Our Valentine's Day Tradition

Ever since the year Greg visited and we spent Valentines Day in Venice, Bill and I have traveled north to carry on this tradition.  Bill had a chiropractor appointment early, then we took Titan for a walk.  We spent some time at home reading and skipped lunch so we could eat in Venice.

We left home around 2:00 and arrived in Venice right around 3:00.  We parked along the street a block from "downtown" and walked back to The Soda Fountain and Vinnie's Pizzeria, where they serve great New York Style pizza.  We ordered the Venice Avenue pizza (pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and onions) and beverages.  The pizza is super good!

When we finished, Bill walked back to the truck with the leftover pizza and I wandered through the quilt shop.  I always wonder through the Quilt Basket because it's a nice little shop with lots of quality fabric, books and notions.  Sadly, I hardly ever buy anything, which makes me feel a little guilty.  

When we got to Venice it was about 83* and very humid but when I came out of the quilt shop and met Bill, the temp had dropped to about 73* and it was chilly.  haha, hard to believe I would actually say that!

He tried to lead me into the gelato shop but I thought we should walk a little before having more to eat.  We wandered down the street, looking in the windows, like we do every year, until we came to one of the shops we always enter, just to browse.  I did find a key chain I wanted to attach to the house keys, making it easier to find them when I toss them into the glove box.  We hardly ever walk down the other side of the street.  Plus, Ciao Gelato is on our side of the street o)

Surprisingly, it wasn't super busy.  Bill had half chocolate chip and half chocolate, I had half strawberry and half chocolate.  It is so darn good!  

After I ordered mine, Bill noticed they have some made with alcohol!  One is a chocolate made with Bailey's and neither of us can remember the other one but I'm definitely going to try them next time.  We might even make a special trip just for gelato.

We sat on one of the benches that line the street, ate our sweets and people watched.  

From there we walked back to the truck and drove to Venice Beach, where we parked and used the restroom.  We didn't stay there tho, our tradition is to watch the sunset from the jetty, so we headed that way, hoping to get a parking spot.  It was only 5:00 with sunset not until 6:20; we found one right in the front row.

The sunset turned out to be nothing special thanks to a big cloud bank low in the sky.  It didn't really matter because it was warm enough and nice to sit on the rocks, with the waves crashing in front of us, in the middle of February!  We stayed for 15 minutes after the appointed sunset time, in the event there was an after show.

5:18 pm

The perfectly placed cloud bank ;o(  5:41 pm

5:46 pm

5:57 pm 

6:08 pm

Looking toward Venice Beach 6:19 pm 

The less than spectacular "after show" 6:25 pm

We did enjoy watching the pelicans glide by and dive into the water.  I think this photo might have turned out fairly well if there had been more sunlight.

We left about 6:35 and were home by 7:30.

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)