Mini Spring Break

Hey guys,

Guess what motivates me back to blogging. I just saw this movie Julie and Julia, in which one of the characters is a writer that frequently blogs about her cooking experience based on Julia Child's recipes. That was enough to get me back to writing in my blog.

The first week of break is over and I spent most of it traveling out of Socal. As I mentioned, I made two trips to Bay Area. The first trip includes a visit to San Francisco, and the second visit includes going to Davis, Sacramento, and even traveling back to South Bay (San Jose and Cupertino), which I considered very much as my second home. Now that it's already the second week and I've been spending my time at home, trying to do something active, like building a portfolio website. But then I realized I'm still a third term graphic design student and a professional portfolio website is still way not compatible to my designing skill as of now. So yeah, I'm going back to Behance.

My housemates are currently going back home, leaving me in this empty wide space inside a 2 unit bedroom. I've been planning to visit my friend's home but I guess I'm too tired. Anyway, as an attempt to push me to being active, I'm going to share a bit about my not-so-recent trip to Santa Monica.

The trip happened to be quite sudden. Agnes gave me a call and she told me she just started her spring break. How life isn't fair when most of your friends were having spring break and you happened to be one of the few that are still stuck with school work. But anyway, I told her I was interested to go to Santa Monica with her, just like we have promised in our last hang out.

I took off pretty late in the afternoon from my apartment to Agnes' dorm after finishing one part of my then on-going final book. LA traffic successfully stuck me on the road for one hour and not to mention I got lost a little, but anyway, I managed to reach Agnes' residence and together, we took off to Santa Monica.

It's been a while since I last visited Santa Monica. That would probably four years ago and even back then I could only steal a glimpse of the crowded pier and theme park from afar. But now that I got to take a closer look, I was beyond excited. The place pretty much reminds me of Santa Cruz, only it was more crowded and it's in LA. But the layout and everything are pretty much similar. The pier is adjacent to the theme park and it's also connected to a public beach with icy water. 

Agnes had been craving for churros ever since we got there. Aaaaand she got one! Look at her staring creepily at her partially bitten churros.

I didn't get to ride anything in the park. I'm not a thrill-seeking kind of girl and the only thing that could drive me thrilled about a theme park if only it has dark rides, you know, stuff like what Disneyland and Universal Studios have. One more thing, if you're a Mr. Bean fan, you must be familiar with this place. The first ever movie of Mr. Bean took place here, and exactly in Pacific Park, where he was free to roam around and make a mess, of course.

The theme park was very fun to see. It's small, yes, but it's just amazing how in a small space could contain a lot of fun. Even the roller coaster is big enough for a small, simple, seaside coaster. Me likey. But then again, they're only fun for me to see. Agnes and I didn't go here to ride on those. That's not our intention. We came here for the beach atmosphere, something that I have longed to feel ever since i went back to Indonesia.

Anyway, below the boardwalk, next to the crowded public beach, we found a row of shops that I found quite peculiar. They're a bit isolated. Not a lot of people were found in this side of the beach, but I guess that's what made it special.

I also thought it would be a good chance for me to observe some of the logos on the shop boards. Okay, here goes my graphic design persona. 

This mural is pretty interesting

Moving on to the highlight of the visit:

The beach!

Agnes and I did things most people would do in the beach aside from swimming. No, we barely splashed each other. We came here unprepared and didn't even bring substitute clothes. So we just walked along the beach, took pictures, spotted some love birds cuddling on the sand while admiring the seascape. Nothing much. We did play a bit in the water though, but once the wave got a little rough, I pulled myself back to the shore. For the love of God, I almost lost my flip flops. I thought they got carried away by the wave. I thought I would have to walk around barefoot and buy another pair in the nearest store, but then I quickly found them - almost buried by the dry seaweed on the beach.

I thought a shot of children washing themselves in a nearby shower would be interesting.
Trust me I'm not a creeper.

Ridiculously photogenic seagull

Can't resist looking at those creepy stare, can you?

Just some birds having a conference

Spotted! A newlywed coming for a photoshoot.

After going back from the beach, we washed our feet and reserved a place at Bubba Gump for an early dinner. A visit to the beach is not enough without stopping by at Bubba Gump and helping yourself with seafood!

I ordered Jenny’s Catch with Lobster Butter Sauce

I forgot what Agnes ordered, but for sure she had shrimps (which the restaurant was famous for) and some meat balls for the appetizer. Not to mention, she also has this other strange craving of garlic bread (she has two cravings in a day in total). She ordered a portion of garlic bread for herself as an appetizer, without even realizing that the shrimp main course she ordered in the latter came with garlic bread as the side dish. She finish all of the garlic bread at once though.

Later on, as the sun set, we finished our dinner and strolled around at Santa Monica promenade. I went here before as I told you, and that was four years ago with my mom. I couldn't believe how this place hasn't changed much and how I really love the vibe there. Now I'm jealous to whoever studies in Santa Monica College, Otis, or just whoever lives in this area.

Agnes and I went to an American Eagle Outfitter store, where I got a nice lace-y top that I had always wanted to have. Agnes got herself a pretty scarf. We walked out of the store feeling satisfied and continued walking around. The air was chilly that we decided to hop in to some more stores. We initially just wanted to warm ourselves before taking off to continue our stroll, but our visit to some stores 

We bumped into some interesting street musicians to abs-baring street performances.

Yeah this guy is the reason I stopped by to watch

It was getting late that we decided to leave Santa Monica, because pretty much there was no where else to go to. We basically went to pretty much all corners of Santa Monica tourism spots. From the promenade to the pier. So we covered it all. It was decided that we wouldn't call the night first. Agnes drove back to Downtown LA and on the way there, we dropped by at Mr. Boba in Koreatown to get ourselves a cup of bubble milk tea and a fruit smoothie respectively.

We officially called the night. We went back to Agnes' dorm where I parked my car. Then I drove back home to Pasadena. Great day, great day! That basically wrapped up my latest post. I'm going to post some more for the next two weeks before school starts. Stay tuned and take care!