San Pedro Days

In addition to sea days, and port days, every 8 days, we touch land in the US and get to run around, make phone calls and just exist.

Our ship docks in San Pedro, a ship town, just south of LA that plays host to the LA Harbor.

San Pedro is a lovely, real town, with a great independent coffee shop called Sacred Grounds, which has delicious sandwiches, and free internet.

I usually start my day early, get off the ship as soon as possible, head up to check our PO Box at the Post Office, and then come to Sacred Grounds as soon as possible.

We sit at a giant community table, and try to quietly make phone calls, catch up on email and interneting and indulge in a nice delish sandwich.

On the way up to the coffee shop, we pass a couple cute stores and maybe pop into one of those for a few things.

Last week's cruise felt really long--we were re-routed due to trouble with the isopode (typical!) and instead of going to Acapulco and Zihua, we went to Mazaltan and Manzanillo. I guess Manzanillo was a "really crap port" and so we were playing to an angry, hostile crowd. Thank god they liked us, because they could have very easily hated us and turned against us. Instead, they laughed and laughed and got to shake the crap port off of them.

The other re-routed port was Mazaltan, and it was really great--we walked around the old downtown, went through a mercado, with lots of meat and pig heads for sale, ate at a restaurant on the second floor of the mercado, overlooking the streets and then headed to a beach bar. This place, Joe's Oyster Bar, is what I want and imagine a beach bar to be---thatch roof bar, a menu of seafood, and a great, swimmable beach. We've been hitting a lot of resorts---with their unending oval pools that spill into one another, their delicious Americanized food and their lack of connection to anything remotely local. So, Joe's, overlooking the bay, and the laid-back vibe, was much more my scene.

So, anyway, coming into San Pedro, being able to text and make some calls and email---it's a welcome respite from the week.

Plus, I'm beginning to make plans for my west coast month of May road trip---and that's really fun. If anyone has any recommendations on places to go---please pass them on.

Signing off from Sacred Grounds---

Me