Santa Monica Beach/Pier/Promenade and Psychic Cats

Saturday-Daryl begged me to go for a walk on the beach, so we went to the Santa Monica Pier and walked on the beach at sunset. Lovely, but remember SF walking muscles have atrophied, so I'm walking on jelly legs, soft and squishy. We passed by a playground and workout equipment on the beach. The playground had balancing beams and swings and little mounds that were supposed to resemble boulders. They even had swings for adults, along with pull up bars and hanging ropes. Daryl and I tried the swings out and he jumped off and landed, sorry, bellyflopped onto the sand. Fun. It was like being a kid all over again. We saw a few people climbing up a rope and were impressed when they reached the top, which was about 20 ft up in the air. We also saw a few people swing from a series of rings, like monkeys. I walked over to them and they were all beyond my reach, even when I was on my tip toes. We walked on the pier as well. For those of you who don't know, the Santa Monica Pier has a carnival on it, complete with ferris wheel, carny games, and buskers. We saw a guy who was playing five instruments all at one time. He was pretty good. I saw a guy selling cotton candy, a bunch of carnival games, like skeeball, and once again felt like a kid. And we ended the evening walking down by the Promenade. The Promenade is a boulevard of shops and it's very crowded. It's about three city blocks and has a bunch of upscale stores and street performers in the same place. We saw a guy doing handstands, an acapella group, a guy (a hippe beach dude) playing a 14 or 16 string instrument that Daryl knew the name for but which I forgot immediately, and my personal favorite, the psychic cats. Apparently the cats will tell your fortune. How they do that I have no idea and didn't stay around to find out, but I did notice that the two cats, mostly black with a bit of white on the paws, were quite serene in the crowd and were calmly hunched together. One of them was taking a bath. I hope they're regulars there because I'm hoping to see them again next time I'm in the neighborhood. So, if any of you come to visit, check out the psychic cats!