Venice, CA

2017

 

You don’t have to drive to get the California?

First trip of 2017!  Easiest trip I've ever done.  I think I'm getting a little too good at organizing these things...  My first trip flying and setting up an Airbnb, which worked out beautifully.   I spent a few weeks looking at Google Flight's cheapest flights from O'hare, and noticed Miami, San Francisco, LA, or Vegas all had flights ~$150 round trip.  I ended up snatching up a round trip ticket to LA for $130 or so, and found an Airbnb a block away from the Venice Beach Boardwalk for $50/night.   The Airbnb was literally called The Tiny Room, and was a 8' x 4' room (closet?) in a woman's house.  She had 4 Airbnb listings in that house, which all shared a bathroom & kitchen.  It was the perfect, cheap, place to crash at night, in a wonderful location.  She provided a bicycle too, which was fun to ride along the beach, and around Venice.

I also was very limited with my baggage options on the flight, I packed for 5 days in a small 21L backpack.  A fun challenge! There's a photo of everything I packed for the trip.

Things I saw/did:

  • Venice Beach

  • Boardwalk

  • Fishing Pier

  • Marina

  • Bike rides around Venice/LA

  • Beach drum circles

  • Abbot Kinney shopping & food

  • Venice Canals

  • Freak Show

  • Venice Skate Park

  • Mimosas & Bloody Marys

  • Veggie Burgers

  • Beach sunsets

  • Jurassic History Museum**** So cool. So weird.

  • Coffee Shops (Menotti's, Intelligentsia, TOMS Flagship, Blue Bottle, Deus ex Machina, etc.)

  • Lots of Reading & Podcasts

  • Farmers Markets