Sea Lions, and Dolphins, and Whales, Oh My

Walking along Shoreline Village I was trying to resist all the delicious smells filling the sidewalk, but when I reached Parker's Lighthouse I broke. The food, as my friend Randy would say, was delicious to the eyes.
First Parker's Lighthouse is located at the very end of Shoreline Village giving it the perfect location facing the sea and the harbor. The walking path that winds along the shore actually cuts though the outside seating area. This is where they make even the strongest crumble; the food looks so good that anyone would run in just to try the tantalizing temptations that filled each table. I was seduced and betrayed by my own senses and went in. The restaurant is three floors, very minimal decorations, but gives a nautical feel. There is a host inside the main door. I told her that I needed seating for one, and she told me where they had open seating and to seat myself. I choose to sit inside (outside was very windy especially the tables facing the open ocean) and went to the third floor. It is very hard to get a bad seat. The walls are nothing but glass offering a 360 degree view of the harbor and ocean. Every seat in the house has an amazing view. The greatness of the place really ends here.
I waited 20 minutes to be given a menu. There were six full tables on my floor, a bar tender, a cook, and two waitress who were more interested in talking about their drunken plans for the night then to bring me a menu so that I could eat and be on time of my whale watching tour. Finally the waitress came over dropped a menu in front of me and walked away without saying a word. I was livid, but when the food came to the table next to me I was convinced that the food had to make up for the "service", if it could be called that I received. The waitress came back 10 minutes later to take my order. Truthfully I think she only came back because she was curious about what I was doing. I was furiously making notes on the back of some old receipt planning all of the evil and nasty things I was going to say about her on IGOUGO (take that useless waitress!!!!)
I ordered the chicken sand which with red peppers and when I saw it arrive my mouth was watering. I quickly took the removed the top piece of bread, quizzically looked at the mushy tomato like thing on my chicken (where was my red pepper?), and like any true Pennsylvanian I poured some Heinz ketchup on it. I was ready to go to town. I lifted the sand which to my mouth and took a bit...it was tasteless. It was almost impossible to eat due to the pieces of chicken that keep falling out so I gave up and ate it with a knife. On the up side the portions were huge so if justified the price that I paid. However the downside to this was that I was given one glass of water, no refills. I was dying for something, but with no waitress in sight I was hopeless.
Once I was finished I sat at the table for 15 minutes debating on how I was going to leave. Again my waitress was no where in sight, which meant no bill, and with my donkey luck if I got up I knew that management would appear out of nowhere thinking that I was trying to walk out. Finally waitress showed up with a pitcher of water (that I could have used 30 minutes before), and I got my check.
I would not recommend this place to any one. Maybe I ordered the wrong item on the menu, got the wrong waitress, or just came on the wrong day, but the service and the food was awful. On each level I saw the staff just standing around talking (with the exception of the people outside, they were moving with the speed of light). However if it atmosphere that you are looking for this is the place. The view was amazing.

I walked along the pier looking for a whale watching tour. Most that I came across were harbor cruises. Near the Aquarium of the Pacific I found Harbor Breeze. First the basics. During the months of June though September Blue Whale's migrate off the coast of Southern California; 2007 was their longest season with the whales staying until December. The Blue Whale is the largest animal in the world and only 14,000 are known to exist. How do I know this? Well, unlike the other cruises, Harbor Breeze sets sail with a specialist from the Aquarium of the Pacific. The cruise costs $45 for the whale watching that last 3- 31/2 hours. They offer other tours such as the harbor cruise ($10), a dolphin and sea life cruise ($30), and private charters. The boat has two floors with lots of seating, but not enough for everyone. I found myself standing the whole way out to sea. Snacks and sodas are served on board for $2.00, and binoculars are rented for $5.
On the first part of the tour I was pretty sure that the cruise was hopeless, and was ready to cut my losses. The 1 1/2 hours out were great. The first 1/2 hour we went out we were cruising through the harbor which was wonderful for pictures. There was even a sea lion and a pelican sitting on a pipe. Things started to pick up when we got to the offshore oil rigs; this is where we saw our first blow. The lady from the Aquarium of the Pacific quickly identified it as a Blue Whale due to the pink stuff, she identified as Blue Whale poop floating in the water. We followed the whale for about an hour. She would surface, play around, and dive. Usually they would stay down about 8-12 minutes, so there was a lot of down time, but when she surfaced she really put on a show. Twice before we left she lifted her tail out of the water. I found the best place to watch was on the railing between the stairs. There is an open view in front and no one on either side of you due to the fact that they clear off the stairs. Only two people can fit here, but most of the passengers are to busy trying to run from side to side and to the front that they never stay in that spot.
The ride back was even better we came upon a boat being chased by dolphins, who ended up chasing us. Again the best place to be here is in the back of the boat because the dolphins like to play in the wake. At one point there were about 50 chasing us. I found that it was best to set my camera on multiple photos because I had to take the pictures so fast just to try and capture them on film. The fun didn't end with the dolphins there were a couple of sea lions jumping along side of the ship as well.
Overall this was a great cruise. Many families with small children were on the boat and for the most part the youngsters stayed entertained.

The Aquarium of the Pacific wasn't what I expected in either a good or bad way. Walking in I had larger then life expectations due to all of the media hype that the aquarium receives; overall I wasn't impressed, but there were some areas that blew me away. The aquarium is open every day from 9am to 6pm with longer hours for special occasions. Prices are steep and really not worth the entrance fee ($20.95 adults, $17.95 seniors, and $11.95 children 3-11). I happened to get in for half price on a Sunday when the aquarium was celebrating their 10th birthday for $10. There are packages for whale watching and entrance the the aquarium for $50, which is well worth the price.
Once inside the gift shop is to the immediate left. It's huge and sells a lot of great souvenirs for kids. After that is where all of the exhibits start. The aquarium is the largest to be dedicated to the creatures inhabiting the Pacific Ocean; so it is home to more then 12,500 ocean animals, 500 species, and various exhibits dedicated to So Cal and Baja, the Northern Pacific, Tropical Pacific, and the Gulf of California with the most popular area being Lorikeet Forest and Shark Lagoon. Each exhibit is so packed with information that my head started spinning. Even though the facts can get overwhelming they are never boring and find away to entertain everyone. The most interesting exhibit, the one that attracted every adult, was the fish that can change sex. They are all born female and some change to male immediately while others change after stressful times or during a period where their are no males; everyone had a joke or seven to accompany the exhibit.
The other really great exhibit was the shark eggs. The aquarium took every precaution to remove outer layers of a shark egg so that the fetus inside could be seen by the naked eye, but still survive and grow. It was so strange to see what looked like a Betta fish wiggling around, connected to a yolk, inside an egg and to know that it was shark fetus. Behind the eggs was the expected birth dates of the babies.
Outside of the aquarium was one of the most popular exhibit: Shark Lagoon. There are several sharks that can be touched as well as a viewing window to a large tank full of different sharks. One shark was so scary that everyone was thrilled to see it and yet happy that their was a barrier between us; it had the toothiest smile that I had ever seen. Next to the shark area is a huge tank for Sea Lions. Their is a viewing area to watch them swim, sun bath, and sets for tired parents who are toting tots to sit and take a break while the little ones watch the Sea Lions.
For the most part I ignored the educational everything and did what I love to do best: take photos! This is an amazing place to do so. If you have a decent camera, some time, and a quick trigger finger it's easy to get photos that look like a professional took them from the depths of the ocean. My suggestion to get a great picture is set the camera on manual focus, set the shutter speed to the highest your camera will allow (I set mine to 1600), and make sure to turn off the flash.
I'm not sure if I would go back to the aquarium any time soon, but it was a great way to spend an evening and shouldn't be missed if anyone is on the LA/Long Beach area.

The harbor cruises are a great, inexpensive way to spend an hour and see the harbor, and learn about Long Beach. Harbor Breeze offers the option of harbor and sea life cruises for very reasonable prices. My cruise was only $10 for 45 minutes (for kids under 5 it's free). They are located in Rainbow Harbor near the Aquarium of the Pacific. They have a small booth and announce up coming cruises every few minutes over their PA system. The boat they use is two floors with the top floor being open seating which fills up the fastest. I sat on the wrong side of the boat. I took a seat on the left hand side when all of the good sites were on the right, but my consolation prize was that I got great photos of sea lions.
The tour guide goes into the history of Long Beach; how it started off as a major port of call for sailors and served as a Naval base. Remnants of this still exists across from Rainbow Harbor, where the Queen Mary is docked and thousands of containers wait to be unloaded. When the cruise boat gets out to the Queen's Gate, a gate built from a pyramid of rocks, I could see several ships full of containers waiting to enter the harbor. I don't know what it is, but I love the site of this. I'm not sure if it is do to the time that I lived on a ship and basically lived in these types of ports or if it seeing a ship and my mind racing to image where they are from and what fascinating thing they could be carrying.
At one point, this is where my consolation prize comes in, the boat slowed down and we came up to a Bouies with four sea lions lazily sleeping on it. We were so close that if I was on the bottom level I could have reached out and touched them.
When the boat turned to Circle back we sailed past two large ships that I found out were carrying oil. However more interesting, there was a sea lion sleeping on the rutter that was above; consolation prize number two.
Finally we went past a few islands that were built to house oil rigs. These islands were built by the five major oil companies of the time and designed by the Disney company. The oil companies were given the condition by the city that if they were to be so close to the shore that they had to be pretty. So, in came Disney. They brought in large boulders from Catalina Island to surround the island and planted large trees along the perimeter to hid the buildings. Large casings were even built to cover up the oil rigs on the two islands closest to the shore.
On the way back into the harbor constellation prize round three was waiting for me; pelicans. Pelicans were swimming in the harbor waiting for me.
The harbor cruise was so much fun, but I regret one time: forgetting my sun block. I had a very nice sun burn with two large rings around my eyes where my oversized sunglasses sat.

I got off the Blue Line at the Transit Mall and walked to the harbor only a couple of blocks away. Essentially the harbor is broken into two areas: Rainbow Harbor and the Shoreline Village with a pathway that wraps around the ocean and connects the two areas. I started my walk along the path that headed out to sea. On one side was an area where the yachts docked and on the opposite side was a a beautiful view of the ocean with areas to fish, view the Queen Mary, and see the shipyards. The path ends where the mouth to the docks start. There was a stone bench that I sat on to watch boats sail out to sea. Most times there is a wonderful breeze blowing in off the ocean to keep cool on the hot So. Cali. days.
The path then passes through the Shoreline Village. This was by far one of the most exciting areas with the heaviest traffic. I felt as if I was being swept out of California to the coast of Maine, then to South Africa, from there Mexico, and back to LA. Painstakingly themed restaurants and kitchy shops line harbor. Starting with the famed Yard house on one end and ending with Parker's Lighthouse on the other giving amazing views of the water. In between is Gitana's, Springbok Bar and Grill, Tequila Jack's, and Stefano's Pizza. Small shops offer a variety of tourist souvenirs, but the best shops are the snack and candy shops. One shop offered very high priced, penny candy offered up in barrels that reminded me of something out of Little House on the Prairie. Outside of another shops was a very large teddy bear lounging on a bench. Not far away was a small seating area with a stage for live music.
The path wraps around Shoreline Village to the Rainbow Harbor. It isn't as busy or fun as the Shoreline Village, but this is where all of the big attractions are. Between the two areas are several chain restaurants such as the Outback Steak House, Chili's, and P.F. Changs. There are also several boat rental places. Further into the Rainbow Harbor is where I picked up the boats to go on the whale watching trips and the harbor cruises. Harbor Breeze, the company I went through and highly recommend, is located next to the Aquarium of the Pacific. The path continues along to a small park like area where a small lighthouse stands next to the mouth of the harbor.
One of the best parts of Rainbow Harbor was all of the sea life that I saw and didn't even have to get on a boat to enjoy. On the docks sea lions sunned themselves and played in the harbor. I also saw several while walking near the the lighthouse. In the harbor next to the lighthouse I also spotted several pelicans floating in the water.
Long Beach is a wonderful place to spend a day that is often overlooked by the tourist who usually only venture out of LA to visit Disney. It's a bright, lively place that offers a lot of family orientated activities. My only concern about the area is the condition of the harbor. Although it is well kept the waters of the harbor are full of trash. I was horrified to watch a sea lion swim around a garbage bag that had make its way into the water and broke open. The water at the harbor is polluted to the point that it is hard to ignore and very openly a concern to all those who visit. Stand along the rails long only for a few minutes and it will be hard to miss the comments of passersby about the condition of this beautiful area. I truly question the city; they place such an emphasis on preservation of the ocean and marine life then why not tackle this problem?