Life's a Beach

Pearl of wisdom for you - Hotwire and Priceline totally work when booking hotels. I've tried them for plane tickets and you never really get a good deal (I've got to find out the reason why plane tickets are more expensive at the last minute while it's the opposite with hotel rooms. It was in some economics book I read a couple of months ago), but we found a really sweet room at the Extended Stay America near LAX for $42 a night.

The San Diego leg was over and the LA beaches were next on the agenda. Venice beach was up first where I recaptured my childhood by building a sand castle.



I was actually going for the Taj Mahal, but I couldn't remember what it looked like. Plus I didn't have a pail to carry water, so the architectural integrity of the structure suffered. Plus it's my first sand castle in 17 years. Give me a break!

The promenade at Santa Monica beach was a lot of fun. It took a whole lot of will power to keep myself from buying this



I watched the fishermen for a while, trying to pick up some tips for flounder fishing for when I go to Philly in two weeks. I've learned that the expert fishermen catch their own bait and prefer live sardines to catch white sea bass. Ooh, another tip - if you want to get free tickets to watch live tv shows, there's a cart that gives them out on the Santa Monica pier. I managed to pick some up for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. They also give them away at the ticket booth in Universal Studios. We're heading there tomorrow so I'm going to try and score some Leno tickets. He's funnier.

We stayed for the sunset



and then met up with Julie to grab some dinner at Toi's on Sunset Blvd. Definitely an interesting thai place with a freaky ambiance. Tattooed and pierced waiters definitely scream Welcome to LA.