Santa Monica Pier

On Monday this week, after our camping trip, I didn't feel like cooking so we went to go and pick up dinner from the Mediterranean place in the town centre by us. On our way back we passed by the frozen yoghurt shop which had (sadly) closed down a few months ago, to find that a new business had moved in. It's now going to be a Taiyaki and boba cafe, or Japanese ice-cream and milk tea cafe. I'm very excited to try it and am glad that another desert spot has opened up! 


This week I'd also seen online that there was a vegetarian and vegan grocery shop in Riverside. So on Tuesday I picked Mitchell up from work and we drove over. It's about twenty minutes away which is a little far to go for regular groceries, but it was very cool to visit! It's a health food shop, so there weren't many good sweet snacks, but they had cheap fresh vegetables and so many different types of meat replacements, vegan versions of food, and sauces. I picked up some of each and am excited to try them out. 

On Friday, I'd been thinking about pastries all week so we went for a little breakfast date before work and met a very friendly little dog and her owner as we sat outside.

In the evening, Mitchell had been invited to go to the bar on campus with some of the other international scholars and I joined after work. We met some new friends and some of them haven't got a car, so we offered to take them on some day trips to places further outside of Riverside. I also got try out Clara's electric scooter on the campus paths after the bar closed (at 8pm because America has a completely different drinking culture). 

Saturday was our big adventure day this week! We woke up and had a lazy breakfast before heading out at about 11:30 for LA. I'd decided we should visit Santa Monica Pier and we had a very nice day by the beach. We arrived just after 1pm (the traffic had not been great), but they have so much parking for that area, which is nice, and surprisingly cheap for LA. We walked along the board walk, past the famous houses you may have seen on the internet and along to the pier. 

Not my photo, but we did drive down this road

The Pier is huge and has several restaurants, food vendors, and even a theme park on it! It was very busy, but fun to walk along and see the sea to one side and rollercoasters on the other. We got a hotdog and then a funnel cake which was tasty, but turned out to be a mistake. We really should have shared one cake because they were so huge and are essentially cakes made of fried batter, a bit like a doughnut, so we felt very full and a bit uncomfortable after we'd eaten. 




But, we finished walking around the pier, seeing carnival games and a carousel inside a huge windowed building. We're pretty sure we've seen this place on TV shows, most recently for us on 'Lucifer' and 'Angel'. 

After the pier we went back to the car and picked up our beach towels and headed onto the sand for a little bit. It wasn't too sunny that day, so we weren't too hot and sat for an hour or so with our books. It was a pretty busy stretch of beach with a dozen volleyball courts set up and families all over. 

Our next stop of the day was to head inland for some live music from our favourite artist Frank Turner. About 30 minutes through LA we got to The Wiltern. There was paid parking which cost almost $40! But we managed to find free street parking, as residential streets are only a ten minute walk away and it wasn't too sketchy an area of downtown LA. The venue itself was an actual theatre, with a lobby and carpeted bar with historic architecture. 

There were three supporting bands which we enjoyed and then Frank was awesome as usual. The crowd was very friendly and we chatted to a few groups who were also very excited to see him perform. 

He finished at 11pm and we made it home a little after midnight. It was an exhausting day of fun (and traffic) and we had a great time. A carnival, a beach and Frank Turner, what else could we need?

I slept a lot on Sunday, but did get some good reading done and in the afternoon we went out to try the new ice-cream place. It was tasty and I hope it stays longer than the frozen yoghurt place. Taiyaki is like soft serve ice-cream (with interesting Asian flavours like taro and ube) and a fish shaped waffle on top filled with nutella or your choice of filling. We'll be back to try the tea too!


Until next time,

Emily and Mitchell

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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