Leaving Canada again..quick stop in LA

Quick Stop in Los Angeles, Venice Beach

We left Ottawa at 5pm on Monday, Nov. 15th with a destination of Los Angeles, where we would stopover for the night and fly out to the land down under the next evening. We arrived in LA shortly after 10pm which was really midnight for us with the time difference. We stayed at Venice Beach which is not too far from the airport at the Hotel Erwin, a great hotel right on Venice Beach. We saw it last time when we visited Los Angeles on our way back home and knew we wanted to spend time there.

 The hotel is boutique contemporary and offers the Venice beach culture atmosphere with style. They even offer packages where you can learn how to scratch vinyl with their resident DJ and another package which includes a tattoo from their local resident tattoo artist! Local contemporary art and installations were located througout the hotel.

Our room was decorated with lamps made of weights as a tribute to Muscle Beach, graffiti painted on our closet doors, a display of sunglasses (that you could purchase) on the wall and flourescent green surf themed bath robes. The hallway leading to our room resembled a gallery with black and white portraits of famous body builders who frequented Muscle Beach, including the Schwarchenager himself!

Not much to do so late so we just rested and looked forward to the next day of hanging around Venice Beach until having to make our way back to the airport.





Children's Trashcan's (community art project and public art installation) and Graffiti Murals - Venice



The next morning we headed out to Venice Beach and explored the beach and boardwalk. The boardwalk is as you'd expected to be, lined with shops of t-shirts, memorabilia, headshops, surf shops and  local arts and crafts, street performers and panhandlers. Oh and not to foget the food venues, where a corn dog is a must try despite all the grease and breading!!

Outside Surf Shop - Venice Beach Boardwalk



Almost every 2nd shop was a t-shirt store  full of cheeky saying on shirts and lots of rock t-shirts. Each store had walls of t-shirt displays outside



Mark di Suvero's 60 ft tall steel sculptue, Venice Beach.

Venice Beach boardwalk - Street performer



Venice Beach Boardwalk




Dinner on the roof at High Bar, at Hotel Erwin before leaving for the Airport





Venice Beach -view of Pier


 

It was a little too cool to go in the water.  As you can see the beach was pretty empty!