2 Great Days on the LA Coast: La Brea Tar Pits, Pier & Donuts
Rachel’s first sight of actual surfers and the fortune teller machine from the movie Big followed by a massive seafood platter overlooking a gritty industrial harbor. Primordial goo hiding giant sloth bones at the La Brea Tar Pits and a short walk to the best doughnut of Jay’s life. All this and more were the core of two full days in Southern California after Disneyland.
A California Pier and Seafood Market
Our trip to Southern California required a visit to the Pacific Ocean, preferably involving a classic west coast pier. Between Disneyland and our son’s wedding, the real reason for our visit, we opted for a day along the coast, starting with Huntington Beach pier.
The drive from Anaheim wasn’t too bad, and we got to experience some of the Pacific Coast Highway, which Rona had done with her family as a teenager. The Huntington Beach Pier’s beachside parking lot was full, so after a bit of trial and error, we found a municipal parking garage a few blocks in from the ocean that was free for the first 90 minutes.
Huntington Beach Pier During the US Open of Surfing
It was around noon as we made a bit of a beeline for the Huntington Beach Pier, figuring we’d have some time in the surrounding neighborhood before leaving. Little more than five minutes walk from where we’d parked, the historic pier extended 1,850 feet into the Pacific Ocean, with a vast beach stretching out on either side.
We quickly discovered that we had arrived during the US Open of Surfing, which explained the crowds. A festival village occupied the south side of the pier, jammed with food trucks, mobile bars, pop up tents and announcers describing the competition over strategically placed loudspeakers you could hear everywhere.
The north side of the pier, however, was more serene with sunbathers, swimmers, and surfers of all ages. Rachel looked out at it all and remarked that this may have been the first time she’d ever seen anyone surfing in person.
The historic pier itself is really quite massive, and had to be built to withstand the ocean, both the salt water and the larger waves crashing in from time to time. Also, aren’t there earthquakes here? That had to be part of the construction deal too. Someone must have thought of that, right?
The panoramic coastal views were also so different from what we get on the east coast. The deep blue swells of the Pacific were a lot larger and took a lot longer to roll in than in the choppier Atlantic, where the waves can come in one after the other like a sucker punch. Additionally, we don’t have mountains looming in the distance behind our coastal towns along the Atlantic.
On the pier, folks were fishing, and like us, many were looking straight down at the swells and watching the surfers. There’s a truly classic boardwalk atmosphere going on, with the scene properly set with the Zoltare Speaks fortune teller machine. Fortunately Jay did not make a wish to be Big.
A seafood restaurant and souvenir shop sit at the far end of the pier, but we had lunch plans farther north up the coast. In the meantime we focused much of our attention on most of the many casual surfers on the north side. The competitive surfing on the opposite side was far more intermittent.
After fulfilling the role of surfing spectators for a while, we made our way back off the pier and across the Pacific Coast Highway toward Main Street. These few blocks of downtown Huntington Beach along the coast had a laid-back walk-friendly beach culture to them. People were coming and going to the beach and pier as well as the countless surf shops and cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating.
We popped into a Mangiamo Gelato Cafe for a bit of coffee, house-made gelato, and rest room break. The small peanut butter swirl gelato was not at all small but entirely delicious. With Jay’s hot Americano, the whole thing cost $10, and worth all the pennies.
After returning to the car within the free parking window, we headed north on the Pacific Coast Highway. We had a 45-or-so-minute drive ahead of us, depending on the whims of Los Angeles-area traffic. Our destination? Lunch at the San Pedro Fish Market along the San Pedro waterfront, part of the Port of Los Angeles.
San Pedro Fish Market’s World Famous Shrimp Tray: What’s In It
We’d heard all sorts of things about this place and seen a few videos, in particular about the World Famous Shrimp Tray. Frankly, with Rona growing up on the south shore of Long Island, they had her at “Fish Market”. We found a $10 public parking lot along South Harbor Boulevard at the corner of 6th Street at Berth 84. There is a new-looking park with a play area for kids between the parking lot and waterfront promenade, which we walked along toward our dining destination.
The Landing, as it’s called, is a vast 1,500-seat outdoor dining zone with covered tent seating, high-top tables, and seafood bars at the front of the San Pedro Fish Market and Restaurant. The majority of the tables were unoccupied, likely due to it being after 2 PM on a Wednesday, but that meant we wouldn’t have to wait long for lunch!
We left Rachel at one of the covered picnic tables and walked up to the bar and ordered. As foretold, the first thing we asked for was the World Famous Shrimp Tray, which serves 2 – 4 people and comes with piles of shrimp, seared a la plancha with a veggie mix of red potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes and onions. We customized it by adding spicy sausage and swapping out the garlic bread for corn tortillas to avoid gluten-related cross contamination.
The staff recommended combining the three available seasonings, which are the Signature seasoning, made with lots of paprika, the Diablo seasoning for some heat, and Mojo De Ajo for the garlic.
Jay added an Estrella Jalisco draft, while Rona ordered herself a big ol’ crispy Diet Coke and a watermelon Agua Fresca (Sandia) for Rachel to try out. They handed us our drinks and a tracker device with a promise they’d bring our food around. We paid – $139 with gratuity-in-advance – and found Rachel patiently waiting at the picnic table.
Jay was all excited about the Estrella beer, thinking maybe it would be like the Estrella Damm we’d had in Spain, but alas, they were not related in any way except by the use of the word Estrella, which means “star” in Spanish. This Estrella is a pilsner brewed in Mexico with some corn, versus the Spanish Estrella brewed, well, in Spain, with some rice. It was still good, though. Rachel, however, wasn’t a fan of the watermelon Agua Fresca.
As promised, someone brought our food over on a large tray with utensils and paper plates. One can see why the shrimp tray is world famous and it truly lived up to its billing. The portion was huge, and not just the veggies. There’s loads of shrimp and the spicy sausage, which cost extra, was also plentiful.
The staff cooks all the food together on a flat top grill, which meant everything absorbed all the flavors of the spices and butter and whatever else they threw on the grill. The shrimp were done just right and the seasoning was over-the-top good. The locally made Kielbasa-style sausage had crispy edges from the grilling, and the veggies made it all feel perfectly healthy! It’s a messy meal, and wet naps and paper towel were key to feeling slightly less sticky afterward.
The overall experience of eating excellent fresh seafood outside on a gorgeous warm day was wonderful. We were sitting right out over the water, next to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and had a gritty, front-row view of the bustling industrial harbor where huge cargo ships and tugboats were gliding down the channel against a backdrop of the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Highly recommended!
La Brea Tar Pits and the Best Donut of Jay’s Life
It was finally time for us to brave the actual city of Los Angeles. With Rachel staying back in Pomona with her brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Rona and Jay were heading for the Miracle Mile neighborhood and then the Fairfax District. The first stop was to check out a place we’d known about since we were kids — The La Brea Tar Pits. After that we were heading for the Original Farmers Market for some snacky-lunch and the Grove for some bougie shopping and general poking around.
Of course before we could brave the city, we’d need to brave the freeway traffic west from Pomona. You know we are natives of the New York metropolitan area and so have lived our fair share of traffic. We can’t say the traffic here is worse than getting in and around NYC on any given day, but the utter pervasiveness of the congestion is something to behold.
Is La Brea Tar Pits Still Worth Visiting During the Renovation?
Anyhow, we did navigate said freeways and after a little more than an hour, turned off 6th Street into the self-park Pritzker garage below the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Parking here cost a flat fee of $24 and the location was super convenient. The museum property itself borders Hancock Park, in which sits the legendary La Brea Tar Pits. It’s also only a 15 – 20 minute walk to the Original Farmers Market and the Grove.
How best to describe the natural wonder that is the La Brea Tar Pits, when it’s been built up in your mind since childhood? Spread across Hancock Park are bubbling pits filled with dark goo, a.k.a. pitch or asphalt, that have preserved the world’s richest collection of ice age fossils for tens of thousands of years.
Just a few inches of this sticky glop would trap one animal, which would then attract a predator that would also become trapped. Horses or camels were the prey. Yes, there were camels here… weird, eh? Dire wolves, which some of us thought were fictional, and saber-toothed cats were the predators. But in the end, they all became fossils trapped in the goo.
Also, this is in the middle of urban Los Angeles.
Planning your own visit? Here’s what was open at the end of July, 2026
The Page Museum building is closed for a ~2-year renovation. But you don’t need the museum to see the good stuff — Pit 91, the outdoor excavation sites, and the walking paths through Hancock Park are all still open to the public, which is where we spent our whole visit.
We strolled along the park’s many pathways, stopping at different fenced enclosures to read the signs and view and occasionally smell the tar pits. It was weird that the sulfuric odor wasn’t everywhere but when it hit, it hit hard.
Pit 91 is the most heavily excavated pit dig in the park, dating back to 1915. They’re still excavating, having found numerous fossils from the previously mentioned animals as well as mammoths, mastodons, and giant ground sloths.
There are giant sculptures of many of these animals to be found in the park. Nowadays paleontologists are focused on microfossils — bits of bugs, birds, snakes, and fish.
Around noon we’d had our fill of the treacherous goo and were feeling the need to get full of something more nutritious — or not. As such, we headed over to and along Fairfax Ave to the corner of 3rd Street, where the Original Farmers Market waited.
Original Farmers Market vs. The Grove: Where to Eat First
This is a historic, open-air landmark that was founded during the Great Depression when local farmers parked their trucks on a vacant dirt lot and sold their produce directly to folks from their tailgates.
Nowadays, this sprawling market is a bustling maze of narrow open-air aisles packed with more than 100 family-owned grocers, restaurants, and specialty shops. Folding chairs and tables are clustered together in different locations scattered about the market. It’s also right near CBS Television City, so it has also been a historic hangout for celebrities.
Lunch would be in two parts. First, we found Noodle Art, and lined up to order Cold noodles with Chili Oil and Sesame sauce plus a Chinese Pork Hamburger to share. The culinary team of Chef Xibao Wen and his nephew Steven Zhang are highly regarded figures in the L.A. food scene for popularizing hand-pulled Xi’an-style biang biang noodles locally.
We do love a cold sesame noodle, and the chili oil added a nice kick while the noodles themselves were thick and chewy. The juicy and savory pork on the griddled bun was delicious, and despite the persistent and notorious “ankle-biter” mosquitos at our table, we really enjoyed lunch part one, which cost $22 with a drink.
Lunch part two involved some more or less nutritious goodies. Oh My Dumpling, from the same folks behind Noodle Art had just opened for business earlier this year. Rona was hankering for some pork dumplings and these things were glisteningly good looking.
Right nearby Bob’s Coffee & Doughnuts had a display packed with all their legendary goodies. The sheer number of doughnut joints in and around Los Angeles is remarkable, and Bob’s has repeatedly earned the “Best of LA” distinction over the decades across multiple local publications. So they must be good, right?
We settled down at a thankfully insect-free table with those fried pork dumplings and a crispy Diet Coke, which cost $13, plus a massive chocolate frosted doughnut with sprinkles and an iced tea from Bob’s for $8. The dumplings were as good as they looked, simply loaded with savory cooked pork.
But, the doughnut? The thick fudge frosting atop an airy yeast doughnut variety was inarguably the best doughnut of Jay’s life. Life changing and worth savoring every bite.
Now it was time to work off some of that snacky-lunch with some shopping next door at the Grove, a busy open-air shopping area that combines high-end fashion shops and upscale beauty brands with an almost Disney-esque atmosphere.
Naturally, Jay snapped a selfie with the free double-decker trolley as if rolled past. It was apparently built on the restored undercarriage of a 1950s Boston streetcar, which seemed kind of cool.
Jay followed Rona into a boutique called Laneige, probably while staring at his phone and playing Pokemon Go. As such, he has little recollection of what happened beyond Rona being a little giddy while purchasing various items of the “lip stuff” category from this Korean “beauty experiences” location. So much was purchased that Rona received three complimentary items including a fan that wound up coming in handy at Scott and Vero’s wedding – it was hot that day.
Most of the other stores felt a bit out of our league, except for See’s Candies, where we stopped briefly and received free samples for merely gracing them with our presence. We almost felt guilty for not buying anything, but not too guilty.
The Grove is beautifully laid out and that resort vibe was reinforced as we approached the central park green. In the midst was a serene dancing fountain, designed by the company responsible for the famous Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas. As you might expect, the fountain does have choreographed shows with light displays and music, though at that time the show was limited to the water jets dancing and shooting into the air.
Soon it was time to leave the city of angels, hoping to avoid the rogue self-driven Waymo vehicles that eerily covered the city’s streets, while changing lanes at speed. Because the notion of rush hour here being anywhere close to an hour was overly optimistic, we figured there was minimal hope of getting out of the L.A. area unpunished by traffic. We were not disappointed.
As a reward for safely escaping L.A. and because coffee, we stopped at a Dutch Bros, which is a chain we kind of wished we had back east. A few more days were still ahead us in California, but most of them would be spent either getting ready for or being present at the wedding. There would also be a bit of cursing United Airlines for canceling our flight home as we were leaving the hotel for LAX.