Last week, Jason and I spent the day in Venice Beach. We’ve been to Santa Monica a couple of times and though the two beaches are side by side, they are quite different. Personally, I prefer the gritty, artsy feel in Venice Beach. The food and people watching weren’t lacking either. We spent some time just taking in the view from the sand, walked along the promenade and checked out some of the wares of all the folks set up there, and finished off our day with a stroll in the canals and coffee.

I was both intrigued and inspired by all the art on the buildings in Venice, as well as the canals. The canals in Venice were built in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney as part of his ‘Venice of America’ plan. Kinney wanted to recreate the canals that are characteristic of Venice, Italy in Southern California. While many of the canals gave way to automobile roads by 1929, there are still a few canals left and they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and have been since 1982.

Even the coffee is a work of art in Venice