Day 2: The beaches

Today was the day for exploring the local beach areas. After a little sleepin we headed off to explore Hermosa Beach, the suburb we are staying in. It really is quite cute, with a gorgeous main street. We continued onto our first Fry's store (electronics). The boys were happy to look at something other than Mum's and my shops I'm sure.

After Fry's next stop was Santa Monica. The weather today started off cloudy then the sun broke through late morning, which was quite warm then clouded right over again after that. I'm hoping we start getting a bit of sun, although you wouldn't say its cold! It's about 20 degrees and its obvious we are tourists with the boys wearing shorts and tshirts and the locals rugged up wearing coats and jackets.

I'd been looking forward to going to Third Street Promenade. Its got lots of shops to look at, although a lot are on the more exclusive side. We found a spot for lunch which had free wifi *It's everywhere over here!*. The street is lined with palm trees with decorations down the middle and lights hanging from the palm trees, which I'm sure would look beautiful at night!

Third Street Promenade

Third Street Promenade

Delightful character we met today

Group selfie at Santa Monica beach

After exploring there it was time to walk to the Santa Monica pier. We didn't get a chance to do this last time, but I'm really glad we did this time. The water was very hazy or foggy, however it still made a very pretty photo. We didn't go into the little amusement park near the end of the pier, but instead walked along looking at the shops (mostly souvenirs) and admiring the view and the birds, especially a group of pelican like birds that were dive bombing into the water.

Santa Monica beach

From end of Santa Monica pier

Santa Monica beach from pier

There are a lot of homeless people around these areas and it's common to see people walking along the footpath waving signs passing drivers that they have a family and can't pay the rent for example.

We also went for a drive through Venice beach. Mum and I have shops we want to look at, but didn't know the address so we are going back to visit there in the morning. After a quick pit stop at the unit we headed back to Del Amo shopping centre. We each found something for dinner, different cusines by all *Mexican is in abundance* but then only had 30 minutes left to look at the shops. I went and looked at a few and Mum headed off to JoAnn's again, but we were both under time constraint with them wanting to close and again we couldn't have a good look. On the way there Mum experienced night freeway driving all over again. It is certainly far from her favourite thing with the offering of new underwear and a new brake peddle. She would very much love to wear her eye mask from the plane on these journeys!! We have come to the conclusion that American drivers are very courteous, however most speed well above the speed limit. Dad is doing extremely well with the driving, but driving on the wrong side of the road is still very weird.

Tomorrow we are off to our first outlet centre and its a HUGE one!! It will take many hours to explore. I'm in desperate need of some clothes considering I brought very few with me so I'm sure I'll find plenty to buy there to buy. I have been somewhat reluctant to get any clothes and have only got a few things so far as the outlets are so much cheaper and will probably have more variety. Tomorrow will test Daniel's patience greatly! He is already over shopping yet we have hardly touched the surface and outlets are a whole new world!

Mum and I still feel like we are dreaming but no doubt all the shopping tomorrow will give us a shake up! That's all for today..