The El Rey Theater, Venice and Santa Monica Beach!

John and Judy (Emma's dad and step mom) came to visit LA and we had such a great time! One night, we went to The El Rey Theater (my first time there!) to see The Submarines play with Josh Ritter and they were both amazing performances! The El Rey is an old, historic art deco theater built in 1936 and it has a cool lobby leading into a grand ballroom with a nice stage and every seat in the place is a good one! Blake (the blonde in the photo) and Emma knew each other from Vermont so that is how we got to know of this band. Eva came with me to meet up with Ron, Emma, John and Judy and at the end of the show, we got a picture with The Submarines. Another day while they were in town, we spent the day in Venice Beach, biking along the strand and stopping by places like "Muscle Beach" and seeing all the shops and random musicians on the strand. It was such a nice day out so we biked all the way to the Santa Monica Pier and parked our bikes to walk around and explore. There was a huge memorial set up in honor of the soldiers who have died in Iraq and they were filming some sort of tribute on the beach. It was really amazing to see and there were a ton of people on and around the pier watching. After we left Santa Monica, we biked back through Venice and got to catch a glimpse of a local "drum line" of a local high school in the area and they were awesome! It's always a treat to bike through Venice and see some very interesting music and some very interesting people! There is never a dull moment on the strand!