We’ve returned to our home sweet home. It feels wonderful to be back in my own home. One of the surprises was Red was waiting for me singing for my return. This vacation he didn’t hide and avoid me for weeks on end. I’m sure that had something to do with my neighbor making sure the birdseed was out every day. But Red did not look like himself. I’ll post photos later this week.
My trip highlights besides beach walks with my husband enjoying the ocean breeze would be spending time with our friends we don’t see often enough. Plus having my son and daughter-in-law with us for part of our vacation.
Here are some photos I took with my Nikon and 105mm lens on the beach. I was worried about getting sand in the camera or on the lens, but finally decided I could do it!
A man sitting and reading on the beach. I figured out to make photos black and white.
I found a piece of sea glass which is rare at this beach.
In the evenings, the misty fog comes ashore.
A sunbather enjoying a beautiful day at the beach.
Sunlight reflections on sand and water.
A Long-billed Curlew foraging in the sea.
View of where we walk looking south.
Almost sunset and time to go home.
Beach vacation has ended until next summer. It reminded me of a Madonna song “Holiday.”
Are you ready for fall? Or do you miss summertime?
While you’re looking at some of my favorite houses at the beach, I’ll be headed home. I’ve been missing my home, but I’m sure I’ll miss this beach once I’m standing on desert sand. I got the most of my last few beach days with multiple beach walks and sitting on the beach to watch sunsets. I felt like I needed to get my fill of beach time until next summer.
Here are a few of my favorite homes on our favorite beach:
This is my number one home I would like to move into and live happily ever after! I like the roof lines, the shake shingles and the tree! This home reminds me of the home I grew up in on Lord’s Hill in Snohomish, Wash.
This is a pen and ink drawing I made of my childhood home for an art class in college. it doesn’t really look like the beach home above, but it shares some of the same roof lines, shake shingles and windows.
My son’s favorite house is next door to mine. What’s really unique is you can look through the front windows clear through the home to the garden behind the house. It’s beautiful.
This is the Kutcher house almost finished after a remodel.
This is the before photo of Ashton Kutcher’s house with a little cottage in front that didn’t make the cut.
A former home of Ellen’s.
The home of George Lucas.
Kevin Costner’s home at the end of the beach.
Of view of the beach where you can see how close the homes are to the beach.
I really like the smaller homes that have preserved their original flavor.
This little cottage is hidden behind a sand dune.
I noticed this home for the first time this week! I have walked by it without seeing it for years.
Below is another home I’ve never noticed before. Love it. I took this photo with my Nikon on later walk. It’s next door to the Lucas house.
I can only imagine how beautiful the views are from all those windows!
A last look at the beach.
Which one of these homes would you like to move into?
Happy September! What are your plans for this weekend and the month ahead?
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings we went for beach walks and stayed until sunset.
On Wednesday night, we were with our son and daughter-in-law at our favorite beach. Everyone but me went swimming or boogie boarding. The waves were unusually big. This area is known for having the “world’s safest beach.” Normally there isn’t a current, rip tides or big waves. Wednesday was different.
My husband, son and DIL were out in the ocean in front of our beach chairs and umbrellas. After a few waves, they were way down the beach. When they walked back from the other end of the beach, they said there was a really strong current.
There were only four other people on the beach that evening — a couple including a stunning brunette woman under a pop up tent and two ladies walking their golden retriever.
The brunette jumped into the ocean. She was getting knocked around by the waves, right and left. We watched her swimming and diving under the waves and she looked like she had it under control. Her boyfriend was sound asleep under their pop-up tent.
We were sitting on the sand when my husband said, “Where did she go?” We couldn’t spot the brunette in the ocean. Since my husband had fought the current earlier, he walked down the beach to where he ended up. He spotted her more than a quarter of mile away. He called to her and asked if she was okay. Finally, she gave him a thumbs up.
The waves crashing against the rocks at the end of the beach. First time I’ve seen that.
The brunette walked up the beach to us. “I could have died out there. That’s my new boyfriend and he was asleep,” she said pointing to the man face down under the pop-up tent.
She and my husband talked about how strong the current was. He explained he was worried when she was out of sight. He said he could tell she was afraid and struggling. He wanted to make sure she was okay. She asked our names and introduced herself, Jennifer Lopez. She offered to buy us dinner downtown Santa Barbara next week to thank us.
I said, “No, that’s okay.” My son and DIL said, “You should do it!”
My son and DIL in the waves.
Jennifer said she was thankful someone was looking out for her.
Tip: If you’re swimming in the ocean, you need to have someone with eyes on you in case you need help.
Another Rescue Story:
More than ten years ago in Laguna Beach, my daughter and husband were at the beach after the lifeguards were done for the day. They noticed two panicked people stuck in a rip tide. My daughter, a swimmer and lifeguard herself, charged into the ocean and got them to calm down and helped them. My husband joined her and they got the two people to shore. Walking back to the cottage we rented that summer, my daughter noticed a neighbor’s dog out in the street. She called the dog and brought him back to his owner.
P.S. No, it wasn’t THAT Jennifer Lopez, but she said it was her legal name.
Looking down the hallway of the Marin County Civic Center in San Raphael, California.
One of the highlights of my recent trip to the Bay Area to see my kids was visiting the Marin County Civic Center. I was surprised that touring a civic center was on the agenda with my son and daughter-in-law. But I soon learned that it was Frank Lloyd Wright’s largest public project and also his last commission.
Intended to centralize thirteen dispersed Marin county departments, the Civic Center project encompassed an entire campus of civic structures and incorporated ideas from Wright’s Broadacre City scheme of the 1930s. The three-story 580-foot long Administration Building, and a four story 880-foot long Hall of Justice together spanned the valleys between three adjacent hills. The flattened dome of the circular library and its connected gold tower (built to encase a smokestack and a radio transmitter) form the focal point of the plan. The concrete Civic Center’s pink stucco walls, blue roof and scalloped balconies are distinctive. The interiors feature glass walls and are arranged around open atriums in order to promote the transparency that Wright felt governments should promote. Though Wright planned the atriums to be open to the sky, practical considerations saw barrel-vaulted skylights put in following Wright’s death. Construction was carried out by William Wesley Peters and Aaron Green. The Hall of Justice was completed in 1969, the Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976. The site also includes a circular post office, Wright’s only commission for a national U.S. government facility. https://franklloydwright.org/site/marin-county-civic-center/
This was a model of the Marin County Civic Center I discovered outside of the library.
A committee interviewed 26 architectural firms in 1956 to select an architect for the civic center. Peter Neutra was the lead candidate. Frank Lloyd Wright was not interviewed and refused to participate in a competitive selection. Wright had an ardent supporter on the Board of Supervisors but it was a battle to get him appointed as the architect. Wright eventually earned the commission and was directed to proceed with detailed design on April 28, 1958. In March 1959 Wright was appointed to design the post office. On April 9, 1959, Wright died at age 91. The Civic Center continued under the direction of two of Wright’s architects, Wesley Peters and Aaron Green.
Here’s a view of a spire through the ceiling glass. We have a Frank Lloyd Wright spire at a shopping center in Scottsdale. That spire was originally planned for a capitol building that Wright designed without anyone asking for it. His project was never approved or brought to life, but the spire was built.
This is the library in the civic center. We walked the entire length of the building and saw the sheriffs department, attorney general’s office, library, a state senator’s office, cafeteria, court house and government agencies including financial, community services and administrative offices.
Next to the large building is the jail. Isn’t that amazing? The jail is underground and a tunnel connects it to the court house.
Here’s s view of the spire from outside.
The design has been controversial with the blue roof. But I thought it was beautiful!
I wrote about Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s compound in Scottsdale HERE.
A Harris’s Hawk landed in a tree in our backyard. We haven’t had one stop by for months, although I see them soaring overhead. I could hear his call and I spent a bit of time trying to spot him behind branches. The link is to a Youtube video of Harris’s hawks in flight with their sounds. I wouldn’t want to mess with those claws or beak!
This is a compilation of my favorite photos that I took this week.
Papa quail shares the birdseed block with a few of his babies.
A White-winged Dove perches on a flamingo buddy.
Bully bird Curve-billed Thrasher lands on the cactus statue before scaring everyone away from the birdseed block.
An adult House Finch feeds it’s juvenile.
Red watches over the rain meter during a Monsoon week.
Actually Red is the one who I see most often — one on one with a fledgling. He’ll fly back and forth across the backyard and feed them himself from our bird feeder or a birdseed block on the ground. I think Mrs. must have been in the nest with the remaining little ones.
Red feeding a fledgling.
This week a cactus bloomed out my window. It only lasted a couple hours because it’s hot! High of 98 degrees today. Not as hot as it gets but a change from the cool weather we were having.
I was excited to see one male fledgling getting red splotches of feathers. They become fully red at one year. This photo is way out of focus because he was darting around and I was so excited my hands were shaking! I thought about not including it, but I wanted to share what Little Red looks like turning a blotchy color.
Here’s Mrs. on the planter. I was very happy to capture both photos of Mrs.
There’s always a few Gila Woodpeckers around. They look similar to Gilded Flickers that I wrote about Wednesday, but they don’t have a spotted breast and lack the cinnamon cap.
A Mule Deer was hanging out in the shade under a tree by our driveway.
Red likes to hang out in a tree over my head when I fill the feeder. When I call him — while holding onto a bag of birdseed — he comes immediately. He’s got little ones to feed and needs to be first in the feeder!
Happy Friday!
Which photos are your favorites? What are your weekend plans?
I’m trying a few ideas for my sea glass project that is due the Thursday following Thanksgiving. What I did was bring in a glass table from outside and put a lamp under it. That way the light is shining up through the table and glass so it looks backlit. The only issue I have is the glass table is a smoky brown and I think it changes the color of the glass.
It seems heavy green and yellowish — which I’ve tried to tone down in Adobe Camera Raw. The photo below I played with in ACR and changed the colors. I’ll be back to the drawing board with more ideas to take sea glass photos that come out in a better color.
Here are the colors of sea glass that I prefer. I took these a few weeks ago out in the sunlight.
I have a few more days to play with my sea glass and try to get some unique photos. Then I also need to work with my scanned images from our beach days to tell a story about hunting for sea glass and summers at the beach with the kids.
I found sea glass on Etsy and there are artists who make jewelry from sea glass. Something else that caught my eye was bird art using drift wood with sea glass birds on it!
