Mid-week Vacations on the Westside

It's April on the Westside, and everyone knows what that means.... SUMMER!

Okay, so maybe it's not quite summer, but it's starting to get warm, and the Santa Monica/Venice area has no qualms about embracing the season as early as possible.

It's only a short month or two until we have things like Tuesday night bocce tournaments on the beach in Venice, Ditch Days at the Shangri La pool, and concerts on the Santa Monica Pier on Thursday nights to make us feel like we're in high school and it's summer vacation without a care in the world (except waking up for work the next morning).

But if you're like me, and you're impatient for those fun mid-week activities to spice up you're Monday - Friday grind, then here' s a little something I recently discovered to tide you over:

Outdoor movies on the Dining Deck of Santa Monica Place.

First of all, if you haven't made it over to Santa Monica Place, you should really go check it out. It's the brand new mall that just opened at the end of 3rd Street Promenade, and it's gorgeous. Not to mention it has lots of cool stores, and great food, and a Nordstrom's (which I know for a fact one of my readers prayed for every night of her life in college while this mall was being built).

Last week, I headed over with some gal pals to watch Sixteen Candles. This particular movie was neat, because it was sponsored by designer Tory Burch, and they gave out cookies, cokes, and $25 gift cards to the Tory Burch store (before you get too excited, nothing in that store costs under $100. Seriously, I checked). But still, the swag was a fun touch. To top it all off, they had Liane Curtis* there to pass out the cookies!

It was balmy out, but they had heat lamps set up and there were people sitting outside ordering food and wine. It's pretty much the most laidback free activity you could be doing on a warm Wednesday night in Santa Monica as the sun sets behind you.

So here are the details: They show movies on the deck twice a week; on Wednesdays they show classics, and on Mondays they show indie films (last night I saw Vicky Christina Barcelona). The movies start at around 7:30PM. For more information and to see what movies are coming up visit http://santamonicaplace.com/events/event.aspx?eid=34451.

Happy Mid-week Vacay!



*I'll save you the trouble of googling her. She is Samantha's best friend in Sixteen Candles. Obviously finding somewhat out of date celebrities in Santa Monica is not a hard feat to pull off. Exciting, nevertheless.