Returned to Venice Beach in better spirits than our first hungover attempt. Found a car park right by the beach that was half the price being a weekday. Entered the broad walk right by muscle beach, which is an outdoor gym right by the beach. There weren't as many steroided blokes as I expected, but still a few pumping iron. Took a photo from far away, as I would hate anyone taking a picture of me whilst at the gym.....but then I wouldn't work out in public either and they probably love the attention.

Walked past tennis & basketball courts, this place had something for everyone. We sat at the skate park for a while watching the skaters of varying ability. The smell of weed lingered. All sorts of crazy cats hang out at Venice Beach that's for sure.

Continued down the broad walk and took it all in. The main part (where all the crazy's hang out) was not relaxing at all. There were different sights and interesting conversations. There was graffiti everywhere you looked. There were green doctors offering you weed prescriptions for $30-40. There were street artists selling art, 80% of it was ridiculous and unoriginal. Buskers performed, but not very well and rappers tried to force you to buy their future hit albums. Homeless people charged for photos. I must admit that I held on to my handbag quite tightly.

Once we got further down the broad walk the atmosphere changed completely. The people became more "normal" and everything was chilled and I'd say more family friendly. But it wasn't nearly as interesting.

We visited Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier because the previous day at Disneyland still had me in kid mode. We rode the FerrisWheel to take advantage of the amazing views.

Then we walked back towards Venice Beach. We watched people play on the adult playground and wished that we could do chin ups, walk tightrope, swing monkey bars etc as easily as they could.

Returned to our car and hit the road towards San Fran. We stayed one night at the Ventura Ranch KOA in Santa Paula which was the best campground we have stayed at. It felt like actual camping as it was in the middle of nowhere and there weren't massive buses & RVs. As soon as we rolled into our site the guy at the neighbouring van popped over and introduced himself. He was from Melbourne and had been living in Vancouver for 2 years.

We cooked a delicious feed of canned soup and bread. Then we sat with the Aussies next door while I ate my mini tub of ice cream. They offered me a cup of tea which was a welcome treat and we chatted with them until 10pm.