Postcard" Bay
p. 123 · Read in the full issue
"Picture Postcard" Bay
For someone visiting Los Angeles for the first time, chances are good that the first look at a sunset over the sea will be from a seacliff tower ing over the breakers of Santa Monica (“Picture Postcard”) Bay.
“Picture Postcard Bay” is a grace ful arc of curling white surf and sandy beaches 20 miles in length, stretching out on either side of the pleasant resort city of Santa Monica.
Santa Monica, or more precisely, its seacliff Palisades Park, is where the famed Wilshire Boulevard meets the sea—an abrupt end after an hour’s drive from downtown Los Angeles.
It lies a few miles to the north of Los Angeles International Airport, where five times weekly BOAC VCIO ets arrive from and depart for Aus xalia, Fiji and Honolulu.
The town has fine beaches, a yacht )asin, ocean piers, and many fine lotels and motels. Its climate is one >f the best for year-round pleasant less. The annual average temperature s 16 degrees and the average high is 16. Sea breezes keep the air fresh and lean.
Santa Monica acquired its seacliffs
in an interesting manner. The Santa Monica Mountains loom green at the north; the late Will Rogers’ ranch, now a state park open for visitors’ is on a shoulder of the mountain.
From the foot of the range, foothills slope gently down to the city’s site.
Over the ages, the ocean waves chonned off the end of the mountains and the foothills, leaving a neatly cut-off line of seacliffs towering as high as 160 feet above the breakers.
From a mile along the cliff brink, Santa Monica has laid out a park landscaped with flowers, lawns and subtropical palm trees.
From the Palisades Park vantage point, “Picture Postcard Bay” begins from the south at the high wooded headlands of Palos Verdes, site of Marineland of the Pacific and its famed Bubbles, the whale.
Beach towns with yacht marinas and fishing piers line the bay. Santa Catalina Island with its own famed
Avalon Bay looms some 22 miles offshore. To the north the sweep of curling surf and sand continues past beach park after beach park to the bold outline of Point Dume.
Directly below the cliffs is Santa Monica’s own beach playground, an exceptionally wide strand stretching several hundred yards to the surf.
The 1,680-foot municipal pier is another favourite with vacationers.
They walk out on it through a fas cinating jumble of boat rooms, marine stores, tackle shops and cafes specialising in sea food. Bait and tackle are available for fishing from the pier or one may go out on a deep sea sportfishing boat for albacore, yellowtail and sea bass. When not sightseeing, one of the favourite pleasures of visitors in Santa Monica is lounging on the beaches of Pali sades Park, beneath the palm trees, watching the colours change on ‘Picture Postcard Bay”.
"Picture Postcard Bay". Millions of inland visitors get their first look at the beautiful Pacific Ocean from seacliff Paradise Park in Santa Monica, California.