Ribbon cutting at Smog City Brewing Company

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On Friday afternoon several members of the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC), Torrance City Council member Bill Sutherland and a representative from Assembly member Al Muratsuchis office joined several dozen fans of Smog City Brewing Company at their newly opened microbrewery and tasting room for an official welcome to Torrance and the Chamber of Commerce. It was just a few weeks ago that Torrance Mayor Scotto cited craft beer as a new growth industry for Torrance so everyone was out in force to show their support for that idea. Smog City introduced a new beer to their tap list, …

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Redondo Beach Pier & International Boardwalk

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As the summer tourist season is approaching, I thought I might spend a little time wandering around the South Bay to photograph popular tourist destinations for those that might be coming to visit the Torrance and Redondo Beach area. Since the Redondo Beach Pier has been in the news lately due to it being the 25th anniversary of when the Redondo Beach Pier had a major fire that destroyed half of the Redondo Pier horseshoe, I decided I would start off with a walk around the Redondo Beach Pier and the International Boardwalk. The Redondo Beach Pier is a really …

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Bartels’ Ride to the Dunes for Child Abuse Awareness

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On Sunday, Bartels’ Harley-Davidson sponsored a Ride to the Dunes to help bring about a greater awareness of the epidemic state of child abuse. The ride began at Bartels’ in Marina del Rey and took the coast up to Sycamore Cove State Beach. I had too much to do Sunday to take the day off, but I did head over to Bartels’ before everyone took off. They had music provided by Jukebox Zero and a couple sponsors there providing donuts and selling raffle tickets. With Grand Marshal, Lorenzo Lamas leading the escorted group, I’d guess they had about 150 bikes …

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Third Annual Rod & Kustom BBQ Photos

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On Saturday, the CrossMembers Hot Rod Fellowship held their Third Annual Rod & Kustom BBQ at the Restoration Life Christian Church in Lawndale. This was a fundraising event with a car and bike show, [outstanding] live music, and a barbecue. In addition there were a few vendors there and they held a raffle with 100% of the proceeds going to Hands of Hope: Mission Ethiopia. Hands of Hope: Mission Ethiopia provides water purification and well digging services as well as humanitarian relief to the Afar people of Ethiopia. They are attempting to raise $40,000 to purchase a new hydraulic well …

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Sushi Nozomi: An unexpected surprise

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As my regular readers are aware, I eat a lot of sushi; I am pretty picky about the sushi I eat and there are only two people (Song and Alex) that I go to when I want it. Unfortunately, neither of my friends is currently available so I was prepared to abstain for a while. Tanya, on the other hand was not. Tanya is an interesting case because she only recently started eating sushi and she was only familiar with Song’s fusion style of preparation. Since we knew Song was selling his business, Tanya had been talking about visiting a …

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Photos of Fiesta Hermosa 2013

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Back in 1972, the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce decided to put together “the largest arts & crafts fair in Southern California.” I have not visited all the arts and crafts fairs in Southern California so I cannot confirm whether or not they met their goal, but it has to be one of the longest running ones. Not only have they had this fair every year for more than 40 years, they do it twice a year, every year; Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend. It definitely signals the beginning and end of summer in the South Bay. While …

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Memorial Day Weekend at South Coast Botanic Garden

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Saturday was the beginning of the long 2013 Memorial Day weekend and since Tanya has been working pretty hard getting her new book, Faces of Juicing, ready for publishing, we decided to take advantage of the great weather and pay another visit to the South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The South Coast Botanic Garden is huge with over 40,000 trees and 200,000 plants, so we are able to return several times a year and it always looks at least a little different as different plants bloom at different times of the year. There are several species …

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1st Annual CRUSH Wine Festival

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On Sunday, the 18th Street Arts Center held their 1st Annual CRUSH, an artisanal wine, art and food tasting event at their location on 18th Street in Santa Monica. This was a fundraising event for the 18th Street Arts Center and I would say they had a pretty nice turnout of about 500-600 people; if I had to guess. It was a great day to be outside, the food smelled and tasted great, there was good music, fun people and wine; lots and lots of wine. As you know, I am more of a craft beer guy, but we did …

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Smog City Brewing Opens & Strand Brewers Club Party

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Saturday was day six of the 2013 American Craft Beer Week and in keeping with the theme of the week these photos are from the Smog City Brewing grand opening and a birthday party for the President of the Strand Brewers Club, a local home brewers club. If you have been following this site recently, you probably noticed that Smog City Brewing, a 2012 Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal winner, has been holding a few soft-opens in preparation for their grand opening. Well, Saturday was the big day. As Tanya really enjoys the Smog City Groundwork Coffee Porter and …

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Torrance 54th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade

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On Saturday, Torrance held their 54th Annual Armed Forces Day Parade, the longest running military parade sponsored by any city in the United States. Prior to the event I was reading about how much smaller the parade would be this year due to budget constraints as a result of the sequester. This was my third time attending the parade in the last few years, and while there were slight changes this year, I cannot say that there were not similar cutbacks prior to the sequester. Either way, it was a fun event for the entire family and Torrance Boulevard was …

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