Santa Monica Pier. Los Angeles, California.

 

Santa Monica Pier,

 or

Los Angeles Through a Tourist's Eyes

Haven't you noticed that you know your own city, where you've lived for many years, perhaps where you were born and studied, much worse than places where you've been on vacation? When traveling, you book excursions and try to learn something new, but in your own city, you live a daily, habitual life: raising children, renovating the house, working, ... (choose or add one that suits you). For example, I only went to the "Walk of Fame" (aka "Avenue of Stars") in Los Angeles for the first time when my brother came to visit, even though I'd already lived in the city for several years; I walked along Rodeo Drive when my son came for a few days' vacation; I went for a boat ride on the ocean with my mom, and to the theater with my dad... It's only now, in retirement, that I can afford to manage my time; back then, there was no time for getting to know the city. And I didn't have any spare money... (if there is such a thing as "spare" money!)

No, I wasn't born in Los Angeles, but I've been living here for many years. I just celebrated my first year of retirement!—and decided that I needed to travel around my own city (which has long been my own, familiar, "mundane"...). I finally need to discover where I live. True, the city is so huge that I won't be able to visit even a small fraction of it, so I had to decide on a principle for choosing places to visit. I decided to look at the city not from the usual resident's point of view, but to see Los Angeles through a tourist's eyes.

One of the first places on the list was the Santa Monica Pier. I've been there, and not just once, but the last visit was about fifteen years ago! And then a friend called and invited me to watch the sunset over the ocean, so we decided to go meet the sunset on the Pacific Ocean, at the beach next to the Santa Monica Pier.

This isn't the first trip to the ocean for either of us, and for me, it's far from the first time watching the sunset over the ocean (which doesn't stop me from being delighted every time, running on the beach, and trying to capture everything I see as much as possible). So, we decided not just to have a picnic, but to go early, walk along the pier, see what the amusement park is like, and at the same time, ride the Ferris wheel! We've seen it so many times—and just driven past.

While you look at the photos, here are a few facts (I primarily gathered them for myself, but I also recommend you read them—some facts surprised me).

The pier opened on September 9, 1909. (Initially, it was built not as an entertainment venue, but as a public structure to camouflage a pipeline that discharged sewage into the ocean. That was just over a hundred years ago—how much our methods of water purification and usage have changed since then! At least in Los Angeles, and if what's written on the internet is true.)

The pier is approximately four hundred eighty-eight meters (about 1,600 feet) long. It is actually two piers: the municipal pier from 1909 and the "Looff Pleasure Pier," which opened later.

The pier has several cafes and restaurants...

... sells souvenirs and street food, features street musicians, and street artists paint pictures that they sell right there... 

Here, under umbrellas, they offer to engrave your name on a grain of rice. Human imagination knows no bounds. 

(Do you need your name on rice? Will you keep it? In a box? Or hang it on the wall under a magnifying glass in a frame? Oh, I seem to be becoming unkind, sorry—the person is working, and maybe they engrave on more than just rice...)

Everything is just like in a normal tourist spot.

I liked the view of the ocean and the coast from the pier the most. 

(What is your impression?)

Excluding the view of the ocean, the pier seemed to me like a not very romantic place.

It's a tourist trap. 

 But then I saw a couple sitting on a bench...

Ah, so much depends on the eyes with which we look!

The Pacific Park is also located on the pier—the only amusement park on the US West Coast that is located directly over the Pacific Ocean.

Entry to the park grounds is free; you buy tickets for the rides ($12–$15 for adults per ride). There are many attractions, and we decided to ride the Ferris wheel. 

This wheel, visible from afar during the day and shining with bright lights at night, has become one of the symbols of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and the pier.

The wheel seemed to me to be short, small. That is, if I compare it to the ones I've ridden on before (in London, Osaka, and Las Vegas). It’s not gigantic, but it is unique in its own way: the Pacific Wheel was the world's first solar-powered Ferris wheel.

It uses more than six hundred fifty solar panels installed on the roof of the park building to power it. (These panels generate over 71,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year, if anyone is interested in the numbers.) Honestly, I didn't even notice the solar panels, although they are visible on the roofs as soon as you start going up, but you don't know why they were put there. It turned out we were riding a wheel that uses eco-friendly technology.

The wheel has a height of twenty-six meters (85 feet). 

The highest point of the attraction in Santa Monica is more than forty meters (130 feet) above the ocean.

Just mentally compare this: the biggest wheel today is in Dubai—two hundred fifty meters. Almost ten times higher. 

Even if the height isn't like in Dubai, the view from above is still impressive.

You look at the endless coastline... the water of the Pacific Ocean... the city... the park with its attractions... the pier... 

You go around several times (we didn't count, I think it was five).

The wheel has twenty multi-colored gondolas. They are freely suspended and swayed quite a bit in the wind. 

This was especially noticeable when the wheel stopped to let on other people who also decided to ride.

They write that the wheel is safe; there has only been one recorded incident: some madman climbed onto the structure in 2023 and announced he had a bomb. The police were called, the park was evacuated, passengers were taken off the wheel, no one was hurt, and the police arrested that... creep (sorry, but how else to describe him? will you call him a human?!).

It's interesting how memory works: I thought this wheel had always been here when we came to the beach in Santa Monica. (In the first years of living in LA, a day at the beach was the only affordable vacation. LA—that's what residents, Angelenos, to whom I now also belong, call Los Angeles.) It turned out that the first wheel was built only in 1996. And the one we rode is already the second. Opened in 2008, it replaced the original 1996 wheel, which was sold on eBay in 2008 for $132,400. The buyer was a developer from Oklahoma City, who moved the wheel and installed it in a new district of his city. So, the residents of Oklahoma City are now riding the Santa Monica Ferris wheel.

Like the entire pier, the Pacific Wheel is an icon of Los Angeles and often appears in Hollywood films, TV shows, music videos, and commercials. It has even appeared in famous video games, such as Grand Theft Auto V. (Although I don't play games, I get the facts from the internet.)

We came to the park on a Wednesday, a weekday, and there were practically no people; about a third of the gondolas were filled, although they write that up to eight hundred people can ride the wheel per hour—I don't think that many rode all day long.

If you decide to go yourself or take your grandchildren, there are many other rides besides the Ferris wheel. They seemed to me like they were taken from the sixties of the last century, from my childhood. We had swings, carousels, and various attractions in the park back in far-off Podmoskovye (near Moscow); we begged our parents for ten or fifteen kopecks, ran to ride on Saturdays and Sundays, and even stood in line for those swings and carousels. In short, all this seen on the pier brought on either nostalgia or surprise that so little has changed since then: well, there are more metal pieces, and solar batteries, but the swings and carousels, apparently, are eternal.

Here are a few more photos...

West Coaster: this is the only steel roller coaster on the West Coast located over the Pacific Ocean. It speeds up to 56 km/h (35 mph) and includes two spirals, as well as turns that offer a breathtaking view of Santa Monica Bay, just like from the Ferris wheel.

But this whole train only carried two people...

Sea Dragon: a classic "Pirate Ship" swing ride, which swings passengers in a one hundred eighty-degree arc, simulating a stormy voyage.  

Well, there were twice as many people on the "Dragon"!

Four people...

Various carousels, so reminiscent of childhood, among which I liked the "Shark Frenzy": a ride where visitors spin around in cabins stylized as shark heads—they are in the middle of the shot—but all these carousels were standing still.

The park on a weekday, I repeat, a Wednesday, was practically empty. 

Only the workers were bored, glued to their phones.

I became interested in how profitable it is, which I decided to discuss with Gemini, the artificial intelligence. Gemini quickly explained to me that "an annual flow of millions of people and the diversification of revenues (food, games, souvenirs) ensure the park's high financial viability." Pacific Park, along with the pier, is visited by over eight to ten million visitors annually. Peak attendance occurs during the summer months (June–August), weekends, school holidays, and public holidays. There are significant queues during these times. By earning huge sums in peak seasons, the park compensates for slow weekdays and off-season times. Pacific Park's attractions are relatively small and do not require the enormous staff and infrastructure of giant theme parks (like Disneyland). In addition to the rides, classic carnival games, where people pay for attempts, food and drinks, and souvenirs with the pier and park symbols bring in a significant part of the income. The park also sells unlimited ride wristbands, which encourages visitors to stay longer and spend more. According to analytical portals, Pacific Park's annual revenue is tens of millions of dollars.

I was somewhat happy for the park: if it brings in income, it will stand for a long time. Sometimes I myself want to remember my childhood and enjoy simple entertainments. And it's a good place to bring children and grandchildren on summer weekends.

So, we were simply lucky that there was no one: locals were at work, and the summer tourist season was already over. 

Although there were quite a few people walking around on the pier, not in the park. It's a popular place.

How many paragraphs for movie lovers could be titled "I didn't even know that!" Even I, not a big fan of this art, watched all these films, just without paying attention to the details.

"Forrest Gump" (1994): After Forrest Gump runs across America several times, he suddenly stops his multi-year run precisely at the Santa Monica Pier. This spot is considered the end of his marathon. 

 

Of course, there's a "Bubba Gump" restaurant on the pier.

"The Sting" (1973): A meeting place for con artists. The main characters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) often use the Looff Hippodrome building, where the carousel is located, as a place for their secret meetings.

"Iron Man" (2008): The carousel and the Hippodrome building on the pier are key elements of the scenery for the Oscar-winning film. Billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) tests his first Iron Man suit. In one of the night scenes, he flies over the brightly lit Santa Monica Pier. The pier and its attractions serve as a sparkling background for the scene demonstrating the power of the new suit.

"Titanic" (1997): Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) tries to impress Rose by recounting how he once bravely rode the roller coaster on the Santa Monica Pier. By the way, there is an inaccuracy in the film. Jack said something like, "We'll ride the roller coasters 'til we throw up, and we'll ride the horses on the beach at Santa Monica... like real cowboys, with one leg on either side." Roller coasters did not exist on the pier in 1912 (the film is set in 1912, when the pier was only three years old), but they were on other, earlier piers from 1904.

"Baywatch" (1989–1999): Well, this is "not my" show, although I watched a couple of episodes. Although the series was filmed all along the coast, the Santa Monica Pier and its surroundings were one of the most frequent and recognizable backgrounds for the adventures of the lifeguard squad. Red swimsuits and the blue lifeguard towers of Santa Monica became synonymous with this pier.

I haven't watched the film, but I read on the internet that in the disaster movie "2012" (2009), the Santa Monica Pier was spectacularly and completely destroyed during an earthquake and tsunami. This is one of the most dramatic scenes in cinema. I should probably watch it...

In 1987, the pier was recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

There are places to grab a bite or have a full meal on the pier: Pier Burger, with hamburgers, French fries, and famous frozen custard; there is a Japadog kiosk with hot dogs that combines American classics and Japanese flavors (you can buy hot dogs with unusual toppings such as Japanese mayonnaise, nori seaweed, teriyaki sauces, or even yakisoba); Funnel Cake Factory is famous for its Funnel Cake—deep-fried batter topped with powdered sugar or syrup.

We didn't plan to eat in the tourist area; food that is deep-fried in oil, heavily covered in sauce, or dusted with powdered sugar no longer appeals to us. We had our own sandwiches, tea in a thermos, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and apples—what more do you need at sunset?

And now, the photos of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

The sunset was the reason we were here, on the beach near the Santa Monica Pier.

A rather strong wind was blowing from the ocean. It lifted and carried fine sand along the ground, which hit our legs quite hard. At first, because of the wind, we sat with our backs to the ocean. As soon as we took out the sandwiches and started eating, we immediately saw seagulls flying up, quickly and picturesquely positioning themselves in front of us, waiting for a handout. We were not the only ones on the beach. To my surprise, there was a decent number of people, considering the cool evening and the wind, and there were even three or four people armed not with phones but with cameras, who had come specifically to photograph the seagulls sitting on the beach, the incoming waves, and the slowly setting sun...

P.S. 

The sunset was magnificent, but to me, spoiled by life in California with its beaches, the beach itself, the pier, and the surrounding houses seemed a bit simple, or perhaps outdated. Now that I've learned a bit about the history of this place, I've changed my mind: it's good that what was built before us can be preserved. By the way, in the 1970s, the entire Santa Monica Pier was in decline, and the city authorities voted to demolish it to build an artificial resort island in its place. Local residents and historians started a campaign to save the pier. Legend has it that the stars of "The Sting," Robert Redford and Paul Newman, who fell in love with the place during filming, also participated in supporting the movement to preserve the Hippodrome with its old wooden carousel. Thanks to these efforts, the pier was saved, the Hippodrome building was renovated, and it is now the main historical object of the waterfront.

I didn't do my "homework"—I didn't know about the carousel! But now I have a reason to go back to the pier and ride the historic carousel. (Oh, did the thought cross your mind that maybe I'm becoming a child again?! No, I can just afford to do what I want and not be afraid of looking ridiculous.) 

This is my second time at this beach this year. But the first time, I didn't come to sit and watch the sunset: a friend from work invited me to Cirque du Soleil.

The big top was standing right on the beach sand, impressive in its size. The performance was very good.

After the show, we went for a walk on the pier; somehow, we didn't want to leave right away.

And would you have refused a walk on the night pier, which stretched far (as it felt at night) into the ocean?

The boundary between the water and the sky was barely distinguishable, so there was no point in photographing the ocean.

On that walk, I was most impressed by the wheel, sparkling with lights.

And the patterns constantly changed.

Information for number enthusiasts: The wheel is equipped with more than 174,000 energy-efficient LED bulbs, which consume 81% less energy than traditional incandescent lamps. These lights allow for the creation of dynamic, custom light shows with 16.7 million color combinations. The programs change depending on holidays or events (for example, Earth Day or Halloween), turning the wheel into a huge screen visible for many kilometers along the coast.

Thank you to all my friends who read the stories. Special thanks to Meire and Elena for the wonderfully spent days!