Last weekend I headed down the coast to Santa Cruz, California. It's about a 1.5 hour drive from where I live (depending on traffic). I met up with a group of friends and spent the day relaxing, sleeping, exploring and grubbing on potluck food.
My exploration phase took me on a four-mile walk down the beach to a pier. At the end I found one of these:
Eventually I reached the next beach over, Seacliff beach, which boasts a long pier with this at the end of it:
The SS Palo Alto. But it's called the Concrete Ship. It's very stinky. (Birds, seals, all sleeping and pooping there... you do the math.)
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:
The Palo Alto was a concrete ship built as a tanker at the end of World War I. She was built by the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, California. She was launched on May 29, 1919, too late to see service in the war.[1] Her sister ship was the SS Peralta.
She was mothballed in Oakland until 1929, when she was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. A pier was built leading to the ship, and she was sunk a few feet in the water so her keel rested on the bottom. There she was refitted as an amusement ship, with amenities including a dance floor, swimming pool and a café.
The company went bankrupt two years later and the ship cracked at the mid section. She was stripped of her fittings and left as a fishing pier. Eventually she deteriorated to the point were she was unsafe for even this use and was closed to the public. Today she remains at Seacliff Beach and serves as an artificial reef for marine life. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Palo_Alto)
Altogether a very interesting day of exploration.
My exploration phase took me on a four-mile walk down the beach to a pier. At the end I found one of these:
(Not my photo...)
Yup, a dead seal. It was really sad. Just flopping around in the surf. I reported it to a sun-baked blonde lifeguard dude, who replied with a glazed-over look in his eye "Oh, yah, we just let nature take it's course."
Right. Yuck. I get it, but still... yuck.
Eventually I reached the next beach over, Seacliff beach, which boasts a long pier with this at the end of it:
The SS Palo Alto. But it's called the Concrete Ship. It's very stinky. (Birds, seals, all sleeping and pooping there... you do the math.)
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:
The Palo Alto was a concrete ship built as a tanker at the end of World War I. She was built by the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, California. She was launched on May 29, 1919, too late to see service in the war.[1] Her sister ship was the SS Peralta.
She was mothballed in Oakland until 1929, when she was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. A pier was built leading to the ship, and she was sunk a few feet in the water so her keel rested on the bottom. There she was refitted as an amusement ship, with amenities including a dance floor, swimming pool and a café.
The company went bankrupt two years later and the ship cracked at the mid section. She was stripped of her fittings and left as a fishing pier. Eventually she deteriorated to the point were she was unsafe for even this use and was closed to the public. Today she remains at Seacliff Beach and serves as an artificial reef for marine life. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Palo_Alto)
Altogether a very interesting day of exploration.
No comments:
Post a Comment