Ten years ago I was looking back on my summer vacations before we had kids. I’d visit my home state Washington and schedule way too much stuff using a Daytimer to keep track. I also posted photos from our 2016 beach vacation and noticed how much more relaxed I was.
You can read that post HERE. I was contemplating whether I should swim in the ocean with several sightings of great white sharks. Yikes.
We’ll be heading to the beach later this week. I’m ready to get out of this terribly hot summer in the desert and enjoy some fresh air!
It’s time to turn in my final project for photography class. I’ve been taking photos of sea glass that I’ve shared along the way HERE and HERE.
Sea glass has both Meaning and Memory for me (FYI, that’s the theme of this semester’s final project.) My memories are from summers at the beach which were my favorite days of being a mom. As for meaning, one is that change always happens. For example, the purpose and original form of bottles change through time. Bottles turn into beautiful glass pieces tumbled in the sea. We also change — but it doesn’t mean that we no longer have purpose or beauty.
I took photos for the past few months of sea glass. Outside by the pool at different times of day. On glass tables by the pool, inside in jars, glasses and on glass with light coming from different directions.
For this project, I looked through photo albums and found pictures from our summers at the beach. Every year, I took photos of our kids and used them for Christmas cards. I scanned old photos and improved them using Adobe Camera Raw. The quality of the old photos taken with film are fuzzy compared to the new photos using a DSLR. But they have memory and meaning as well.
Here are the photos for my final project:
The Palm Springs gang on a beach day.
In the original photo, the hand looked like it was boiled bright red. A little Adobe Camera Raw and it’s more natural looking.
One of my favorite sea glass photos.
All that’s needed for entertainment is sand, the ocean and big stick.
Two more sea glass photos I took by our pool in the morning light.
I never heard the end of making my kids sit on this rocky outcropping. They asked me, “Why did you make us sit on an ashtray?” I didn’t know that this was a favorite place to smoke for locals. It was covered with cigarette butts!
Our daughter with a fist full of sea glass.
College age kids.
The final sea glass photo taken on a glass table with a light underneath.
After several hours, I finally got my new scanner to talk to my laptop. This was the first photo I scanned. It’s of me and my kids, one of my best friends and her two girls, plus assorted kids we brought along with us for a beach day.
I’ve spent this week going through my half dozen photo boxes, looking for pictures to include in my photography project of Memory and Meaning: Sea Glass.
If you missed my description about Sea Glass and my project, I wrote about it HERE.
Going through all my old photos from summers’ past, brought back so many memories of a life I’ve left behind. Carefree days of summer, hanging out with my kids. Every year, I’d take photos of them together for our Christmas cards. It always took more than a few days to get something good. Sometimes they’d cooperate, other times they enjoyed torturing me with their silly faces or looking away.
Here are a few photos from my beach memories. I haven’t decided yet what gets included in my Memory and Meaning Sea Glass project. All of the photos spark memories and have meaning to me.
Angus at the cottage. He wasn’t allowed inside, but at our home he was. It was a difficult transitiion for him, but he loved being near us.
This is the cove where we collected sea glass.
Our daughter with a handful of sea glass. Her preferred method was diving under waves for it.
Boogie boarding was always a hit.
When they were young.
Then I had one teen and a preteen.
College-aged kids. Where did the time go? Now they’re grown ups!
The bootlegger’s house was second from the end. Because of the bootlegger and a shipment of his booze that went overboard from his boat, this cove is filled with sea glass.
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.
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?
