Cruising Santa Monica Family Style – Thanks BikeAttack

This photo of Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is courtesy of TripAdvisor

My wife and I used to live near Santa Monica, so we were thrilled to hear that I was being sent to Los Angeles for a convention.  I decided to take a few vacation days with it so that I could have some time to see the area with the wife and kids. Biking the Santa Monica beach path wasn’t our top priority, but it turned out to be a great family outing.

I love biking, and when we happened upon Bike Attack’s shop while checking out what  Santa Monica had to offer, and by that I mean shopping, I made a recommendation to check out the area on two wheels. I thought it might be nice to actually see a little of Santa Monica and not just the shops. I knew the family wouldn’t be up for biking the entire beach path, so I appealed to their beach loving nature and suggested that we go grab our suits, towels and come back to rent some bikes and spend the day checking out the beach and pier.

If your family is anything like mine, it can be tricky getting everyone on board with doing something you want to do, but we actually ended up doing a stretch of about ten miles from Palisades Park, where we left our car, to Playa del Ray.  Fortunately, our kids are keen enough on biking that convincing them to do it wasn’t a complete battle.  I also planned our route out with few enough interruptions to enjoy the ride, but enough to keep the kids from getting bored. I had to buy my wife jewelry.  My goal was to have an enjoyable day while seeing some beautiful views and having a leisurely bike ride.

The first three miles were easy enough, as was the entire ride, really.  Our kids started getting excited when they saw the rides at Pacific Park.  I hadn’t told them about it and figured I’d keep that a surprise.  To be honest, I got a bit excited too since it helped make the fact that we were finally doing something fun.  When the kids started asking us if they could go on the rides, I told them, “Absolutely, why don’t we hit those on the way back, but only if you’re good.”

We did, however, stop at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.  I’ve always enjoyed aquariums, but my kids had actually never been to one.  They were amazed by the sharks and had a ball at the touch tanks.  Now they both want to try SCUBA diving, which is very cool, because that would have been my first choice.

After leaving the aquarium, we hopped back on our bikes and rode for another few miles to the Venice Fishing Pier.  One of the kids struck up a conversation with someone who said he had been there all morning.  We watched him bring in a nurse shark which was pretty cool.

After about half an hour, we hopped back on our bikes and rode to the Ballona Creek Bike Path, which we rode to Del Ray Lagoon.  There, we had a picnic.  Our kids played some Frisbee and chased some of the birds.  I was surprised to see just how much wildlife was there.

On the way back, we stopped at the Venice Skate Park, unfortunately, and we spent nearly half an hour there because our kids were so intrigued.  Some of the kids practicing put on quite a show.  The only problem was that my kids said they wanted to learn when we got home.  I’m ready for some broken bones.

Finally, we got back to the Santa Monica Pier and had an absolute blast at The Pacific Park.  Our kids loved the games and the rides.  Even so, I think my wife and I appreciated it more because we got to show our kids the kinds of rides we grew up with, as opposed to the newer ones at places like Six Flags.

All in all, we had a great day out as a family.  I’d highly recommend this trip to anyone considering it.

Thanks, Mike from Boulder, CO