Venice in California

Maybe this is nothing new for natives of SoCal, but I feel like I just "discovered" a little gem this past weekend...Venice Beach. I'm not even that much of a beach person, but I went to Venice Beach for the first time (technically the second, but the first time was raining and I didn't really appreciate the experience) and I loved it! It's a funky strip of beach that is sort of like Berkeley (hippies, music, cheap vendors, and the smell of pot wafting through the air). I went closer to the end of the day when it was cooling off and there were not quite so many people. It was so relaxing just to sit and watch the ocean and chat with friends and enjoy the day. So lovely! I'm beginning to become more of a beach person after all.

The best part of Venice, though, was the canal that popped up nonchalantly on South Venice Blvd. There is an actual canal in Venice! Cute houses line the canal and each house has a mini-dock with canoes that tread the foot-deep water. My favorite things about the canal were the bridges that connect the two sides of the water in several locations...heehee...it reminded me exactly of the scenes in Anne of Green Gables where Gilbert Blythe watches Anne Shirley from afar before he finally kisses her at the very end of the last movie (seven hours of movie later). :-) Yes, I'm a dork.