Our evening was threatening to come to a very early, very boring end.

My son and I had accepted an invitation to stay overnight at Residence Inn LAX, and the property only took about 15 minutes for us to explore before he whipped out his Nintendo 3DS and started to play. Clearly I could have told him to put that away, but then what? We hadn’t brought any games or art materials. And it was August, and we were right near the beach.

Unfortunately my kid was already beached out. So, thinking quickly I remember the Venice canals. Ah, the beautiful Venice canals. This kid had been there as an infant, when my brother visited from Massachusetts, because I usually only go to the canals with tourists.

With Uncle Kevin, November 2005

But here we were: tourists.

After dinner at the nearby C&O Trattoria on Washington Blvd., we wandered into the canal neighborhood. I gave my DSLR camera to my son to take pictures, and at a few stops along our walk, I showed him different technical features of the device. I’m no expert myself, so it’s not like a showed him a magic trick or anything, but it’s really neat to look at the pictures and see what caught his eye. I’ve pulled some of them to show you here.

Sunset really is a spectacular time to visit the Venice Canals. You should arrive with enough light to get yourself acquainted with the neighborhood – the houses are spectacular, the people so interesting, and the “please pick up your dog’s waste” signs curiously plentiful. Then, as the sun sinks down behind the horizon, the whole area has the most lovely glow. Capture it with your camera or just your memory. It’s such a lovely outing.

Venice Canals
Start at Washington and Strongs Drive