Friday Beach Views

Posted on August 30, 2024 by E.A. Wickham

During last weekend, we watched a young boy building this unique sandcastle in front of Ashton Kutcher’s house. I swear as we walked by, I saw Ashton on the sand with friends playing with their kids. That’s my story. And I’m sticking to it.

This house is at the opposite end of the beach. A couple years ago our daughter and Waffles the pug joined us for a week. This house had the beach roped off and no trespassing signs around it. Waffles, of course, went inside the guy’s “private beach” and the owner yelled at our daughter when she went in to fetch Waffles. My husband explained to the man that there are NO PRIVATE BEACHES in California. The beaches belong to all of us. Now the ropes are down and there are two no trespassing signs on his house.

I made burgers with lettuce, Farmer Fred’s amazing tomatoes and avocados from a friend’s tree. Yium!

I think these shore birds are Plovers? They don’t have the long beaks that sandpipers do. They are standing in front of the house I mentioned above. I hope the owner doesn’t get mad at them!

A colder, foggier day at high tide.

Friends invited us over for dinner and we started the evening with this charcuterie and wine on their Duffy electric-powered boat. They live in Ventura in the Keys and we cruised around the inlets before dinner.

This is a photo from the Duffy website. I forgot to get a picture of the boat they keep at their dock, but this is what it looks like.

Below is a short video from our evening puttering around the neighborhood. What a fun night with friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

What plans do you have for the long weekend?

Views from the beach

Posted on August 23, 2023 by E.A. Wickham

Our favorite beach in the Santa Barbara area.

I love how each walk at the beach can have such different views.

I’m not sure if this is a hawk or not, but it’s gorgeous. I stopped to watch it glide on the breeze.

Ashton Kutcher’s house with a small cottage in front.

Afternoon beach walk.

Keven Costner’s property has the white deck and house on the point, valued at $145 million.

The same bird from the other photo. There’s an interesting complex of homes at the opposite end of the beach.

I loved watching this Vizsla dog and puppy chase a frisbee. I missed the shots where the dog leaped into the air to catch the frisbee with the puppy trailing.

I looked up the prices of homes on this beach. The ones I found start at $20 million up to $100 million.

Where is your favorite beach?

Amazing sights!

Posted on August 31, 2022 by E.A. Wickham

This is what a sea lion does when it’s stressed. It raises its neck and head off the sand.

Sea lions, dolphins and terns — amazing sights I’m enjoying.

I wrote about the Domoic Acid poisoning that is affecting the sea lions last week. If you missed it, you can read it HERE.

My husband and I encountered a second sea lion in distress a few days later. I called the marine life rescue hotline to report it. Within minutes, volunteers were out staking signs and yellow crime tape to cordon off an area around the sea lion. One woman was the same volunteer I had met the week before. She reminded us to leave the sea lion alone, because they often die from stress if they are suffering from the toxins.

I was infuriated to watch people who let their dogs off leash, walk in front of the signs and tape with their dogs barking at the sea lion.

This is the sea lion in a relaxed, non-threatened position.

I called the rescue hotline for this sea lion.

Now for the truly amazing sights of a flock of terns at the beach:

My husband walking down the beach with the terns.

I spotted the terns way down the beach. They looked like a solid white stripe across the beach where the sea lion sat the day before.

I was afraid they were munching on the sea lion’s carcass, but fortunately that didn’t seem to be the case. I’ve read about terns and they like lagoons and canals.