Jaunted

The mall is open-air for the most part, although the Dining Deck's food court has both inside and outside dining and the escalators are all covered. (It does rain here in SoCal sometimes.) There are plenty of spaces for events and in fact, as we were strolling around on Saturday, NIKE was putting together some sort of NFL rally event with a fashion catwalk.

Back upstairs on the dining deck, radio station DJs from KCRW will provide the music for a sunset happy hour that happens every Friday from 5 to 7pm through September. In short, we fully expect lots of events going on here. And fortunately, they won't be the odd street acts found on the Promenade.

There are still quite a few shops that need to open here as well as a few food court and dining options but they should do so by the end of August. In other words, if you've got an LA trip planned for Labor Day Weekend, you should carve out time in your busy "Entourage" inspired itinerary to check it out. We even found more affordable parking in the mall's garage. The first two hours are free!

And with the beach right by you might want to pick up a new bathing suit or shades. Or more likely, a sweatshirt. (People never realize that it does get cold in Santa Monica at night.)