Street Cred: The Final Count

Everytime I walked a street for the first time I would take a picture of the street sign. I posted all the new signs I collected every month in a post I called Street-Cred. I pulled all the pictures together when I went to speak to Mr. Riehl’s English classes at POLAH. It got a HUGE response from the kids every period. It actually blew me away seeing them all when the image was projected on the classroom wall from floor to ceiling.

The final count, including the inner streets of the marina, was 235.

The Love was Felt

I have to say, I really felt the love from all my family and friends that came out for the End of the Road Weenie Roast. I even got these flowers from Kathy and Skipper Jeff – they were so beautiful. I know this is a couple of months after the fact, but thank you all for coming. Thank you to Peggy at the Corner Store for donating hot dogs, buns, condiments and more; thanks to Cindy for donating the t-shirt from Century Motorcycles, thanks to Skipper Jeff for donating a San Pedro hat, thanks to my Mom for helping me set up, thanks Kathy for keeping me sane when everyone showed up all at the same time, thanks to everyone who showed up and walked the pier with me. Thanks to everyone who came even after everyone was gone. Thank you!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Trivia Time

Besides the hot dogs, I had a little game for my friends to enjoy. They had to answer questions like “How many miles did I walk?” and “How many Virgin Mary Statues did I find on my walks?”. I have since lost the answers, I’ll have to figure it out again. Mark was my resident trivia guy during my tenure on the streets so its fitting that I captured him taking a crack at the questions. Of 5 questions I had two double winners, Skipper Jeff and Steve H. below.

Mr. Rukavina won the shirt donated by Cindy at Century Motorcycles.

Mr. Rukavina brought a picture to show me of him and his daughter Andrea at Cabrillo Beach when she was a toddler…all I can say is that I stumbled over my words trying to find a respectful way to tell him that he was a hottie.

Someone had to roast the weenies

This is Mr. Rukavina, literally born and raised in San Pedro, and my sister’s boyfriend OC-Craig (we indoctrinated him, see the Stavros shirt). They were kind enough to stay back and watch the place and cook the hot dogs for us.

Group Shot

There were a lot of cameras so you always get that “Who do I look at?” thing going on. Then we started walking back and realized we should take a picture with San Pedro in the back ground.

The Pier

I want to say that the last time I walked the pier was sometime in my adolescence. It probably didn’t even look like it does today because nothing looked familiar at all. People kept asking me how I felt the closer we got to the end of the pier. I don’t think I was sad or even happy for it to be over. It just felt like everything had happened exactly as it should. I was with exactly the right people in the exactly the right moment in time. After the crazy last week I had where the universe made it no secret that the planets were aligning to make everything come together at the last minute (Meeting Barbara Wallace and getting into the senior community, walking by Sunken City and it being open and the fireman letting come in and getting that private tour from John Olguin)…it was just all gravy. It was a short walk with good friends and all of a sudden the end was there. I probably should have kicked the end with my nasty shoe, but I chose a dainty finger touch instead.

That fisherman next to my friend Joseph was not phased by all our carrying on one bit. Not even when we all broke out into high fives and group pictures.

Walkin & Talkin

My sister took the camera from me and captured the groups walk to the end of the pier. I have to admit my preference of being behind the camera.

I knew most of the people who showed up and I think I may have called the group the SPBXB All-Stars at some point. The only new faces were Mark’s wife Terry and Sanam from My Persian Kitchen, everyone else I had met somewhere in my travels. The wonderful thing about my group was that they are all such great people that everyone meshed so well.

SPBXB Retrospective Week: The Weenie Roast Pics

From it’s inception, I had always had it in my head that I would end my SPBXB trek on the fishing pier at Cabrillo Beach. I have no idea why, it’s not even a street. The heart wants what it wants so I planned for a weenie roast at the beach and enticed all my readers to join me by posting this invitation on the blog. I used all the new photoshop skills I learned while on the job for SPBXB and edited this still from Forrest Gump. Despite the graphic, people showed up. We had a great spot right at the mouth of the pier side. Once we had a big enough group we made the final walk out to the pier together.

John Olguin Auditorium

Our last stop was at the auditorium named for John Olguin. John is Director Emeritus at the aquarium. I think emeritus is latin for ‘he can come and go as he pleases for ever and ever, amen’.

It was a real honor to get the personal tour from such a such a great man. I could’ve taken a picture of him with every prop and plaque in the place if he had the time. He was a really good sport about all the pictures.

The Marine Research Library

This is what the new building looks like, from the parking lot. Upstairs is where the research library is located. The library is named for Virginia Reid Moore, in honor of her very generous donation.

John assures me that all are welcome to use the library.

I don’t know how much research I would get done with a giant window like this to gaze out of.