Seal Beach Pier in Seal Beach, California--It's pretty much a pleasure pier in the tradition of Seal Beach's earlier Joy Zone popular during the early 1900's. Kids and adults love to wander the Seal Beach Pier to look, smell, touch and even taste the meals served at Ruby's at the end of the pier.

Pint size pleasure comes from petting the Pier bronze sculptured Slick the Seal. Some children patiently hang out on the pier while their parents entertain themselves trying to catch a fish. Many children are actually given a rod & reel and encouraged to try it out.

But one of the favorite activities that catches the eyes of youth is looking through the periscope. Sometimes parents will put two quarters into the mechanized viewer to make it work, while other times the kids simply stretch reaching up to the view scope, enjoying the exercise of it all and not really concerned that the scope isn't doing its thing.

What is there to see for 50 cents? On a clear day you can look out to the oil platforms offshore and see the in clearer detail. You may look south and notice the Huntington Beach Pier, or look north and observe Long Beach peninsula and Signal Hill, or the downtown Long Beach high rise buildings.

On special days you may watch seal and sea lions frolic, dolphins enter the bay to play, and gaze further out to spot migrating whales along the California coast.