Sunday, July 13, 2014

Santa Monica

This weekend, we decided to leave "the hill" and travel west.  This place gets a bit boring after too much sitting around.  We needed a mini getaway.  

We decided on heading into Santa Monica.  It is 2 1/2 hours from Twentynine Palms, and was a great place to sight see.  

Santa Monica is not actually a place I ever really had a huge desire to see.  However, since we are semi close, it was a must see on our bucket list out here.  It is a famous place, and I have seen snapshots on television quite often.  

The drive out to Santa Monica was a bit of a culture shock.  California drivers are awful.  They are probably the worst drivers I have ever seen.  And that is staying something, considering I have lived near New York, D.C., and in Japan.  They are self centered, and in a constant rush.  There was one point where we had to merge from 5 lanes to 3 because of an accident.  Nobody wanted to let anyone in.  We are definitely in California.  

Eventually we made it, and were refreshed with the cool air.  It has been over 100 degrees every day since we have arrived in Twentynine Palms, so the 80 degrees felt wonderful.  

The beach was beautiful, but we never ventured into it.  It is far too cold.  There were lots of crazy children playing in the waves, and both boys loved watching.  Z Step made it a point to say "they playing in the Pacific Ocean!"  We had told him that this was a different ocean from before.  He really remembered everything we said.  

We walked around the pier for awhile, just sightseeing.  There were "street" performers, artists, and lots of odds and ends.  I was amazed at how rude and stupid most of the people were.  Even the street performers were rude.  We overheard a teenage girl asking what 197+5 was.  She honestly was stumped.  I suppose we have really been spoiled with our education.  I am sad for the future generations.  

One of the rude performers.  He was yelling at the crowd, and singling people out.  

Z Step showing me the Pacific Ocean
We made our way to the rides, and got on the landmark ferris wheel.  It was a nice ride, where we got to see the view from up high.  The boys had a great time looking at the beach.  
My favorite photo of Z Step

Look at that hair!  

Z Step and Mama Step

E Step playing with Daddy.  He was actually really cranky
We had lunch after this at Bubba Gump Shrimp. We had been to the one in NYC before, but it was nice going to a different one.  It was pretty much the same.  We even had a friendly waitress.  The nicest I have seen so far.  She even reminded us of the military discount they offer, after I told her about our cross country move.  

We walked around a bit more, Z Step and I went on the scrambler ride, (which he loved) and we picked up a christmas ornament for our tree.  We could probably decorate an entire tree with all the ornaments we picked up along the way in our marriage so far.  We are so lucky to get to travel like this!  

Santa Monica was also the end of Route 66, which we traveled along for most of our trip out west.  Though most of the road is closed today, we were still able to say we traveled along part of it.  We really are on the west coast now, aren't we?  I look forward to more traveling in Twentynine Palms!  

No comments:

Post a Comment