California & Grand Canyon Adventures, Part 8, Day 7

If you need to catch up on our California & Grand Canyon Adventures this summer, check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7!

Welcome back team.  Things are going forward with our moving to Japan and all that jazz.  In fact, we have our flight booked (with Sammy the Cat) and are in the process of scheduling our 'stuff' shipment.  More on that later.  Today I'm going to continue on with our California summer trip!

We woke up on the later side of the morning, and I'm sure that had nothing to do with Wanda and I staying up 'til all hours of the morning chatting (and finishing off a delicious batch of margaritas!).  Jim was an awesome tour guide once again, driving us around Palos Verdes to check out the amazing views and crazy houses on those 'landslide' cliffs!  Insane I tell you!

I had heard that Venice Beach was a cool area, and I'm not sure if we totally missed the 'cool area' or not, but it wasn't what any of us expected.  The beach and 'boardwalk' area were pretty trashy.  It reminded me of Seaside Heights in New Jersey.  I grew up with that, and I could really care less to see anymore crack heads begging for money on a boardwalk.  

That being said, there were a few interesting sites including best permanent signage:

And best working girl.  I just missed the shot of Jim shoving in a dollar bill.  He's a quick one with those bitches bikinis I tell ya!

There were some beautiful houses along the Venice canals though, which makes me think I missed the nice stuff in town/along the beach.

After leaving Venice a bit disappointed, we headed up to Santa Monica to shop at the 3rd Street Promenade, which was a great outdoor (with an indoor) pedestrian mall.  It was just a few blocks from the boardwalk and ocean, which I visited a few weeks later when I came back to California.  

Aaron and I especially enjoyed the topiary's. 

And even though we were on our way to dinner, we were all pretty starved, so we grabbed pretzels, and a pretzel dog.  This was also our first Wetzel's Pretzel experience.  I felt a little dirty eating this one though....

Next up was dinner at Paradise Cove Beach Cafe in Malibu.  Although online reviews say that this is a touristy place, it doesn't seem that way.  Apparently movies are commonly filmed here because of the cove and secluded-ness, and even when movies aren't being filmed, you'll still spot celebrities.  We did!  While we were eating, I peered over to see this trio of punk dudes walking down the beach in black skinny jeans and mohawks and leather jackets.  Oh Green Day...aren't you just too cool for Malibu!  Yup, there went Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool strolling past us in waaaay to much black cloths for the beach.  I bet they got tons of sand in their chucks too.

 Now that I'm back into the blogging mood, I should be finishing up this series soon and hopefully get motivated to talk about some current stuff!!!

If you enjoyed this post, and would like to follow 'Where in the World is Kacey?', please subscribe here so you don't miss anything! Also, be sure to check out Kacey's Kitchen for my food blog!

Have something to say? Leave a comment below!