A seagull found the perfect perch on a rooftop at the beach.
I have taken many photos and videos I want to share from sea lions to beach birds, beach and harbor views, the farmer’s market and fish tacos. I think I’ll be posting photos and videos from this vacation after we return home. In the meantime, here are a few photos and videos of wildlife.
We went to dinner by boat the other night and saw sea lions lounging on docks. There’s a little glare from the boat’s window in this pic.
I’ve never seen Mallards in the ocean before. Below is a flock of terns taking off.
Lone pelican floating in the waves.
Ducks waddling on the shore.
Sea Lions upset because we woke them up.
Pelicans in flight.
My favorite of the photos and videos on this post is the last one of pelicans flying low over the ocean.
What’s your favorite?
This reminds me of Ogden Nash and his famous Pelican limerick my dad used to read to us when we were young:
A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill can hold more than his belican. He can hold in his beak Enough food for a week, But I’m damned if I see how the helican.
We found a new way to get to the beach we like. Our friends told us to look for a Coastal Access sign, so we drove slowly down a shaded lane behind the fancy homes and found it. In California, all beaches are open to the public. There has to be public access to every beach, whether the people living there like it or not.
Before we were parking at the busier end of the beach that doesn’t have houses and famous residents like George Lucas, Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. We had to walk over railroad tracks and then scramble over rocks on a narrow pathway to the sand. It was hard for me with my healing ankle, but I managed to do it all on my own the day before we discovered this path to the beach.
This pathway is flat and easy for me to walk. It runs between mansions of the rich and famous.
Here’s the view at the end of the trail. I can manage these steps easier than boulders.
Here’s the view when you walk over the steps pictured above. In the distance is where we used to park and walk to the beach.
Interesting moments at the beach:
I finally got some pelican photos!
One day we got buzzed by Army helicopters. It was quite dramatic. The video below is when they approached the beach flying by Kevin Costner’s house and eventually flying directly overhead where I was sitting on the sand!
We were surprised by helicopters.
A more relaxing sight was watching dolphins two days in a row.
Dolphin sighting.
My days consist of beach walks, relaxing at the beach, watching waves and wildlife, physical therapy and eating my favorite foods. Also reading and writing of course.
This is a photo of the main street in a beach town called Carpinteria from a couple years ago. It’s 10 miles from Santa Barbara. It’s where our friends live who my husband met when in training a million years ago at Merrill Lynch’s corporate headquarters. He told me he met a nice guy and they invited us to go sailing with them in Santa Barbara. Since then, way before kids, we’ve been fast long-time friends.
The past few years, we’ve noticed changes to their quaint, quiet little town. It was a sleeper and the buildings and mom and pop businesses seemed to be living straight out of the 1950s. But nothing ever stays the same.
Welcome to major freeway and infrastructure changes. A few large tech companies moved in, and our favorite businesses and entire blocks were torn down.
This was a hotel in 1912. We knew it as a family friendly restaurant that was affordable. It featured grills in the middle of the restaurant where you cooked your own steak, halibut or chicken. Dinner came with sides of rolls, salad or soup, baked beans and a few other things. When my son and his girlfriend (now DIL) were at UCSB, we took them to dinner there and they could eat their fill. No limit to the amount of food served.
It’s now closed and it sold. No telling what the next owner will do to it.
Our favorite restaurant in the world closed. Called Sly’s after the chef James Sly, it was our go to special occasion restaurant. Sly was friends with our Carpinteria friends, and he’d often comp us a seafood tower or his famous sundae. Unfortunately, he died a few years ago and his wife did not want to keep the restaurant going. We miss James but have great memories of him and his delicious food.
Rincon Surf Shop was one of our favorites. They had everything from surfboards, boogie boards, really cute beach wear, bathing suits, flip flops and custom designed t-shirts. I learned this trip that the owner said adios and retired. It was a one of a kind shopping experience. My daughter and I made lots of trips to that store to get unique clothes for her high school days and flip flops for me.
This was our alltime favorite spot for Mexican food. In the back was a kitchen with the best breakfast burritos with egg, cheese, sausage and potato. We’d buy them to go (since there’s no tables) and take them to picnic tables to devour at the beach.
Last year, we were shocked to see the building torn down and the entire block under construction. Like I said. Nothing stays the same. However, I was not prepared for what replaced the fun shops on that block:
Linden Square
It’s a food court called the Public Market and has a few other shops like expensive home goods and a yoga studio. The developer has one in downtown Santa Barbara, too. The upscale food court includes a gourmet pizza place offering $25 small pizzas. There’s a $16 a burger restaurant and Mexican stand with $20.50 burritos. All made fresh with the finest ingredients, of course.
I showed my son and daughter the photo of Linden Square and they were not happy. They said it was a glorified food court that could be found in any upscale suburbia. It doesn’t fit the funky but hip vibe of the Carpinteria of old of which they have so many fond memories.
We used to go camping every spring break at Carpinteria State Park in our tent. Sitting around the campfire at night was so much fun. Easter egg hunts in our campsite was a tradition. So many great memories. Of course, those days are gone as well.
Camping at Carpinteria State Beach with the kids and Angus.
What have you noticed lately has changed and will never be the same?
I was watching this Great Egret on the beach during one of my twice daily walks. FYI, all photos are from my iphone since I left my Nikon and telephoto lens at home.
I had to look this guy up. He’s a Long-Billed Curlew.
The Long-billed Curlew is North America’s largest shorebird and is a member of the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. Although it is considered a wading shorebird, it is primarily ground-dwelling, using short-growth grassland prairies for survival. The genus, Numenius, is Greek and refers to the crescent-shaped bill. https://sanctuarysimon.org/dbtools/species-database/id/649/numenius/americanus/long-billed-curlew#
These guys are Sandpipers.
Sandpipers have long bodies and legs, and narrow wings. Most species have a narrow bill, but the form and length are variable. They are small to medium-sized birds, measuring 12 to 66 cm (4.7–26.0 in) in length. The bills are sensitive, allowing the birds to feel the mud and sand as they probe for food. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandpiper
This gull was checking us out for snacks. They are very crafty and can get into bags of food the minute you walk away. Fortunately, we haven’t been taking snacks to the beach.
Seagulls are widely considered to be intelligent birds, exhibiting problem-solving skills, memory, and complex communication. They are known to learn from experience, adapt to different environments, and even pass on learned behaviors. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/how-identify/identify-gulls
The shore birds are different than my desert bird buddies. What they have in common is they are all fun to watch. I doubt I’ll get a chance to make friends with shore birds the way I have Red and Mrs. I hope you enjoyed my short lesson on Shore Birds. I learned about them by writing this post!
Which Shore Bird do you like best out of these four species?
Do you have any of these birds where you live?
We ran into this flock during an evening walk. I’m thinking they are Plovers. Anyone know for sure?
This does not look like my desert view from home because it’s not. It’s the view from a living room window of the cottage we’ve rented for vacation each summer since 2018. It’s a nice break from the heat to be in the cool weather by the beach. Plus a change of scenery isn’t so bad, either.
Here are some more views:
The living room is upstairs and has a view of the ocean. The kitchen and bathroom are upstairs, too. Downstairs is the master bedroom.
The kitchen may be tiny, but it’s full of charm.
The stairs are proving to be a challenge for my ankle. All the ups and downs to unload the car were something else! This photo doesn’t capture the steepness.
Then we went for a beach walk with friends. I made it with a little push and pull, plus encouragement, to get over the rocks and boulders to the sandy beach. Hopefully, I’ll manage it without help in a day or two. It’s a short trail, only a few yards, but with obstacles that were in my way!
One of my favorite things about the beaches in this area is they are not crowded. You almost feel like you have the entire beach to yourself.
My friend pointed out that Ashton Kutcher and his wife are remodeling their $17 million beach house. It had a small cottage in front, that they scrapped completely and they’re making the main house bigger.
Here’s a photo I took of their property last year. I read that the small cottage in front got damaged by a mudslide. So now they’re going to have a different view as well.
What do you like best about a different view than your normal everyday one?
My husband and I planned a long weekend getaway to Pinetop in the White Mountains of Arizona. It’s a place we’ve never been to before, but now that I’m afraid to drive to the beach resort in Mexico, we’ve decided to explore our new state.
My optometrist told me to stay at a place with small cabins on a lake, complete with fishing and row boats. That sounded perfect to me. We were also going to do lots of hiking in the woods.
Don’t get me wrong, but Pinetop was not what I expected. The cabins on the lake were cute. The views were pretty. But it sat along a busy highway. The entire town was on the highway and looked like an urban sprawl. Big box stores, U Hauls, Safeway, Wendy’s, McDonalds, you get the picture. They did have a bunch of local restaurants and the two we tried were good. I guess off the beaten path where the hiking trails were, we would have found some nature.
But no, my first morning we were walking around the lake on a trail. There were two guys sitting on the trail in their folding chairs fishing. One guy had two dogs who growled at me. I walked around them on a steep gravel bank and bam! I went down feeling my ankle twisted and crunching beneath me.
I needed help from my husband to get up and walk gingerly back to the cabin. I spent that day and the next with my foot elevated and iced. Finally I said,”Can we go home?” Husband agreed. He was not enjoying sitting in a cabin for a long weekend — or leaving me alone.
Here are some photos I took with my iphone before I fell and sprained my ankle. I didn’t feel up to using my Nikon after the fall.
A mallard begging for handouts.
Goslings! One mom and pop had 12!
View from inside the cabin.
The deck of our cabin.
This was one of the original cabins built in the 1930s.
The interior.
Cozy and cute, but there’s no place like home.
Have you had a vacation or weekend when things did not go your way? If so,what happened?
