“Time may change me “But I can’t trace time” — David Bowie
Our first morning walk at the beach. There was something very different about it. See that rig in the ocean? Next we saw this sign:
There are oil rigs off the coast of Santa Barbara that are active — but you can barely see them in the distance. I believe they are at least five miles offshore.
On the beach below the house we rent, there are signs like the one above that weren’t around last summer. There are also signs explaining the work that’s going on. They are recapping 100-year-old oil wells a few dozen yards offshore. That’s what the barge with the equipment is for (see top photo.) They are capped but leak when storms hit. We watched two tug boats stop at the barge. Then we noticed tar clumps all over the sand.
The beaches here always have spots of oil and tar, but this year it’s much worse. We keep paper towels and “Goo Gone” next to the hose at the backdoor to clean our feet after our beach excursions.
The other change was our favorite spot for breakfast burritos in Carpinteria — which was inside a liquor store — is gone. We drove for burritos and were stunned. Someone bought the entire block on Linden Ave and demolished the buildings. I wonder what will be built?
On our morning walk on the tar blotched beach, I was relieved to see the driftwood sculpture condos were still in tact. I wrote about them on an earlier beach trip HERE.
There were a few additions this year that I enjoyed:
Words of wisdom: Be More Like My Dog!
Prince Harry lives to the left. That’s a fact. Montecito is to the left of this beach.
Kevin Costner’s $145 million home where his divorced wife refused to leave is to the right around the point.
Lots of changes going on around us. We can’t stop change. Another change: our son and his long-term girlfriend were getting married Thursday. We were flying from Santa Barbara to Oakland for the nuptials. Our son called today and has COVID. No wedding. Change of plans.
Saturday we started out with a huge walk on the beach. The plan for the rest of the day was to hang out on the beach, swim, float, read and relax. Then we’d go out for a dinner at the $15 prime rib place. We’d be leaving early Sunday morning to get our daughter-in-law Buff to the airport in Phoenix so she could fly back to Northern California.
Once we were in our bathing suits and packed our books, towels and waters, I came up with the idea to rent a pop-up tent from vendors on the beach. Shade would be a welcome addition to our day and would allow my husband to join us. His pale Irish skin is adverse to sun.
The first couple hours were heaven. We were out in the ocean together floating, bouncing over the small waves and feeling fabulous.
Eventually, my husband said he had enough sun and headed back to the condo. I sat on a towel reading in the shade, while Buff stayed in the ocean. Like my daughter said, “It’s impossible to get her out of the ocean.”
After another hour, she came running to the shade of the pop-up tent.
“I got bit by a crab!” she said plopping down on a towel, holding her foot in a panic.
I looked at her foot and their were welts below her little toe wrapping around the side of her foot.
“I think it’s a stingray,” I said.
We had experienced stingrays in Laguna Beach years ago when my husband got stung.
“I’ll go up to the condo and get hot water,” I said. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.
“Bring Advil!” she said.
I ran up to the condo and yelled to my husband, “Buff got stung by a stingray.”
We heated up three to-go cups of water in the microwave and made our way back to Buff.
She was writhing on the ground in pain, surrounded by people. Paramedics had arrived by beach motorcycle and I handed them the cups of hot water.
They motioned for me to stand back and one held her foot while the other gave her two shots in the foot. They applied a cream and then took my hot water, soaked gauze in it and wrapped her foot.
My husband asked what was the shot. The paramedics didn’t speak English, so the guy renting pop-up tents translated. It was lidocaine.
We helped Buff up to the condo and put her feet in the tub. My husband heated more hot water as hot water poured out of the faucet. She was somewhat okay until the lidocaine wore off, which was a mere 15 or 20 minutes.
I ran back to the pop-up tent and gathered our things.
The next two hours were spent heating water and helping Buff through excruciating pain. I felt like a mid-wife with my daughter-in-law giving birth. It was that bad.
Hot water kills the toxins but it has to be at least 110 degrees, so that in itself is painful. My son was on facetime telling me to get a thermometer so Buff wouldn’t scald her feet. I tried to explain that we were in Mexico and I couldn’t run anywhere closeby for a thermometer.
I went through this same stingray ordeal with my husband years before. The lifeguard told me to get hot water and explained that it would ease the pain as it killed the venom. I rushed up to a nearby coffee shop and got cups of hot water. The lifeguard said most people go to the ER, because they can’t tolerate the pain. My husband refused to go to the ER and I drove him back to our hotel with him hyperventilating in the car and me afraid he was going into a seizure. Our kids were scared to death.
I kept asking Buff if she wanted to go to a hospital, but none of us were that keen on going to a hospital in Mexico.
My husband, having gone through it, recalled the pain would ease up in about 90 minutes to two hours. He said after that, if she was still in pain, we’d take her to an ER. We were also frantically on google which substantiated our decisions.
Like clockwork, the pain eased according to schedule. We were all exhausted.
“Now you know how to get me out of the ocean!” she said.
It was paradise, until it wasn’t!
Have you ever been stung by sea creatures? If so, what type of creature? What are your thoughts of swimming in the ocean versus lakes?
Here are two bits of music we enjoyed. The first was next to the El Camaronero statue downtown, the other at the pool bar at the condo. I suggested we sit there for a few minutes hours after Buff’s pain subsided to end our trip on a better note!
We headed south of the border yesterday for a weekend of beach walks, seafood, and enjoying the Sea of Cortez. What a joy to arrive in time for a beach walk at sunset. I was stunned this morning to wake up and see this magnificent sunrise from our room.
Have a great weekend!
What highlights do you have planned for this weekend?
This morning on our beach walk, I first noticed three signs and yellow tape.
Warning signs posted at the beach.
We stopped to read the signs and a woman approached us wearing a hat that said volunteer for some marine life organization. She said there was a distressed sea lion ahead. It had been resting on the beach behind the signs and yellow tape.
Then when a young woman was walking her pit bull, the dog pulled out of its harness and attacked the sea lion.
The volunteer from the Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute told us the sea lion escaped into the ocean. She explained that the sea lion was suffering from Domoic Acid poisoning, which is caused by algae bloom.
My husband said that algae bloom happens every year. Isn’t that a normal thing? Wouldn’t sea lions be used to it?
She said they were inundated with calls about sick sea lions along the coast and that the Domoic Acid poisoning could be fatal. The volunteers were out observing the sea lions from sunrise to sunset along the beaches. Apparently stress could make the illness worse. She was standing on the beach all day to keep people and dogs away from the sick sea lion.
I asked if we could still take our morning walk.
“If you have to,” she answered. “Please stay along the cliffs and as far away from the sea lion as possible.”
We started on our walk, but as we got closer to the sea lion, we turned around. It wasn’t worth it.
We also spotted the young woman with her pit bull walking down a trail to finish their morning walk. She was avoiding the volunteer who was positioned by the signs. The young woman spotted the sea lion in the ocean in front of her and thankfully turned her dog around and headed back up the trail.
If you want to read more about the sea lions and Domoic Acid poisoning, here’s an article from the local news. The article said the Institute is fielding 50 to 100 calls a day.
Who knew that stress was so harmful to sea lions? What are your thoughts about what stress can do to us?
I’m trying to get my head out of Mexico and a relaxing three-day weekend, back into the real world of everyday life.
Several of my friends were worried when they heard we were driving to Mexico. I had been afraid for more than a year. I was too afraid to go. Finally, I talked to people who have gone there and they assured us it was safe.
Sandy Beach (where the condos are located) looks across the bay to downtown.
The drive is very easy — once you get off Interstate 10 and the crazy Phoenix traffic. It’s a straight shot down a two-lane highway to the border. It’s such an easy drive that I take over in Gila Bend to Ajo and Why — all the way to the Visitor’s Center at the Organ Pipes Cactus National Monument. (Ajo and Why are two tiny American towns.)
The beach resort is one hour from the border on a road exactly like on our side of the border. The only difficult part is what I call the gauntlet. Once you cross the border you have about 300 meters of mutilated beggars, squeegee guys and tamale and tortilla hawkers. They surround your car and we nod our head “no thank you” repeatedly. It’s really a depressing view to enter and depart Mexico. It’s a gut wrenching contrast to our life in the states.
My husband during one of our many beach walks.
Once through the gauntlet, it’s smooth sailing. They love tourists. The resorts are 50/50 Americans and Mexican families. There are security guards and police at every resort and throughout the town.
We took beach walks, collected shells, and I read tons. Then we worried about where to go for dinner. That was it. I really got into a relaxed frame of mind.
Where is your favorite place to relax? What do you like to do during a weekend getaway?
We got away for two weeks and life felt like it did before the pandemic. It gave me hope that yes, we will return to life before COVID-19 at some point in time. These past six months (or 165 days) of sheltering in place will come to an end.
With my husband required to work remotely, and my writing that can be done wherever, we returned to a tiny beach bungalow for the third summer in a row. We had planned this vacation way before the pandemic, but with the onset of working remotely, we extended our stay and had more time to escape the desert heat and relish in a change of scenery.
There’s something about the ocean that is spiritual and calming. I didn’t realize how much anxiety had been building inside me until I got to the Pacific, walked along the shoreline with waves lapping at my ankles. I could breathe. My back straightened up. I no longer felt trapped and scared.
A beach walk near Santa Barbara
The most freeing feeling was diving under a wave. I’ve always worn hard contact lenses — well since 7th grade anyway. I could never freely dive into a pool or ocean without goggles and worrying about losing contacts, which I’ve done more than once. Last fall I had cataract surgery and no longer wear contacts. It took me a couple dips into the ocean to realize that I could swim and dive under waves without fear.
Our kids joined us for a few days, along with my son’s girlfriend and one of her sisters. We shared meals outside, beach walks, and excursions into the city of Santa Barbara. That felt normal like prior summer trips. We’ve been visiting good friends in the area since before the kids were born. We caught up with other couples and had fun laughing and talking over meals, always outside and socially distanced. But what a nice change from all those months of no social activity.
Santa Barbara Harbor
Yes, I’m back in my house, it’s 109 degrees outside. But, I still have a little bit of that feeling of hope that things will get better. And life is good.
What experiences have you had that give you hope that the pandemic life will end?
