Scene in the City – Venice, L.A.

For me no visit to Los Angeles is complete without a little side jaunt to Venice (muscle) beach if just for the local flavour. 

It’s always sunny, friendly (sometimes overly), good food and anything goes. We won’t see any red carpet styles here.  Maybe the pictures will speak for themselves.

Here’s what is unique about Venice Beach: Hundreds of street vendors and performers, everything from break-dancing to broken glass walking, mimes to musicians, jugglers to jesters and everything in between will make up the human landscape. You can have your fortune read, get a temporary tattoo or have your name written on a grain of rice. If souvenirs is what you are after then the boardwalk is the place to go. The Westside offers unique arts and crafts, odds and ends and one of kinds only obtainable here. Paintings, photos, rocks of various sorts and sculptures are among the popular offerings. On the Eastside are the store fronts of the boardwalk. Here you will find every sort of t-shirt under the sun. From the politically motivated to sexually charged to the plain old Venice Beach t-shirt there is sure to be one for everybody. In addition, there are tattoo and piercing stores, skate and surf shops, medical marijuana dispensaries and more. You can buy sun glasses, vaporizers, beer and shoes. This is all in addition to the large selection of restaurants, juice spots and bars. In summary, packed into its one and a half mile, the boardwalk has more diversity in demographics and retail then probably anywhere else in the world. There is reason it so famous. These pictures are only the beginning.

Photos: d. king