Today is Wednesday. Typically on Wednesday we go to Bible study at Ocean View Baptist Church. Today, it was not to be. We started off a bit late because Mary had a rough night. Paula was trying to get her settled back into bed. She had been up most of the night with runs to the bathroom.
So we got on the road at about 9:58. It takes about 10 minutes for us to get down to 19th Street in San Pedro. So we get to 19th Street and find the street blocked off for a LA Water and Power crew replacing a power pole. We tried going around the block. Still no access to the parking lot. Oh well, let’s try plan B.
Paula wanted to drive by the harbor and so we headed in that direction. So we headed down 19th Street and turned left on to Meyler. So we are doing a little sight seeing. We come to the Richard Henry Dana Middle School on Meyler. A lot of places in San Pedro are named after Richard Henry Dana. Of course, this is one of the schools that Paula attended. So we find the front door open and we go inside. There are two tiled painting on either side of the entrance and Paula was wondering if they were still there. Indeed they are, though not quite what she remembered. Here are a couple of pictures.
The “Pilgrim” was the name of the first ship that Dana had sailed on from Massachusetts to California. Of course, you might remember that Dana was famous for writing his memoir “Two Years Before the Mast”. Paula both read it a few years ago during one of our trips to Pedro. It’s worth reading, here’s the Kindle link on Amazon. This is the link to the free version. There are several versions available. Most less than $5.
Here’s the thing. Richard Henry Dana didn’t care much for San Pedro. Once he got here he tried mightily to get back to Cambridge. Getting back to where he started was none to easy. He evenutally got on a ship heading that way and returned to Cambridge where he attended what became Harvard Law School. He ended up specializing in maritime law. He was truly the seaman’s friend. That probably was one of the reasons that he is immortalized in San Pedro. Here’s the link to the Wikipedia article.
So the morning wasn’t quite done yet. We headed up Meyler and stopped at “Joseph’s Bakery”. This is a fine little hole the wall in San Pedro. There wasn’t much left at 10:45 am. We bought a couple of croissants and some cookies and then headed for Starbuck’s for coffee. Not much to the place, but the baked goods are mighty tasty. They open at 5 am. Get there early if you want a good selection. Here’s the Yelp entry.
TTFN
Joe
calherewecome 
