Places Visited:
California: Los Angeles, Long Beach, Marina Del Ray, Venice, Naples

Thursday, May 19, Golden Shore RV Resort-- Long Beach, California: $45.90 with GS discount FHU-50amp. Paved interior roads gravel sites. N33° 45.919' W118° 12.210'

Our plan was to take a harbor cruise. The harbor cruise dock in Shoreline Village was just a short distance from our RV-Park in Long Beach. Thankfully, it was very close because the harbor cruise boats were not running until June. Instead of the harbor cruise we toured the marina facility in our Saturn.

Shoreline Village is a gigantic marina, housing a thousand boats or so all 30' to 80' vessels too large to fit comfortably on trailers. Every slip is full. The only people on the boats are the mechanics and those responsible for wiping up the sea gull poop before it dries. It seems such a shame to see all this "investment" just sitting idle.

Why have these toys if you aren't using them? Some things my mind just does not comprehend. The road and parking area servicing this marina must be a mile or so. It takes a lot of parking to service that many boats. The size of these marinas makes my head spin.

This marina was situated across a body of water from the Queen Mary and one of the container ship docks where we were yesterday. We finally exited Shoreline Village and headed south on Ocean Boulevard.

Within two miles we had stopped along the beach at Bluff Park and the 3 or so miles of public beach. This strip of wide beach comes complete with concrete boardwalk stretching the entire length. Bluff Park runs along the "bluff" above the beach and consists of a 300' greenway between Ocean Boulevard and the edge of the 50' cliff dropping to the flat sandy beach area below. Sidewalks ran along the cliff and along Ocean Boulevard in addition to the myriad sidewalks connecting the two. The cliff itself was covered with blooming ice plant. Ice plant seems to be California's answer to the south's kudzu. It grows everywhere maintenance free corrosion control system is needed. That is not to say kudzu is maintenance free, but you certainly don't need to water it.

We were impressed with the wide "boardwalk" with markings that resembled a highway system. Bikes had 2-lanes to ride in divided by a dotted line just like automobile traffic. Walkers had one dedicated lane. Roller blades and skates were using the bike lanes. I would expect to see one of LA's finest standing in the middle with a whistle in his mouth frantically waving both arms. It doesn't take much to amuse us and watching the activity on this boardwalk is just one example.

From our vantage point on the bluff we could see 3-man made islands not far offshore. We asked a beach bum about the islands and he said he thought they were oil wells. He might be correct since several oil platforms were visible. These islands appeared to be man made since they were surrounded with large boulders usually used for sea walls, jetties and break waters. Beyond these islands large container ships waited patiently in line for their assigned spot in the Long Beach Container port.

We continued south on Ocean Boulevard to Belmont Shore where we stopped for lunch. Belmont Shore is a captivating place with a 6 to 8 block stretch of trendy boutiques and restaurants catering to the younger crowd. The place was bustling with activity and almost no one was over age-35. The vast majority consisted of women with children and obviously well healed. I have never heard of Belmont Shore before but I suspect we will hear about it as this group of residents mature.

After lunch Joyce spent time darting in and out of those chic shops like a woman on a mission. Unfortunately for me these shops did not have benches. None of the other women were dragging an old goat along that might appreciate that bench. Fortunately she tired of her sport in about an hour. When we returned to the Saturn our meter had some time on it but the automobile in front of me did not. Molly Meter Maid had just finished writing a ticket on the car behind me and was positioning her vehicle to write a ticket for the car in front of me when I reached in my pocket for a quarter and started to put it in the meter for them when Molly Meter Maid quickly informed me not to waste the quarter because she was going to issue the ticket anyway. "You are kidding" -------------- I said. "Nope," she replied, and started writing the ticket. I suppose Molly exacted some pent up rage on the yuppie in that BMW convertible.

We drove around the streets of Naples and found it to be a quaint little enclave of homes built around a series of canals. One nice park caught our fancy; the name of this park was "Mothers Beach". I will add that sign to the interesting signs section of my web page.

The marinas and infrastructure encompassing Alamitos Bay was our next destination. This was another marina with well over 1,000 boats moored to floating docks with 99% of the boats "at the dock". It is an extremely beautiful sight. The place must be a madhouse on the weekends.

Seal Beach was our next destination. As we neared the beach we could see para-chutes of the para-surfers. This must be para-surfer beach. They were everywhere. While sailboards used to be all the rage they have given way to para-surfing. The speed these things attain is amazing and the tricks/stunts are even more amazing. One of the things para-boarders like to do is come out of the water and stay air born for as long as possible. Another trick is to do a flip while air born. Para-boarding looks thrilling. I am going to have to find a way to experience that.

There were so many of these colorful parasails pulling people on colorful boards. They made a beautiful sight as they darted around.

A group of lifeguard trainees were swimming in the ocean not far from the pier. They were swimming from the beach to the end of the pier and back in. From what I could see from the pier a number of them were not going to return for the second day of trials.

Friday, May 20, Golden Shore RV Resort-- Long Beach, California: $45.90 with GS discount FHU-50amp. Paved interior roads gravel sites. N33° 45.919' W118° 12.210'

We started our day close to the RV-Park by stopping by the Downtown Long Beach Regional Farmers Market to see what this eclectic mass of California humanity was eating. As it turned out there were two sections of the "Farmer's Market" one was more on the lines of a "Tijuana-style" bazaar. The other one was a traditional "Farmer's Market with a large variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and other farm products. We had fun at both since we are essentially people watchers.

They were selling Rainier cherries at many of the booths. Rainier cherries are one of those fruits that we cannot pass up. They are only available for about 4-weeks each summer and you have to get them when they are available. At $5 per-pound they are expensive fruit but worth every penny. If you are not familiar with Rainier Cherries look for yellow blush cherries. They are sweet not tart. Addicting might be the correct term.

Where else can you find fresh cactus pads sans the spines and ready to fix for supper?

The sign says these are daikon. They look like a cross between a turnip and a carrot. What are they and what do you do with them?

Bumming around these places is entertaining. We can always find some kind of produce being offered that we have no idea what to do with.

When we tired of that game we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway to Redondo Beach where we located Redondo State Beach. Redondo State Beach like Bluff Park yesterday is several miles long with a concrete boardwalk complete with bike lanes and walking lane. Redondo State Beach does not have a park at the top of the bluff but they do have a bluff running the entire length of the beach.

Then it was on to International Boardwalk and Pier Sea Food Restaurant near the harbor in Redondo Beach. With that completed we headed a few blocks up the coast to King Harbor where we again stopped to watch the lack of activity in the marina. Millions upon millions of dollars invested in those shiny white objects tied to the docks. It must be against the law to use a recreational boat during the week.

Back on the Pacific Coast Highway our next stop was Marina Del Ray the largest small craft harbor in the world. The eponymous town of Marina Del Ray is located near the Marina. Huge condominiums and yacht clubs are strategically placed around the Marina in such a way that the maximum number of people and boats can enjoy the boats and water although I think they enjoy them from their balconies.

With one last push north we finally made it to Venice Beach. Venice Beach has to be the quintessential California Beach. It has virtually everything one considers necessary when beaching it for the day. Traffic problems, parking problems, oodles of people, sand, water, a boardwalk, T-shirt shops, and street musicians, beggars, in a word everything. We first walked to the end of the Venice Beach Pier noting that is was a concrete structure unlike the other piers with wooden decking.

Then it was time to walk from one end of Venice Beach to the other on the boardwalk taking in the extreme diversity of the individuals parading up and down that runway. On the way up the boardwalk we encountered the section known as muscle beach where bodybuilders hang out showing off their physique. It was late in the afternoon and the selection of wanna-bees was lacking. We will have to come back and see what this place has to offer on the weekend.

The strip has a vast array of imaginative beggars. One had a 2-gallon galvanized bucket with a cardboard note taped to it asking for "weed" contributions. It is funny enough that he actually is making money with his gig. Another scroungy looking young person is holding a sign that says to "Tell him off, $1.00" while another requests that you put your quarters in his bucket to "lighten your load". I was particularly amused by one homeless individual that was strumming a guitar and singing rather poorly. He sign promised that he would stop singing for a donation while yet another was frantically working the crowd for 35-cents so he could make a phone call. It wasn't long before his desperate plea netted him 35-cents then it was on to another crowd to work.

In addition to sandy beaches and the infamous boardwalk there is a large expanse of grass making the area into a nice park.

We returned to Long Beach via I-405 around 7PM. The traffic was horrendous! I-405 was stop and go for much of our way back to Long Beach. How can people fight this traffic day in and day out?

Until next week just remember how good life is.

Mike and Joyce Hendrix