After having lived in Los Angeles for almost 4 years, I finally went to Venice Beach for the first time yesterday....I'm not quite sure why I haven't gone yet, but my friend Ronald was visiting from Chicago, so I decided to take him down there.  Within 2 minutes of being there, we had a run in with a crazy muscle beach dude, got offered medical marijuana, and got suckered into buying a few pairs of sunglasses.  Ronald definitely got the real experience.

We didn't see this guy, but he's supposedly a legendary fixture at Venice Beach.