Guys, I'm super lucky. I live about a dozen blocks from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Honestly, it's so close I could go there every day (read: I should go there every day). The boyfriend and I had a good-old-fashioned sleep-in and after I read four chapters of Sense and Sensibility (with a British accent in my head, of course), I proclaimed: "It's a perfect day, let's walk to the beach!"
We walked down Montana Avenue, which is kind of like a smaller version of State Street (the main street in Santa Barbara). It's got tons of restaurants (mostly Italian), cafes (mostly Italian), dry cleaners (can't figure that one out--there's seriously like 14 dry cleaners) and wellness centers (think: yoga studios, massage places, acupuncturists, etc). There's definitely a bougie-vibe to the whole place, but it's not the worst thing. I actually kind of like it. It's a twinkly-light, tree-lined street leading straight down to Ocean Ave. Kinda pleasant. We grabbed coffee and sandwiches to take with us, because once you get down to the beachfront, your dining options are pretty limited and full of "you're paying for the location, bitches" price tags.
It's about a 40 minute walk from my apartment on 14th street down to the actual beach. As frequent visitors and locals know, Santa Monica is perched atop a pretty large cliff and getting to the beach requires going down some fairly steep stairs, crossing over a pedestrian bridge above PCH and walking across a very long stretch of beach to get to the water. It was a Sunday, so the beach was filled with families, roller skaters, skateboarders, surfers and volley ball players. It's a very long, expansive beach so even with the perfect weather Sunday ingredients, the result was a beach that doesn't feel all too crowded. The boyfriend and I jumped in the ocean and to our delight it was the warmest water I've been in since I was in Hawaii over seven years ago. We laid in the sun for a couple hours, talking about this and that, reveling in how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place and making tentative plans to do this more often.
If you're going down to the Santa Monica beach and you need to drive, I would recommend parking in the residential neighborhoods of the Palisades and walking a couple of blocks to get down to Palisades Park (the grass park on the cliff above the many sets of stairs down to the ocean). Or, you can always find parking in any of the parking garages surrounding the Promenade. The rates aren't terrible, you can usually get away for under $5 if you stay for two-three hours.
After we'd lounged for a good time, we walked over to the pier, thinking that we might stop for a beer at Big Dean's, but the crowd there was a little too intense so we decided to start walking back home. On our way back we stopped in one of the many Whole Foods on Wilshire and browsed the beer section. We chose two new beers and were really happy with both of them. My favorite was the Sofie farmhouse ale that was light and refreshing, and even a little sweet. And yes, we drink beer out of wine glasses.
Even though we got second degree burns on our legs and backsides, the sweet beach day was totally worth it. Next time we go: SPF ANYTHING.
