Despite the Martial Arts History Museum owner's warnings NOT to go to Venice Beach...
we thought we would "take our chances" to check it out, even if we couldn't find any parking. The North 405 was still closed. This was the weekend of Jamzilla, but no worries since our destination was south of the closure.
As we were driving along one of the main streets near the beach, I saw this:
(mural on Pacific Ave and 19th Ave)
This was a mural of former Venice resident, the late soul/r&b singer, Teena Marie. She recently passed away in late 2010 and was known for her hits like, "Square Biz" (one of Bert's favorites), "Lover Girl" (to me, her most well known song") and "Ooh la la"...
She was a very talented woman, playing all of her instruments as well doing all the producing, writing, and arranging all of her songs.
I noticed there were a lot of mural all over many buildings in Venice, known to be an artistic haven.
The word "Venice" was strung between two buildings. I believe this street led to the beach.
Nice rat.
We obviously didn't have any luck finding parking. Everything was pretty much packed and crazy crowded. We didn't want to park miles away either, so we pretty much gave up on the idea of seeing the boardwalk. I was kind of glad because I remember the Martial Arts guy saying Venice wasn't really a "safe" place and that the area attracted a lot of strange types.
There is a street called Abbot Kinney near the beach that I'd heard about so we drove through it...
There were a lot of hipster shops and eateries, but nothing that we were going to stop for.
A mural on the side of a car dealership called...you guessed it....Lincoln Rose!
Since we were in Venice Beach, we at least wanted to Venice canals! I tell ya, whoever lives in this neighborhood is sitting on prime property! We drove through twice just to see the different houses....
There are four canals but only one that you can drive over. The rest are foot bridges.
I liked the mural on the side of this eatery...
Here is someone else's video on the Venice canals:
You could get a better feel of what's out there if you walk around instead of drive by in a car like we did.
More info/articles on Teena Marie Mural:
Venice Patch, May 2012
Argonaut online and YoVenice.com November 2012
Prince.Org, December 2012
Although we were not able to find parking in Venice, we vowed to come back for a future trip so that we could enjoy the sights in a more leisurely manner, not the "drive-by" method!
It was getting late and dinner would end up being in Snoop Dogg's 'hood...the LBC!
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