Who would have thought a day in Santa Monica would actually be somewhat fun (just kidding, beach denizens of Santa Monica!)? We decided to postpone our plans to drive to Joshua Tree with Ken and Katie for one day, and instead drove down I-10 to the crown jewel of…I don’t know, it’s one of the coastal towns outside of Los Angeles. You’ve probably heard of it. I shouldn’t have to describe it all for you. I’m not your “daddy”, and this isn’t a lesson on Thomas Edison’s phonograph, which — by the way — was demonstrated for the first time on this date in 1877. Top that, audiophile nerds!
We parked at the same parking lot that spit out this receipt over the summer and headed for Cora’s Cafe, which has really great breakfast options and a cool outdoor dining nook. Here we started a game of Farkle that…wait, come to think of it, it hasn’t technically ended yet. Luckily I kept the scorecard all day. In any event, after everyone ate (except for me, gotta keep my figure!) we made our way towards the pier. Once there we walked around, talked, Nicci and I practiced wave boarding, I ate my first churro ever, Katie took a ton of pictures, Ken paid for us all to go on the Ferris Wheel (again, my first time), Ilya dropped in very timely, sardonic jokes…everyone was there! Like the birth of Margaret Tudor (daughter of Henry VII) which — by the way — happened on this date in 1489.
After the pier we headed back to the area of the car, but remained on the beach. There were swings, a bike path to practice wave boarding, I was given a lesson on how to proceed through the rings course (swinging from ring to ring like a gymnast, I had no idea I possessed the skills to get all the way down the row). The sunset was one of the best I’ve seen since moving here. We watched from an empty lifeguard station. Afterwards, we drove a couple miles to Venice beach and walked up and down the street for a while before it was time for dinner. We headed back to Santa Monica to eat at Father’s Office. We continued the game of Farkle over burgers, sweet potato fries and booze (Rogue HazleNut Brown Nectar on tap! Orgasmic!), but were eventually asked to stop playing by one of the employees. Then we headed home. Everyone seemed to retire relatively early, so I watched an episode of LOST (Season 3, Episode 6 — what the fuck?! That shit is insane!), and then had another one of those late night deep conversations with Rob outside on the porch. Now I’ll try to sleep.
