Black Friday by the Sea

"I feel most at home out along the Ocean's edge, where land meets sea. It is here along these rocky, life filled pools, giant kelp forests, and flat rock fishing holes that life reaches into me with a soothing calm." - Jesse Lee Longacre

Many years ago, back in the early 2000s, the Geek enjoyed a good Black Friday shopping. He would get up before the crack of dawn and stand in line to get some pretty good deals (at that times you would actually still get good deals). After a few hours he would return home to have a long and lazy breakfast with Kaefer and me - and entertain us with the funniest stories about the things he had experienced while standing in line. But after a few years the appeal had vanished and Black Friday shopping stopped in the Bartz household. Instead, we stayed at home and spent a wonderfully lazy day, playing games, putting up the Christmas lights on the house and eating too many cookies. A couple years later, REI introduced the #optoutside Black Friday with their own stores closed so that their employees could enjoy the great outdoors. We enthusiastically embraced it and since then, we have spent Black Friday far away from any shopping and any laziness.

This year was no exception. The weather was gorgeous and we decided to go to the ocean and spend the day in Salt Point State Park. This state park has been on our list for quite a while and I honestly don't know why we didn't go there sooner. It is a gem.

Salt Point has a very rough and wild shoreline. It is named for the cliffs and crevices where salt from ocean water crystallizes in sandstone depressions. The Native Kashia Pomo gathered salt here for centuries. One of the most unusual and beautiful features of the sandstone along these sea cliffs is the honeycomb-like network called tafoni.

The waves and salt spray leave salt crystals which interact with the sandstone, causing some portions to be hardened, while others are loosened. This creates the lacy, box-like pattern. There were many to find here.

How can you not love this texture on the sandstone? It is simply amazing.

We were constantly putting up our cameras, taking pictures. If it wasn't the tafoni, it was the "lovely rough" sea that captured us with its tall waves - some of them were a good ten feet tall and arrived in the typical "sleeper wave" pattern (a series of very powerful waves followed by a smooth sea followed by very powerful waves etc.). The constant noise from the crashing onto the shore sometimes was so loud that we had to shout to each other.

Beside the tafoni, I was fascinated by the entire geology of this place. Rock surfaces were different, some smooth, some rough. Some reminded me of the slick rock in places like Canyonlands or Arches National Parks. Water pooling in depressions washed out the sandstone even further. There were different colored layers of rock and I repeatedly wished that I knew more about geology. A geologist would have a hayday at this shoreline.

A sea urchin had become lunch for a passing sea gull.

A tide pool served as a mirror for the clouds in the sky.

Sometime during the day I came upon this sign that inspired the quote at the top of this post.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about Jesse Lee Longacre except that he was only 41 years old when he died. Maybe he was a tribe member of the Kashia Pomo. His words truly spoke to me.

I was happy to see a few birds - right when we started out I saw a hawk disappearing in the forest beyond the shore and a kite hovering over the cove. I thought I had taken a photo of the kite, but I can't find it anymore. It's a mystery.

But there was this sweet little sparrow that came to rest on this beautiful rock cairn.

A Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) flew by and landed a bit further down the way. What a graceful guy he is.

Before I saw the Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) I had heard them and was looking for them. They were darting up and down among the rocks, probably looking for mollusks.

Nature is just the greatest and most accomplished artist. That's why this shoreline is my contribution to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date this week. What did we have for dinner on this wonderful day? Well, we drove a bit further up North to Gualala and had lunner at the Seafood Shack - clam chowder, local rock fish and chips accompanied by a bottle of local beer.

On our way back home we witnessed a beautiful sunset over the ocean. We made it just in time to a parking spot next to Highway 1 - weren't we lucky that there was some pampas grass growing (non-native and invasive, but beautiful) along the road that made a splendid foreground?