taking a long walk on the beach

we decided to head down to venice beach on saturday evening, just to get out of the house and do something fun.  we'd talked about day tripping somewhere like san diego or solvang or something, but didn't really want to leave the dogs to their own devices for too long.  plus we were dogsitting stevie since the old lady and her special friend were out of town for the weekend visiting rock-ell and her husband and baby.  but a nice drive to the beach for a walk and some dinner sounded doable, and so we hopped in the hub's truck and headed out west.

the bean had never been to venice beach before, so she was pretty entertained as we passed muscle beach.  there were lots of people still out getting their workout on and most of the shops and kiosks and booths were still open for business.  it was a little chilly, but it was pretty crowded with folks strolling along, hanging out, enjoying the sunset.

when we reached the end of the shops, we just kept on walking along the bike path towards santa monica pier.  it was a really nice walk, and the hub suggested continuing on until we reached casa del mar and shutters on the beach.  "let's go hang out and grab some appetizers or something," he said.  and so that's what we did.  turns out it was a 2-mile walk, which made for a nice way to get some steps in for the day.  we found a nice table on the patio that overlooked the beach and sat down to order drinks and small bites.

the hub opted for a cup of coffee while i ordered up a "lemonade in the shade" - gin, st. germain, fresh lemonade and chambord.  it was really tasty.

the bean and i never pass up a chance to enjoy some burrata and prosciutto.

and we all shared a wagyu beef burger that was perfectly cooked and delicious.

we sat and enjoyed the view and the peaceful surroundings for a little while before ordering up an uber to take us back to muscle beach.  none of us were interested in walking two more miles, so yeah, we totally took the easy way out.

our snacks had done a nice job of taking us to that point where we weren't really full, but also weren't hungry enough for dinner quite yet.  so we made our way to sunset boulevard and took that all the way back into hollywood while we debated where to go next.  we were all dressed pretty casually, so we knew we weren't going anywhere fancy.  in the end we pulled up here:

we walked through the grove, elbowing our way through crowds of people and then ended up making a u-turn right back to the farmers market to find dinner.  the bean, as always, wanted sushi.

the hub and i opted for some tacos here:

and i was super bummed to see that the candy shop we were sitting next to was already closed for the night.  looking at this pile of marshmallow delights that i couldn't have was like torture.  fluffy marshmallows covered in fresh, buttery housemade caramel?  yummmmmm.

it was a fun, relaxed evening, and we hit no traffic on the drive home.  the dogs were all pretty excited to see us come home, and we were all in bed at a decent hour.  that was a good day.