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From S/V Rapture

The Marina del Rey Convention & Visitors Bureau is holding a digital photo scavenger hunt called Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Cute, huh?

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know much about MDR other than it’s a beach town, so I think doing a scavenger hunt would be a good way to explore and learn more about the area. And the visitors bureau is giving away some great prizes to the winners, too.

To participate, you’ll have to take photos of yourself in front of or next to the “iconic, unique and quirky” items listed in certain categories representative of the MDR community — family, foodie and wedding. You’ll need to collect at least five photos to qualify for prizes; if you collect all 10 photos in a category, you’ll be entered to win grand-level prizes.

Each category has prizes with values up to $2,200, including:

To enter, upload photos either to Facebook, Twitter or by email to marinadelreycvb@gmail.com. The deadline to submit all photos is Oct. 27, 2010. The grand prize and runner up winners will be announced via Facebook, Twitter and the Visit Marina del Rey Blog on Nov. 10, 2010.

Akasha food from Great Chefs of L.A.

Friday is the first day of Akasha‘s Hanukkah meals, which include slow-roasted brisket; potato pancakes made from Yukon gold potatoes with gravlax, wasabi tobiko and horseradish crème fraiche; and Israeli doughnuts. There will even be special cocktails, including the Winter Mary made with celery-peppercorn vodka, carrot juice and pickled carrot. The special holiday food is available through next Friday, Dec. 18, during happy hour (small plates and cocktails) and dinner.

On Saturday, join in the Loopt Holiday Scavenger Crawl, which is part pub crawl, part scavenger hunt that promises to take participants to speakeasies, galleries and coffee shops on a hunt to be the first to find a “VIP” party. Along the way, you’ll win prizes from the locations you’ll scurry to, as told to you by the Loopt iPhone/BlackBerry app that guides you. The top three players from each city (there are also scavenger hunts in New York and San Francisco) will $200 gift cards to the retailer of their choice, and the grand prize for the top player out of all the cities will get a round-trip ticket to Hawaii.

Wrap up your weekend on Sunday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Cynthia Vincent and Sid Vintage sample sale at Code C boutique, where there will be one-of-a-kind of pieces available only at this sale. Bonus: Bring an unwrapped toy to donate to L.A. Family Housing and receive a free Coolhaus ice cream sandwich. Shopping and ice cream? Yes, please!