The Call of the Coast

 

Goat Rock Beach

It was the Geek's birthday at the begnning of October and we opted to spend the day at the coast. We don't give presents to each other; we rather spend a beautiful day together. It's only a short drive to the coast, but by the sea feels like being on vacation in a different world. You just need that every now and then.

We started at Doran Beach in Bodega Bay and slowly made our way north up the coast, walking at favorite beaches. The weather was a very mixed bag - a swift change from thick fog to clear skies and sun and the other way round as well.

This is what it looked like from the cliffs on our way down to the beach...

... and this is what it looked like at the beach. There are only a couple minutes between these two photos. (The picture below is Portuguese Beach, "our" clean-up beach where we used to participate in the state-wide coastal clean up day in September; unfortunately we can't join that anymore since it is always on a Saturday and I have to be at work.)

This is a typical Northern California day at the coast.

While walking along the beach, I enjoyed seeing all the "stuff" that the ocean swept onto shore, without knowing what you call most of these (well, I know kelp and crab of course).

Feathers could be found everywhere and they make a beautiful subject. I assume it's from a gull - more on gulls in a later post.

This "creature" was my favorite:

Of course I couldn't resist sticking my feet into the surf. The water wasn't as cold as I had expected, maybe because the beach here (Doran Beach) is rather shallow and in a protected bay. Usually the ocean along our coast is freezing, being supplied with nice cold water coming down from Alaska.

Someone had played with sand - Stonehenge on the beach.

I always look for shells and I found a couple beautiful pieces.

At Goat Rock Beach - my all-time favorite beach - we hung out on a large piece of driftwood, looking out onto the foggy ocean.

The gulls kept us entertained. We also saw Brown Pelicans swooping over the ocean, barely touching the water. They are such graceful birds and always look a bit primeval.

We ended the day with a visit to our favorite seafood place, Betty's Fish & Chips. It's hard to beat their seafood and we always compare seafood that we eat anywhere to them. So far only the Seafood Shack in Gualala comes close. We find that many places make the batter too thick (probably to save on the fish), but at Betty's the batter is just right and the cod can't get any fresher.

I'm sharing this delightful, tasty fish with Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date.

An Image and Its Story - August 2019

Oh August, where have you gone? Did you even happen?

August was busy busy busy with work. There was so much to do in the high school library that I worked a lot of extra hours and I even might work some in September. We got thousands of new textbooks that needed to be processed. Usually that is work I enjoy, but if it is too much the joy is sucked out of it. My body was exhausted every evening when I came home whereas my mind was restless and full of ideas that didn't find any outlet.

On top of this I was summoned for jury duty. It was the first time that I was actually called to court. I dreaded it since I had heard so many unpleasant stories about jury duty, but to my surprise I found these two days in the courtroom fascinating and interesting, and was disappointed that my number never got called. I would have loved to sit on this jury!

And - as it seems to be the case when I am busy anyway - I got a huge order in through my Etsy store that I hope to finish today and ship on Tuesday. Thus August was a busy month that didn't leave much opportunity to doing the things I really love - like walking around the lake and photographing which made it difficult to choose a photo for this post.

Kaefer came home for two weekends - one of them we spent hiking on a nearby mountain and the other we went to the ocean. That's where I took the photo for August.

This is our go-to beach, just off Highway 1 at the mouth of the Russian River. As you can see it was a foggy day. This is so typical for our area. Usually - since this is California - people think the sun shines all the time and it is hot, but really this is what one imagines about Southern California. However, this is Northern California, north of the Golden Gate, which is a completely different story weather wise. We're closer to the Pacific Northwest than to the heat of Southern California.

Here's a little story: two of my friends wanted to go to the beach with their kids. One has lived here all her life, the other had just moved up here from Orange County in Southern California. The NorCal woman was dressed for a cool day with windbreaker, long pants, a headband or even a warm hat. The SoCal woman was in her bikini and a thin t-shirt, ready to soak up the sun. While you're inland you might have the impression it is a hot day (which it probably is), but when you reach the ocean more often than not you realize that the weather once again fooled you. The temperature drops by 20 degrees, there can be a stiff breeze and the marine layer rolls over the beach and the cliffs. The ocean is freezing cold. Guess who of the two women was dressed appropriately?

Often we have that fog inland as well and sometimes it doesn't burn off until noon. Our nights are always cool - perfect sleep weather. This weather pattern is one of the things that I truly love about where I live. While I do appreciate clear days at the ocean - much better for whale watching - I love when the cliffs are shrouded in mist and the scenery has a mysterious quality.

Passing of Summer

Last Monday, after almost eight weeks of summer break, I went back to work. In all honesty I was not looking forward to it. The summer had been just too beautiful to say goodbye to these almost carefree weeks easily. But the new school year starts next Wednesday and there is a ton to do in the library before that.

At the beginning of the summer break I had made a list of things I would like to do during those weeks. I was afraid that I would just waste my time and by the end of the break would look back on missed opportunities with a lot of regret.

Instead, I look back on eight delightful and fulfilling weeks - without having touched each and every item on my list.

Hardly a week into my break the Geek and I went to San Jose to meet with Kaefer who was about to buy her very first car, a used VW Golf with a manual transmission. She is so happy about it since it gives her a bit more independence even though she is still riding her bike most of the time.

After this first week of mainly doing nothing I started to "work" on my list. I spent a day in Sonoma where I visited the mission and the old barracks;

I spent a morning in the beautiful lavender gardens of a winery:

Many mornings I took long walks around my beloved lake;

I re-discovered the laguna with its interesting plants, crooked trees and beautiful birds (can you see the California Quail?);

And I walked along the beach, something I do way too seldom even though the ocean always calms me and gives me inner peace.

Kaefer came home for the Fourth of July week since this was the only week she didn't have to work (she had started her summer job right after finals in June). We didn't do much - once we went champagne tasting (she turned 21 in April), but apart from that we just hang out, watching British mystery shows, playing games and drinking traditional German Erdbeerbowle.

I spent a lot of time reading and knitting (this is the start of a little dress for our newest family member in Turkey) and I even painted a bit!

Before the summer I got back into the habit of journaling. I had lost my ability to write my journal after the fires and I couldn't find a way back to it. It seemed like something was completely blocked in me. I hated it. Over winter break I had taken a free writing class which was like a little teaser; it motivated me to take a more in-depth writing class in the spring and it eventually helped me to get back into writing my journal. This is one of the things that makes me unbelievably happy.

I said one of the things... the other is photography. Somehow - even though I was still photographing a lot - I had lost my "flow" with photography. Sure, I still took a lot of pictures, mainly with my phone (I got a new phone this year with an excellent camera which is wonderful but also involves the risk of becoming lazy), but it wasn't the same passion. However, I have experienced these "waves" more than once during the more than four decades of photographing, so I wasn't too worried; but I did want to find my old passion again.

And I did. Since I spent so much time on my own this summer I could right dive back into my photography and I enjoyed it so much. I tried different takes of the same motif and it felt so darn good. I don't know WHY photography makes me so incredibly happy, I only know that it DOES.

The last weekend in July the Geek and I spent in Gualala, just two hours up north from where we live, at the coast. I had rented a cabin that was in the redwoods, but right across the water - we could hear the ocean on our little deck. We enjoyed sunsets over the ocean, walked on the cliffs, ate (too much) peanut butter cheesecake and just delighted in the beautiful scenery.

During my last week of break I wanted to have one more day at the ocean and went down to the Point Reyes National Seashore where I walked out on the spit and back along Limantour Beach. It was one of those typical Northern California summer days - sunny and warm, even hot, but the moment you come to the beach fog envelopes you and the temperature drops by 20 degrees. Ah, Northern California, how much I love it!

And then break was almost over - one last Sunday spent in San Francisco with our favorite girl. We spent several hours in the Exploratorium (I hadn't been there since they had moved to Pier 15 from their old location at the Palace of Arts), rode the historical streetcar of the F Line, ate fish and chips near Fisherman's Wharf and walked along Crissy Field Beach.

It was a beautiful summer.

Winter Beach

Winters in Northern California can be very different - sometimes they are mild, even quite warm; others bring multiple storms with a lot of rain; some are cold and can even include a dusting of snow (and heavy snow in the Sierras which we depend on for our summer water). This past winter we had a combination of all of these, but the stormy and rainy part certainly played a dominant role.

At the beginning of Januar, when we experienced the milder days of winter and Kaefer was still at home, she and I decided to go to the ocean and spend a few hours at Goat Rock, our favorite beach. The Russian River enters the Pacific Ocean here and the beach is like a spit of land between the two bodies of water.

Where the Russian River spills into the ocean the seals like to hang out, Not just two or three but an entire colony. They have their own "private" beach where people are not supposed to go (of course there are always idiots who ignore that), but it is close enough to watch them. I always enjoy seeing them.

 And just as we are curious about them, they are curious about us as well. This little guy was watching us closely while swimming along the shore.

Kaefer who doesn't get to the ocean that often anymore since she moved further inland clearly enjoyed this day at the beach. I simply love her goofiness.

We noticed that there were way more seagulls at the beach than usual, and they were very active, flying in a huge flock, getting back to the beach and taking off again. It was a constant come and go accompanied by the typical loud cries that these birds make.

Just a few hours at the beach - walking along the shore, looking for driftwood and shells, watching the animals, taking photos - always centers me. We are very lucky to live so close by the Pacific Ocean.