We had breakfast at iHop this morning. Then off to... the beach! We walked to Santa Monica Pier - it took about 40 minutes. We then walked to the van where we took surfing lessons. We were supposed to have great photos but... small problem... we lost the camera in the water... for all we know the camera could be in Japan by now =(. We did leave our phone number with the lifeguards in case someone found it and brought it in. Anyway... We also lost our sun screen - left it in the truck... oh man!Surfing was a lot of fun. Quite difficult and scary at times. Some of the swells were pretty big and when they hit you it feels like a brick wall. Other times, you nose dive off the board because you didn't get up fast enough... let's just say my sinuses are very clean. I almost got knocked out by Sophie's board, but other than that, fun, fun, fun! Thank God for wetsuits. I would not have been able to get in the water without it. BRRRR!
After our 2 hour session, we had lunch and walked back to the pier. We took the shuttle back to the hotel and drove off for a different kind of adventure. Driving in L.A. It's actually not bad. Now worse than driving in Ottawa or Toronto. More cars that's all. We drove down Santa Monica Blvd to Rodeo Drive. We found a parking and walked down the drive - it's only 2 blocks so it doesn't take long. We didn't go in any of the stores as we know we can't afford anything that is in there! Beautiful fancy buildings and one REALLY fancy car- Rolls Royce- one of a kind- built for the owner of Bijan store. Crazy!
After our short adventure on Rodeo (Oh! we had valet parking!) we drove off to go on a hike to the Hollywood sign. We went up to Griffith park - at the observatory (which is closed on Mondays). We parked and off we went. Up, up, up again. My goodness! California is so hilly all the time! We didn't make it to the sign - we would've needed a couple more hours! It didn't look like such a hike but it was. We ended up doing not quite 5 km and it took us over an hour!
After our hike, we had dinner at Carneys- Sheldon from Big Bang would be proud of us! It's a dinky little restaurant - burgers and hot dogs basically - inside a train car - in the middle of L.A. - on Sunset Blvd. Cool thing to do! For dessert we went to Yogurtland - a self serve frozen yogurt place - yum!
Other things worth mentioning:
- took 28 000 steps
- saw the following new birds: hermann's gull, acorn woodpecker, lesser goldfinch, and 2 other birds we don't have the ID yet. We saw a pirate pigeon - it was a peg leg =) one foot had no toes.
- it's cold near the shore and darn hot further out.
- the pacific ocean is cold - you would think you are in the south it will be warm - think again
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