59. Best Sight L.A. for Playing Air Hockey on the Pier

It's currently award season in L.A.  In honor of the season, I have created a Bjork's Best Sights L.A. Award for "Best Sight L.A. for Playing Air Hockey on the Pier".  And the award goes to the Santa Monica Pier.

Now if you have been following my "Bjork's Best" blog posts so far, you know there is a method to my madness with the sights I have chosen to honor.  I'm putting a mini-tour together I have decided to name, The Hotel California Tour.  Coincidentally, the Hotel California was the previous blog post award winner.

Located at Ocean and Pacific Avenue, the Hotel California is a very close neighbor, just a few blocks, to the Santa Monica Pier at Ocean and Colorado Avenue.  It just seemed perfect to create a category worthy of honoring this well-known pier.

Right about now you may be thinking, Lori might have awarded the Santa Monica Pier for being the most world famous pier of those in the greater Los Angeles area; included in many movies, TV shows and music videos.

 

She might have awarded the Santa Monica Pier for being the longest pier in the greater Los Angeles area at 2,000 feet.

She might have awarded the Santa Monica Pier for being the only pier in the greater Los Angeles area with a Ferris wheel and amusement park on it.

She might have awarded the Santa Monica Pier for being the best pier in the greater Los Angeles area for anglers.

She might have awarded this pier for being free and open every day of the year, 24/7.

She might have awarded this pier for being the pier to stand under to practice yelling like Peter Klaven in the movie, "I Love You, Man".

She might have awarded this pier for being the only one with a pier-adjacent carousel and an aquarium under the pier.

Right about now you may be thinking, Lori might have awarded the Santa Monica Pier for many things which make it one of the premier, must-see sights it is.

In response, I would share that for me the Santa Monica Pier is the only pier in the greater Los Angeles area with air hockey tables.  And, its where I played air hockey with my grown son and won.  Once.  And, yes!  To add insult to injury (for my son, that is), I did a little celebration dance after my momentous victory.

Ahhh!  It feels good to celebrate.  It feels good to celebrate the sights of L.A.

P.S.  For those not staying at the Hotel California, the video below shows walking from the parking structure at Colorado and 2nd to the pier all the way to the end of the Santa Monica Pier.  Enjoy!

34. Santa Monica Just May Be Lamborghini Heaven

One of the things I frequently notice since moving back to California from Minnesota, which I allude to in one of my other posts, is cars.  One never knows what exotic sports car, like a Lamborghini, they may see next on the mean, crowded streets of greater Los Angeles.  Okay, the streets aren't mean.  I just threw that in the mix for effect.

In one of my other posts, I mention Santa Monica.  Due to a comment, I decided to look for the statue of Santa Monica in Santa Monica.  The photo of the statue of Santa Monica is one of the few photos I've included in my posts that isn't one of mine.  I choose to write about places I've been to and experienced.

That's when it happened.  It's one of the things I love about writing this blog.  You never know what you might see that you didn't expect.  The only downside in this instance is I had already run out of memory for my camera and almost didn't get a digital recording.  Luckily, I have okay enough photo capability with my mobile phone to at least relay the gist of the experience.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find out why all of these Lamborghinis were lined up and displayed.

What tickled me is that before today if I'd seen A Lamborghini, I most likely didn't recognize it as it whizzed past me.  Today I seem to have hit the mother lode of Lamborghini sight seeing.  There had to be at least ten Lamborghinis in a rainbow of colors that pulled up and parked in their temporarily reserved parking spaces on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica.  More than likely that number was probably closer to twenty.

I really enjoyed seeing the driver of one of these fine looking automobiles who pulled a one-eighty turn in an effort to pull into his spot.  Motor revved.  Tires squealed.  About two seconds later cop car and peace officer in said driver's face to issue a citation for...who knows...wild driving?

From my research I can only assume it had something to do with Lamborghini's decision to open its North American Sales arm in Santa Monica.  A smart move when you consider California represents about one-third of Lamborghini's North American sales.

So class, what have we learned?

Correct.  If you are in the market for a Lamborghini, now you know.  Get yourself to Santa Monica, California or Orange County, which you will find from my L.A. Sightseeing Examiner "Wo"manifesto is part of the greater Los Angeles area.