An Afternoon on the Palos Verdes Peninsula -- Part Two

Her break continues...

Whenever we drive around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, my mind always wonders back to what it would have been like years ago. After visiting Fort MacArthur (located at the south end of the peninsula above the entrance to the Los Angeles Harbor), I learned that located around the peninsula there were outlook bunkers used in World War II. These bunkers were built into the sides of the cliffs we travel along on our drive. Many of them are still in place. Some of them were connected with underground tunnels. In their day, they were manned by soldiers looking out to sea, watching for enemy ships or submarines. In the tour of the old Fort (now a museum), you can walk through some of the underground bunkers and imagine the soldiers heading out to their outposts.

So, on our delightful Saturday afternoon drive around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, I enjoyed the views, especially enjoyed the company, and as we rounded another bend or looked over another cliff, looking out over the ocean, I thought of the soldiers of long ago, sitting in a hidden bunker on the edge of the cliff, protecting our coastline.

Back to our drive...

What happened to Marineland of the Pacific?

We rounded a bend and to the right was a beautiful golf course. In the distance was the spa and resort Terranea and very upscale homes and condos. This is the site of the old Marineland. Coni and I visited it while on vacation with her family (I was the invited 17-year-old boyfriend) back in 1970.

When we visited Marineland with our kids in 1986 it looked like this

Our drives around the  peninsula over the past 13 years rarely passed without pulling off the road and driving through the old entrance and across the weed covered parking lot, to look at the long-ago abandoned remnants of Marineland. Two or three years ago, the earth movers came, old signs and buildings were torn down and this is now the view...what a change!

 New signs...

...new walking paths, new buildings and no more Marineland

Down the road a little ways is Abalone Cove

In it's day these waters were a hot spot for the abalone divers

An informative plaque is set up to point visitors due west...

...to view Santa Catalina Island (on the horizon in the haze)

Another plaque is set up to explain the Portuguese bend (just ahead). The Portuguese Bend is an area of ever-shifting land. The area is under continual movement, slides, land shifts, sink areas, etc.

The warning sign reads, "Use Extreme Caution - Constant Land Movement."

And there are houses surrounding the area...go figure?

Dips and rises

The black pipes running along the right side of the road (up and down the roller coaster-like dips), are the water pipes. They have to be placed on top of the ground or they would be continually breaking and leaking.

Trump National Golf Club

Just south of the Portuguese Bend you come to the Trump National Golf Club (as in Donald Trump). Before he purchased the beautiful golf facility, it was just getting the finishing touches on it when the eighteenth hole (and an earth-mover or two) dropped off into the ocean. Construction stopped and it lay dormant, until Donald Trump came in and bought it at a fire sale price. Now positioned next to the Portuguese Bend with its shifting earth, no one seems to remember the old eighteenth hole.

More tomorrow...once you get dear hubby started, it is hard to get him to stop...