{"id":5587,"date":"2018-02-17T06:47:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T06:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=5587"},"modified":"2023-07-12T21:57:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T21:57:46","slug":"venice-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/misc\/venice-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice… California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Venice,<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the summer of 2017 I took a long trip around various parts of the Mediterranean, with a stop for a few days in Venice, Italy.<\/a> While there, I remember thinking “I wonder what that other Venice in LA County is like?” So I knew I’d have to go and find out at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A month or so ago I decided to book a trip to Los Angeles over President’s Day weekend because airfare is cheap this time of year<\/span> on a total whim. First stop after landing at LAX? Venice… California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From LAX I took a Lyft ride to an area near the Venice boardwalk. If you’re not familiar this boardwalk it’s your typical tourist trap, but also features some silly Venetian themed buildings, a really nice beach, and a popular skate park. As an aside it’s nothing like the boardwalk in Santa Cruz with rides and such. This is all retail, buskers, and hucksters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we’re being honest my favorite part about the area around Venice Beach are all the enormous street art murals. The one featuring Saint Mark as “the patron saint of Venice” got a solid laugh out of me since it’s both technically<\/em> true (about Venice, Italy) and also not the kind of thing you expect to see in spray paint on the side of a three story building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While around the boardwalk I kept noticing I was walking through camera shots of people filming what appeared to be b-roll footage. Later, I found myself walking behind two heavily tattoos guys pretending to be hella hardcore while lip-syncing to some agonizingly dull soft rock, the kind of music so bland Matchbox 20 would listen to as a lullaby. So yeah, all signs point to me winding up in the background of some terrible music video. Fame at last! How can I cash in on this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next up I had to seek out Venice’s canals, because what’s the point of calling a place Venice if it doesn’t have canals? Well it turns out these canals bare little resemblance to the ones I visited in Italy. For one, it’s a very small residential neighborhood — you won’t find any restaurants, let alone Italian restaurants. Second, the canals are laid out in a rectangular grid rather than haphazardly since they’re all manmade. Third, virtual nothing’s made of brick, even the sidewalks are cement rather than cobblestone. Oh and fourth — there are cars. So aside from a few boats (but no gondolas!) it’s really more of a typical suburban neighborhood with an admittedly neat water feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the gallery above you’ll see some of the more whimsical things I came across in Venice’s canals including a pink flamingo themed home complete with a matching rowboat, a Little Free Library<\/a> primarily accessible via boat, and a tree filled with mid-century hanging lamps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a side note the canals aren’t well marked, but if you follow Google Maps the area isn’t too hard to find on your own.
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My recommendations<\/strong>: Skip the Venice boardwalk tourist trap unless you’re interested in skateboarding. The beach might be a less crowded alternative to other SoCal beaches, but then again it’s February so take that with a grain of salt. The canals are a fun half hour or so if you’re interested in a weird part of California’s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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