Santa Monica: A Much Needed Re-Charging

Yesterday E and I ventured down south for a day trip to the great city of Los Angeles. Yes, yes I know the city is smoggy. I know it is uber-congested. I know that no matter what time of the day there will be standstill traffic on any one of the freeways there. I know there are sometimes earthquakes and that they seem to have difficulties controlling wildfires in the area. And contrary to what people believe, going to LA does not indicatively mean that you are going to be mugged, shot, maimed or in any other way harmed by anything other than ultra-violet radiation which will inevitably damage overexposed bodies. All this aside, each and every time that I have stepped foot in this city from the moment I leave the airport to the moment I head back I have a never-ending smile spread across my face.After getting our rental car and navigating our way thru West Los Angeles due to certain distracters on the 405 which caused me to miss the 10 exit we finally made it to the beach. Malibu. We were hungry and needed a bathroom so this stop was not expected to be a very long one, I just needed to breath in the ocean air...
From here we got back in the car and headed over to the promenade in Santa Monica. There is a crepe place that I love there that sounded mighty tempting. When we got there however there were police galore and someone pinned up against the wall in the process of being arrested. Ok.. well then we will find a different place to eat at... After walking a little ways down we decided to stop at a local burger place called Rocket Burger. This, as I later found out, was a mistake. From the time we sat down to the time we left our served paid us no heed. After sitting for about fifteen minutes he came to take our order. Ten minutes after that he brought me my water and E's milk. Doot-do-do, wait wait wait. The larger tables around us (by larger I mean parties of four and six) were obviously his main concern and finally the manager brought us out our food... but didnt bring out all of it. To bring me a burger and not the fries?? That is just very strange to me being that it IS a burger place but ok. After we were finished eating and had all the garbage piled on our plates to make it obvious that we were done the server made his first appearance to our table since he brought us our drinks which was to give us our bill. I put my card in the little black book, placed it on the edge of the table and attempted to wait patiently.
Patiently.
Patiently.
I am not known for my patience, especially in situations like this and when I see him over twiddling his thumbs after asking each and every OTHER table if they needed anything I got his attention by saying "You know, I would love to be able to pay so I can get out of here" while waving the holder in the air. He looked at me with disdain and finally came and took the card. Hmm.. yes that is a great way to get a tip from me. When I got the receipt I decided to give him the best tip of them all. After slashing a huge line thru the tip section I wrote him a little line below: My tip to you, a little attention goes a long way.
Not to say that that was the first time I didnt leave a tip. Dont' get me wrong, its not a typical occurrence and when the service is good I give more than the 20% on occasion, but never before had I been actually compelled to write something.
From there we went to do what we came to do and that was soaking the sun on the beach. We walked down to Santa Monican beach, went under the pier and found a nice place to lay out near the lifeguard stand (this was merely coincidental I swear! hehe). There we sat and played and basked for the next few hours. It was wonderful.6pm came and our flight left at 840 so I decided it was time to start heading back towards the airport.
Sure, it may not seem like we were there for long, in all actuality that is true, but it was long enough to recharge my soul. Something that has been very desperately needed.
Thank you Santa Monica!