Saturday 15 July:
Morning! I wake up, we have breakfast/kiddish and then at a good 10am I go off and start my day. Today because of Shabbos I get to walk around and explore the area I’m staying at (west Santa Monica).
My plan for the day is to walk to Venice Canal via the beach and on the way back to stop by Venice beach and Santa Monica beach where I will chill and swim.
I walk for 2 hours soaking up the atmosphere around me, stopping to go on Santa Monica Pier until I reach Venice boardwalk where I then ask people where Venice Canal is. I ask this woman who explains to me where it is and after walking another 10-20 minutes and not seeing the street signs for those roads she told me I start doubting myself and ask about 5 different people (young) and apparently no one knows (not even locals). Kind of knowing the direction of where I should head from looking on google maps before shabbos I leave the boardwalk and walk for another 15 minutes. After walking around aimlessly I decide it’s not worth it and head back. I happen to walk past this couple and ask them if they know where it is and to my surprise they do and they were planning to go past it on there way home. We walk there and it was beautiful. I walk around for a bit taking mental pictures.
I then walk back to Venice boulevard. Not knowing the time and how long it would take me to get back I decide to be stupidly sensible and decide to walk back and not stop and swim at the beach. I go past Venice beach, Muscle Beach (where I see people doing cool workouts), past an old lady walking hopscotch with her walking stick and a group of us start cheering her on. At Santa Monica beach I decide to just stop and rest my feet for a second. I then walk past more beaches and the walk back takes for ever. After Shabbat I figure out that I walked for over 24 kilometres. After about 56 years I finally get off the beach area and walk to their house.
I get back at 6pm and eat and chill, hanging out with the children until Shabbat cams out. Then I eat some supper and go to bed.
Goodnight
XOXO
Yael
robinsinflight 