I Went in the Pacific and It Wasn't That Cold. (You're Just a Bunch of Weenies.)

So I left the desert. I was looking like a hot mess after camping for two nights and sweating my butt off the day before. I was on my way to Santa Barbara, but didn't really need to leave as early as I ended up leaving the desert, because the person I was staying with wouldn't even be home til 6pm, and it was only about a six hour drive from Joshua Tree to Santa Barbara. So I thought, okay, I'll stop in L.A. for a while.

Now, I've never been to L.A., (obviously. I'd never been anywhere on the West Coast until I started this trip) but it sort of overwhelms me just on principal. I get the snooty, extremely-well-put-together vibe from that city, and as I've just said, I was a hot mess. Also, the thought of driving through downtown Los Angeles gives me agita. I was on my way there, when I was suddenly like, "Why am I doing this if I don't want to? Hey, I wonder where Venice Beach is, I wanna go there!" Guess what guys, it's in L.A. (ish? I don't really understand where the cutoff lines for places is, so whatever. It was in the general area that I was headed towards)! So I reset my map for Venice Beach.

Because it was only like 9:30am when I got to the beach, there weren't that many people yet and I found some really easy access parking and just took it, realizing after I got out that I was actually like fifteen blocks away from Venice Beach still and was actually at Santa Monica Beach. But I was like, "Meh, the beach is the beach!" and went down to lay on the sand and read my book anyway.

Fear not, though-- I didn't just sunbathe and read; I also went into the Pacific (for the first time)! Now, whenever people talk about going into the Pacific, they always ALWAYS mention that it's cold. Always. And I've always kind of been like, "Well, duh! The ocean is cold. It's the ocean!" (In my head though, because I'm not totally rude all of the time.) But then I also sort of figured that because everyone feels the need to mention how cold it is, it might just actually be colder. I mean, the Pacific is a considerably larger body of water than the Atlantic. So it makes sense that it might stay colder. So I told myself that at the very least I was going to stick my feet in, but if it was really that cold I wouldn't go in any more. Well, folks, I got my feet wet and let me tell you...it wasn't very cold. I mean it was chilly, but it's the freaking ocean! What do people expect?! It was considerably warmer than the beaches I used to swim in as a kid (or as an adult, my point is just that I'm talking about Maine beaches). And admittedly, I was in Santa Monica which is waaaaay further south than Maine, so it's totally believable that at comparable latitudes, the Pacific is colder than the Atlantic. I think that is probably true. But it wasn't a temperature that prompted me to remark on its coldness. In fact, after my moment of pleasant surprise, I decided to wade out further and go all the way under. I mean, who needs a shower when you can have a salt water dunk instead, am I right?

After that, I tried to move my car further to Venice Beach (which was a mistake. I should have kept the good parking spot that I had.) and ended up driving around that whole area for like fifteen or twenty minutes. At this point it was like 11:30 on a Friday and Venice Beach was swarming with people. I finally found a parking spot and had to walk like fifteen minutes back to where I wanted to be. Lame. I found a cool coffee shop and got a tasty latte and read some more. I watched people walk by outside. Then I walked around outside myself. It was a beautiful day. But Venice Beach was a zoo. So after a couple hours I made my way back to where my car was parked, which was right next to a branch of the L.A. library and I decided to go in there for a while. Of course.