San Pedro, Los Angeles, CA

San Pedro sits at the bottom of Los Angeles where the city finally runs out of land, a working port town with cliffs, tide pools and a harbor full of cranes on one side and open Pacific on the other. Homes in San Pedro change with the hill you're on. Older streets near downtown and Vinegar Hill hold Craftsman bungalows with deep porches, Spanish Revival houses, Foursquares, duplexes and bungalow courts. Farther up the slopes and to the north, postwar ranch houses with picture windows take over, and plenty of them catch a slice of harbor or ocean. The coastline is the daily backyard. Point Fermin Park wraps around its Victorian lighthouse on Paseo del Mar, White Point has tide pools below the bluffs, and Cabrillo Beach gives you calm harbor water plus the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. Food leans local and old school. Pacific Diner on Pacific Avenue is where people go for heavy breakfast plates and omelets, and Colossus on Alma Street turns out bread and pastries that draw people from across the South Bay. Daily errands mostly happen along Gaffey Street and Western Avenue, with Vons, Ralphs and Sprouts spread between them, while downtown's 6th and 7th streets are walkable for coffee and a meal. The Harbor Freeway ends at Gaffey, and the Vincent Thomas Bridge heads toward Long Beach. The tradeoff is distance. San Pedro sits at the end of the line, so almost any trip into the rest of Los Angeles starts with a long freeway drive. What you get back is a morning walk along Paseo del Mar with container ships lined up offshore.