Ocean Beach

One of the most visited landmarks in San Diego County is located in Ocean Beach. We thought it might be our lunch destination (see tomorrow's entry), but, surprisingly, it was not.

And it wasn't even located within the city.

The landmark that is visited by over 500,000 people per year is the Ocean Beach Municipal Pier.

(Since we had food on our minds when we planned the time in Ocean Beach, we did not realize the "star power" of the Pier, so we did not feature this structure in our photos. Instead it played a "supporting role" to the waves.)

Although the pier quickly became a popular destination for locals and tourists after it was officially christened in 1966, its original purpose was for fishing. Local Ocean Beach fishermen needed a way to prevent their fishing lines and lures from getting tangled in the vast kelp and rock beds that lie near the surface of the water near the shores.

With the construction of the OB Pier, anglers are able to fish in 25-30 feet of water, avoiding most of the shoreline kelp and enabling them to catch species of fish that live in deeper waters.

The pier extends 1971 feet into the ocean and is the second longest pier on the West Coast and purported to be the longest concrete pier in the world. Its unique T-shape at the end of the pier adds 360 feet to the south and 193 feet to the north (oceanbeachsandiego.com/ocean-beach-pier).

The beauty of the waves crashing against the pier was matched by the sound of this action and together had a mesmerizing effect on us.

In the moments between watching the waves, we observed varying levels of activity among some of our fellow visitors to the beach.