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Venice Beach / History Lessons / Cities / Los Angeles Travel / → All Tags

See Venetian Canals Without Ever Leaving Los Angeles

After you're done taking our advice and dining on Washington Blvd, you should treat yourself to one of the more surreal neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Just a few meters from the restaurants - across Pacific Ave and then up - are the Venice canals and the multi-million dollar homes that line their shores.

Venice began as a planned city at the turn of the last century. Casino and tobacco mogul Abbot Kinney wanted an upscale modern Venice, modeled culturally and architecturally on the original. He had contractors dig out 16 miles water-filled canals and crisscross them with bridges for horses and carriages. It was all supposed to be very American and very elegant, a crown jewel of industrialization.

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Beach Hang-Outs / Restaurants / Beaches / Venice Beach / Los Angeles Travel / → All Tags

Niche Dining On Venice Beach's Washington Blvd

Los Angeles is sprawling, hard to navigate, and - especially along the beaches - ostentatiously touristy. Los Angelenos are cynical, difficult to approach, and - especially along the beaches - ostentatiously anti-tourist. This creates a difficult situation both for visitors and for the local establishments that cater to them. Perhaps as a kind of survival mechanism, restaurants sometimes clump together in configurations very much resembling classic tourist traps.

One of those clumps lies at the end of Washington Blvd. Nearby residents insist that the street is in Venice. The expensive hotels that sit two blocks away are pretty sure it's part of Marina Del Rey. Either way the small street has dining choices from across the classiness spectrum, from the merely chichi to the very chichi to the... not. Many of those restaurants are actually quite good, popular with locals, and not at all trap-like.

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Lowrider Bikes / Bike Rentals / Venice Beach / Lindsay Lohan / → All Tags

Lohan Lowrider Bikes From Malibu To Venice

Lindsay Lohan has canceled her long planned 21st birthday bash in Vegas and has taken to riding a lowrider bike of some sort, somewhere along the Malibu to Venice Beach boardwalk path. Must be therapeutic.

You don't need to do time at Promises to enjoy a tricked out bike along the SoCal beach boardwalks, instead you can just head to Manny's Low Rider Bikes in Venice and get yourself a much slicker rig than pictured above. There is a whole subculture to these lowrider bikes, so be sure to do your research before you jump on a bike.

You can call Manny's at 310.306.3452 or just head to the address above.

Related Stories:
· Lowrider Bike [Official Site]

[Photo: Popsugar]