Beautiful Day!

 

Some days you wake up with a plan and the day unfolds with beautiful unexpected delights. I had decided to get up and go to the early church service. Life had gotten so busy that I was neglecting that aspect of my life and knew I needed to get back in the groove. I was looking forward to the drive along the Pacific Ocean on the way, and hoping the sermon would speak to my heart.

The bulletin announced a special afternoon class on the role of church, Bible study, and prayer, so I decided I would attend that as well. I had some time between the end of the church service and the luncheon/afternoon class, so headed to the beach -- only a couple miles away from the church. It was a glorious day and walking along the bluff, listening to the crashing waves and squawking seagulls, was simply the perfect way to spend the rest of my morning.

At the end of the fishing pier is an old concrete freighter: The Palo Alto. Making a ship out of concrete makes no sense to me, so I had to do a little reading about it here.

See those stairs? There are many flights from the upper bluff level and the lower beach level. It's a great way to get in shape!

It was a wonderful day. Felt inspired, gained great ideas, and met some new people.

Carmel Beach and Mission

 

Carmel beckoned Lys and me to her beaches yesterday afternoon.  We took a nice walk along the path overlooking the ocean, where the smell of salt air and rhythm of the ocean waves greeted us in full spring glory.

The waters were filled with surfers, the sand dotted with kite flyers, dog walkers, and picnics.  Looking north, Pebble Beach jutted out into the bay....

 

 

We loved the cypress trees providing peek-a-boo views...

glimpses of wildflowers....

and were especially excited to spot a hummingbird enjoying these beautiful purple blossoms, just three feet away from us...

 Can you see the hummer right in the middle of the photo below?

Across the road were houses with magnificent ocean views.  This house caught our eye, capturing the fairy tale cottage feel, typical of Hugh Comstock's architecture from the 1920's.  You see these lovely storybook homes and shops sprinkled throughout Carmel.

Finishing our walk, we started home and as we came upon the Carmel Mission, decided to stop for an impromptu walk through the mission.  The mission was built in the 1770's.  Gracing the grounds are pretty gardens and nooks and crannies with statues of Father Junipero Serra, the head of the mission in the 1770's.

 

Friends of our's were married in this old, historic church several years ago....

 I remembered the bride walking down this aisle....

Continuing the tour through the old mission rooms, we found the bedrooms and salon, 

with the Spanish architecture touches.

 

 Outside again, the courtyard provided a better view of the bell tower.

 

 

And then it was time to head home at last.  Have you re-discovered treasures in your own backyard lately?

Treasures from a North Carolina Beach....

What a wonderful summer it was!  My daughters and I joined my sisters and their families in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week on the beach.  On a Friday we flew into Raleigh where my nephew lives, grateful for the yummy curry vegetable and rice dinner and soft beds to sleep in.  Saturday we all hit the road, caravan style, and drove on to the Outer Banks.  Here we approach the bridge over the sound ~

Once we fought through the bumper-to-bumper traffic (everyone seemed to be making a beeline to their beach house on the two lane road) we finally arrived at our home away from home -- a large 3-story where we all had our own bedrooms and bathrooms, a pool, two hot tubs, and wood steps right down to the beach! 

There were 16 of us in all.  The real reason we planned this very special family reunion was to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday this year.  Although he is no longer with us, we knew he would want us to get together and live lovingly and joyously in his honor.

Here are just a few treasures we'll remember ~

Yummy, yummy suppers from the grill and juicy watermelon

Squealing grandnieces and grandnephews when our flashlights spotted crabs in the sand when we went "crabbing" at night

Lazy moments in the swinging hammock chair, reading our assorted novels

Rooting for our favorites on the Olympics on TV at night

Long walks and collecting shells on the beach every day 

Swimming, boogie boarding and sand castle building

Working on our family jigsaw puzzle for several days

Discovering the old village of Corolla

Jeeping to see the wild horses of Corolla

Spa day with massages, facials, pedicures and haircuts

An afternoon visit from a thoroughly entertaining magician who performed extraordinary tricks

No schedule, just awaking when we wanted and going to bed when we were tired

Game night with all around the table.

Pelicans roosted on the tops of these wood poles in the water.  We enjoyed watching them fly in formation and dip into the water at dinner time.  Sand pipers joined us in running from the waves on our walks.

 The view from our back yard!

Moon light dancing on the Atlantic...

How did he do that?  The "Amazing Stanley" amused us with his tricks and witty jokes!  As close as we were to him, and none of us were in on his tricks, we could  NOT figure out how he did things!

 The little village of Corolla is quaint, nestled in the trees near the light house.  Here is the first school house of Corolla:

One day my daughters and sister were going to go parasailing -- we paid and walked down a long wooden walk way to the water where the boat was docked.  As you can see, storm clouds suddenly came in, the wind began to blow, and the captain cancelled the trip for safety reasons.  (Later we saw water spouts over the ocean!)  All was not lost -- we went shopping nearby where I found that darling picture at the top of this post -- it was on a wall by the gourmet popcorn shop where we bought bags of Cheesey Garlic Popcorn!

Tons and tons of photos were taken.  This is such a small sample...  I hope you enjoyed peeking in on our week.

And guess what?!  From Corolla, my girls and I drove our rental car to Washington D.C.!  Can you remember your geography to know some historical places between North Carolina and Wash. D.C.?   Stay tuned for my next blog!

The Beach

This has been an incredibly beautiful weekend in the Monterey Bay area. Today the temperatures reached 77 degrees and I decided my soul needed an "airing." Driving toward Monterey the blue skies were glorious.
Fields of gold seemed to sing spring is coming...

... and on the way home I stopped at the beach for a spell.
At first I wondered, what is that creature in this photo? It is not uncommon to see dolphins in these waters, so my first guess was that it was a dolphin, though a very flat one! After zooming in and in and in, I decided it was an optical illusion and is simply a seagull in flight.

The days are getting longer. The beach beckons me to come back more often.