December 23-February 4 -- A Holiday Visit To LaLaLand

 I was looking forward to spending time with my dad for Christmas and New Years, but not the dash through the maze of notorious freeways in southern California to get there.  Since San Pedro is on the coast of Los Angeles County, I have to drive from one end to the other. I call it "running the gauntlet" because you feel like you're being thrashed psychologically -- hopefully not physically -- by the surrounding traffic as you make your way through. I have a preferred route as I've done this a few times; in SoCal Freewayese, it's the 10-60-91-55-22-405-110. Or instead of 405-110, I could take 405-710-47, but that route, though usually faster, has bridgebuilding that could slow things down. But of course things never go as planned. First, it started to rain as I went west on I-10 through Banning Pass. Then the Highway 60 offramp was blocked off; there was no way I could get on it. (I heard later there was a bad accident.) So I took the 10 to the 15 and headed south to the 91 But at the offramp to the 91 --

It was the dreaded freeway interchange construction. Once I got through that, the rest of the way wasn't so bad. Meanwhile, back home in Portal, it looked like a holly, jolly Christmas; here's our post office on December 25 -- 

And here's the harbor at San Pedro on December 24, looking relatively placid.

The Point Fermin Lighthouse was built in 1874 and was built in the "Stick Style",  an early Victorian architectural design simpler than the high Victorian style of the later period. It's staffed by volunteers from the Point Fermin Lighthouse society and is open to the public. An interesting part of the lighthouse's restoration is that the original Fresnel lens was re-found and the return of it to the lighthouse was an episode of "Visiting...With Huell Howser". The lighthouse in my photo is decorated for the holidays; this was taken on December 24. 

Though it may not be a "holly, jolly Christmas" photo as the one of the Portal post office, this view of the Los Angeles basin, with the snowy San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, is still stunning. I think the natural landscape here is one of the most spectacular I've ever seen, even with the sprawling city and its teeming millions. This was taken from the balcony of my dad's condo in San Pedro. Not too shabby of a view, eh?

The town of San Pedro is located along the main channel of the Port of Los Angeles, which is the busiest port in the US if you measure by container volume. The town (if you call it that; the population is 86,000) still has vestiges of its past links to the ocean, when immigrants from Italy and the former Yugoslavia came here to fish. Many of "Pedro's" residents are from those families that came mainly from the islands of Ischia and Dugi Otok. And they brought their home country along with them; two of the best known restaurants were Trani's (Italian) and Ante's (Croatian). 

Here's part of San Pedro's greatly diminished fishing fleet. The Fisherman's Fiesta, with its gaily decorated boats and blessing of the fleet, was for years one of Southern California's biggest events. 

The battleship Iowa, berthed at San Pedro along the main channel. 

Besides the manmade aspects of the harbor, San Pedro, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula that it sits on, has some pretty nifty natural ones, too. Such as these clouds over San Pedro Hill -- 

Or a spectacular sunrise looking to the east and the coast of Orange County; those two "humps" are the tallest points in "The OC". Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors are in the foreground. 

You can get spectacular views both looking above your head and under your feet. The tide pools along this part of the southern California coast are some of the best to be found here, though many of these critters have been ripped off the rocks and taken away by thoughtless individuals. Here's a sea anemone -- 

And a colorful array of anemone, starfish, and purple sea urchins. 

"Gee, what is that? Holy Moly, it's an octopus!" It was probably trapped when the tide went out. 

The best time to go tidepooling is during a minus tide, though it can be pretty slippery. Here's a sunset with the exposed rocks and tide pools. 

One of my favorite local places to check out birdwise is small, suburban Averill Park. It's been a favorite with families and kids for years; I remember fishing for crawdads (freshwater crayfish) with a stick and string when I was a kid. The crawdads are gone today, but the Mallards and feral geese are still there, and every so often you find a bird you don't often see there. I discovered this male Wood Duck in one of the park's ponds, and I've seen Mandarins and Green-winged Teals there, too. 

Southern California was slammed by a series of storms that wreaked havoc further north. That usually means heavy swells, so I went down to the fishing pier at Cabrillo Beach. The San Pedro breakwater, seen on the left, keeps the pounding surf from entering the inner harbor, and there's a rock jetty extending from left to right just below the photo. As the waves are trapped in a corner you can get some pretty spectacular surf, especially when it's high tide as it was on this day. A serious undertow makes the waves crash into one another. 

Getting back to the view from my dad's condo... In the right evening light, the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles can look like the distant city of Oz from the movie, lit up from the light reflecting on the windows. And if the HAZE is just right, then the sunset light is reflected down to the ground and smaller buildings around the taller ones. It gives everything a weird, orange-yellowish glow that's doubly impessive when everything else is dark. I waited for about a month into my stay in town for this shot, but it was worth it. 

I'll leave this look back at my time in San Pedro with a video of the phenomenal surf from above. Make sure the volume is turned up!  Now that I don't live there anymore, I think I've gained more of an appreciation  of what "Pedro" has to offer. I'll definitely be back....