A day in the life

We finally got back to what we like best, walking on the beach. Each day wer are amazed at how the beach changes. Last year there were not many storms, so for the most part the sand stayed put, but this year its a different beach every time we walk. The picture on the left is of beach erosion, the sand used to be level, but high tides caused a little cliff. I took this picture last week and today it was still present. The water in front is run off - I've read that takes about 2 hours for the first water to appear after the rain starts, in the mountains , and then seems to slowly receed. Today this spot continues to be too deep and move to fast to wade across.

The above right picture shows a couple of birds in water that again only happens with a significant rain - otherwise its a grassy park area. There was another very territorial bird that scared these off and ejoyed a swim by himself.

No day is complete without a sunset. The pic on the left was taken last year and is my favorite sunset picture.

The one below was today. Generally its not good to feed seagulls, but the man, child, and birds sure made a nice picture. Last year I had a bag of belongings drug across the sand by some seagulls looking for my peanuts!

Yes it rains on the Central Coast (and even snows)

Yesterday we were going to go into Santa Barbara for the farmer's market and music and an adult beverage at the James Joyce just as we were about to leave it started raining....hard. Needless to say we stayed home and made chili (what else when the weather is ugly). Today we decided we needed to get out and went to see the "Bucket List" very funny movie (and sad too), we had wanted to see it earlier, but during the last storm that came through the movie was only in selected cities, with LA the closest selected city, so we waited. The sun came out just as we were on our way home and Dale tells me the moon is shining as I write. The water is even higher now, but its too dark to take a picture. Seems to be splashing off the 2 trees on the left near the lower branches. Have a good one and keep warm - Dale and Beth PS There has been measurable snow just a little up the mountain.

Saturday in Santa Barbara

We spent the day in and around Santa Barbara. First the beach at low tide (see previous post), wine tasting and then out to eat. We were going to eat at one of the microbrewerys, but the sun on the water and the masts of the sail boats led us to the warf. All 3 picture are of the setting sun. After dinner we walked about 3 blocks to our car and about froze. We had the hoods up on our sweatshirts and even had gloves on. We got back to the car only to find the thermometer registered 60! Granted as we went down the street it dropped into the 50's, but even last year we wouldn't have been caught with gloves on, let alone feel that 60 was cold. We must be getting soft!

More low tide pictures

The star fish was on the main Carpinteria beach - it moved a little when I turned it over so was probably alive, but didn't look real healthy. The sea grass was on a beach in Santa Barbara - Hendry's beach. The tide was really low last Sat. its hard to believe the grass will be submerged enough to stand up all the way, just hours after we were walking around. We went to this beach because of fewer big rocks to walk on, Dale's shoes had gotten too thin and last time we were out he bruised his feet. But this is probably the best beach to find sea glass, and it did not disappoint us.

Here's another sunset

This was taken last week. The oil platforms can look pretty when in the sunset.

USS Ronald Reagan

The USS Ronald Reagan spent this past weekend near the Santa Barbara harbor. Beth had to work all 4 days they were here, but Dale was able to spend some time on the warf and downtown. I did see the ship for brief glimpses on the way to and home from work. They were about 1 mile from shore and the general public could not tour the ship, but we understood that if you struck up a conversation with a sailor, chances are they may have taken you aboard. Dale, Austin and I were able to tour the USS Missouri in the pre 911 era and that was good enough for us. Dale mentioned he saw a lot of very young sailors in uniform and he was able to thank some of them for what they are doing for all of us. We seem to have 2 goals when out and about - anyone who wants a picture taken with everyone in the photo gets to have one (not everyone wants to hand over their camera to a couple of strangers) and we thank military personnel for a job well done.

Hummingbirds

Our apartment in on the "creek" side of the complex. It is so nice to be able to step outside and see butterflies and birds. Soon after arriving we noticed several hummingbirds flying around, so off to "Austin's Hardware," (really that's the name of the store) to buy a hummingbird feeder. After several days of getting used to the feeder we now have several hungry birds around most of the day.