Nicks, Venice

Beck and I woke up early, went out to score breakfast and had a pleasant stroll along the Pier before things got busy. Once the kids were on the go we went down and hired some rather cool 'cruiser' bikes from a very disinterested young man on the Pier and cycled along the coastal path (mostly) as far as Marina Del Rey. We'd sort of planned to park up and explore Venice Beach but since it looked a little less 'bohemian' and a little more full on scary and funky (lots of makeshift homeless encampments on the beach and graffiti on the palm trees), we contented ourselves with stopping for a drink somewhere our inexpertly secured bikes were in plain sight. It all took less time than we'd anticipated, so we carried on in the other direction, along Santa Monica Beach beneath the Palisades, before doubling back to drop the bikes off early. Later on we all enjoyed a "pleasant evening at the ballpark" watching the Dodgers get beaten by the Washington Nationals, despite a pretty limited understanding amongst the majority of us as to what was actually going on most of the time (mush to Tom's embarrassment.) We were particularly taken with the casual American attitude to sport - with the crowd randomly coming in late and leaving early, the wandering food vendors hawking their wares and getting in the way, kiss-cam, the whole carnival atmosphere... Oh, and the Dodgers broke their duck with a home run off the penultimate ball of the game, which certainly injected a bit of last-minute excitement into what was left of the crowd...