Following our adventure in Joshua Tree National Park, Joe and I drove to LA to spend the remainder of our time off. We were excited to see civilization again and feel the warm sun-rays following our time in the cold desert of Joshua Tree.
Full disclosure, we ended up leaving LA a few days earlier than we originally planned since it didn’t turn out the way we expected. I guess I assumed anywhere outside of SF would be more open/lively and vacation-friendly, but in reality LA was basically as locked down as SF given the rising COVID cases. This was my third time in LA and the whole city felt like it lost its life and color which made it pretty sad. We decided we wanted to be in the comfort of our home versus forcing activities in a shut-down big city. Nevertheless we made the most of our 2 days in LA and I’m grateful for our days there before roadtripping back to SF.
Even though I’ve been to LA several times, this was Joe’s first time and so we started off by exploring the main tourist neighborhood: Santa Monica! Santa Monica is touristy but for a reason as it’s super beautiful, right along the beach with tons of restaurants and shopping.
We took a stroll along the beach and I was surprised by how completely EMPTY they were! Literally zero humans…it was pretty depressing and a huge contrast to how I remembered LA beaches. Nevertheless the views were beautiful and it was refreshing to see the palm tree-lined coast.
Our Airbnb was in Venice and so we spent a whole day exploring the neighborhood. I feel like Venice is the cooler older sister of Santa Monica. The boardwalk was filled with people selling cool street art and food.
We hung around the skate park for a while, watching the skaters practice their cool tricks and dancing to hip hop music. It was super fun and honestly I was just happy to be around the life and energy of the skaters.
Other than our walks around the city, we ate out a few times and enjoyed each other’s company over our long meals 🙂
That’s all from our brief trip! It’s very nice to back home 🙂
I Run Like A Girl 
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