Sunset over Santa Monica.. It's five o'clock somewhere

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It was nearly five in LA and that meant only one thing..it was Chardonnay time ....Jackie and Mike were snuggled up having a little afternoon snooze when we knocked, so we arranged to meet in the lounge to plan the tour tomorrow and dinner this evening.

We took a cab as it's about a 2 mile walk and stopped at Santa Monica Pier.. It was fairly busy and as soon as we arrived we noticed a Bubba Gump and remembered how good the Dixie ribs were in New York.. we walked to the end of the pier and joined the crowds, all waiting to see the sunset. It was about seven thirty and the sun would set in about thirty minutes so we parked ourselves on the steps, listened to a busker and watched the crowds.. There were lots of fisherman catching little fish about the size of mackerel and we watched a little boy going to his Dad's catch and when the Dad wasn't looking he was throwing the dead fish back in the water! The pelicans were coming in for the fish too

As soon as the sun set they all made an exit... and so did we ... dinner was calling and we had an appointment with a rack of Dixie baby back ribs!

We made our way back to Bubba's and ordered our ribs.. Martin had another steak, I think our waiter must have eaten a million blue smarties because he was hyper and kept coming over to tell jokes or speak in a high squeaky voice or do his Darth Vader impression.. great fun if you are in holiday mood but if he was back at home on a wet Monday you would want to deck him

Ribs were lovely loads of meat and we were suitably full.. no desert.. we have all decided we will give deserts a break (USA...portion control...c'mon get with the program)... too much food!

We watched a guy run past with a tyre tied to his waist, and a guy with a bike that had blue neon lights around the whole wheel..(needless to say Martin wanted one)

..We were just about to split the bill when Mike noticed the cost of the beers $12.24 each.. "that's a tenner" Martin said in shock.. £10 a pint?.. !! £10... it was too,. so ok we should have read the menu. Our funny guy waiter came over and I couldn't resist asking him if the cost of the beers was a joke too, but he came good in the end and we left with two lovely Bubba Gump pint glasses which will make excellent momentos of our sunset dinner over Santa Monica Pier

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