Crazy Town

Day 6

Editor's Note: The Internet was sketchy in Hollywood too, so we're way behind with the updates!

Friday began with walking outside into a wall of heat. We decided it was way too scorching to be beatin' the street; it was off to the beach!

We took Santa Monica Blvd and went through Beverly Hills - we saw the sign featured in the 90210 opening and everything - but our first real stop of the day was the Santa Monica pier. Right off the bat, we couldn't resist some playtime in the arcade. I was a superstar at the shooting cannons at ugly stuffed animals game, we played Skee-ball (again! Weeee!), Darrell enjoyed some 360-degree Beachhead, and I worked up a sweat whacking some moles, but only got 5 points in tickets.

Speaking of sweat, we watched a skinny, lightning-fast guy play the hardest round of Dance Dance Revolution. It was impressive, very sweaty, and puzzling; how many hours do you need to spend playing the game to get that good, exactly?

We accumulated 99 points but to our dismay, that was pretty much like going to the dollar store with 99 cents. It was slim pickins! Darrell said it was my choice, so I opted for what I figured was the only logical choice: something we could share. I proudly put my half of our new shiny purple best friends necklace around my wrist....I think he stuffed his half in his pocket.

We paid too much for a personal pizza and frozen yogurt and had to keep stamping our feet to keep from being swarmed by pigeons, but our lunch hit the spot nonetheless. I soaked in the sights of the famous pier and we exercised good restraint and didn't spend money on any of the trinkets and novelties that I would inevitably toss in six months.

From there, the day only got more interesting. We played on the gynmastic equipment -well, Darrell did...I had a dress on and he gently reminded me that if I tried to hang upside down on the rings, everyone would see my unders. I also creeped up on a flock of sand pipers (love those birds!), took a video of a 90-year-old man speed walking in his unders while vigorously pumping his 3 lb. hand weights, and we made it to Venice.

Venice Beach, aka, crazy town, USA. Glad we made it, but holy jiggers, I think I'll be fine with never visiting that place again. We tried not to make eye contact with anyone, almost got inked (ha, kidding!), bought a bong (kidding again!), and watched a muttering crazy lady drag her cat around on a leash.

The skate park was pretty cool and I rationed that most of the folk are probably harmless, but you better believe we were outta there before dusk. The sunset was gorgeous, we hit up the 3rd Street Promenade and settled in for supper at a noisy place called Bearley's Beanery where you could trade your license plate for chilli. But we paid for ours.