Location and Moorage: Long Beach Harbor — one night dockside; and Alamitos Bay Marina, two nights dockside
Well, it would seem things are beginning to wind down for us. Once we decided to bail on going back north to the northern Channel Islands, it felt like we were headed home. Our decision not to go north was based mostly on weather and not wanting to get beat up again; the forecasts showed we would be beating into, then hiding from pretty stiff winds if we went, so we didn’t. Kind of a bummer, but we’ll probably survive.
Long Beach and Alamitos Bay turned out to be pretty cool. Well, temperature-wise, it was hot. Then there was the little issue of a 2.4 million gallon sewage spill that closed all the waters around us. Doh! So, no swimming for us. Instead we relied on our own sweat to cool us off. Luckily, the breezes were consistent, which helped.
Most of our time here was spent exploring the area right around the harbors and watching people run around playing Pokemon Go! What? We enjoyed yummy NY style pizza, the Long Beach chapter of the Congregation Ale House, fabulous noms at the Breakfast Bar in LB, watching and listening to the “waterfall” on Island Grissom (and wondering what that was all about), some long walks, and taking in the new Ballast Point Brewing location at the Alamitos Bay Marina. It makes the San Diego location seem tiny. And there was a dinghy tour through the canals on Naples Island (reminiscent of the canal system at the Channel Islands Harbor, but at a much smaller scale) and there was lots and lots of euchre with Thad and Kristin. The girls tended to kick guys asses, so that was fun. Last but not least, there was some work for Rand, taking care of some logistics at the Verizon store, and tracking down wifi (this is becoming a theme).
Long Beach Harbor and Alamitos Bay Marina — what did we learn about ourselves and/or observations: None of us were willing to dip a toe in the water despite Alamitos Bay being open to swimming when all of the surrounding beaches were closed. Hmmmm. And we’re not acclimated to HOT. We better get a grip, because Mex can be HOT.
