Venice Beach - What a Trip!

Yesterday, we took our first trip to the beach. We decided to go to Venice beach. I have to say it was so nice to go to a real beach after the rocky, gritty, bacteria-infested beaches in Ohio. No offense to anyone in Ohio! We had a lot of fun. I only got a few pics before my batteries died. (That always happens to me - when will I learn to take along extra batteries?!) Anyway, after playing in the sand we decided to walk along the sidewalk where they have shops and stuff. It was really a trip! First we see this person selling "medical" marijuana. She was just yelling it out "get some medical marijuana, just up here on the 2nd floor!" It was crazy. Then Jimmy had to go to the bathroom, so we go and there is a line with this woman standing in front of one of the bathrooms. She said that someone had left some exposed syringes in the bathroom and she sent her son to go get the police to take care of it. So maybe Venice Beach isn't the best place to take the kids, but it was an interesting experience and it was fun to watch all of the crazy people. We saw clowns, rappers, wine-o's, numerous people with pink hair, a man and his stuffed dog painted gold, tourists, hobos, hippies, oh, and one other person with a baby in a stroller. I think next time we will try a more family friendly beach.