Venice Beach has two miles of very wide beaches, but the real action is on the boardwalk. This is the craziest, funkiest beach in America, and it is worth at least an afternoon to experience this extravaganza. This is the best people watching beach in the country - a real alphabet soup of humanity. Because of all the body builders pumping iron at nearby gyms, Venice is also called Muscle Beach. You can see about anything imaginable on the seaside boardwalk: green-haired guitarists riding motorized skate boards, sword swallowers, female impersonators and drag queens - you name it. Enjoy the side shows and human parade, but I suggest that you depart before darkness for safer abodes; even the police seem a little skittish at times. Venice was named for the great Italian city by the water, and the developer had canals dredged to simulate the real thing but with limited success. Today the residential area is rebounding, and a daylight walk through this planned city of houses and small gardens beside the canals is fun.

Venice Beach runs into Santa Monica Beach, with its famous pier separating the single strand of sand. The Santa Monica Pier is a major attraction with an amusement arcade, antique carousel, and many restaurants; the seaward end is also used for fishing. The Santa Monica Beach is known for its great width - over one hundred yards wide. It is here that "Bay Watch," the most popular TV series in the world, is filmed. Some people think it should be renamed "Babe Watch" because of the shapely young women running around in red bathing suits. "Bay Watch" sells the concept of the endless summer and California sun and fun. The new orange four-wheel drive trucks on the beach that the lifeguards use are courtesy of "Bay Watch" as partial compensation for beach use. The other obvious feature is the large storm drains which issue urban effluent onto the beach. While they usually do not discharge in the summer, watch out for the first rainfall when the crud, oil, and bird droppings wash off the parking lots and streets onto the beach. We call this the first flush; don't even think about going into the water.

If there was ever a beach that brings to mind images of the rich and famous living the good life of sun, sea, and sand, it is Malibu. This is also where I visualized all the action occurring on the once popular TV show called "77 Sunset Strip" that I watched growing up. Actually, Malibu is not a major town but a narrow strip of coast some 27 miles long, bounded by mountains and the sea with skinny beaches. This beautiful coastal setting, which is the home of many movie stars like Ted Danson, Kevin Costner, and Cher, sometimes experiences devastating landslides and floods.

The beachfront houses at Malibu are sandwiched between rock and mud sliding down from the mountains during coastal storms and the high surf and waves battering the beachfront homes on the sea side. I remember the actors and actresses stacking up sand bags to save their homes during the devastating storms of the El Niño winter of 1982-83. It is often said that Southern Californians are at the cutting edge. Viewing the houses perched atop high unstable cliffs at places like Malibu, it is clear that they are certainly "living on the edge." The 1997-98 El Niño winter is the most severe on record; surf-battered houses at Malibu and elsewhere have collapsed into the storm-whipped seas. Then there are the wildfires, fanned by the high Santa Ana winds, that can consume thousands of acres of land and postcard-perfect homes per hour. All is not well trying to live in paradise.

Malibu is the third Gold Coast, the Hamptons of Long Island and Palm Beach being the other beaches with this title. Celebrity sighting can be difficult because of the lack of public access, but you can park at Malibu Lagoon State Beach and walk to the private beach. Malibu Lagoon State Park is locally known as Surfrider Beach; your landmark is the adjacent Malibu pier and all the surfboard action in the water. Just to the west of the public beach is the exclusive Malibu Colony. The beach is public from the high tide line seaward, which is normally the wet sand area below the beach berm, so you can explore this beach with impunity. On my last trip I didn't spot any stars but found some beautiful multicolored, well polished pebbles on the beach which I considered keepers for my kids.

Malibu's most popular beach is Zuma, which is the widest and longest at two miles. The surf can be too rough here for swimming, and it tends to be crowded during the summer. Further west on the Pacific Coast Highway is Leo Carrillo State Beach, which is the most interesting to explore with all of its caves, rock formations, and tidal pools. Here the migrating gray whales can be seen from the beach during the fall. Paradise Cove is a private beach that can be visited for a fee. Anybody who watched the "Rockford Files" TV series would recognize this beach as where the detective, played by James Garner, lived in his dilapidated trailer by the sea.

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