Loving LA: San Pedro
San Pedro is and neighboring city of my beloved Long Beach. We share the busiest port in the country: Los Angeles Harbor. The town has grown from being dominated by the fishing industry to become primarily a working class town. I recently explored this city for the first time and what I found was cool!
Read more about this jewel along the harbor after the jump.
My first stop was to the Gaffey St. Diner. They serve American food and was also featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the food network. I had the Gaffey St Special with was eggs, chorizo and cheese all rolled up into one one delicious omelet.
Then I continued to drive down Gaffey St and came across the Koren Friendship Bell. This is a massive bronze memorial bell donated by the Koreans to the city of Los Angeles. It sits in a GIANT park over looking the ocean. Its really beautiful. A great place to stop and relax. However, one thing I noticed while wondering off the park grounds were that the bluff is covering WWII military bunkers. You can hardly see them but if you look in the right places you can see the air shafts peaking through the over grown grass. I wonder if this was intentional… placing a “friendship” bell over an old military bunker?
Continuing down Gaffey St again you hit another park that is home to the Point Fermin Lighthouse. The light house was built in 1974 and is in really good shape. Tours are FREE, you just have to sign up with the tour guide. Just a little side note, they don’t like it when you walk in like you own the place and give yourself a self guided tour. Sorry Lighthouse people.
Driving down toward the LA Harbor I found the Waterfront Red Car train. The Red Car runs perpendicular with the ocean between downtown San Pedro and the Cruise Ship Terminal. Its a small trolleys built to resemble the wood-bodied 500 class cars introduced in 1905. The conductor wears a rad hat like the guys that work the Disneyland train. The sign said the rides were $1.00 but the conductor told me “today the train is free for children and everyone”. YEAH free train rides!
Along the Red Car Line you will find the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. This historical building used to be the Ferry Terminal building in 1944, and transported cars from Long Beach to San Pedro before the Vincent Thomas Bridge created. The building resembles the Long Beach Airport building. They have really cool rotating art shows, the next one I want to go to is when they have a USS Coast Guard Boat docked behind the building. I think you can go on the boat and explore too. The museum part cost $3.00.
Out side the Los Angeles Maritime Museum is a huge gun you can crank and it really turns.
On the opposite side of the museum is a memorial to Long Shoreman. Here is a sculpture of a dude holding a tuna.
Awesome post Phil. San Pedro is a fun place, I used to go there often when I dated someone from there.
Its also the location that Ben Lee almost totally died, breaking his pelvis in 5 places. They have wicked hills, that arn’t good for fixed gears and no breaks.
FACT: Twenty-Eighth Street in San Pedro, between Gaffey Street and Peck Avenue, is the steepest section of public roadway in Los Angeles. For about 50 feet, the street climbs at a 33.3% angle,
FACT: Ben Lee is an awesome dude.
The Peace Bell was also used in The Usual Suspects.
and Ben Lee is awesome.
Wonderful want to learn more info about the trolley: