The Strand at Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach CA
The Strand on Manhattan Beach offers a great place to walk, bike, roller blade and people watch all in one location.  Typical of Southern California most of the people walking the Strand are quite friendly, and the very unique thing here is the homes.  Since I like to check out other peoples homes for cool ideas, it is always fun to peer into the yards and open windows to see what other people are doing.

With a very small slice of land on the SoCal coast.  One very contemporary home has a bright red Harley right in the window.  Several times I have passed that house there was a sign with a chart of water purity and health qualities for several bottled water brands and a website at the bottom.  I guess he is in the water purification business or the bottled water business.  Either way the Harley in the window is a cool touch.

There are several very unique homes combining and spanning greek, moorish, basque and modern architecture.  The Strand is a couple of miles long, and on my crazy days I have walked it end to end.  If you end up by the pier, I would suggest a side trip down to the end of the pier.   There is an interesting free aquarium exhibit and the little cafe out front has a pretty good milkshake to put back all the calories you just used up.

If you prefer to embibe in a wheat or grape based beverage there are two water view bars just a few hundred feet from the pier.  The Sand Dollar bar is a very crowded local hangout with great prices.  If you don’t mind standing room only to save a buck or two, head over there.

Just across the street is a much quieter bar called Beaches with great water views, and usually even has a couple extra seats at the end of the day.

Happy Trails….

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