Sunsets, Surfers, and a Stunning Dolphin Sighting

*If this is your first time seeing this post, please be sure to read the comments at the end. It makes the story ten times sweeter. :)

Last night, we decided to go watch the sunset over the ocean. Since our condo is just steps from a scenic overlook, that was easy. I grabbed my camera on the way out the door, thinking I'd work on my sunset photography skills.

As we walked down the path toward the water, I realized I'd forgotten my cell phone. No biggie, I thought. Havarti had his phone.

When we got to the overlook, I could tell it was going to be a gorgeous sunset. So I decided to run down to the beach (a bit of a hike, with LOTS of stairs) to get an unobstructed angle.

"I'm going to run down and take photos from the beach," I said.
"I want to go!" cried the kids.
"No, stay here with daddy," I replied. "We're not going in the water, so you guys would just be going down the stairs and back up. I'll just go by myself."

They agreed that it didn't sound as much fun not going in the water and stayed put.

As I left the family behind, I remembered again that I didn't have my phone. No biggie, I thought. There are lots of people here, and what could possibly happen going down to the beach and back?

As I descended the stairs, there were a couple of surfers way down in front of me. I may or may not have chased them down like a crazy person to take some photos I thought would look cool.

Like, totally California, right?

So here I am surreptitiously photographing random strangers with their surfboards, when suddenly I notice something popping out of the water out in the surf.

My first thought was "Jaws," but quickly I saw that there was more than one.

And then one popped right out of the water! Not Jaws--Flipper! A whole pod!

Um. Yeah. Awesome. We were totally blown away. 

And by "we," I mean me and Random Lady Next to Me on the Beach, because I stupidly told my family to stay behind and hadn't brought my cell phone (which turned out to be a pretty big "biggie"). Gonna be wracked with guilt over that for a while.  

We bonded a bit, Random Lady and I. She lives around here. She said she'd been walking the beach, thinking about her friend who had recently lost her son, and then these dolphins showed up. She felt like it was a sign and wanted to share the experience with her friend, but she couldn't get any good photos. So she got my e-mail address and I sent her some. Kinda cool to be a part of a stranger's special moment.

Random Lady said she sees dolphins here fairly frequently, but they don't usually come that close to shore and don't usually stay that long. We watched them for a good half an hour. If I'd known they were going to stay that long, I would have asked to borrow someone's phone and told Havarti to get the kids down there. (Then again, everyone on the beach was trying to capture the moment on their phones, and it would have been extremely rude to ask someone to borrow their phone at that particular moment.)

They came REALLY close to the shore. Like, right where the surfers surf. Barely beyond the breakers. I could have run into the water and swum to them pretty easily (if it wasn't so cold and I wasn't terrified to do so). 

I tried to get some photos that showed how close they were:

Dude, check it out! He's catchin' a wave!

 Oh, he totally bailed! Harsh, dude.

 But seriously, look at where the sand is. They were right there in front of us.

RIGHT. THERE. So much guilt for my family missing this. But really glad I had the camera. (Though I really wished I had a telephoto lens. Could have gotten some amazing shots with a little more zoom.)

Oh yeah, I did end up getting some nice photos of the sunset, too. :)

These days in southern California keep blowing us away. What a crazy amazing life. 

A Joyful Holy Day

It's really hard to believe we were in Utah yesterday morning. It feels like a week ago, literally. Time feels funny when your days are full of new things.

I have to admit, I'm a little worried that every place we go after Southern California will be a let down. I know it's not all like this, but where we are is fabulous. Pool, beach, palm trees, amazing-smelling flowers, Trader Joe's nearby - it's practically heaven. :)

Today was the twelfth day of Ridvan, a holy day for Baha'is, so the kids didn't have school and I didn't have work. We missed the community celebrations, which would have been last night, so we had our own family celebration. Then we mainly spent the day focusing on joyful things, most of which involved sunshine and swimsuits. :)

Poor Havarti had to work, but he at least went out to lunch with us. We found a place in San Juan Capistrano that has an entirely organic gluten-dairy-soy-free menu. We all agreed it was the best gluten-free bread we'd ever had, and to-die-for brownies. Cloud 9 Bakers. Highly recommended.

The kids and I swam in the condo pool after lunch, and then we all went down to the beach after dinner. I could take thousands of photos of the kids at the ocean. So much fun. So much sheer joy. :)

 

 

Colorado and Utah: A Montage of Mountains

As suspected, the drive from Lincoln to Denver on Monday was rather blah. We'd gotten our fill of pastoral farm scenery through Illinois and Iowa, so Nebraska (sorry cornhuskers) had little to offer out the window.

So, to liven things up, we decided to almost run out of gas in eastern Colorado (aka, Middle of Flippin' Nowhere). When we finally reached civilization, after watching the gas gauge actually dip below the red line, we filled up with 20.06 gallons of gas. The tank holds 20.34 gallons. I looked it up. Close call.

We also apparently timed our trip perfectly, as we left Denver yesterday morning with sunny skies, and today they're being pounded with a snowstorm. Another close call.

Yay for adventure!

The drive through the Rocky Mountains and Utah yesterday was a vast contrast to our drive across the plains. Having grown up in Washington state, I've seen plenty of mountains, but it's been a long time. :) It was lovely. Between CO and UT, I'm pretty sure we saw every variation of mountain, hill, ridge, mesa, butte, and whatever other rock formations you can think of.

It actually sounds kind of boring on paper. I know our family took many drives through scenic Washington when I was a kid, and I believe my attitude was something like, "If you've seen one mountain, you've seen them all." I was young and stupid, what can I say. Mountains are amazing. Especially after living in the Midwest for well nigh a decade.

I was trying to figure out what invokes that feeling of awe when you look at a mountain. Dolittle, upon entering the Rockies, exclaimed, "I feel puny!" That's part of it. But for me, it comes down to a simple truth: Humans can't do that. We can't make mountains. (Well, we can, but we have to use earth to make them, so it's not really "making" them.) I always feel so humbled by creation, and that humility is amplified by witnessing the "big" things in nature. Mountains. Oceans. Stars. We can't make those things, and never will be able to. I think that's why people describe experiences in nature as spiritual. It's like seeing the patient and timeless Hand of God at work right in front of you.

And now, I'm exhausted. Travel is tiring. So I'll leave you with a montage of mountains I shot from our car window (and one of the fam at a potty stop). There are a lot. That drive through Utah was a photographer's dream. I wished we could have stopped every five minutes to take pictures. But alas, we had a 10-hour drive, and only stopped to eat and pee. So I had to take pictures at 75mph through the car window. Glad they turned out as clear as they did. :)