oohh..I am lovin Santa Monica. It' kind of like Byron Bay meet Eastern Suburbs. Amazing food, relaxed vibe, great shops and the widest beach you have ever seen.
We are staying via Airbnb in a 2 bed apartment on cnr of 6th and Broadway which is effectively downtown. About 10 minutes walk to the beach and shops. Great location. I've been to LA a few times over the past 10 years and Santa Monica is really great as a destination if you want to visit LA (although it's effectively a different city, it's only 30 minutes to get to Hollywood etc). The food is incredible. We haven't had a bad meal yet. Wokcano on cnr 5th and Santa Monica was a fusion of different asian foods and we all were happy with our choices (Erin Sushi, Kye pad thai and Steve and I shared a stir fry) We accidently went for breakfast to a vegitarian called 'Real Food Cafe' on and who knew we'd love the coffees made of dandelion and hemp milk, the 'scrambled' eggs' made of tempeh and smoothies out of almond milk. Downstairs from us is an organic juice bar downstairs called Hive with 100s of variations of juices, smoothies and bone broths. Some including Chinese herbs. Other notible restaurants include breakfast at Blue Daisy (well priced and lots of great options but massive line ups after 10.30am), Independence (happy hour between 5-7 meant food and drink were half price and the brussel sprouts were to die for..Erin loved this restaurant for the fast service after an afternoon on the beach) and the Cheesecake cafe which actually is a fab rooftop restaurant for the family.
It's very eastern subs (Sydney) for the exercise. There is yoga, walking, cycling and every other store is an an 'active wear' shop. This place is for the 'wannna be' fit and healthy. It's also very flat which meant we were able to hire bikes and cycle from Santa Monica past Venice beach to Manhatten beach along the beach promenade. In a very busy city cycling along the bike path feels more like working your way through London traffic than a gentle peddle but meant we got to see a lot of the beach action. We all loved watching the skateboarding park, the acrobatic area (rings, trapeze and tightrope walking) the 3x3 basketball and some form of handball against a squash wall. All this on the beach! Though the beach is exceptionally wide. We never got down to the water, it was too far away!
Santa Monica is also home to a friend, Hatty, from London and her husband. We had our two eldest the same time (Her son William is 2 days younger than Kyran). We both moved overseas in 2008 so catching up is done every few years or so! Hatty is one of lifes gloriously diverse people. She was an opera singer and GP in London (I don't think she sang to the patients but would be lovely to think she did!)
She is now with the LA choir and has sang on 20 movies including Frozen. Her husband, Greg Baker, is an Emmy winning documentary film maker and producer. Greg always produces hard hitting documentaries that make you wish you followed world news more carefully. Thursday night they invited us to his latest premiere called 'Homegrown terrorism'. We took Kyran with us. Quite an adventure for us all and a great, thought provoking, film.
Steve continues to be 'great dad' by taking the kids on Friday to Universal Studios. The family must be done with rides by now! I have managed to catch up with Hatty every day for coffee, dinner and then more dinner. She has three (boy and two girls) and our two daughters got on famously. Kyran and Will were a little more reserved! 12 year old boys like their own mates I think!
Of course we went to Hollywood for the morning. Quote of the day was from a guy trying to flog a bus sight seeing tour..'our drivers are all sober'. Umm....Might not bother with any of them!
Can't finish the post without mentioning the Superbowl. Of course Steve and Kyran watched it. Greg invited them round to a sports fan's house so everyone could cheer on their team. We were Broncos (we are visitng friends in Denver in March). I can't really tell you anything about it as I went to the beach with Erin and Hatty but they came back about 4 hours later and said it wasn't the best game but enjoyable.
Did I mention the weather? What happened to winter? We sat in 27 degrees yesterday. Saving up the winter clothes for Utah.
see ya'll
