Our
Trip West
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Flora
Mojave
California
Cactus
We are now at the coast and ready to drive north toward Monterey. |
The day began slightly hazy or foggy. But the views are remarkable.  |
 We stopped at a Vista Point that had a boardwalk on the cliff overlooking the water. Looking down we saw great clumps of seals. |
It turns out
that these are only the females and
babies. They come ashore around this time each year
to molt.  |
They need to shed
their skin. This makes them cold, so they huddle together for
warmth. |
 Or to hassle each other. |
| What a different
experience this drive has been. I was not terribly enthusiastic about this trip - my family lived in Ventnor, near Atlantic City. I know oceans and I know beaches. They are crowded, dirty, no place to park, long walks from the car to the water. I was in for a huge surprise. This stretch of beach has almost no houses blocking access to the water. There are marvelous rocks and little pockets of beach. It was April, and chilly, but we saw almost no one on any of the beaches where we stopped. They felt like our own private little haven. |
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And
the ragged
rock in the restless waters, Waves wash over it, fogs conceal it; On a halcyon day it is merely a monument. In navigable weather it is always a seamark To lay a course by: but in the sombre season Or the sudden fury, is what it always was. T.
S. Eliot
The Dry Salvages |
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 Can you see the cows grazing in this picture? It's an amazing mix of geography. |
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One side of the
road was ocean. The other is mountain. There are spectacular views everywhere. |