Twilight Concerts at Santa Monica Pier

On Thursday summer nights, Santa Monica Pier plays host to a series of Twilight Concerts. They have a variety of musicians perform and you get to enjoy the concert from the pier or bring a blanket and listen to the music on the beach below all for free.

If you're in the area, they also have a place you can park your bike. Otherwise, I opted to Uber over. They've also got a lot of vendors there with fun photobooths and games, as well as food for sale.

Some of their night's are also themed. The night we went was "Australia Rocks the Pier" theme. We were able to get as close as possible to the stage and enjoyed Ben Browning of Cut Copy's performance which included Sid the koala character that came on-stage (actually my favorite part).

They have their calendar of performers on their website here, including tonight's! (Spoiler alert: tonight Sister Nancy is playing — it's reggae night.)

Bonus: Santa Monica Pier is a prime location, because it's a beautiful setting for just walking around, and you can explore Pacific Park, take a ride on the ferris wheel for $5 or go across the street and play at Tongva Park (my favorite park in Los Angeles).


CLICK THROUGH TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE NIGHT

Santa Monica: Camera Obscura

Kind of random, but I think this is now one of my favorite things Los Angeles has to offer. Possibly because out of my whole life living here and being in Santa Monica quite a bit, I've only heard about it recently, and therefore it seems to me this sort of visibly hidden wonderful treasure if that makes any sense.

The Camera Obscura is visibly located on Ocean Ave. near Santa Monica Pier. But it's also easy to miss. Aside from the very cool sign on the outside of the building, there isn't much that makes it known. The building itself is actually used as an adult/senior activities center, and you have to ask the lady at the window for a key to the Camera Obscura – almost like it's a secret code name.

Once you've got the key, and enter in, the Camera Obscura shows itself as a dark square-ish room with a white table in the middle and a hole at the top. The hole acts as a portal where light comes through and has mirrors that reflect images outside 360 degrees to show on the white table. It was built in 1898 by Robert F. Jones and was originally located on the beach.