Santa Monica Pier

Jess, Chelsea, and Laura try to figure out our route

I’m getting all kinds of practice with public transportation. On Sunday, August 1, several of us decided to go to Santa Monica Pier after our Sunday service. We wanted to buy day-passes for the bus and train so we had a friend shuttle us down to the nearest train stop. We each paid our $6 for a day-pass (definitely worth it!!) and went up to catch the train. Out here, the trains run between both sides of the interstate….cars were flying by us at a really fast pace. The train came pretty quickly and we were off on another adventure. We rode the gold line to Union Station and then caught the purple line to a place where we could get a bus that would go all the way to the pier. The trains seemed to go pretty quickly, but the bus was really a long ride. In all, it took us 2 hours to get from campus to the Pier.

The pier from Ocean Drive. It was pretty crowded.

looking back at Santa Monica beach from the pier

The pier was nice, and it was officially my first time to see the Pacific Ocean. I did not stick my feet or any part of my body in because people said it was really cold…maybe next time. My teammate Ashley and I walked up and down the pier and then found a little place to get some dinner. Then we decided we should start heading back since it took so long to get there. We left the pier with three other girls around 6pm and caught the same bus (from the other side of the street) to begin the trek home. This was definitely the worst part. There were a ton of people on the bus and it stopped all the time. Then we caught the trains in reverse order. We were trying to get back in time to catch the bus that goes right by campus, but we were too late for it. So we tried for another bus that would get us close. It never came and we got tired of waiting so we called a taxi. It was 9pm by the time we got back, so it took us 3 hours to get home. We didn’t get much else done, but we learned that we should carry things to do on the bus and train. Even if it is just a book to read, the time would not be wasted.

LA skyline from Union Station while the sun was setting

Me and Ashley, Jamie and Sarah at Union Station