Sober Fun in Los Angeles County

DIRECTIONS Go west. If your shoes are wet, you’ve gone too far. The ramp at the intersection of Ocean and Colorado is your most direct route by car, bike or foot. If you know where you’re coming from, click here to map your route. PARKING There is parking on the Pier deck, accessible via the ramp at Ocean and Colorado. There are also two lower lots accessible via Appian Way. Click here for a map and click here for all the seasonal rates and hours. VISITOR CENTER & PIER SHOP Stop by the Pier Shop at the bottom of the ramp for visitor info, Pier history and official apparel. Need info on what to do in Santa Monica? Check out SantaMonica.com HOURS The Pier is always open, and always fun, year-round. But check with individual businesses for their specific hours of operation. RIDESHARE If driving and parking are too much of a hassle, we totally get it… our friends at Lyft have you covered. Use the code LYFT2SMP for $5 off first ride to the Pier (valid only for new users). Come down, hang out and leave happy. STAY There’s no shortage of great places to stay on the beach in Santa Monica. Find more info here.

OUR CORE ATTRACTIONS FREESTYLE JUMP Massive wall-to-wall trampolines for endless aerial action with friends. See Details SKYSLAM Jump higher and dunk harder. We’re throwing a party above the rim, and everyone’s invited. See Details ULTIMATE DODGEBALL Bring everything you’ve got. Because it’s real on the trampoline dodgeball court. See Details FOAM ZONE Fly without fear into the Foam Zone: soft landings for huge air. See Details

Free Admission on Tuesdays Back in 1875, a group of amateur paleontologists discovered animal remains in the pits at Rancho La Brea, which bubbled with asphalt from a petroleum lake under what is now Hancock Park. Some 130 years later, the pros are still at work here, having dragged more than 3.5 million fossils from the mire. Many of these specimens are now on display in this delightfully old fashioned museum, which can’t have changed much since it opened in 1977. Reserve a spot on the Excavator Tour (free with museum admission), which includes stops at the Fossil Lab, the Lake Pit, the newly re-opened Observation Pit and Project 23, where you can see archaeologists at work. Inside, check out the multimedia experience Ice Age Encounter, and the simple, instructive displays of items found in the pits. Most are bones – of jackrabbits, gophers, a 160lb bison, skunks and a 15,000lb Columbian mammoth, plus an extraordinary wall of 400 wolf skulls – though there are also early cave drawings and human accoutrements such as bowls and hair pins.

A murder mystery dinner is a type of dinner theater in which audience members cooperate with each other and interact with performance cast members in order to solve a fictitious murder scene. Murder mystery dinner shows are most often comedic in nature and performed in coordination with the serving of a multi-course meal. The goal of a murder mystery dinner is for participants to gather clues provided throughout the plot and use them to deduce the identity and motive of the “murderer.” WHAT HAPPENS AT A MURDER MYSTERY DINNER? If it is a fully-immersive show, guests will be welcomed into the world of the mystery by costumed actors, who will seat audience members, explain to them the rules of the game, and assign character roles. The roles played by audience participants are usually those of suspects who may have committed the crime. Props or light costuming may be offered to the guest, such as hats or glasses, to signal to other audience members that this person is involved in the show. Most frequently, guests will be on a team with the others sitting at their tables, and will work together to solve the crime. They will have goals to accomplish throughout the show to figure out which suspect committed the crime.