Iditarod pictures can be seen here.
There is a difference between Venice and Santa Monica. The Police. The Iditarod made its way from Baja Cantina through Venice along the boardwalk. As soon as the Idiotarod made it to O’Briens in Santa Monica however, the Santa Monica Police declared it an unlawful assembly and shut it down. Twenty five or so cop cars, Fire engines, cops in riot gear and BATTLE helmets and an ambulance later, the assembled crowd walked to various other Main Street bars and the police impounded the Iditarod shopping carts. Seems like the police could be doing more important things than threatening to arrest people dressed as Jogging Jesus and in Hot Dog costumes … but who are we to question their authority? The most unnecessary Police decision was to tell curious onlookers (employees of various shops on Main) that they were breaking the law by stopping to look at all the hoopla. They accused the bystanders of “impeding the flow of traffic” choosing to ignore the fact that it was their cars blocking all of Main Street, not the Iditarod participants that were behind the fence of O’Briens. We like Venice, yo!