On Thursday evening, I drove down Palos Verdes Drive South and noticed lights on at our new Terranea Resort. A call to Ara Mihranian, Project Planner at the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, confirmed that the contractors are working extended hours in the enclosed interiors of the site. It is the developers intent to have the project finished by June 2009. Photo above is of the entry court of the main hotel.
Recently I enjoyed an extensive tour of the furnished casitas, the hotel lobby, ballroom, suites and an overall view of the grounds. What a treat! There are several outdoor wedding venues with fabulous ocean views. The lobby will have original artwork from local artists at the Portuguese Bend Artist Colony. The photo below is of the view from the south-facing hotel rooms and is my favorite view. You can see Abalone Cove, Smuggler’s Cove/Sacred Cove and Portuguese Bend Cove.
There are Casitas and Villas available for sale. Click here to view my prior post with additional information on Terranea.
Community Information Points of Interest Rancho Palos Verdes Terranea
Every time I travel down Palos Verdes Drive South, I am amazed at the progress of our new Terranea Resort. I do believe they will make their June 2009 opening!
Peninsula News recently had an article updating the progress. On October 27th a furnished Casita will be completed and open for public view from 10:00 - 5:00 (and daily thereafter). Please call 310-802-7465 for an appointment. 31 Casitas and Villas are still available for sale from $2,250,000 to $4,100,000. Forty percent of the buyers of the 51 Villas/Casitas that have sold are Peninsula residents or live in the Los Angeles area!
Work on the 360-room hotel, meeting rooms, grand ballroom, restaurants, pools, 25,000 square-foot spa and nine-hole golf course are well underway as you can see from the photo above. And “a 50-space public parking area allows residents access to the trail system and beach, which already is popular with local scuba divers.” It will be fabulous to have a hotel where our guests can stay and restaurants for all of us to enjoy!
palos verdes peninsula Points of Interest Rancho Palos Verdes Terranea
What are the names of the Bays and Coves in Palos Verdes? That questions was asked of me a couple of weeks ago. And as a 30 plus year resident, I could not name them all. How lucky are we here on the Palos Verdes Peninsula that we have so many that we can’t count or name them all! Our coastline is truly magnificent!
Matt Waters at Rancho Palos Verdes Parks and Recreation Department did some research for me and came up with the map below taken from Don Gales book, “Wildflowers, weeds…” I realize it may be challenging to read so I am listing the Coves and Bays starting from RAT (Right At Torrance) beach which is the northern border of the Palos Verdes coastline (and the Points are in parenthesis).
In Palos Verdes Estates there is Malaga Cove, Bluff Cove, (Rocky Point) Lunada Bay (Resort Point) and Christmas Tree Cove (which is shared with Rancho Palos Verdes). The shoreline begins in Rancho Palos Verdes with Christmas Tree Cove and continues with Golden Cove, (Point Vicente) Fisherman’s Cove (Long Point), Abalone Cove - photo above, (Portuguese Point) Smuggler’s Cove/Sacred Cove (Inspiration Point) and Portuguese Bend Cove (Halfway Point).
bays and coves Community Information Palos Verdes Estates palos verdes peninsula Points of Interest Rancho Palos Verdes 
Recently, there have been Blue Whale sightings only two miles off the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast near Point Vicente. The Peninsula News reported that the whales are here to eat the abundant krill that are attracted to the nutrients near the continental shelf off our coast. The blue whale is the largest mammal on earth (as long as 3 school buses) and can weigh up to 336,000 pounds. They are an endangered species with approximately 2,000 living in the Pacific Ocean (the largest grouping) and hundreds more in the Antartic and Atlantic Ocean.
Dudley Wigdahl, Curator of Mammals at the Aquarium of the Pacific said the blue whales will be swimming up and down the coast for the next 3 to 6 months before they migrate south for the winter. To see the blue whales, Captain Dan Salas of Harbor Breeze Cruises has special blue whale excursions (562-432-4900) . Tom Underhill, photographer for Peninsula News has posted more photos of the blue whale which can be accessed by clicking here.
Above photo courtesy of Tom Underhill, Peninsula News
Blue Whale Community Information palos verdes peninsula Points of Interest