Seal Beach is a trip back in time to the 1950s and 1960s. You can almost hear the Beach Boys singing ‘Good Vibrations’ as you drive down Main Street looking for parking. Or maybe that is Annette Funicello (an original Disney Mouseketeer and star of several beach movies in the 1960s) in a bikini on the beach. Well, maybe her granddaughter. Or maybe her grandson with two of his pals going home from a morning of boogieboarding.
Unlike the beaches further north along Santa Monica and Redondo, Seal Beach is rarely crowded with people. For decades Ruby’s restaurant was located at the end of the Seal Beach Pier. It was a fun place to grab a burger and fries, or fish and chips and watch the cargo ships head in toward the Port of Lond Beach.
Since Ruby’s closed hungry beachgoers stop in at the small restaurants and shops that line Main Street.
There are the usual beach stores selling Hawaiian style shirts, sundresses and skimpy bikinis, but the Psychic Store was a new one!
And the menu at a restaurant called the Hangout, left me aghast. Shrimp, grits and brown gravy? I’d rather go across the street and have good, old-fashioned fish tacos.
After disappearing for decades, seals have returned to Seal Beach at certain times of year. The federal laws that protect them have resulted in a population explosion of sea mammals and all along the Pacific Coast seals, sea lions and even elephant seals are returning to their ancient habitats. The only one I saw was bronze.
Coming next weekend: the AmGen tour Stage 7 stops at Pasadena. I’ll be there!
