I met a mermaid in Venice Beach

This photograph is one of my favorites (see a pattern here, I like to post my favorites). I work with both of them and they are such wonderful people. Tracyann (TA) is the director of Pets911 and introducer of bunco to me, which we’ll be playing tonight. She’s so caring, smart, funny and beautiful. Her husband, Derrick, also works with us and is one major character. Ever boisterous, his musical abilities are fabulous! He’s a singer in two bands, and his new blues band is one I cannot wait to see.

I spent the most amazing weekend in Santa Monica. I seriously cannot wait to go back. It was the perfect way to start 2008. I’m full of inspiration as I type this. I picked up everything photography this weekend and poured through it on our drive back. I have so many ideas and cannot wait to attack them. It was great not seeing any pinhole photography at Photo LA. There will definitely be some there next year… mine! Large beautiful pinhole photography images… red dots next to each image. SOLD SOLD SOLD!

I will also be working on getting representation from a gallery in Bergamot Station. What a wonderful art gallery haven. I saw the best exhibit I’ve seen in a while there. I’ll have to mention it tomorrow because I just cannot remember the artist’s name right now. I also wrote down a list of artists that impressed me at Photo LA which I’ll type out for another entry this week.

Venice Beach, was not on my itinerary, but we ended up there and thank goodness we did. It was incredible. The characters on the boardwalk were a riot! You’ll just have to wait to see my photographs!

The energy on the beach was seriously perfect. Every couple of feet I’d meet someone new and take their photograph. I got two people’s address and will be sending them prints. The first group of people I met were building a sand castle! 3 hours later, I found them, sitting in their deep hole, a fort of cup sized sand bricks surrounding them. I took a couple of pinholes of their castle, and then a few portraits of them sitting inside.

I also met a mermaid! Walking along the beach, these two adorable girls were sitting in the sand, feet buried in the shape of a mermaid tail. They were so cute. I talked to them a little and took some photographs of them. One of the girls kept saying that she really was a mermaid. Her father came over to us and we talked with him for a while. And his daughter really is a mermaid. He spent all of his time surfing on the ocean and name her Sirena, which means mermaid in Spanish. He also took the whole summer off to teach his little mermaid how to surf! I think that is to adorable!

Dinner was had at Juliano’s Raw. AND it’s makes the list for one of the best meals I’ve ever had. It was so incredibly delicious. I could seriously eat that way every single day if someone was preparing food like that for me. It was heavenly. We started off with strawberry almond cheesecake. At a raw food restaurant you eat dessert first because it’s easier to digest sweets first. You order food in the order it is on the menu to make sure you’re properly food combining. So that may have been one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever had and it was dairy free! AMAZING! Then we had spring rolls with the most incredible sauce, I have no idea what the sauce was. Gary had lasagna and I had meat and potatoes. The lasagna was mouth watering. I wish I was eating a piece right now. Mine was interesting, but maybe not as good. My mashed potatoes were made from cauliflower and those were super yummy… but my meat was a dehydrated mushroom type patty, and albeit good, not my favorite. I wanted to go back for breakfast the next morning, but I was out voted.

We spend our evening walking around Santa Monica and the pier and I was dreaming up ways to stay there and never leave. Oh Santa Monica, perhaps you have taken the number one spot on my list of places to move too…. move over NYC, you’re too cold and dreary compared to gorgeous ocean side Santa Monica.

Gary and I are making plans to go back to Santa Monica in February. I seriously think I need to go there every weekend. We also want to go to Venice Beach in May for their famous art walk!