Last day of Vacay.

On our last day of vacation we decided to head to Venice Beach. The car ride there started out just fine until we hit the traffic that was all trying to get to Venice - unbelievable! Then from the back seat I hear, "Mommy, my tummy hurts!"... you know this can not be a good thing when we are stuck in slow moving traffic. My poor baby was so upset and kept saying "Mommy, it hurts! Kiss it!" Then about 2 minutes later - you guessed it - she threw up all over the back seat! Man oh man - apparently the milk in her cereal did not settle well with her. Ewww, it was so nasty (to be honest, I am shocked that Robert didn't throw up right after that because he usually just can't handle that!) We had to pull over at a gas station and hose her, the car and car seat down. Thank goodness I had brought extra clothes with us! After she was all cleaned up she was good to go and was acting totally fine. So we jumped back in traffic and inched our way to the beach. All I can say about this place is WOW! What a difference in this beach compared to any of the others we had been to. First off there were people everywhere! Part of this was the holiday weekend, but still, it was crazy!

Everywhere you look, someone is trying to make money. Rappers are trying to sell their new CD and ask you to listen to their songs on headphones (of course Robert bought a CD!). Store after store of random knick knacks and souvenirs. Groups of street performers trying to get tips; these guys were pretty darn good though, after a show you want to give them money because they are so entertaining!

This is also where Muscle Beach is so there are body builders walking around in speedos and tennis shoes all baby-oiled up! Oh, and medical marijuana is legal here so every 20 feet or so there is a medical marijuana doctor's office doing "evaluations" for prescriptions! And during all of this chaos there are cops that are constantly walking around the crowd! It was sooo bizarre!!

We walked around for a bit and decided to grab a bite at this little sidewalk cafe. We had some really yummy pizza. While we were eating there was this guy dressed as a sock standing by the fence (bottom right picture). He kept jumping out and scaring people or messing with them as they would walk by. Then he took off the sock thing and started following people and imitating them. It was one of the funniest things I have seen. Everybody in the restaurant was laughing so hard. He definitely earned the $5 we decided to give him! Then when we were getting ready to leave a magician came up to us and started doing tricks for Elena! Seriously, everyone here is constantly hustling and trying to make money. It gets a little old real quick!

Elena got to try her first churro - it was a hit and she stole all of it from Daddy!

The weather was so cool with the breeze off the ocean that we had to get Elena a little sweatshirt because she was getting cold! Not exactly the souvenir we were going for but oh well.

After we left the beach I finally talked Robert into talking me to Sprinkles for some unbelievably yummy cupcakes. Ever since this incident last time, I was determined to get some this time! When we arrived there was a line out the door, but I knew it would be worth the wait! :)

Cupcake heaven.

:) It's ok, pretty much everyone in line was taking pictures like this! :)

Here are the delicious cupcakes we decided to try. My favorite was absolutely the red velvet, followed closely by good ol' vanilla. Robert's was key lime pie and Elena liked key lime too and also vanilla. There were about 10 others we wanted to try too - guess we will have to make a trip another time! And I saw on their website that a Sprinkles is coming to KC!! Yay!!

Sprinkles just happens to be 2 blocks away from Rodeo Drive so I talked Robert into driving down it to check it out and see if we would see any celebs! (we didn't see any this time though, boo)

We headed back to the hotel and later got one last fix that you can not find very many places - In N Out Burger, and let me tell you it was pretty tasty! Then we crashed and prepared for the long trip home.

What a wonderful vacation! We had a great time and enjoyed every minute of it!