The Santa Monica Pier

After checking out of the hotel in Santa Monica, we headed out to the pier. The parking garage was suprisingly affordable: the first two hours are free, and each additional half-hour is $1, up to a maximum of $7.

We left the garage and grabbed an early lunch at Real Food Daily. We split the Lentil-Walnut Pate, and each got The Club, 'a lightly breaded seitan served club-style on toasted sourdough bread with tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and vegenaise'. It was expensive: with avacado, the sandwiches came to $26 together. If you've ever wondered if a sandwich was worth so much money, you should try eating one. ;) We picked up a cookie with a jam thumbprint before heading out to the pier.

The public restrooms in Santa Monica were the worst we've seen on the trip. The stalls didn't even have doors! The sinks didn't have any soap!! Ewww. Gone were the days of fancy trough-style urinals like those we found in Solvang.

On the pier, the only ride operating was the Ferris Wheel, due to the limited seasonal schedule. We rode the Ferris Wheel by ourselves, and it spun around 8 or 9 times pretty quickly since it didn't have to wait for passengers.

After the Ferris Wheel, we tied in 9 holes of mini-golf (Jason got three holes-in-one, Shel got one). We also stopped by the arcade, where Jason trounced Shel in a game of air hockey. Air hockey skills and table tennis skills are obviously very different, since Shel always trounces Jason in table tennis, except for the one time immortalized in the picture Jason took of himself after winning his one and only table tennis game. Afterwards, we headed off to Venice Beach.