Introduction
When I stand at shores edge and look out at the endless ocean it is sort of a spiritual time machine for me. Waves crashing on sand, receding with a hiss, remind me of how the days in memory come and go quickly, I imagine life is very short. And then I look out at the horizon where sea and sky meet. There is no real point of joining. It is diffused and unclear to me - not unlike eternity. I look out into the mist and I wonder what it will be like when I arrive. For now I find peace standing and wondering at shores edge.
~ Brian Wrede
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Ilived in Southern California until I was fourteen. Summer Saturdays were beach days in our family . Early in the morning we’d pack the station wagon with towels, toys, an old scratchy military blanket, metal Thermos, and a picnic. Our usual beach lunch consisted of tuna sandwiches (soggy by noon), salty chips, and tart green grapes. Our destination varied. Some of our favorite Southern California beaches were Doheny, San Onofre, Coronado Island, and Balboa. Four children barely fit in the car’s back seat and the two-hour ride from our inland home in Yucaipa seemed like an eternity - especially between wiggly siblings poking each other.
Once we arrived, we jumped out ready to abandon everything and run for the water, but not before my mom recited her rules. We stood squirming by the car half-listening while stealing sideways glances at the beach luring us to the shore. “Don’t go out too far in the water. Stay where you can be seen. Don’t wander off.” Muttering our agreement to behave, we dutifully walked behind our parents as they navigated through the blankets and bodies looking for a spot near the water. Once they settled on our plot of real estate we staked our claim with the blanket and towels lined like soldiers on the sand.
As my mom slathered sunscreen on my younger brother and sister, my older sister and I helped our dad blow up our dime store plastic rafts (the precursor to the Boogie Board). By this time the beach was alive with screaming children, sailing Frisbees, flying footballs, and sunbathers stretched as far as the eye could see.
When we weren’t splashing in waves, we explored tide pools and rocks. In the crevices and pools we discovered starfish, hermit crabs, sea anemones, and other fascinating ocean creatures. When the sun grew low in the horizon, our day usually ended with outdoor showers, stinging sunburns (despite our best attempts to avoid it), and voracious appetites.
As the years passed my parents traded the station wagon for a self-contained camper. Our treks to the coast grew into longer adventures camping in harbor parking lots or beach side campgrounds. I still liked to play in the waves but I also discovered the satisfying solitude of early morning walks along empty shores where the night tide deposited shells, colorful sea glass, smooth rocks, and other treasures. I also discovered the magic of the coast at night.
The ocean was a different place after sundown. As crowds thinned, bonfires dotted the sparsely populated landscape. Voices grew muffled and distant. I fell in love with the damp cool nighttime air lying on my cot under the stars listening to the low hum of a foghorn syncopating with rhythmic waves. I discovered at different times of the year running your hand through the sand at night revealed phosphorescent blue streaks. I could hear fish splashing in the still San Diego harbor and night bird songs only broken by the occasional boat cutting through the water heading back to the dock.
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Those were magical years in my life. I never wanted to leave Southern California. Unfortunately, that summer my dad was transferred to Kilgore, Texas - hundreds of miles from any coastline. I vowed I would return someday. During my absence I longed for many things left behind, but none as much as I longed for my ocean. More than a decade later I came home.
I eventually settled in Northern California near San Francisco. Here dense fog banks hover over chilly waters on shores of jagged rocks and cliffs. This brought a new chapter to my love affair with the sea. I realized that my ocean, much like life, is a never ending journey of discovery. Each encounter offers beauty, wisdom, surprise, fun, and so much more. This thirty-day photographic journal explores these experiences from behind the lens of my camera
Each day reveals different characteristics of life on the Pacific shores - from tide pools and sea life, to lighthouses and bridges, as well as simple things - patterns in sand, layers in rocks, and the essence of waves. Here, you and I can share moments in time spent looking at the Pacific - from California to British Columbia - captured forever in a photograph, narrated with bits of inspiration and interesting facts.
And now, here within the pages of this book, you and I can stand on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and say together, “This is my ocean.”
Come with me . . .
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Come with me to my amazing part of the earth. Share the miles of beautiful sandy beaches, blue-green waters, whitecaps rolling onto a sun-drenched shore.
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~ Coreen Sweeney-King
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Hills overlooking Morro Bay, California
Each beach along the Pacific Coast has its own characteristics and personality unique to that part of the hemisphere.
Off the coast of Vancouver Island, B.C., the West Coast is locally known as the Wild Coast with its violent icy winter storms that can launch full- size trees onto the shore.
In Washington, dense forests blanket much of the coast. In the Puget Sound, inlet waters are calm and sand becomes mud.
Oregon is known for long expansive isolated beaches and rugged outcropping of rocks and cliffs. Quaint towns dot the coastline and beaches are often high sand dunes.
California embraces some of Oregon’s personality in the north and then gradually changes. In the San Francisco Bay Area, small pockets of sandy beaches are cradled between high cliffs and bluffs. The water is cold year-round. In the Monterey Bay tide pools abound in this unique marine environment.
As you move down to the southern end of the state, the coastline becomes one long expansive beach with warm water, large waves, and homes built right up to the sand.
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Deception Pass State Park, Washington 18
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Big Sur Coast, California 20
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Morro Bay, California 22
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Embracing differences allows us to find enjoyment and beauty in many situations.
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How vast are the thoughts of the Great Creator; more infinite than the number of the grains of sand.
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Red Beach, Oceanside, California 26
Ilove taking a long walk on an early morning beach. Yesterday’s footprints are washed away. The night tides have deposited their treasures, and a new day is on the horizon.
Each grain of sand crunching under my bare feet holds secrets to a past life when they were part of something else - a great mountain, a jagged ocean rock, a smooth stone.
Now these tiny fragments lie here is unison with others creating something new. New beginnings are often endings. New beginnings mean change.
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For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.
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~ Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara, California 36
Sitting at the end of a pier allows a much different view of the ocean than from the shore. Here I watch sea lions diving for food in the water.
When the tides reach the height of the pier’s undergirding, they climb up and lazily hang out, barking at one another with their distinct trumpeting sound.
As I lean far over the railings I see brilliant orange starfish and green sea anemones clinging to the barnacle encrusted pilings. Sailboats pass close and passengers wave like long-lost friends.
I don’t know what it is about being on a pier that triggers a need for clam chowder and fries, but it happens to me every time.
Sitting here on this man-made extension I am aware of our intrusion into this fragile world. It’s a delicate balance to share these moments without causing damage.
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Gaviota, California 42
This watery world is ours to enjoy. It’s also ours to protect as stewards. It’s an inheritance for the generations to come.
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The pebbles and sand were once part of the jagged fortress of rocks. Even that which seems unyielding eventually surrenders to the insistent force of a constant caress.
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Sea stacks are blocks of erosion-resistant rock isolated from the land by sea. Sea stacks begin as part of a headland or sea cliff. (NGS)
These sea stacks are the rocks that rise out of the water looking like small rock islands.
Along the shore, wave action erodes sea stacks, as well as shoreline rocks, often creating layered patterns, or worn smooth, or hollowed areas as softer rock washes away.
After many years, the hard rock begins to wear away eventually causing it to disappear altogether.
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Montaña De Oro, California 48
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Energy and persistence alter all things.
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~ Benjamin Franklin
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I stepped lightly at first trying not to leave a trail; the sand gave way. No matter how gently, or how quietly we try to walk on this earth, we always leave an imprint.
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On March 11, 2011 a 9.0 earthquake hit Japan. It was recorded as one of the greatest natural disasters in our history. The effects of the earthquake caused a giant tsunami to rip through a large part of the Japanese coastline creating a death and debris field hundreds of miles long.
In June 2012, a Japanese docktorn away by the tsunami - landed on the coast of Oregon at Agate Beach in New Port.
Tourism spiked to record numbers that year as people from all over came to see the huge piece of concrete littering this otherwise pristine section of the Pacific.
During the following year, the city had the job of removing the dock and restoring the beach to its original state.
In the process, they saved a corner that had been painted with a graffiti mural. This chunk of concrete now serves as a memorial of the event and rests in front of the Hatfield Marine Science Center in New Port.
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Charred bits of wood, dead crabs and strange translucent worms spread across the beach.
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Some things in life leave a longer, lasting impression even long after they’re gone.
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and listen. Do you hear it? Life at the ocean plays a never ending tune. 65
Stop
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The morning harbor waters are still, only disturbed by the cautious steps of a large heron and a small egret.
In the distance a fishing boat motors by as fishermen reel their nets, stack crates, and shout orders to one another.
Morning songbirds perched in branches along the shore sing melodically as seagulls join in with a caw and squeal.
Suddenly a large flock of pelicans sail in, landing on the jetty as waves splash against the rocks.
Sand crabs scurry away from eager Sandpipers skilled in capturing their prey.
I close my eyes and imagine there is no greater orchestra than the melody of songbirds, the rhythmic beat of waves, and the brass section of seagulls, cormorants, and pelicans. Listen. Can you hear it?
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A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
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~ Lou Holtz
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Sit with me and rest. Let your body, mind, and spirit simply delight in the day.
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Whalers Cove, Point Lobos, CA 76
The world is still, let my mind and soul drink in this refreshing moment when there are no agendas, no calendars, or ringing phones.
Demands are silenced.
Today I will practice the art of being quiet. Here at the waters edge I release all thoughts of “doing.”
Today I will just “be.”
I will connect with the earth and my creator.
I will open my mind and listen.
I will be silent.
I will be present here at the waters edge enjoying each minute for what it brings.
Today in silence I will be fully alive.
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Beach, Newport, Oregon 78
Agate
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Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur, California 80
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After a few deep breaths I feel renewed physically and spiritually...I feel relaxed and at home near the ocean.
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~ Jeanne Wrede
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I am always with you, even when you walk alone.
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Once I read a well-known poem about footprints in the sand. In the poem the author wrote how her Lord would always be with her no matter what happened in her life.
The poem goes on to describe the scene showing two sets of footprints in the sand, side-by-side, throughout her life. It was only during the most difficult times only one set of footprints appeared.
It is here the author describes her acute sense of loneliness. In times when she really needed to feel her Lord’s presence, she thought she had walked alone.
The shore is a wonderful place to contemplate the deeper truth’s in life. Too many times we get so caught up in our busy schedules that we forget to take time out to walk on the beach. It is often in these moments that the most profound truths are revealed.
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Along the water’s edge in Santa Cruz, CA., out of the corner of my eye, I saw a young girl balancing on a pipe. I watched fascinated as she carefully placed one foot in front of the other, slowly, and methodically with outstretched arms as if her life hung in the balance.
Stringy wet hair clung to white wool. Her bare feet still held the warmth of the day as cold fog rolled onshore.
She seemed content playing alone on the pipe, deep in that delicious imaginary world belonging to children.
There was something about her movements that seemed cautious and determined, yet playful. That’s when I realized she wasn’t alone.
All the while, in front of her a smaller girl identically dressed walked in perfect unison - with the exception of one small slip that revealed her presence.
The older girl’s movements were protective and encouraging as she moved to the rhythm of the child in front. Together as one and not alone.
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Sometimes we have to walk in loneliness in order to discover the truth.
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The lighthouse serves as both a warning and a guide .
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Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Oregon
Lighthouses are found up and down the Pacific Coast throughout the United States and British Columbia.
According to some U.S. historical accounts, in 1850 Congress appropriated just under $100,000 to build the first U.S. lighthouses along California’s coastline from Alcatraz Island down to Point Loma; six lighthouses in all.
Today there are more than 100 Pacific Coast lighthouses still in operation, although most are no longer under the watchful eye of the lighthouse keeper.
Number of lighthouses on the Pacific Coast:
• California 30
• Oregon 11
• Washington 27
• British Columbia 40
The lighthouse has long served as a warning and a guide. Designed so that sailors could navigate towards safe shores, out of harms way.
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Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero, California 98
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Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, near San Simeon, California
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Point Pinos Lighthouse, Pacific Grove, California 102
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It’s good to follow the guiding lights that help us on our journey.
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play! 105
Come
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The invitation read, “Come join us for a play date at the beach. Bring toys, beach towels, and sunscreen. Snacks will be provided”
Play: recreational activity; especially the spontaneous activity of children.
Webster
People go to the beach for different reasons. We may call it sports, sunbathing, taking a beach daysecretly deep down, however, what I think we really want to do is play.
Play may be an acceptable activity for children, but somehow adults are no longer allowed. Why not? Who took away our freedom to play?
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to play? Permission granted. 113
Want
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We cannot control which way the wind will blow..
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We clear the harbor and the wind catches her sails and my beautiful ship leans over ever so gracefully, and her elegant bow cuts cleanly into the increasing chop of the waves.
I take a deep breath and my chest expands and my heart starts thumping so strongly I fear the others might see it beat through the cloth of my jacket.
I face the wind and my lips peel back from my teeth in a grin of pure joy.
~ L.A. Meyer, Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber
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You can’t control the winds in your life but you can always adjust the sail.
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How quickly time passes. One day we are here and then, in the next moment, our body - our shell - returns to the earth. I wonder what impression my life will leave behind?
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Just the other day I was learning to walk, playing in the dirt, swinging on swings.
Just the other day I was trying on mom’s heels, braiding my hair, tying up bows.
Just the other day I was kissing a boy, graduating from school, saying “I do,” going away.
Just the other day I was cleaning up toys, washing the clothes, watching my daughter kiss boys.
Just the other day my sons said “I do,” the grandchildren came, I packed up my heels.
Just the other day, I reached for your hand, we sat near the shore, and watched the sun fade.
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Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
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~ King David
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Underneath the skin of the ocean lies the secret lives of the jellyfish.
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Jellyfish have a very short lifespan, living less than one year. While they are called a fish, they are in fact not a fish; they are a plankton.
They have been around since the dawn of time. Scientists constantly discover new species as we explore the ocean depths.
An adult jellyfish is called a Medusa after the mythological creature. Their bodies have radial symmetry. This means that all of their body parts are like wheel spokes- they extend out from the center.
Jellyfish are about 98% water. They don’t have bones, a brain or a heart. They don’t have eyes or noses. They see and smell from nerves at the base of their tentacles containing thousands of poisonous neurotoxins.
Most stings are not serious to humans. Among the deadliest jellyfish is the Box Jelly. Their sting can be fatal.
The largest known jellyfishthe Lion’s Mane - can reach over seven feet in diameter with tentacles over 120 feet long. The Lion’s Mane is found in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean.
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If we look beyond the skinwe may discover a beauty we never knew existed.
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Tide pool creatures must be resilient in order to survive their ever-changing world.
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Tide pool creatures are hearty and resilient to harsh conditions. They must be able to withstand strong winds, pounding waves, and hot sun. They depend on the currents for their food.
Many small ocean creatures make their home here. Shellfish such as clams, barnacles, and mussels as well as sea anemones, starfish, and sea urchins all live in the tide pools.
Here there’s a wealth of biodiversity. It’s one of the easiest ocean habitats to study because of its location and proximity to the shore. They are also vulnerable for the same reason.
Threats to these ocean habitats include overuse and overharvesting as well as activity on land such as pesticide use, sediment deposits, and other soil problems. Oil spills and toxins in the ocean can also affect the health of our tide pools.
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And there it lay, battered by an unforeseen storm. Hull rotting, neglected, and long forgotten.
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Today marks the middle of the journey. A strong awareness of fleeting time once again sneaks in demanding reflection. It makes me think of life’s journey.
One moment we are invincible and unstoppable; in the next our movements are increasingly calculated, activities segmented, and comfortable shoes suddenly seem fashionable.
We can’t fight the inevitable. One day our journey will end revealing the hope inside our souls.
Sometimes we struggle against a deep desire to drink in life’s adventures pushing against an unfamiliar longing to rest.
Now is not the time to surrender to the creaking of time worn bones or the storms that push us into a harbor of false security where life wastes away. No! Now is the time to press on.
A cool wind blows from the north. Patch up the cracks and hoist the sail. Who knows what lies beyond the horizon?
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Coast Highway, Central Coast of California 158
Pacific
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Deception Pass State Park, Washington 160
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the Rincon, Ventura County, California 162
Along
The
biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
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~ Oprah Winfrey
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Seals, elephant seals, and sea lions.
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The Pacific shores are home to several mammals including harbor seals, California sea lions and northern elephant seals.
In southern California on La Jolla’s Children’s Pool Beach, harbor seals are easily spotted as large groups bask in the sun.
Further up the coast in Central Coast California near San Simeon you can watch northern elephant seals giving birth in one of the few birthing grounds in the world. Año Nuevo State Park in northern California is another.
Today the protected population is around 160,000, up from just 100 in the late 1800s.
There are an estimated 210,000 California sea lions in California. At Point Lobos’ China Beach they close off the stairs going down to the beach for several months each spring due sea lions giving birth.
Large numbers of sea lions are found lying on docks, piers, and rocks around Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco, among other places.
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How to tell a seal from a sea lion: Sea lions have ear flaps, long hairless foreflippers, and smooth whiskers. Seals have ear holes, short hairy foreflippers with claws, and crimped whiskers.
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Sanctuary - A place of refuge or safety.
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Buried deep in the ocean are submerged volcanoes and deeply carved canyons that make up the marine sanctuary of the Monterey Bay in California. Marine sanctuaries play a vital role in our oceans and ultimately in the existence of human begins. Here sea life is protected and studied.
There are five national West Coast marine sanctuaries in the United States covering 12,000 miles of ocean and shoreline.
The Monterey Bay is perhaps one of the most unique and diverse in the world. It is the largest marine sanctuary in the U.S. covering over 5,300 square miles.
The great diversity of habitats and marine life include:
• 450 species of algae
• 33 species of marine mammals
• 94 species of seabirds
• 345 species of fish
• 4 species of sea turtles
There are also thousands of invertebrates living here (National Marine Sanctuaries).
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We crave sanctuary in every sense of the word, as we flee from the disorienting distractions of twenty-first-century life. We desire to escape from superficial relationships, trivial communications and the constant noise that pervade our world, and find rest in the probing depths of God’s love.
~ Adam S. McHugh
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With each crest and swell, the art of the wave changes.
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Iam in constant search of the perfect wave. I’m not even sure what it looks like, but I still continue my pursuit.
Over the years of shooting waves from the shore, I began to realize that each wave presents it’s own fleeting beauty.
Some waves are small, gentle and lapping. Other waves are high, voluminous walls of water crashing with a thunder on the shore. There are blues, greens, grays, golds, and clear, colorless waves.
Some waves roll and churn running crossways and then pull back into itself. Others swell, roll, crest and then fall in a dance of foam and water.
I don’t know what the perfect wave is, but I know that in my relentless search for it I have discovered that each wave is beautiful and unique in it’s own right.
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Be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.
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~ Henry David Thoreau
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Sand- a billion pieces working in unison to create the beach.
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If you look closely at sand you will find that each beach - at different times and on different days - offers an organized palette of texture and color often only disrupted by our own footprints.
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One can gain brilliance from books, but wisdom happens when you learn to look close and observe.
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Sprinkled along the shore, peppered around the hills and cliffs, flowers are like throw pillows in a well decorated home offering up a splash of color .
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The earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The swirling seaweed looked liked someone had poured molten metal into the water.
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The kelp forests are home to many creatures including baby whales, sea urchins, sea stars, snails, fish, crabs, sea otters, sharks, and a variety of other fish.
Bull kelp grows from spores. The growing season starts at the winter solstice on the twenty-first of December each year. It can grow up to ten inches a day and reach up to sixty feet in length.
Giant kelp can also grow ten inches a day and reach heights of 175 feet.
Kelp is considered a renewable source yet still needs to be protected from over-harvesting. Kelp contains Algin, an emulsifying and bonding agent used in many human products.
Algin can be found in things such as toothpaste, shampoo, puddings, dairy products, frozen foods, medicines, and more.
Over-fishing, pollution, and chemical runoff into the oceans damage the kelp forests each year.
Many kelp forests are found in marine protected areas where scientists watch over their growth and vitality.
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Bull kelp 219
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Dulce 222
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Shark eggs attached to kelp
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Everyone came to the shore that day.
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The day is exceptionally warm for this time of year. Beach weather can be unpredictable in the San Francisco Bay Area. While many coastal cities are sunny, this part of the Pacific is often foggy with a damp, Bay Area chill.
The promise of sun lures people to the shore today. Some play in the sand while others chat with friends. Most are dressed in bathing suits or shorts. There are a few people in rolled pants, carrying shoes and purses, as if they had been running errands and couldn’t resist putting their feet in the water.
The waves roll high for surfers and Boogie Board riders. Picnic baskets have to be guarded from greedy seagulls waiting to snatch their share.
There are all types of people. Tall, short, chunky, sleek, different backgrounds, and ages.
It’s a fine day at the beach.
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The ocean is the great equalizer. We are all welcomed here.
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Bridges help us reach the impossible.
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Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz, California
There are all kinds of bridges in this worldbuilt so that we can cross over to a place that would otherwise be unobtainable.
For every bridge that exists, there were those pioneers who first stood and looked into the abyss and knew that there must be a link from one side to the other.
All of us who came after ride on the coattails of their vision.
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Bixby Bridge, Big Sur, California
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Coos Bay, Oregon 240
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Deception Pass State Park, Washington 242
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Miracle Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Seeking a safe harbor.
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Deep Harbor, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Someone once said that a ship is safe in a harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.
The harbor is meant to be a temporary shelter against storms, a place to refuel, to moor for a time, and to restock supplies.
There are some who live in harbors. Their boats rarely set out into open seas. Rather, they are content to remain tied to the docks, rocking with gentle waves, looking at the horizon in the distance, contemplating far away fortunes they will never seek.
Others rarely step foot on their boats leaving them stored as a possesion to brag about, dream about, and once in awhile use for a day of pleasure.
There are others who foolishly set sail when violent storms are eminent, defying natures wrath, thinking they are bold and couarageous, only to drown at sea.
Then there are those who check the tides and weather, determing the best days to explore, returning with tales of adventure, tying up just until it’s time to set out on the next journey.
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Pender Harbor, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
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Santa Cruz Harbor, Santa Cruz, California
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Dana Point Harbor, Dana Point, California
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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
~ Mark Twain
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Searching for beach treasures
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The breaking sun over the eastern hills reveals the washed-out beach. Small rivers created from rushing storm water cut into the sand. Last night’s gale left piles of seaweed, driftwood, and shells scattered around the shore. This is a good day to hunt for sea treasures.
The fresh breeze tugs at my sweatshirt as unassuming waves wash over sand and rock. I disturb a flock of sand pipers digging for sand crabs and gulls pecking through kelp.
A lone jogger runs by with a large brown dog bounding in the waves. The salty smell of fish and iodine hit my nose as I plough through a large pile of seaweed. Bits of broken crab shells, snails, and sand dollars lay underneath disclosing the battering of a churning ocean.
The sun glistens on fragments of sea glass. I scoop up each piecegreen, brown, white - and one rare aqua blue. I find a broken piece of white pottery with smooth edges tumbled through the currents. I pocket a golden rock with veins of silver.
Cars are filling the parking lots as surfers jump out. Soon the beach will be crowed and noisy. My pockets jangle with my new found treasures as I make my way back home.
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As the fog rolled in, night changed the ocean to an ethereal realm of black, gray, and blue.
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If there ever was a perfect night on the coast, this was it. The setting sun reflected low on the polished waters of Pender Harbor. As night quietly slipped into the Canadian inlet, a lone bagpiper appeared on the docks below.
The constant drone of sound and skill drifted on night air. Unfamiliar tunes of Celtic origin, as well as Amazing Grace, and God Bless America, filled in the silence of the empty harbor.
Tears came to my eyes as I listened to a concert that was meant for an unknown audience. There next to him, a boat bore my name.
In that moment sitting next to the love of my life, listening to the haunting melodies, feeling a soft cool mist setting in, it was as if my world had brushed against one of the thin places in life where the spiritual realm meets the physical.
I wanted to go back to that time, that place. I know, however, that I will only experience it once in that way. It was a gift drifting down from the heavenly realms, welcoming us in a language that only the bagpiper could express.
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Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, California
At seventeen, I’m in-between. Staring at the carnival from a distance. Not sure if I want to go forward and become an adult; liking the view too much to turn back.”
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Kirsty Eagar, Night Beach
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Surprise encounters.
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The day was spent with my friend and fellow photographer Sergio Perez. We packed the car with all our camera gear heading out to take shots along Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur.
As we drove through Point Lobos State Natural Reserve I expected to see tide pool creatures, beautiful ocean vistas, and perhaps sea lions on the beach - nothing was more surprising, however, than looking over to see two deer playing on the beach.
Sergio and I immediately jumped out, leaving all the doors to the car wide-open, keys in the ignition, not wanting to miss this rare opportunity to capture these young deer playing like children in the sand.
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Off the coast of Vancouver Island a baby eagle perched on a rock some distance away. Overhead I saw more eagles soaring through the clouds. It was the first time I ever saw eagles.
The ocean is a constant source of amazement and surprise.
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The tide pool appeared to hold little more than drifting seaweed over a bed of sand. Suddenly, as if on cue, an entire garden of sea anemones sprung to life.
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The brightly colored sea anemone is closely related to coral and jellyfish. They spend most of their days attached to rocks, coral, or pilings. Peacock anemones, corallimorphs and zoanthids look similar to sea anemones.
While sea anemones don’t move often, they are able to, especially when they are fighting with another anemone for territory.
When sea anemones fight, they have special stinging tentacles that emerge. Colonies of anemones will fight with bordering colonies when the tides cover them with water. They are quite territorial and are in constant pursuit of expansion.
These polyps vary in size; the smallest anemones are only about a half an inch long, while the largest can reach up to six feet in diameter.
They feed on prey of small fish, mollusks, and zoo plankton. They don’t have teeth.
Most sea anemones are not harmful to humans.
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Sea anemones fight, push, and demand their space, claiming rights to territory by starting wars with their neighbors.
We should be smarter than sea anemones.
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The waves grew higher as the storm offshore began pushing onto the coast.
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Darkness set in as the storm pushed onto the shore with fierce winds and rain. The placid sunny day grew violent, cold, and unpredictable.
I gathered up my gear and headed for the car. Surge after surge of storm waters cut into the sand, changing the face of the beach. Waves threatened houses, and businesses closed up against the downpour.
Flood waters grew higher and seagulls scattered in the distant sky. Boats scrambled to make it to the harbor before they were dashed against the rocks.
The following day, the sun came out and the only evidence of the night before was a new river on the beach that wasn’t there yesterday. Cloudy skies with blue patches broke through, promising the storm had passed.
The mood of the ocean is much like the Great Creator; one minute it’s calm, life-giving, and gentle, and in the next, it’s a powerful and mighty force no human can stand against, demanding its due respect, and displaying its awesome power.
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The Wild Coast, Wickaninnish Beach, , Vancouver Island, British Columbia
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Pacific Grove, California 300
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Santa Barbara, California
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Clemente,
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San
California
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
~ Gandalf in Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
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Santa Cruz, California
Every time the sun sets, it brings with it the hope of a new day. As the light fades and the moon rises, we wait.
We wait for the dawn bringing with it the start of something new.
Sunsets are just the curtain call for the next act.
Today marks the end of our thirty-day journey. Tomorrow will bring new images, new chapters, new ideas, and new places to visit.
Until then, I’m glad you spent these days with me as we explored our ocean together.
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Morro Bay , California 308
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California 310
Oceanside,
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And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?
~ Tom Hanks, Castaway
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