It took about an hour each way walking in the sand. It was a really nice view and minus the dead bird wings floating toward my ankles in the surf, the water was very nice.

Venice is an interesting place. It was sort of like Jersey Shore for hippies. There were a lot of Rasta shops stuck in between the usual sandal/booty short tourist shops. There were also a lot of "doctors" who gave out medicinal marijuana licenses. The guys standing outside of those wore green scrubs with marijuana leaf necklaces. It was pretty awesome.

There was also a lot of cool street art and a skate park. Since it was 5PM on a Tuesday, all of the skaters were 13-year-old boys learning how to do tricks so it wasn't that interesting. I've heard it's fun on a Saturday. I was hoping to see some body builders at Muscle Beach but after a while, I got tired and walked back. Maybe I'll try again this weekend.

I'm getting more and more frustrated with the lack of passable public transportation. There are no bus schedules or bus maps. I have no idea where to transfer. The buses often come late or sporadically. It's very confusing and it sucks. The thing I miss most about NYC is the public transportation. I miss you, subway. Even you, G train.

Here are some pics of Venice Beach and the boardwalk. Have fun ogling at the hippy culture. I sure did.