Charming Noveltees

Southern California close-ups: Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu

LOS ANGELES - You could spend a solid year sniffing out cool spots for travelers in Venice, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Malibu - scores of hotels, hundreds of restaurants and bars, more than 30 miles of coastline. But you're new to the scene, or you haven't visited in a while, and who has a year anyway?</p><p> We offer the seventh installment of our yearlong series of Southern California close-ups - 11 micro-itineraries that will lead you to fresh fruit, ancient art, pub darts, magic, gymnastics, Venus on roller skates and J. Paul Getty on how to be rich. (You can find our six previous destination micro-itineraries for Los Angeles and Orange counties at latimes.com/socalcloseups.) They'll work for you or for your out-of-town guests.</p><p> -Veni, Vidi, Venice</p><p> That's a loose Latin paraphrase for: "I came, I saw and, boy, are we a long way from Burbank." Venice lies just south of Santa Monica and left of the American mainstream - artsy, edgy, defiant and occasionally downright dissolute. Check out Ocean Front Walk on a weekend morning, and bring a fistful of dollar bills to tip the street musicians, magicians and all-around characters. Don't miss the mural of Venus on roller skates, near Speedway and Windward Avenue. (Maybe you've already seen it, in the Steve Martin movie "L.A. Story.") See too the careening teens at the Venice Skate Park, the cyclists on the meandering beach bike path, and the serious pickup games on the basketball courts. There will be something to amuse you and something to offend you. (Perhaps the cheeky young man seeking contributions for penis-reduction surgery?) Venice-lovers embrace it as the weirdness capital of Southern California, if not North America. Others take one look at the grit and graffiti and ask: What's so special about beachfront urban blight and cheap sunglasses? Before you pass judgment, inspect the canals just south of South Venice Boulevard and survey the ambitious restaurants, galleries and shops along Abbot Kinney Boulevard. After you check into the playful but grown-up-oriented Hotel Erwin - where singing a song at the front desk may get you an upgrade - have a drink at the rooftop bar. It doesn't have a pool, but step across Pacific Avenue to Mao's Kitchen for a $9 bowl of noodle soup almost large enough to swim in.</p><p> -Sweet swimming on a tight budget</p><p> For a memorable pool or a base camp for a beach day with the kids, head to 415 Pacific Coast Highway. There, by wide, sandy Santa Monica beach, William Randolph Hearst in the late 1920s built a vast mansion for his mistress, actress Marion Davies. These days, only the big marble-edged pool and guesthouse remain, joined by a sleek complex of changing rooms, fitness equipment and special-event spaces that was completed in 2009. It's known as the Annenberg Community Beach House. It's run by the city of Santa Monica, and it's probably the best-looking municipal pool you've ever seen. Though much of the 5-acre facility operates year round, the pool opens only in summer, accepting walk-up guests and reservations (up to three days in advance), its water (4 to 8 feet deep) heated to 80-85 degrees. Lots of moms and tots. There's a cafe, a cool little playground, a summer-only fitness room (which costs extra), beach volleyball, beach tennis, a pair of beach soccer fields and rentable space for parties. A day of pool access (10 a.m.-6 p.m.) costs $10 for adults and $4 for kids 1-17). On most Mondays, that price drops to $1 for adults and kids and the pool stays open until 8 p.m. Because demand can be high, you should show up around 8:30 a.m. with a towel and swimsuit. Pay the $8-$10 to park your car all day, or park your bike free at one of the racks. Then head for breakfast at the neighboring Back on the Beach Cafe (8 a.m.-8 p.m.). When the pool admission window opens at 9:30, you buy your passes, and when the pool opens at 10, you're ready.</p><p> -Pier people, parallel bars and prawns</p><p> You can't overlook the Santa Monica Pier. It starts where Colorado Avenue stops, it dates to 1909 and its Pacific Park amusement zone includes a solar-powered Ferris wheel. You'll find plenty of junk food, several restaurants, free live music on Thursday nights in summer and abundant people-watching at all hours. This is Southern California's Coney Island. You'll also notice the bike path that runs near the pier - it goes north to Temescal Canyon, south to Washington Boulevard in Venice - 8 1/2 miles in all. If you don't mind navigating around Marina del Rey, you can rejoin the beach and pedal to Torrance, about 18 miles south of the Santa Monica Pier. The Spokes 'n Stuff Bicycle Shop (1715 Ocean Front Walk) is ready with rentals at $22 a day for a grown-up's bike. But before you roll anywhere, stroll over to Muscle Beach, just south of the pier, where dozens of regulars perform gymnastic feats of strength, grace and daring on rings, ropes and parallel bars. Once upon a time, Jack LaLanne hung out here. Ask nicely, and they'll literally show you the ropes. Then head a few blocks north to 1355 Ocean Ave. for seafood at BP Oysterette. (The initials stand for Blue Plate, not British Petroleum.) Then bed down for the night just a block away, behind the blue Art Deco facade of the historic but relatively affordable Georgian Hotel (1415 Ocean Ave.).</p><p> -Retail, produce, magic, beer and darts</p><p> You know that Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade isn't as trendy as it was 20 years ago. You understand that Santa Monica Place, a mall that reopened at the south end of the promenade after a major rehab in 2010, generates more retail heat these days. So you do both, because pedestrianism is next to godliness, because the promenade's street performers are good and plentiful, because a serious farmers market sets up at Arizona and 3rd on Wednesday and Saturday mornings and because there are plenty of distinctive non-national enterprises nearby. Hennessey + Ingalls Art &#38; Architecture Bookstore at 214 Wilshire Blvd., for instance. Or Magicopolis (1418 4th St.) with its weekend magic shows. And don't forget Ye Olde King's Head pub (116 Santa Monica Blvd.) with its British beers, twin dartboards and devoted expats.</p><p> -Let's face it, you're cheap</p><p> Just a block off the Third Street Promenade, at 1436 2nd St., is Hostelling International Santa Monica, a 260-bed haven built in 1990 for frugal, youngish travelers, and later upgraded. Don't expect a pool or much privacy; all hostel options involve shared bathrooms, from the nine private rooms (most $159 a night) to the $36 dorm-room beds. Especially for younger travelers without children, the place has an agreeable global collegiate buzz.</p><p> -Then again, you may be rich</p><p> If so, Santa Monica hoteliers are ready for you. Prove your cool by choosing the historic grandeur of the beachfront Casa del Mar, a redone '20s building with cool tile, big views from its upstairs bar and brochure rates that begin at $565 a night. Or, for a comparable price, hop across Pico Boulevard to Shutters on the Beach, which looks like a New England beach house that just kept growing and seems to draw more celebrities (even though the same owners control both hotels). Another option, of course, is saving a few hundred dollars and staying at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel (a block up from the beach, palm trees inside its five-story atrium) or using Marriott Rewards points at nearby Le Merigot. With the money you save, you can buy one round of drinks at Casa del Mar, another at Shutters and round out the night with cotton candy on the pier.</p><p> -Sweat, then shop</p><p> Check in at Santa Monica's venerable Fairmont Miramar Hotel &#38; Bungalows, grab a table overlooking the pool and dig into an early dinner at Fig, an in-house bistro that focuses on seasonal dishes. Splurge on the carbohydrates, because you'll be up and out early the next morning in your workout wear, walking, jogging or pedaling 1.3 miles along Palisades Park to the public stairways on Adelaide Drive near 4th Street, a.k.a. the Santa Monica Stairs. You'll find the stairs easily enough - one set is concrete, one is wood, and they'll be populated by fitness fiends panting, stretching, kvetching and primping, which occasionally annoys the well-heeled neighbors. You'll see the young and beautiful, the old and resolute, and probably a guy with boxing gloves. Once you've retired to the hotel and freshened up, head for nearby Montana Avenue, where dozens of high-end boutiques, service businesses and restaurants are arrayed from 7th to 17th streets. Get breakfast or lunch at Cafe Montana (at 15th Street) or Babalu Bakery &#38; Restaurant (at 10th Street). Families won't want to miss Every Picture Tells a Story, the charming children's bookshop and art gallery at 1333 Montana Ave.</p><p> -Art and music, all day and into the night</p><p> Once upon a time, in the 19th century, Santa Monica's Bergamot Station (2525 Michigan Ave.) was a rail yard. But ever since its revival as a cluster of galleries in 1994, it has been a treasured spot for one-stop art browsing. Along with contemporary painting and sculpture, you'll find a lot of photography, a few artsy shops, a well-shaded patio cafe for lunch or a snack, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. There's your afternoon. Then head to McCabe's, a beloved music shop and concert venue at 3101 Pico Blvd. The shop is more than 50 years old and has served as a clubhouse of sorts for Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder and many other Los Angeles musicians. Live shows, often acoustic and often Americana, happen on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the guitar showroom, which holds 150 fold-up chairs and some of the city's most discriminating (yet enthusiastic) audiences. (This summer's bookings included John Doe &#38; Jill Sobule and J.D. Souther in July.) For food, it's a two-block walk to the trendy Upper West restaurant and bar (3321 Pico Blvd.). Or go three blocks west and try the throwback Googie diner Rae's (2901 Pico Blvd.; open until 9 p.m.), which is as old and weathered as Upper West is shiny and new. If the evening gets late, the Travelodge Santa Monica awaits across the street from McCabe's at 3102 Pico Blvd. It's not fancy, but rates start at less than $150 and parking is free.</p><p> -The Getty Villa</p><p> The Romans, the Greeks, the Etruscans - they're all here in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by gardens that have matured nicely since the villa's grand reopening in 2006 after a massive redo. The site is as intimate as the Getty Center in Brentwood is epic - the gardens, galleries and open-air theater all crowded together in a canyon near the sea just south of Malibu. Do lunch in the cafe (open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursdays-Mondays). Cool gift shop too, with art books and prints, jewelry, pinhole cameras, mood pencils (69 cents each), "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" ($20 in Penguin paperback), and, admit it, your secret favorite item, J. Paul Getty's 1965 book, "How to Be Rich" ($6.99, paperback).</p><p> -The Malibu quartet</p><p> First, acknowledge that you underestimated the size of Malibu. Twenty-seven miles of coastline! But at about 23000 Pacific Coast Highway (about 12 miles from the Santa Monica Pier), you will find a handy foursome. First, the Malibu Pier, where you might buy bait (really, you could) or have a bite at the Beachcomber Cafe. Next, a few hundred yards farther up the beach, have a look at the Malibu Lagoon and imagine living in the Adamson House, a classic Spanish-style beach home that's now part of the state park system. (There are tours of the interior too, offered 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; guided tours of the house are $7 per adult and $2 for those 6-16.) Jump in the ocean if you like. Then head back to the pier and beyond to the Malibu Beach Inn. If you can afford the splurge ($325 a night and up), every one of its 46 rooms has a wide ocean view. If you can't spend that much, you can still eye the view over a meal in the hotel's Carbon Beach Club restaurant. (Just remember, non-hotel guests must reserve in advance.)</p><p> -Cove, sand, cafe. Simple. Right?</p><p> Out-of-towners, beware. If you ask a local for tips on the best beaches in Malibu, you risk drowning in a sea of beach-bum bombast and legal disputes over what's public and what isn't, where to park, the shape of the waves, the clarity of the water, the rights of wealthy beach-dwellers and who lives in that big, ugly house over there, anyway? Zuma Beach County Park (near 30000 Pacific Coast Highway) is big and sandy. El Matador State Beach (32215 Pacific Coast Highway) is smaller, harder to reach, edged by cliffs and caves - and gorgeous. The state Coastal Commission and Los Angeles Urban Rangers will tell you much more about dozens of others at www.coastal.ca.gov/access/MalibuGuide2010.pdf. Or you could do the shallow thing and head for the trailer park from "The Rockford Files" and "Baywatch." Paradise Cove, a hefty 18 miles up the coast from the Santa Monica Pier, is home to a busy cafe, tiny pier and one of the state's ritziest mobile-home parks. It's a star on big and little screens ("Gidget" and "The O.C." are also among its cre-dits), so if you have come to California with tourist fantasies about the perfect little beach, this could fill the bill.</p><p> Gentle waves, handsome bluffs, fine sand, beach toys aplenty, lifeguard at the ready, legions of armchairs lined up beneath an array of palapas. Many locals scoff, because it can get crowded, and because dogs, surfboards and barbecues are banned. Additionally, the cost of parking in the pri-vate lot jumps from $3 (for four hours) to $25 if you don't spend at least $20 at the cafe. But if you reserve your lunch well ahead and show up early, and it isn't 100 degrees in the San Fernando Valley that day, you just might have paradise your way.</p><p> IF YOU GO:</p><p> WHERE TO STAY</p><p> Hotel Erwin, 1697 Pacific Ave., Venice; (310) 452-1111 or (800) 786-7789, www.hotelerwin.com. 119 rooms. Doubles $179-$359.</p><p> Hostelling International Santa Monica, 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica; (310) 393-9913, www.hilosangeles.org. 260 beds. Summer rates about $36-$49 a person in dorms and about $159 for private rooms.</p><p> Casa del Mar, 1910 Ocean Way, Santa Monica; (310) 581-5533, www.hotelcasadelmar.com. 129 rooms. Doubles $565-$850.</p><p> Shutters on the Beach, 1 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 458-0030, www.shuttersonthebeach.com. 198 rooms. Doubles $575-$995.</p><p> Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica; (866) 563-9792, www.santamonicaloewshotel.com. 342 rooms. Most doubles $279-$549.</p><p> JW Marriott Santa Monica Le Merigot, 1740 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica; (310) 395-9700 or (877) MERIGOT, www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/laxlm. 175 rooms. Doubles usually $389-$429.</p><p> Georgian Hotel, 1415 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica; (310) 395-9945 or (800) 538-8147, www.georgianhotel.com. 84 rooms. Doubles usually $229-$342.</p><p> Fairmont Miramar Hotel, 101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 576-7777 or (866) 540-4470, www.fairmont.com/santamonica. 300 rooms. Doubles usually $279-$429.</p><p> Travelodge Santa Monica, 3102 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 450-5766, www.travelodgesantamonica.com. 83 rooms. $130-$160.</p><p> Malibu Beach Inn, 22878 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu; (310) 456-6444, www.malibubeachinn.com. 46 rooms. Doubles $325-$1,025.</p><p> Christopher Reynolds: christopher.reynolds@latimes.

Source: Kansas City Star

Riedell Roller Skates – A Buyer's Tutorial | Tiffanyjewelryhotsale.com

by carissacarroll

Girls roller skates are essentially footwear that aspect 3 to 5 wheels. These skates are immensely well-known amid the children and teenagers because they are the simplest, least dangerous and the most environmental friendly means of transportation. Even grownups today adore this activity – - which is why lots of skate brand names are providing skate sneakers even for older people. Riedell Roller Skates are leading high quality skates that are available in sizes suitable for adults also as for youngsters.

The brand name delivers two essential varieties of styles in roller skates:

Quad-roller skates

Inline skates or blades

The past is the design and style which functions four wheels correct around the soles in order that the shoe moves effortlessly though the latter refers for the layout in which you will discover 3, 4 or 5 wheels connected in a row. There is certainly also a break for the back again of this type of shoe made by Riedell brand....

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Roller Skates Wheels

Roller Skates Wheels

Skating on wheels (Brazilian Portuguese) or roller skating (European Portuguese) also called roller skating is a sport of ice skating originated. Skate is the Portuguese word for "skate" (because we know how to skate is actually called "skateboard" that is, something like "skid plate"). The invention of roller skates on wheels began in a curious way. In 1750, a Belgian named Joseph Merlin had the idea to build roller skates wheels that could walk on the ground as well as ice skate gliding on ice. After several experiments, Merlin managed to create the roller skates with one wheel on each foot. Once the invention was complete, the inventor decided to make a triumphal presentation to show their work to local society. He was a violinist and wanted to get into a party slipping into your roller skates wheels and fiddling around the room. And that's exactly what he did: at a party, and he put his invention into the room, playing his violin. If nothing else the difficulty of balancing on one skate of this kind, which even had brakes, Merlin was not a great skater. Of course, the first skater on the roller skates wheels of history could not stop, falling on an expensive mirror, smashing it with his violin. Despite being an interesting idea, not the roller skates wheels became popular quickly. However, many inventors working anonymous streamed over the idea of ??improving on the Merlin. Your goal skates make safe and easy to use. The first to patent the new roller skates was M. The Petitbled in France in 1819 and then in 1823, Robert John Tyers patented model "ROLLITOS. In the patent document, the "ROLLITOS" was described as an "apparatus with roller skates wheels attached to shoes, boots or other element that covers the foot, with the purpose of the need for travel and leisure. " The "ROLLITOS was done with five roller skates wheels were fixed straight. Immediately caught the public's attention, and thereafter has not stopped to sophisticate. Despite calling the public's attention, it took some time until the skates on wheels really conquer the mainstream. In Germany, for example, it was only accepted in 1840. At the time, a store to attract customers, putting boys and girls on roller skates to serve them. From 1863, with all the improvements that have been introduced gradually, the runners were becoming more like those currently called traditional skates (with two pairs of parallel wheels on each foot), or "quad" as they are popularly called U. S. Since that time several rinks in the United States became the meeting point of people and many races and dancing parties took place on skates. Currently the traditional roller skates wheels are quite sophisticated, allowing a top-tier equipment costing the equivalent of several thousand dollars. Its use is more frequent in competitions both nationally and internationally in countries such as E. AU, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Australia, China, Argentina and Brazil. More popularly used skates and inline skates are known or inline skates (with three, four or more wheels straight) that in addition to calling the attention of young children and is considered an alternative means of transport. The greatest exponents of figure skating on roller skates wheels in Brazil are currently Marcel Stürmer, Juliana Almeida, Camila Sérvulo, Gustavo Casado, Eduardo gravina, Cesar Motta, Alessandra and Flávio Gomes Francisco. They are also used in figure skating shows such as those presented by the group in Review SEP budgerigars (SPORTS SOCIETY PALM), established in 1954 (and still performing in Brazil and abroad) by the Hyades Torlay Commander, responsible for the introduction of figure skating in Brazil. Inline roller skates wheels are also used for speed skating, inline hockey and inline skating competition, where the biggest Brazilian names are Vivian Moreira, Diego Dores, Fabiola da Silva and Gustavo Casado. . .

Source: Roller Skates Wheels