Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach

We left the Anaheim RV Park this morning at 11am and made the 2 hour trip thru downtown LA and some minor traffic to Malibu.  We pulled the RV into the campground which had a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean from a high bluff.  We made a change from our original plan and headed in to Santa Monica and Venice.  We found a great parking spot close to the pier and unloaded our bikes and made a very nice trip down the bikeway for about 2-3 miles by bike to Venice Beach.  We walked along Venice and saw a wide assortment of colorful characters and activities:  skateboarders, basketball players, tennis players, and bodybuilders on Muscle Beach.  The smell of marijuana permeated the air more than anywhere we had been on this trip.  There were a wide variety of strange shops and street performers up and down the Venice Boardwalk.  We made our way back down to the historic 1909 Santa Monica Pier and enjoyed seeing the amusement rides, food carts, and shops.  We played on the beach for a while with the Frisbee before making the 30 minute drive back to Malibu and enjoying a delicious huge BBQ Chicken pizza from D’Amontes.  Tomorrow we are off to Hollywood and LA!