Venice Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at it after a fun, exhausting, traumatic and overall GREAT trip with the Corbins of Las Vegas.

I will get to the pictures to give them context. The first five pictures are from Sam's Camp and involve some of the activities that they were going through, including making donuts (I wish I'd been there that day). The next four are from our outing to the AAA River Cats game. They are the farm team for the SF Giants and actually were once located in Vancouver, BC. You can see the girls on camera in one of the shots and they actually made it on the Jumbotron. The next two are of Sam at pizza the night I took her to the movies. We went and saw Jurassic Park, the Lost World and at one point I was looking a little concerned when the dinosaur was devouring one of the poachers and Sam leaned over and asked if I was scared. I told her no and she said, "I'm right here, Papa." The picture of her hiding behind the pink cup was an ongoing issue where she wouldn't let me take pictures of her. The next shot was of Sam and Sam in the backseat on our drive down to Southern California. The next four were from our dinner at Killer Shrimp in Marina Del Rey. Killer Shrimp is located on the water in Marina Del Rey and boaters can tie up to the dock and come in and eat. The owner is a former studio musician who played with the Doors, Sopwith Camel, Jefferson Airplane and others. The furnishings include pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Percy Sledge, Jimmy Hendrix and others. We had fun and it was good food. The next seven pictures are from our Sunday visit to Santa Monica Beach and the Santa Monica Pier and Boardwalk. You can see how crowded it was when we left at about 2 PM. The picture of Sam and Jennifer was from a ride that they were on. The final six photos are from Sunday at the condo and when we were saying goodbye to Jennifer, McKenny and Sam.

 

The trip overall was good, but it ended on a sour note when Samson got sick. He was shaky and couldn't walk and looked to be seizing. Darla rushed him to the Emergency Animal hospital and they did tests and determined that he had THC poisoning. The only thing that we can determine is that there is a Buddha statue on the front porch and he is holding an ashtray and there were marijuana buds in the ashtray in the morning that were gone Sunday night. We can assume that Samson who eats everything, got into the buds and got himself sick. It was scary watching him stumble around and we had no idea what was wrong. Darla was really upset with the home owner, but I'm not sure where the cigarette came from. It was either not cleaned up by the cleaners or it showed up after we arrived. Jennifer and McKenny swear they had nothing to do with it. It was really concerning and the doctor said that this type of poisoning is on the rise as cannabis becomes legal across the country.

 

We did visit Santa Monica early on Sunday morning after getting a very late start on Saturday and getting stuck in traffic. We were back and forth in traffic for about an hour and finally gave up. We decided to hit the beach at 9 AM on Sunday and were among the first to arrive. We were at the beach until about 11 and then went up on the boardwalk and checked out the rides and games and saw Darla on the beach from the binoculars at the tip of the pier. We had a great day and you can see the pictures above of Sam playing in the surf and on the beach.

 

Samson had quite a trip as he got so excited when we first got there that he got his leash wrapped around a palm plant and snapped it at the stem. He jumped all over Jen and McKenny and when we put him in the courtyard to settle down, he slipped and fell in the koi pond and broke the water feature that aspirates the pond water. We were up late Friday night visiting and up late Saturday morning. We went to the Garden store to buy the replacement plant and the parts for the water feature. By then it was too late and we got stuck in traffic. We ended up having an early dinner at Killer Shrimp and then hanging out at Mother's Beach in Marina Del Rey.

 

We did take a drive into Venice Beach to see the canals, but it was so packed with people that we just ended up driving over them and seeing the homes along the canals. We had planned to walk the dogs along the canals. There are about five square blocks of canals left from Abbott Kinney's original design of about a mile square. Most of the canals were filled in for roads and infrastructure, but these original canals built in 1905 are still there as history.

 

The home that we ended up in is a three bedroom two bathroom home that must go for close to $2 million. It was remodeled into a duplex and the upper part of the home was added on and is a 1/2 address. The main building is 825 and the upstairs 3 bedroom is 825 1/2 and accessed in the rear alley. The home was very eclectic with paintings and art work throughout the home. The bedroom that Jennifer and McKenny stayed in was off the front door and was two steps down. They had a sitting area and a separate bed area. Our master bedroom was spacious and had both a Jacuzzi tub and a separate shower in the on suite. There was also a large walk in closet and French doors leading to the enclosed patio and barbecue area. The kitchen also had French doors that accessed the same area.

 

We really enjoyed our time with the kids and we had a lot of good talks and fun times. Sam was a joy visiting with us and we look forward to her return next year as well. She is growing into a wonderful young girl and is very sweet and fun. She did her chores all week and got paid an allowance.  

 Part of her allowance was paid for her to get up early every day without issue and she lived that all week. She even got up after the concert and was tired, but did not complain. It was quite a week for her with the concert, camp, the movie, playing with Jordan in the pool every day and the baseball game. The week was topped off with our visit to Venice Beach and the weather was mid seventies, which was heaven for the Corbins' who left 108 degrees in Vegas. We topped out at over 100 and we are in the third day of a five day plus 100 degree stretch here in Nor Cal.

 

I am on a three week hiatus from golf and will not play again until a week from this weekend. I just needed to get away from it and try to rediscover some of the joy that the game brings me. It has been a chore of late.

 

I will bring this to a close and grab a late dinner. Darla is at a jewelry meeting/dinner with her reps and I was working on the pool. We got home late yesterday as we decided to drive home overnight and left Venice Beach at 10 PM and got home about 4 AM. I got a haircut and bought a new vacuum for the pool and some algaecide. I applied it and vacuumed the pool and decided to clean out the filters again tonight after work as the algae gets trapped in them.

 

 I finally started this about 7:30 and it is almost nine now and I forgot to eat dinner or feed Samson, He is thankfully back to normal after a $323 vet bill. I'll be back at this over the weekend. Ciao.