A Day at the Pier

Sunday April 1st, 2012


After spending a morning at the Griffith Park Observatory (see previous post) I decided to take advantage of the beautiful Sunday LA was having by visiting the Santa Monica Pier. I had originally been planning on going for a full day, but the weather was so nice that I decided just to have an entire site seeing day! The drive from the observatory to Santa Monica is only about 12 miles. However, due to LA traffic (grr!) it took an hour and a half!! I was so not prepared for that. But I finally arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon. After trying to figure out where to park, I decided to just pay $10 and park on the Pier itself. 

When I first arrived I noticed the beach was full of crosses lined up in front of the ocean. I found out that it's called "Arlington West". They put out the crosses every Sunday to symbolize American soldiers killed in the line of duty in Iraq.

The pier is full of rides, little shops, restaurants, and of course, street performers! It's definitely full of things to do and it's a lot to take in, but I walked around a little bit, did some souvenir shopping, and rode the ferris wheel! 

The best part of the pier was riding the ferris wheel. It has amazing views! At first they weren't going to let me ride alone, but luckily these nice ladies in front of me let me ride with them. They also gave me some great ideas of other things I should see while living in California!

View from the top of the ferris wheel

After the ferris wheel I took my first stroll on the beach and put my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time ever! Boy was the water cold! Freezing in fact!! 

As stupid as it might sound, I was also excited to see my first west coast lifeguard stand! I kept waiting for Pam Anderson and the Hoff to start running out of it! ;)

It was starting to get late so I decided I wanted to stick around to watch my first west coast sunset. After all I heard they are some of the best sunsets! Sorry for all the pictures...but I couldn't pick just a few...I took a million!

After the sunset, I stuck around to get a few pictures of the pier at night because I'd heard it was supposed to be so pretty with all the neon lights and such!

After snapping a few night pictures it was a quick dinner at pier burger and then home! 

By the time I left Santa Monica I was exhausted and freezing, but it was such an exciting and fun filled day of sightseeing. A day of many firsts! One more thing I can now check off my bucket list!