Honeymoon Installment #2

The next day, our destination was Pigeon Point. A friend of mine used to work for Hostelling International, and recommended the hostel they had there-- they have a beach-front hot-tub! Our first stop was somewhere around Santa Cruz. I had been itching to get out on the beach.


If you watch movies, you know that nothing positive can happen around an amusement park that is closed for the season (OR, dunh dunh dunh... for life!) but this cute little boy chasing a seagull seemed a harbinger of beachly welcome. Shortly after I snapped this pic, a city worker picking up trash mentioned that the fecal something-or-others per million were high that day. Then I saw a homeless woman washing an open gash in the shower and we hopped back into the van and took the worker's advice to head north.


Ahh... much better. We found ourselves amongst the richers in this comely hamlet. We sat on the pock-marked, craggy cliffs above the surf (serf? haha) for awhile until we moved on to our next perch.


The cliffs are covered with some kind of succulent that looks like supersized grass. I broke one open and tasted it (why do I do these things?) and it was super astringent and made my teeth feel weirdly dry.


We drove on for awhile until we found this next beach, with nearly no-one on it except for a couple of surfers braving the frigid waves.



The beach proved a boon for my macro setting:

Hollow little pods scattered the beach.

Tides and rivulets etch into the sand.

Alternately craggy and soft-sanded.

The drive up Highway 1 was exhiliratingly scenic. I dashed from one side of the van to the other taking pictures as we rolled along. Below might be my favorite:

Finally, we reached the lighthouse. You might be able to tell in this picture (click it and blow it up??) that there are seals resting on the rocks below.


As we snapped pictures and toured the grounds, I struck up a conversation with another photographer who offered to shoot us.


Tim told us about how he was a former heart surgeon and professor, we told him we were honeymooning. He was visiting the light house as well, and had a hotel room he had paid for for the night, but he had decided he was going home that night instead. He gave us his hotel key card and the address and told us to have a nice time.


Goodbye, lighthouse! We took Tim up on his offer and had a restful evening in Petaluma. He even got us some refreshments to stock the mini-fridge! Thanks Tim, for the excellent hospitality, and also for not murdering or robbing us.


'Til the next installment... I have to weigh a conundrum. I am scheduled to fly out to Seattle tomorrow for a work-type thing, but I also have a competing offer for my time. The Seattle thing is for sure, but temporary. The other thing is still up in the air, but would be permanent, and permanent is a very good thing.

Ai chihuahua,

Yours,

Elissa.