California: Day 7 & 8

Monday started out with a solo walk for me and then a walk with Cindy!

There's the coaster train above.

And here we are!

Here's what I was wearing:

This was a love picture to my Mom.  I was updating her along the journey!

I'm wearing
top: Charter Club (Macy's)

pants: INC International Concepts (Macy's)

hair bow: J Crew

sandals (that you can't see!): Sketchers Bob's For Dogs (Amazon)

I added more layers as we went out because it was wet and CHILLY (yay!)

denim chore jacket: Everlane

later added hoodie: WalMart

crossbody bag: Scarleton (Amazon)

The weather was FANTASTIC - it was misting and raining!

We walked south, along the shore (though not on the beach).

This is near the Swami's self-realization center.

These spider webs had rain drops in them.

There's another ocean overlook with tiki statues!

Cindy was having fun taking photos of plants and getting them identified by an app on her phone.  I later discovered that Google Photos identifies things with their "lens" function!

DANGER!  Active bluff failure!

There were all sorts of weird plants.

This is an araucaria laubenfelsii, called a coral reef pine.

The piney parts stick straight up!

This is a lion's ear!  It's the second weirdest plant I saw while we were there!

It's like colorful 1970s decor come to life!

This is "stinking chamomile".  I thought it was pretty and as far as I could tell, it didn't stink!  

There was a surfer statue here, and I accidentally caught Cindy in the background! 

The houses all clustered on the hills in a sort of higgledy-piggledy

 sort of way makes me happy; even better in the mist!

Morning glories:

Pride of Madeira:

Here's a girl surfer:

As we were walking to the Stonesteps, we looked at the cute houses.

I love the shape of this one and the doors:

Look how pretty the glass is!

I appreciate a turret, and that turquoise door is fantastic!

This ship was always going back and forth:

Look at this neat blue house!

The roof line is cool.

LILACS!!!

They are one of my favorite flowers.

Cindy said this was a passionfruit.  I looked it up, and of course she was right!

She knows a lot about plants.

I thought this was clearly a rose, but it's a Japanese Camelia!

We walked all the way to Los Olas (the waves) Mexican restaurant (3 miles) and back (another 3 miles) in the mist and rain with the ocean nearby.  It was absolutely lovely.  Then we walked to Stonesteps again and went down them to walk on the beach.

The tide was pretty high and we got wet(ter).  We didn't mind!

I made a cairn inside a hole in the bluff.

Then we were back at the motel and ready to get warm!

I tried to get myself to go get in the ocean, but I didn't listen to myself.

We pretty much ate dinner, had warm showers, watched some Netflix, and went to sleep!

The next morning, we cleaned up and headed out.

We weren't super excited to leave beautiful Encinitas, but I was excited to get home to my family and Cindy was excited to get on with the next chapter of her adventure (moving to Wyoming!)

We stopped at Plant Power Fast Food again for lunch.

Again, it was glorious in the outside eating area thanks to the flowers, butterflies, and bees.

I wore this:

top: Charter Club (Macy's)

skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)

bag: Scarleton (Amazon)

unseen sandals: Sketcher's Bob's For Dogs (Amazon)

We took some Plant Power to go for lunch and ate it at this rest stop (though the flies were so bad we had to relocate to inside the car!):

And then we were home.

What a lovely and refreshing trip!

Hope you enjoyed traveling with me to Encinitas, California!

California: Days 5 & 6+

 

On the weekend, we spent a lot of time at the beach and in the water.

After a nice breakfast on the balcony, of course!

The beach was busy, but there was plenty of ocean and plenty of fresh air for everyone!

The water was warmer than the air!

A car in front of our motel had carnations taped all over it.  Wedding related, maybe?

Sunday evening and Monday morning, I went for solo walks down to the beach.

I saw the Cottonwood Creek Watershed.

The creek comes under the street and under the sand of the beach through a big tube down to the ocean.

The pelicans flew over a bunch of times.  Perhaps they were hunting?

I enjoyed watching the silly seagulls.

Here are the bluffs from the beach at the bottom:

This guy was fishing and caught a sting ray on his hook (grrr).

I love the patterns the water makes in the sand.

Especially with the rocks!

The night before on my walk, I had heard a rhythmic "ting-ting" sound and assumed it was some kind of drum from the party that was going on around a bonfire on the beach.  In the morning, I discovered it was actually this!

Sunday morning dawned fresh and clear, with sunny skies!

Cindy and I watched our churches online together and were inspired.  Thank You, Jesus, for being an example for us and for loving us into wanting to be better people.

Then it was back to the beach for more time in the fresh air and the water!

The lifeguard was running down this little path delineated by traffic cones to jump into the water to swim through the waves out to people in the strong current zones to warn them to swim elsewhere.

The seagulls were fighting over a piece of palm frond:

Our hair was crazy when we got done in the water!

I think the sand in my hair looks pretty like glitter.

Later that evening, we walked back to Lazy Acres.  We saw this strange pineapple palm (I don't know what it's really called, but it looks like a pineapple growing out of a flat palm tree!)

Thank you, Lazy Acres, for the delicious food!

What a wonderful weekend!