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| Entrance to Santa Monica Pier. |
A little bit of history, the Santa Monica Pier was built in
1909 and is about ¼ miles long. It was “developed as a seaside retreat at the
turn of the 20th century. The railroad owners built the first version of the
amusement park on Santa Monica pier as an attraction to fill empty train seats
on weekends. The Santa Monica Pier has terrific
coastline views of Malibu and the South Bay. The long pier has an old-fashioned
amusement park, with reasonable by-the-ride pricing, including a small roller
coaster. (http://wikitravel.org/en/Santa_Monica).”
On my right of the pier is the beach (photo below) and on the background (L) is
the Ferris Wheel. Entrance to the Pier is free. It is open 24/7. I think Kiko
just paid for parking which at the time was $6.
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| Inside Santa Monica Pier. |
The Pier is a bustling boardwalk whose huge Ferris Wheel is
the city's icon. Picture below shows Lori (L) and me (R) with the Ferris Wheel
on the background.
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| L-R: Lori and me with the Ferris Wheel on the background. |
The large,
wide, beautiful beach on either side of the pier attracts tourists to take a
stroll and sight-see. When we visited the Pier, the temperature was about 17°C.
Even then, there were people swimming and a few people were fishing. “The
following are the most common fish caught: Perch, Mackerel, White Sea Bass,
Leopard Shark, Tiger Shark and Sting rays. The Black Sea
Bass is an endangered species. You may donate your catch
to the Heal the Bay Aquarium located on the east side of the pier (http://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/OPM/RightCol/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.pdf).”
However, there is a warning from the LA
Health Officer (picture below).
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| Warning for guests. |
The
Pier has restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, and some street performers. A
movie fan will recognize Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., a seafood restaurant influenced
by the movie, Forrest Gump (1994), starring Tom Hanks. As of September 2010,
thirty-two Bubba Gump restaurants operate worldwide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubba_Gump_Shrimp_Company).
Presently, The Santa Monica branch is found at the left side of the North
entrance of the Pier (Picture below).
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Bubba Gump Restaurant.
The famous Route 66 was supposed to have ended here in Santa
Monica Pier, thus this sign below. It makes citizens nostalgic as it was made
popular by the American song "Get
Your Kicks on Route 66" and the Route 66 television show in
the 1960s. The map below shows Route 66 built in 1926 from Chicago, Illinois to
Santa Monica, LA; covering 2,448 miles (3,940 km). Route 66 evokes
certain emotions among many Americans because it supported the economies
of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along
the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of this highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66).
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| Map of Route 66. |
Due to
improvements in the highway network in the US, nobody knew exactly where Route
66 ended in Santa Monica. However, a mysterious sign showed up, perhaps as a
movie prop, on the corners of Santa Monica Blvd. and Ocean Ave. Then, about 50
years ago, it mysteriously disappeared. The sign in question said “Santa
Monica” above a bold “66”, under which it plainly stated, “End of the Trail,” (http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/route-66-end-trail).
Photo below shows me beside the resurrected sign, “End of the Trail”,
indicating the end of this LA leg of our tour.
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| adventurous-Pinay@end-of-the-trail-route-66. |
There were
still so many sights and places that we were not able to cover in LA. But due
to very limited time, I opted recalling this tour through these pictures. Remember
that we started in the morning covering three important tourist destinations in
LA: Our Lady of Angels Cathedral, Hollywood Boulevard, Rodeo Drive and this
stop, the Santa Monica Pier. Next stop for us will be “Fabulous Las Vegas”,
another American tourist haven.
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