more cute birds and an ugly one...

Pelican over  Seal Beach

paddle surfing and doggy paddle surfing?

Seal Beach

This looked crazy!  A group of people set off from Seal Beach and paddled what seemed to be miles into the ocean.  After a while they disappeared around a headland.

Dog Beach, Huntington Beach

This looked crazy too!  Dog owners were dipping their pooches into rollers, letting them go and watching them "surf" to shore.  Dogs of all sizes were subject to this weird initiation.  I still have a lot to learn...

Newport Beach Yacht Club

Newport Beach Yacht Club - lunch

Chicken caesar salad wrap.  Another circle of delight served in a yachty environment in the company of two charming young women and two beautiful children.  My travelling companion was elsewhere, somewhere in the mountains doing manly things in a log cabin.  Could NBYC be affiliated to RCC?  Maybe we could do some sort of exchange. 

Queen Mary, Long Beach LA

Our stay on the Queen Mary was intended to be a treat to round off the second leg of our American adventure but there were far more negatives than positives to the experience.  The most negative was the cost of all the compulsary add-ons.  After enjoying generous US hospitality and welcome this was a shock to the system which didn't sit well in a setting that was supposed to give a taste of British oppulance.

The most positive was sitting on recliner deckchairs on the promenade deck sipping smuggled-aboard red wine from plastic cups taken from our cabin.  We watched pelicans dive for their last fish of the day as the sky changed from blue to pink to velvet indigo complimenting a cityscape that came alive with coloured lights.

Queen Mary:  corridor to cabin

Queen Mary:  marquetry





What...?

Ah... this!

Santa Barabara - home from home...

Santa Barbara Habour

My travelling companion who is a yachtie, thought this boat / boathouse combo was "tremendous" and has his sights on a summer spent this way... as members of Santa Barbara Yacht Club of course.    

Santa Barbara Yacht Club

Santa Barbara Yacht Club

a niece, another cute bird & new & old missions

This was a mission...  Two hours of walking uphill in the morning sun.  We caught a bus for the nearly last mile and as we alighted a women said to no-one in particular, "Are you walking up there?"  We know why now.  It took the relative coolness of the mission's beautiful garden an hour or so for us to cool down but it was worth it.
http://www.santabarbaramission.org/

...and we came across a likeness of Anna there.

Anna?

east & west doors of church

ceiling light below painted decoration



St Francis & a cute bird

Old Mission Santa Barbara

new version of Old Mission of Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, life's a beach...

pelican on pier overlooking harbour

beach volley ball

Moby Dick's

ubiquitous palm trees

The Union Hotel, Los Alamos



Union Hotel, Los Alamos



I  love the crazy, wheeled horse tied outside. 

California sun, cute birds and a full moon



Highway 1, centre right

 We did it.  We found the sun.  You can just make out the bank of sea mist on the horizon to the left of the image above.  It seems to be lurking, waiting for us to make the next move. 


cute birds Cayucos

Another paddle in the Pacific.  This time it was sunny and I was joined by these cute birds.  They kept darting in and out to fish for something beneath the sand.  They looked like frantic Blackpool paddlers avoiding the cold Irish Sea.


full moon over Pacific roller

Same beach five hours later from a long wooden pier.

Poodles Day in Carmel; humungus humus and sea mist



Monterey Breaker

 

Poodle Day:  Carmel Beach

Only in California?  Poodle Day in Carmel.  In the morning competitions, parades and pampering took place in downtown Carmel.  In the afternoon the pooches could paddle and hang out on the beach.  We missed the morning but were in time for relaxing near the ocean.  

Humus Starter

Our supper of humus and fries in Big Sur was so huge it fed both of us and we had half left over for the following day.

sea mist

more sea mist

 

Whale Watcher Cafe in sea mist



Noodles of Whale Watcher Cafe avoiding sea mist

 We left Big Sur around 8am and travelled along the US equivalent of France's Grande Corniche.  The breathtaking ocean views and nerve-jangling drops at the side of Highway 1 were mostly hidden by sea mist or is that ocean mist?  The mist lay as undulating low cloud I've only seen from an aircraft.  This time it had the sound of Pacific Breakers rising from its frothiness.
[watch out Steinbeck]