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Our first stop in Redondo Beach was the beach and the pier. As we approached the sky was full of kites. We had arrived on the weekend of the Annual Kite Festival. Neither of us has flown a kite or even thought about kites since we were kids so it was good. As we wandered down the pier we both noticed signs forbidding the feeding of the birds and sea lions. We saw various gulls and pigeons and shrugged thinking it unlikely we'd be lucky enough to see anything more interesting especially after the sea lions in San Francisco. At that point we were met by a very large pelican sat looking round. We stood corrected. Then, even better, as we looked over the pier for the first time we were met by a sea lion looking back. There were a couple around the pier basking in the sun, holding out for fish (there's fishing off the end of the pier) and generally watching us watching them. We were enamoured and stood watching them for some time before heading on to explore the pier.
We then saw a sign for a shark exhibition and went in to investigate further. We paid $3 and were led into a darkened room where there was basically a very large shark. It turned out the shark was real - it had drowned after getting caught in nets. It was a 16 foot Great White called Georgette. A guide told us about her, her species and exploded myths about the breed as a monster and man-eater. We were struck by the sheer size of it especially the depth which was about 4.5 foot. We didn't hang about - it felt sad and weird.
So we went back to the sea lions who were still there (or some of their pals were anyway) to cheer ourselves up. As sunset approached off they went. We saw group after group of sea lions swimming and rising out of the water as they breached the waves. It was amazing. We spent the next day - our final full day in America - doing pretty much the same thing - milling about the beach and pier and watching sea lions. It was sunny, chilled out and relaxing. In fact, we've been back down there today to see the sea lions - it seemed the best way to spend our last few hours in the USA although today we walked up the coast to see their antics at their dock just outside the harbour. Love em!
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