second home

Lights of the cityscape? Not exactly... this is the skyline of El Segundo, the town that borders my home of El Porto in Manhattan Beach. The skyline is the Chevron Oil refinery that dominates the sky in El Segundo. In fact, the city is named because of the refinery - or more to the point - it exists because of the refinery. El Segundo means "the second" - at the time Chevron (then Standard Oil) opened their refinery here, there was nothing else here. It was their second oil production facility, after their first and home plant in San Ramon, thus, they decided to name the town "the second". My friend Mike is visiting for a couple days - we grabbed some dinner here at a local tavern last night. The town is a lot like a little Mayberry - quaint, quiet, hidden, so it gets the nickname Mayberry by the Sea. It fits.