A few weekends ago...Saturday Dec. 4th 2010, was the Annual San Pedro Christmas Boat Parade. The theme was Peace on Earth and did we have some fun! Pati and I had some good friends over to the boat for dinner and the show. Its become an annual thing. We cooked baked mostoccoli and teriyaki chicken and there was plenty of food for all. Jack and Suzzane have been my friends for decades and Peter and Seve, who we meet through J&S, and are a great couple too. Cool and fun to be with. We all seem to get along like peas in a pod. A chilly December night, but not nearly as cold as we had expected, so all was fine in the world and everyone was happy. Now, keep in mind that this is the 'San Pedro' Christmas boat parade. Not the Marina Del Rey, or the Newport beach boat parade...the San Pedro boat parade. Downtown S.P., has been there forever and has both really nice areas and some not so really nice areas. Its a haven for the hard working blue collar men. Past years we had some good laughs because some of the boat decorations were so makeshift, lights on the boats would flicker and then go dead, than back on again. Combine that with the moans of the boaters as it happened and well... we laughed our asses off. Good Fun. This year the boats were really fixed up nice and it seemed to get a little more upscale than past years and we were all impressed...kinda' :o) It was just too short though It seemed to end abruptly with only a small amount of boats compared with last year. Maybe they set the higher standards and not too many qualified...just kidding!. Actually, I love it in San Pedro. It does have a flavor and swagger all its own. 
In the pics you can see our view off the rear deck and see why we like it so much. Also, Pati is at the door thinking about the evening to come. The really sad part about all this is, we may have witnessed the LAST San Pedro Christmas boat parade ever. The Ports o' Call Marina, where we're at, is giving way to progress. The old marina is scheduled to be torn down and the city is making the boat owners move to the new marina. The new marina is...new. That's about all the good I can say about it. It looks like a parking look with no atmosphere and just plain boring. Its also much more expensive and it looks like they want to 'upscale' the whole thing and push us 'low rent' types out. Where we are now, has its own flavor as well. We have an unobstructed view to the channel, where the cruise ships, ocean liners and cargo ship, as well as the private boat owners, all go by our rear deck, all hours of the day and night. Longshoremen on the other side of the channel, loading and unloading giant freighters with their Giant cranes. Mix that with loud Mexican music, food order numbers being called out over a loudspeaker, and nightly Karaoke emanating from the outdoor eateries and you have 'atmosphere'. I was especially savoring that night, knowing that it may never happen again and all of which I know I'll miss greatly when its gone. Progress...hummm.
