Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [87]
If you enjoy clambering around old ships, head a mile north to the SS Lane Victory (Map; 310-519-9545; www.lanevictory.org; Berth 94; adult/child $3/1; 9am-3pm), a museum vessel that sailed the seven seas from 1945 to 1971. Self-guided tours take in the engine room and the cargo holds.
Further south, you’ll be besieged by shrieking gulls and excited children at Ports O’Call Village (Map; 310-732-7696; Berth 77; admission free; from 11am-10pm). Skip the trinket stores and fill up on fresh fish and shrimp at the raucous San Pedro Fish Market & Restaurant. Afterwards, hop on a port cruise or join a whale-watching trip (January to March; Click here for details).
POINT FERMIN PARK & AROUND
Locals come to this grassy, blufftop community park to jog, picnic, watch windsurfers and kite-boarders or to enjoy jazzy tunes on balmy summer nights (Click here). Ostensibly the main visitor attraction is the restored 1874 wooden Point Fermin Lighthouse (Map; 310-241-0684; www.pointferminlighthouse.org; admission by donation; 1-4pm Tue-Sun), one of the oldest in the West, but we think the Walker Café (Map; 310-833-3623; 700 Paseo del Mar; 10am-9pm) is way cooler. How many (friendly) biker bars embellished with porcelain figurines and framed posters of poker-playing dogs do you know? Bessie Walker started selling sandwiches in 1943 and the place has hardly changed a lick. Great Americana, greasy burgers, cold beers. And it’s been featured in Chinatown, natch.
* * *
SEX ON THE BEACH
It’s raw, primal, juicy and has thousands of participants. Drawn by the sexual tuggings of the full or new moon, countless writhing bodies hit the beaches of Southern California every summer, drawing gaping crowds of voyeurs. But lest you think this annual beachside orgy involves the gyrations of nubile teens, let it be known that we’re talking about a phenomenon known as the ‘running of the grunions’. These flagrant sexual champions are indeed – fish.
Grunions – like Mexicans, Germans and Oklahomans – are somehow mystically drawn to the warmth of Southern California, and for the very best of reasons. It’s along these local beaches that ‘scouts’ from the endless offshore schools swim up to check out the conditions. If these are favorable, they send the ‘all clear’ signal whereupon the grunion minions begin to thrash upon the water’s edge. The females half bury themselves tail-first in the sand and within moments have deposited their eggs. Then come multiple worthy male suitors to fertilize them to assure the next dynasty of grunion-hood.
The website www.grunion.org has information, dates and locations for where the grunions are expected to show up. First-timers should join the hugely popular grunion watches organized by the Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro. And no, they don’t mind if you watch. All you need is a flashlight, bare feet and a sense of demure decency. Even fish deserve their ‘private moments’.
* * *
Just north of Point Fermin, in Angels Gate Park, are the Korean Friendship Bell (Map), a gift from South Korea to the US government, and the Fort MacArthur Military Museum (Map; 310-548-2631; www.ftmac.org; 3601 S Gaffey St; donations appreciated; noon-5pm Tue, Thu, Sat & Sun), an LA harbor defensive post until 1945. Unless you’re a total pacifist, bring your kids to scale the gun batteries and search for secret tunnels, while you study up about yesteryear to the sound of toe-tapping big-band music.
WILMINGTON
Just north of San Pedro, in the small town of Wilmington, the 1864 Greek-Revival home of Phineas Banning (1830–85) – aka the ‘father’ of the port of LA – is now the Banning Residence Museum (Map; 310-548-7777; www.banningmuseum.org; 401 East