Beach Walk

Today on my way home I stopped by my favorite beach for a little afternoon stroll. It was a beautiful day outside, and as I strolled down along the water a huge smile came across my face, thinking of how I love the sand and the surf, and how dearly I'd missed it in the years I lived far away.

It was a really windy day outside, which was good in terms of having blown some smog, fog, and marine layer away and providing nice views. It was also cool to see the whitecaps out on the water, and the sun was in just the right spot to highlight the dense nearshore kelp beds.

Walking down to the beach - note kelp beds

However, the sandblasting effect was a little bit much. I guess the weather service wasn't playing around with that gale advisory. Anyway, I made the best of it and stuck close to the water while making my way down toward the sea caves, because after all, what's cooler than a sea cave? Seriously. I want you to think about that for a second... what's cooler than a sea cave?

As a reminder, this is a sea cave. In fact the very sea cave I speak of. Cool, huh?

Whaddya got? That's right, nothing. Me either. Because nothing's cooler than a sea cave. In fact, even nothing isn't cooler, because there isn't anything cooler than a sea cave. OK.

So I figured the wind-impenetrable sea cave would be just the place to hang out for a while, take some pictures, and enjoy the day. That is, until I got to the sea cave, walked around, and noticed a sea weirdo lurking nearby. The sea weirdo was roughly clad, suspicious looking, and seemed rather protective of the sea cave. So I kept walking, figuring I was overreacting, and he was probably just enjoying the wind-shielded sea cave too. After all, he had nothing on the weirdo that Jay and I once near this very spot with a black robe and big pewter goblet.

As I walked away, I glanced back a few times and spotted the sea weirdo continuing his suspicious behavior, hopping and running about near the sea cave. Maybe he was practicing his monkey jump kung fu?



At this point I was hatching a contingency plan for getting back to the car that didn't involve going back past the cave and weirdo. "Screw that," I finally decided, "I'm going back to hang out in the cool sea cave."

As I walked back, I was on keen lookout for the weirdo, but only saw an unidentified pinniped swimming around in the water. Apparently it too was sketched-out by the sea weirdo, because it ducked under a wave and kept swimming. Good plan, pinniped. As I passed through a smaller, nearby sea cave, I glanced to my right and noticed the weirdo tucked into a corner behind a rock, hiding under a blanket. He wasn't doing a good job hiding, because I could clearly see his weirdo-ass moving around underneath the blanket. I kept an eye on him as I walked away, and noted that he peered out several times from under the blanket, then started stalking toward me. Freaking weirdo. Fortunately I had about 50 yards on him by this point, and was confident he was substantially slower than a buffalo. I passed quickly through the cave, back up the beach, and never spotted the weirdo again. Weird.

Pelican weirdo patrol

After checking out the tidepools for a while, I decided to call it a day.

Cool tidepools - note starfish

Aloha.