We went to Santa Monica and Venice beaches Tuesday.

I had to dip my feet in the North Pacific ocean. Part of my “get my feet wet in every ocean” bucket list.

Santa Monica has a Pier with restaurants, a carnival, street performers. It has a great atmosphere. The beach is clean and wide. It was a cool day so there was not many people in the water.

We had lunch a few streets back from the beach in Santa Monica Place. A place where they had foot long hot dogs and shakes. The hot dog wasn’t nice but the peanut butter shake was great.

We then caught Uber to Venice beach.

We immediately walked in on a show “just starting”. Some sort of dance show on the street. We decided to stick around a watch it, since it was “just starting”. They kept staying the show is “about to start”. But they were obviously trying to build the crowd. They even did a count down to “show time”. It wasn’t until 30 minutes after that they started doing warm ups.

They eventually started the show and did one small act each. Combination of dance and acrobatics. They were very talented.

Then they pulled people out of the audience. “The beautiful girls”, “four rich white guys” (their own words), “one Asian guy” and three kids they called “the future”.

I was cringing at this stage. I was petrified that they would pick me. Thank goodness Jane dyed my hair and I didn’t look old (and rich) enough. I was safe. But I felt sorry for the other guys.

As predicted they proceeded to make fun of all these people. The audience laughed and cheered… mostly because they were glad it wasn’t them. I wasn’t laughing (well not much).

They gave the kids $20 each – I guess to prove how nice they were.

They said the grand finale was one guy was going to jump over ALL of them. But before that they asked for “donations” They’re just some young guys trying to make an honest living. blah blah

They made a big deal about people giving money. Some people were giving $50.  Really?

We gave $20 – which in hindsight was $19 too much. Of course they scare people into giving a decent amount or they’ll point you out and embarrass you.

Anyway the grand finale was not as grand as promised. They dismissed the kids – then the girls, and one of the old guys (cos he paid $50). So that just left 4 guys to jump over. Cheated!!.