Day 16

We woke up around 10am and headed to Venice Beach to rent some beach cruisers. We rode them about 3 or 4 miles north to Santa Monica Beach and found a nice spot in which to laze the day away. I (Mike) went swimming and discovered that I actually prefer the colder Pacific water. And the waves are awesome. While I was listening to my iPod and Chrissie was reading, I caught a wave sneaking very close to our towels. I brought it to Chrissie's attention, but she assumed that it was just a weird phenomenon, as we were almost 30 feet from the actual shoreline. We forgot all about it very quickly. Our memory lapse was in part due to the very cool distraction of a pod of dolphins! They were maybe 60 feet offshore, diving and surfing and just being gorgeous all around. They were visible for an hour or more. After a few more swims and some snacks, I had just started to doze off while lying on my stomach when we were both completely overtaken by a very cold wave. Our bags were covered, the towels were soaked, and none more than I, who was so struck by the obvious slight by mother nature herself that I just lay in the aftermath mutely for ten seconds or more. Nothing was damaged, surprisingly enough, so we tossed the Frisbee around for long enough that the towels began to dry, and then biked our way back to Venice to find a laundromat.

After the GPS tried to get us lost again (see earlier entries for proof) we found a laundromat all by ourselves. We sat and read while the clothes were being agitated and rinsed and eventually dried. Chrissie was particularly interested in the smell of a large woman that was far too close to us. It was all kinds of bad. We got the clothes all washed and back to the house in just over an hour. The fact that we've been on the road for 16 days and just now did laundry is pretty impressive, I think. I'll pat myself on the back for you, don't worry about calling me with congratulations.

When we got back to the house, we showered and dressed and set out for Seven Grand, a whiskey bar with an advertised 271 whiskey selections. It was located on the second floor of a downtown LA building, and was reached by climbing a few flights of plaid-carpeted stairs. When we first arrived, there was enough room at the bar for us to squeeze in and take in the bartenders and their outfits (as well as order a drink, of course). Chrissie ordered a Kentucky Mint Julep and I ordered an Old Fashioned with Maker's Mark. The bartenders were truly artists. The skill and speed with which they procured the adult beverages requested was brilliant. After a slight (so slight that we couldn't even order a drink) detour at the Golden Gopher, a much less worthy bar only a block from Seven Grand, we decided to call it a night and hit the In N Out drive through on the way home.

This picture didn't come out so hot, but this is the front of Seven Grand.

Here's Chrissie in our little house.