Remember back on January 1st when I still had hope for the future? I wrote this blog all about my New Year’s resolutions. Well, now that we are nearly seven months through what has become a truly challenging year, I thought I’d look back and see how I was doing with my oh-so-optimistic goals.
The Good News
Andy and I re-engaged by diving into the cultural, culinary, and social opportunities around us, once we started processing some of the shock of the Los Angeles fires. Yeah. Not going to lie. It took us several months to do it. But since then, we have enjoyed sampling incredible restaurants, meeting neighbors, volunteering, and live theatrical events.
Are we done? No. Now that we are on a roll, on my good health days, we’ll continue to sample all that Venice and the greater Los Angeles area have to offer.
Venice Neptune Festival
On a particularly sunny Southern California day, we stumbled upon the Venice Neptune Festival, which was largely a ceremony, parade, and after-party that originated near and concluded at the famous Hinano Café.
The History of the Neptune Festival
What is the Venice Neptune Festival? It was a free event that was designed to kick off the summer, but it harkens back to the early days of Venice. Here are the details from Venice Paparazzi:
This Venice tradition to herald the beginning of summer dates back to the 1910s, with the arrival of King Neptune in an outrigger canoe and the coronation of Queen Venetia, with a royal procession along Ocean Front Walk.
The royal queen commanded her subjects to engage in three days of fun and frivolity, and the festivities featured a parade, floats, and costumed merrymakers roaming the streets of Venice.
While the event fell dormant post-WWII, a spirited local group of revelers brought it back to life over the last two decades, including members of our founding board, and now each year a new king and queen are celebrated in a parade on the Boardwalk that ends down by the ocean.
Our Experience
We didn’t know what to expect, but as people started to arrive in costume, we had to stick around to meet people, take photos, and enjoy the festive vibe. Plus, this felt 100% Venice, California—fun, sun, and generosity of spirit. Plus, we had a fantastic lunch at Hinano before it, so there really were wins all around.
Here’s a little taste of this joyful day of re-engaging with the world.
