Chapter 16. A Passion for Surfing

They reached their hotel on Santa Monica beach, LA, around lunchtime. Alexander stared at the beach with wonder, having never been to a beach before since all his life he had been too busy earning his bread to give such luxuries a thought.

“Is that the beach where we’d surf, uncle Eric?” Alexander stared at the beach and the ocean with wide eyes, feeling it pull him towards it like a magnet.

“No, that’s Santa Monica State Beach, where our hotel is located. We’ll be surfing on the Venice Beach.”

Their car entered through the gates of a grand hotel, luxuriously decorated with sprawling lawns and a bustling glass-facade restaurant on the ground floor, overlooking the beach and the ocean beyond. They clambered out of the car and stood staring at the hotel.

“This is the first hotel that we built in the West.” Everyone looked at the hotel in awe.

“It doesn’t look that old, dad,” said Lucas.

“We have maintained it, son. Now we’re planning to build a