The location: The Beach Stalker.

Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. A beach.


Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. Miami, Florida.


Q. When did we see it on the show?

    A. In Episode 3 (of Season 3), "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

    Dexter is at the beach with Rita, and her kids are playing nearby.

    As they are about to leave, Dexter spots the stranger he had seen earlier talking to Rita's daughter in the supermarket.

    This time, the guy has a camera with a telephoto lens, and is shooting photos of young Astor in her swimsuit.

    Astor recognizes him, referring to him as "the Cheerios man".

    Dexter had guessed that the man was a sexual predator in the supermarket, and now he's sure.

    Using the license plate number he had jotted down at the supermarket, and police computers, Dexter checks the guy's records, and finds he is Nathan Marten, an ex-con who has a criminal past as a child molester.

    Dexter later confronts him at a boardwalk cafe.
     When that fails, Dexter goes to his house and kills him.


Q. What is it actually in real life?

    A. A beach - but far from Miami.


Q. Where can I find it in real life?

    A. This was shot on the stretch of beach just east/southeast of the Belmont Pier in Long Beach, CA..

    The beach is right behind (south of) the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, at 4000 E. Olympic Plaza.

    The building with the pointy roof, to the right, is La Palapa, a beachside patio café which was used for another location in the third season.

    And the beach is just a short walk away from the alley location seen in the scene where Debra interviews a group of hookers about Teegan's murder.

    The camera is looking northwest in most of the screencaps above (except for the one shot of the kids, which is looking south/southwest).

    To get there, just take Ocean Blvd east to S. Termino Avenue and turn towards the ocean. There are two different (metered) parking lots to choose from.

    Here is an aerial photo of the park. And here is a map link.


    I shot the photos below in 2009


    The photo above was shot looking west from in front of the Olympic Pool building, on the north edge of the beach.
    Note the pointy-roofer La Palapa building on the right side.
    The Belmont Pier and the Palos Verdes hills are also visible in the distance.


    The photo above was shot from the beach, looking northwest at the buildings on Ocean Blvd in Long Beach.
    (The tall building to the right is the one seen behind Dexter's head in the fifth photo from the top.)

UPDATE: The Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, mentioned in this article, was demolished in early 2015.  They discovered seismic deficiencies in the old building, so they torn it down. It will eventually be replaced with a new pool.
La Palapa, the patio café which was the scene of several different "Dexter" scenes over the years, was attached to the west side of the pool building, so it was torn down as well.

Here, for the record, is a Google StreetView of the pool, when it was standing.

And here is a YouTube video of the historic building being torn down.


Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

    A.  This one was easy.  I had photographed the La Palapa café for the location where LaGuerta meets with Prado, and it's pointy roof is distinctive, so I recognized it instantly when I saw it in the background. Likewise, the white wall that separates the beach from the Olympic Pool complex is also easily recognized from the shots in the scene.




 
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