The Sea, San Pedro, CA (store)

Name:The Sea
Type:store
Street:305 N. Harbor Blvd.
City:San Pedro
State:CA
Zip:90731
country:USA
Phone:(213) 831-1694
Status:defunct

Description:
This was a nautical store that did have one tiki out front. As described in a newspaper of the time: "THE SEA, a museum like store with a 1940 vintage lifeboat as the entry canopy, features a vast selection of nautical, sea, and nature related items. See the largest selection of specimen, craft, and decorator shells in California and the skeletons of a 40' finback whale, a yearling grey whale and "Joana" the human.

I searched the threads and only found a few comments on this place.

The Sea closed in December 1998.

With apologies to Ben and his mom, I did enjoy bringing my family here when the kids were young. You could kill an hour or two easily while perusing the for-sale items on the right side of the store and the museum items on the left side. I'll post what photos I could find. For most of the originals I found on the web use the below link to an old tribute site started in October 1998 and probably finished around January 1999. It was 90% written while the store was still open. Can't believe the site's still up. I copied it in full over 10 years ago expecting it to disappear.

http://webspace.webring.com/people/jd/davearoo/index.html

[ Edited by: Zinctiki 2014-08-31 05:24 ]

The tiki in front.

I also scanned this old card. This was the view when entering the store. Pretty awesome.

Front.

Back.

Some random images you can find on the link I posted.

Nice post, thank you! I thought there was a post here already on "The Sea", but could not find one.

Here's another business card image:

And I took these of the outside in the mid to late 90s:

The above Tiki, and the one on the left, came from "The Tikis" in Lake Elsinore.
I currently don't have a photo of it in situ there. Here are some others:

For more images of "The Tikis":

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4926&forum=2&start=15

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2014-08-31 05:09 ]

It's now a pet store that funny enough does a big business of shipping pet supplies to Hawaii. They have an interesting mix of items for whatever kind of pet, be it fluffy, scaly or creepy that you might have.
Whatever was imbedded in the concrete, mostly shells, is still visible in the parking lot and polished concrete floor of the store. The boat over hang is still there too.
I've bought a few items from their aquarium decorations section for my tiki area.

On 2014-08-31 02:33, bigbrotiki wrote:
Nice post, thank you! I thought there was a post here already on "The Sea", but could not find one.

Here's another business card image:
[...]

And I took these of the outside in the mid to late 90s:
[...]

The above Tiki, and the one on the left, came from "The Tikis" in Lake Elsinore.
I currently don't have a photo of it in situ there. Here are some others:
[...]

I don't recall seeing the tiki on the left, but it was a long time ago. I dropped in at least once or twice a year from about 1986 until 1998. Was shocked to see it closed, similar to that sinking feeling when the Bahooka announced its closing.

Lori, yeah I'd heard that many items were transferred to the new owners (next door?) and that their inventory was so large they couldn't sell it all off when The Sea finally closed. The whole area surrounding Ports O' Call is depressing today. I stopped going there years ago.

The Maritime Museum, USS Iowa and the S.S. Lane Victory are worth a visit if you like nautical history. You can't beat the views from the Korean Friendship Bell or the Fort MacArthur Museum. There is a shop that sells nautical items along 22nd Street.
I live in Long Beach and there isn't much connection between their maritime/military history and the city itself. They've gotten rid of it.
San Pedro is trying to re-energize their waterfront and they've done a lot of improvements but they don't seem to realize that the run down government housing project along the waterfront don't make a good first impression. I avoid Ports O Call Village on the weekends.