Wednesday: Another day, another beach walk (Venice Beach)

I wake up at 7 am and decide to have a quick cigarette at the beach before showering and looking for the location of the continental breakfast.


Venice beach at sunrise; Sun from the East



A shadowy unwashed figure

These things are everywhere. Did a container with band-aids fall in the water or are the mussels shedding?

about to  break

Trying to get back into my hotel at 7:15, I realize that the door fell shut behind me, that there is no-one at reception (after 8am), and that I forgot the card with the key code in my wallet in my room. I am stranded on the strand. Fortunately I have enough cigarettes with me ;-)
 

Nothing else to do but walk onto the pier

early morning surfers seen from the pier

At 7:40 I notice that one of the cleaning ladies has opened and not entirely closed the door to the hotel!  After a quick continental breakfast from a food bar and a shower I head back to the beach.

 
I start walking along the water towards Santa Monica Pier, when I see this close to the water. Since I left my sandals at the hotel and run around bare-footed, I don't go closer tto investigate what it might be. A Tuna? A Sea lion? A big white shark? It's BIG.

Strange! I've seen this bird before !

Baywatch ! Fortunately no sign of David Hasselhoff or Pamela Anderson

The sky suddenly darkens

Santa Monica Pier in the distance

I only brought 2 cigarettes so I turn around at this point ;-(  And I'm stunned by how the different light angle changes the atmosphere of the place.

Holland? France?

Bird with a limp or a loon beak

 



DRUNK bird with a limp or very long beak !

 

 
Then I feel like being transported into the famous scene of Apocalypse Now

 

Charlie don't surf

 
Then the setting changes again.  One moment the beach is deserted; the next moment it is covered with leprechauns.  Seems NBC Comcast sent all its employees to the beach for PR-effective cleaning walk.

 
30 seconds before the following picture, I was talking to the leprechaun to ask about the Band-Aid/shedding mussels mystery (shedding crustaceans were his explanation) when I noticed that a camera lens started staring at my face from the side at a distance of 40 cms.
I had one of the band-aids in my hand and told the lens (he kept filming right into my face) that I had never seen anything like it.  That should say enough about the quality of American television programming ;-)

Oh, wouldn't that be nice