Wow.
Thank you, thank you.

Aww, thanks. We try!

Almost makes me homesick; except it did not look like that when I was a kid. I do miss the sound of the waves (but not the seagulls).

Really beautiful, Amy. Been there 11 years ago and loved it...

While in LA this summer for my niece's bat mitzvah, I took my kids and my niece there. It may not be P.O.P., which I vaguely vaguely remember from my youth, but it is a very nice way to spend the afternoon and evening.

I bought the unlimited rides tickets for the girls, and the 9 year old and the 12 year old just spent time running between roller coaster exit and the roller coaster entrance.

My 7 year old had a lot of fun on this, her first "real" not for toddlers or kids roller coaster.

And we all enjoyed the Ferris Wheel.

Sorry, I'm from Michigan...what's P.O.P.?

I think it, or someplace near it, used to be called Pacific Ocean Park

When I was a kid, and we were driving from the Valley to the Santa Monica area, we would ask if we could go to POP, Pacific Ocean Park. Since it closed when I was five, I suspect I never got there in a conscious state and it's my brothers that enjoyed it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean_Park

It was a much larger amusement park located about a mile down the beach from the Santa Monica Pier. Located between Navy and Pier Street really.

You've almost certainly seen POP. It was the amusement park and the abandoned amusement park in a lot of 60s dramas, including, "In Praise of Pip", the early anti Vietnam war, Twilight Zone episode starring Jack Klugman and Bill Mumy. It was also in the Fugitive, and I believe it was in more than that.

Wow, thanks.

There's a very cool photo map at a link within the wiki link you posted.

http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/mapsdocs/poppier-map.htm

I find it fascinating for some reason. Perhaps because it was some childhood destination. But the description makes it sound pretty great, and sad that it was killed in an urban development project of all things, and then that it has completely vanished, with not even an urban palimpsest where we can spot it lurking.

Love that word, "palimpsest." Lately, it reminds me of Gore Vidal.

One summer when I was a grad student, I worked at a certain liberal think tank in Santa Monica, and my office had a fabulous view of the ferris wheel. The slowly spinning lights at night made working late a lot more pleasant.

which think tank? The only one I know of is Rand, and that's more than a think tank... It's a brain vault. And it's not liberal, exactly....

Yep, that one. The health division is extremely liberal. Defense is another matter, of course, but they are completely isolated from the rest of the organization.

What's the difference between a think tank and a "brain vault"?

I was surfing YouTube with my daughter yesterday and came across this Get Smart episode filmed at POP.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fpz4bORkNy8

It gives one some idea of what POP was like, but sadly, none of the really cool rides are seen that are shown in the map.