Alright, Who Spiked the Watermelon?!

Yep, you read that right. Not the lemonade, or the fruit punch. The watermelon. 

This morning (and keep in mind that this part of the post has nothing to do with the point of this post, but I thought it was too funny to pass up on sharing with you all), after my sister and I had eaten our breakfast, we were craving watermelon. We'd had watermelon readily accessible throughout our entire stay in Las Vegas, because the friend who we were staying with had started off with two whole ones, and just kept buying them because we ate them so quickly. I wasn't going to have any because I didn't want to mess with it, but my sister went into the fridge and took out the watermelon. The middle was cut out, but there was a thick layer of edible watermelon left, so we started picking out pieces from the pool of juice that they were sitting in. We ate very little (in comparison to what we usually had when it came to watermelon), and stopped when my mom told us to get in the car so we could go to the airport. 

However, a minute later, the friend we were staying with, Sandy, walked into the kitchen, saw the watermelon and shouted, "WHO TOOK OUT THE WATERMELON???" Rachel and I were in the other room, gathering our bags. I immediately said, "Rachel did," but Rachel asked, "Why?" And Sandy responded, "Because there was vodka in it!!" And my jaw just dropped. My mouth literally was just hanging open for a second as it sunk in. Then I was laughing at the ridiculousness of it. Sandy came rushing in and my mom and her were cracking up. One of them eventually asked how much Rachel had eaten (they didn't bother to assume that I'd eaten some as well, though I did in fact, have less than her), and we asked why the hell there was vodka in the watermelon, and how were we to know that? Rachel responded, "Not a lot," and they told us that they thought it would be a fun, summery drink, and they had intended upon eating it last night when we got home but we'd gone to a buffet and were stuffed, so they didn't. 

The rest of the day and at random times while we were on the plane (we flew back to New York today), my mom, sister and I would just start laughing out of the blue, and one of us would ask, "Watermelon?" and we'd just nod our heads while still laughing. 

ANYWAY, that was a huge digression from the original point of this post. This post is supposed to cover Sunday, June 27th, which was the day that we went to Venice Beach. 

I was a little disappointed with Hollywood, and Venice Beach was supposed to live up to my California expectations, according to my cousins who had been earlier that week. So we drove there from Burbank and met our other cousins and aunt there. It's a beautiful place--very typiqual California (people just chillin' in their bathing suit tops and denim cutoffs, others skateboarding everywhere, and a sh*t ton of illegitimate but legal medical marijuana centers). It was where they filmed the beginning of "Romeo and Juliet," the version with Leo DiCaprio and Clare Danes. It was funny, because it was supposed to take place in Italy, so they shot it on Venice Beach. Clever. 

We walked up and down the line of stores and little stands that I believe is called Market Avenue, or something like that. I bought two really cool handmade rings, a frozen chocolate and walnut banana (which is quite a bit more difficult to eat than it would seem) and a pair of replacement sunglasses because my dear mother left my heart-shaped ones that I bought in France in March on the dining room table at our apartment in New York. Coursety-course-course. So I was without shades for half of the trip. There will be pictures of all of my Venice Beach buys in the future. Be patient, little grasshopper. 

After we had perused the stores on Market whatever to the extent of our interest, we decided to take a walk to Santa Monica Pier, 'cause we were there, and why not? As it turns out, Santa Monica Pier is like, three miles from where we had started off. But we didn't know that when we started walking. It was the most painful hour or so that I'd had in a while. I hadn't despised walking more in a while than I did that day. I mean, I was also carrying the 5th Harry Potter book (hardcover, mind you), my camera, phone, iPod, shoes and a water bottle, with a few other doodads thrown in there. We finally reached the pier, and that as well was a lil disappointing, until my cousin Elie informed me that it was definitely the place where they had filmed an episode of "Chuck," the one where Chuck takes Jill to the pier and they go on the ferris wheel. 

Here are some photos that I took throughout the day: 

There were several of these along the avenue. It made me laugh every time. I actually saw a woman walk in and begin filling out a form, and later saw a guy walking out of a different one looking like he wasn't quite sure what was going on. 

That's why it was funny that someone actually went in there and filled out a form. It seems to me like anyone can get some mary-jew-wanna if they want. I was actually laughing about this with my sister a few months ago, because they have a similar sign up at UCLA or USC, I don't remember, but we'd looked it up on the internet and thought it was hilarious. 

See "Chronic pain," "Menstrual cramps and pain," and "Asthma (Severe)." The last one is the best, I think.

This is a picture of a woman who my sister pointed out who was wearing the same shirt that I was. I, of course, had to get a creeper picture by walking behind them for a few minutes while I zoomed in with my camera and got the picture. It's a shirt I got at Urban Outfitters a while ago, and I wore it maybe 10 times throughout the past 10 days in L.A. and Vegas. 

Now, how gorgeous is this?? The answer is pretty. And that pun was not intended, but fairly decent, I'd say.

There were about seven of us in our little party, all walking along the beach to the pier, and as I was in the back, I got to see all of their footprints in the sand. 

I told you, we were walking for a long time--the sun even started to set on our way there! Just kidding, sort of, this originally was just a picture of the water where the way the sun was hitting the water was too bright, so I just edited it a bit. Try saying that five times fast. Seriously, it's really fun, I just tried it.

The famous Route 66! We reached the End of the Trail, apparently. 

And that was my trip to Venice Beach! 

Since tomorrow is July 4th, there's a very large chance that I won't post--but I will be sure to wear something festive. 

If I don't  see  talk to post at you until after tomorrow, have a painfully American July 4th!