Travel Log, September '04
(see below map for details)

September Travel Route

Days - 35 to 64
Total Miles Traveled this month - 1,659
Total Miles Traveled to September 30/04 - 3,045

Travel Log Sept 01/04, Day 35

Got up at our leisure, had breakfast, a few cars & trucks drove by, looked like they were hunters.

We continued to head towards the coast. We are now at Lincoln City. It is great to be back on the coast again. We went to three surf shops and then went back to the first one and bought a couple of body boards. We drove to this public parking spot, with a gorgeous view of the beach and ocean. We had lunch and then we went out to ride the huge waves on our new body boards. Oh my gosh, they were so big, big enough to knock us over. We would walk out, and catch a wave back to shore. We had so much fun, we finally stopped, but only because we were completely exhausted. We sat in the sun for awhile, showered, changed, chatted, had dinner and all of this from that same public parking spot…it was a great spot.

We watched the sun set, it was just gorgeous; and then we headed to a residential street to park for the night.

Travel Log Sept 02/04, Day 36

We got up after sleeping in until 7:45 am. Made breakfast, but did not eat it. We drove to a scenic lookout near Boiler Bay to eat. Well…was it beautiful!

We ate breakfast outside overlooking a dramatic ocean, beach and cliff view, it was stunning. After breakfast we went for a walk, took some pictures and watched the whales through the binoculars. Wow, what a place, we stayed for hours. Then we took the scenic route along the ocean to Pacific Shores.

Our friends Jerry & Pam own a gorgeous waterfront lot overlooking the ocean and they were kind enough to offer it to us for a few nights. Coincidentally, they are at the West Bay Marina right now in Victoria, BC, Canada. That’s where we lived for a year and that’s where we met Jerry & Pam and Candis & Robert, and Greg & Karen too!

Anyway…we are shocked when we drive into the RV Park; we have never seen a place like this before. It is VERY posh. It is only for Class A & Class C Motor homes over a certain length. We have never seen so many Prevost’s in one place. You either own or rent a spot. It is a gated and guarded community right on the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It has a small golf course, a café, a store, trails for walking, and indoor and outdoor pool & hot tub, etc…I could go on and on, it has manicured lawns, huge cement lots, paved streets, gorgeous views (for some of the lots)…AND guess what…we not only have a view, we feel (and others here have said) we have THE best spot!! This spot is even featured in one of their brochures. There is a trail down towards the ocean right beside us, there is a gazebo near by, and we see a beautiful lighthouse and a huge expanse of water. I just lift my head, while sitting at our table and I see water, water and more water. Thanks so much Pam & Jerry!! We strolled around the park trails, we walked to the store to get some pop, we sat in our Lafumas and had a few bevy’s…aahhhh live is so good…

We both had our binoculars and all of a sudden thousands of birds flew in along the water and hovered and circled just above the ocean. The ocean looked like it was boiling; there was so much activity down here. We also saw some whales. Wow, we are really enjoying ourselves here. We had dinner, went for another walk, and checked emails…

Then, we walked down to the ocean and strolled at dusk, along the beach. The tide had gone out so we could actually walk for a quite a ways on the beach. We came back up and walked all around the whole park, looking at all of the beautiful coaches.

Then, we headed home, I read, Barry worked on getting an internet connection. Although we love the idea of the MotoSAT, it has been somewhat frustrating trying to get a connection. Barry has worked sometimes for over ½ an hour to get a connection. It can be very frustrating. Oh well…we are sure they will work out the kinks on this new and ‘improved’ MotoSAT…

Woke up to the sound of the surf…what a beautiful place! There was dew on the ground and we were fogged in, however, as the sun came up it cleared away the fog and our gorgeous view was back. We had our coffee and tea and then our breakfast looking out over the ocean. I read for awhile, Barry worked on the computer and went for a walk. Then we had to move the coach for about an hour to the ‘future development’ section so that a cement truck could come in and pour cement for Pam & Jerry’s new garden. When we came back we washed the coach and scooter rack cover. Dusted and vacuumed and cleaned the inside of the coach. Everything feels so fresh & clean now…

We had a few bevies, watched the whales with the binoculars and relaxed. We then set up the BBQ, made dinner & chatted. Played 007 for awhile and went to bed.

We woke up after an incredibly good sleep. Had our tea & coffee, chatted and relaxed while we planned our day. Had breakfast, worked around the coach for awhile preparing to go. Showered, walked the dog, relaxed easy morning…it is so quiet (traffic wise) here, you only ever hear the ocean surf and the odd dog barking. It is so pretty here we wish we could stay a few more days. However, it is time to move on; at this slow pace we will never get to Baja. We are so content and thankful, we can hardly believe it. Hello to all of our friends and family, we miss and love you…hmmmm J

What a day after leaving Pacific Shores around noon… We traveled pretty much all day, stopping at lots of gorgeous lookouts and scenic viewpoints, we got some incredible pictures.

We have now pulled over down a dead-end country lane. There are lots of fields, rolling hills and farmland around us. We have three wild turnkeys heading up the hill on the left and four beautiful horses in the field to our right. It is sunny and bright outside and life is good. It is 6:30 pm and we have a whole evening ahead of us. We made a steak & cheese omelette – yummy. We played 007 almost all evening; finally we got to the next level. Then we read and went to bed.

Woke up, chatted in bed, and heard a cow mooing in the field beside us. No one has driven by this morning: it is so nice and quiet here. The sun is shinning, we had breakfast and chatted over coffee and tea on the couch. We drove pretty much all day, stopping at a lot of the view points, taking all of the coastal scenic routes.

We stopped for lunch at a view point. We walked down on the beach, to find some really neat sand dunes. It was really windy, big waves, lots of sand blowing around our ankles, looked like a miniature desert with miniature sand dunes. We also saw lots of sea stacks; it was a great place to go for a walk.

As a side note before we leave Oregon:   Everyone, at sometime in their lives, should drive down the Oregon Coast, taking all of the scenic routes, it is the pretties drive we have ever had the pleasure of taking. We just loved it.

We also drove into California today, Yahoo!!!!

There is something psychologically good about heading south as fall approaches. We stopped at a huge information center to get a list of the state parks that have dumping stations. Then we went for a nice walk on the beach in our bare feet. It was wonderful. A huge wave caught us off guard and we got wet up to above our knees. The water was so cold!! But it felt great. We took this one scenic route that said "severe dip" and "vehicles with trailers not recommended". We figured what the heck, anything for a ‘view’. We have a 33 foot motor home with a 5 foot scooter rack hanging off the back. What a hoot, some places it was only one lane, some places two lanes but very narrow, and the "dip" just about did us inJ . Not really, it was very severe, straight down, then straight up, but our coach (nicknamed George) handled it beautifully. It was a beautiful route and we do not regret going that way.

We stopped at the Redwood National Park on old Highway #101 to see the Redwood Groves. We went for a walk in the forest, took some pictures of these huge Redwoods that towered above us, it was incredible.

We drove back to the coast and stopped at this huge information and interpretive centre.  We looked all around the inside of the building and saw maps, info about Redwood Forests, pictures, souvenirs, etc.  We also got some information about the State Parks in California and found out that they are all $20.00 per day. 

We then went for a wonderful walk along the ocean and enjoyed the day, the ocean and the weather...

We are now stopped at a scenic viewpoint for dinner. Sun is setting, ocean as far up and down the coast as the eye can see, the sound of the ocean surf, ahhhh life is good.

We drove to a little Victorian town named Ferndale and parked on the street near the fair grounds.

We got up and had breakfast and headed into Ferndale.  What a quaint little town.  We took pictures of a number of the homes and buildings, they were very old restored Victorian style homes and in really great condition.  It was neat to drive through the town almost as if you were going back in time.

Drove to Humboldt Redwoods State Park and had our breakfast. We then proceeded down old Highway #101 to look at everything along the "Avenue of the Giants".

More info about this great state park can be found at www.Humboldtredwoods.org It’s about 31 miles long. We stopped at Pepperwood to see the ‘Immortal Tree’. It was a 950 year old giant redwood that survived fire, flood and loggers axe. The flood waters rose up about 25 ft from the base of the tree, the watermark was approximately 4 times higher than we stood at the base of the tree. That must have been some kind of flood. It wiped out a whole village.

We continued along to Redcrest where we saw the ‘Eternal Tree House’, it was a tree stump that you went into by a little door, then you were in this 20’ room under a 2500 year old tree, very cool.

Our next stop was at Founders Grove where we saw the ‘Founders Tree’ and the ‘Dyersville Giant’. The giant fell in March of 1991 and measures 370 ft long!! That’s 200 ft taller than Niagara Falls!! Or, it is comparable to a 30 storey building. It is 17 ft in diameter and has a 52 ft circumference…believe me it was BIG!

We continued our tour down to Myers Flat where we saw the ‘Shrine Tree’, where you could drive through a living tree. We walked through and then got pictures of a van going through. Our coach (with the boat on top) is way too big for us to drive through! There was also a log there that you could drive your car on and two adorable little ‘Tree Houses’, not like the tree houses up in a tree, these were actual little miniature houses carved right out of the wood of the tree stump. They were incredible.

Our final stop was at Phillipsville where we saw the ‘Chimney Tree’. This one was really something. It was a 1500 year old ‘hollow’, ‘living’ tee. Did you get that? It was so incredible, you went down these steps, opened this door, walked right into the base of the tree, it was huge in there, then you looked straight up the inside of the hollow tree right up to the sky AND it was still alive and growing! With no inside!! Ok I guess you get the picture J

We sure enjoyed our tour along the Avenue of the Giants. We then traveled along until we got to Highway 1, which is the scenic route along the coast. However, on our way to the Coast Highway 1, it was so twisty and hilly, after only going about a ¼ of the way, it was getting dark, and so we decided to stop at a rest stop on the top of a mountain in the Coast Range. We had dinner, made a few phone calls, played 007, and went to bed.

We got up, had our tea and coffee, I updated the travel log from yesterday; Barry washed the outside of the windshield and the other front windows. Then, we had our yogurt, kiwi, banana and seed mixture, one of our favorite breakfasts (sometimes with Mango, berries, cantaloupe or honeydew melon, yummy)

Then we hit the road, we traveled down the mountain, through the valley’s and mountains and came out at the coast. We stopped at the first scenic viewpoint with expansive views of the ocean, parked and stayed there for the whole day. We worked all day on the Travel Log and WeAreTraveling website. It went great.

After the sun set, we traveled along the coast until we came to a town and parked on the side of the highway. We had a glass of wine and went to bed at 8:30 pm. We chatted in bed for awhile and fell asleep.

Got up this morning and drove into Fort Bragg, got gas and while we were filling up we noticed a Denny’s across the street. We have only eaten out one time since we left Canada, so we decided to splurge and go for a big breakfast. It was delicious and kept us satisfied for most of the day. Then we drove and stopped at a few more view points and a lighthouse, then pulled down this road that ended in a cul-de-sac, with no houses, right beside the ocean, and as usual, it was gorgeous.

The topography is really changing, trees are shorter, land is dryer and brown, the water has also been changing colours. Since just before we left Oregon, it is a really pretty colour, shades of green and shades of blue. It is just getting prettier and prettier.

We worked on the travel log and WeAreTraveling website most of the day again today. It is almost ready and we should have it up and posted by tomorrow. Thank you so much for your patience. It will be easier from now on, as we don’t have to create the website next time, we just need to fill in the Log, pictures and update where we are on the maps…the map on the home page shows how far we have traveled, the maps inside the Log shows how far we traveled that month.

We left in plenty of time to do some more traveling, however, before we knew it, it was getting dark, no spot yet, then the sun set, still no spot and the road got windier, narrower with very steep, cliff type edges, there were also lots of switchbacks…we were driving at a snails pace, you could see straight down to the ocean, we were up so high, it was a bit nerve racking and thank goodness neither one of us is afraid of heights.

We finally felt it was getting unsafe to drive and we have pulled over half way down this huge mountain. We are safely tucked into a large pull out. A small truck pulled up with this lady and her dog, she is exhausted but afraid to stay by herself, she said she is just so thankful we are here and she has parked her truck behind us for the night.

We are having a quick bite to eat then hitting the sack. There are so many stars tonight and they seem so close. The moon is a crescent moon with the crescent at the bottom instead of the side…cool.

Please note a couple of things. I keep forgetting to mention that we often see Pelicans, they are not a bird that we saw in Canada and they are so cool, especially their beaks and necks, and the way the dive down into the ocean to get their prey. We started seeing the Pelicans as early as Washington, all through Oregon and now in California.

Also, for anyone that is faint of heart, or does not like heights ("Hi MamaJ ) I would not recommend taking Highway 1 along the California coast. It is much steeper and windier than in Oregon. For anyone else that does not mind heights, it is quite an incredible drive…
 

We got up this morning and headed right out, knowing we really should not have parked where we did for the night. We drove for awhile; we then stopped at this great scenic lookout, down off the highway, on the edge of a cliff.

We had breakfast on our lawn chairs, sitting out in front of the coach on the cliff edge. It is a very warm sunny day. As usual the view was spectacular. We have been here all day.

Went for a walk, looked at this really cool cactus, that looked like a tree from far away, but when you got up close, it had these huge succulent thorny, thick leaves at the base, a very thick stem, that looked a bit like a palm tree, and this really neat top with these green flowers or leaves or something. There were all kinds of bees, birds and even humming birds in it. It was so cool. We asked a hiker, who lived in the area what it was and she said it was a ‘Century Tree’, and that they were very common in the desert. However, the park ranger said they were very uncommon here and that they only bloom every 50-70 years. We are going to research them on the ‘net and see what we can find out about them. Very cool.

We had lunch. Barry cleaned the windshield and all of the rest of the windows again, never ending battle when travelling; now he is working on the website and mail out (to all of you). I was updating the Travel Log and reading in the sunshine for awhile.

We saw some Para-sailors utilizing the cliffs, it was neat to see them here, and we used to see them at Cloverpoint in Victoria all the time. They strap a large parachute onto their backs, run along and jump off the cliff. They use the updrafts to glide all along the coast, they can go left, right up or down….very neat to watch.

By the way I should mention that the MotoSAT is working really well now and has been for many days. We let each step complete before we proceed to the next step, and we are really pleased with its performance now. It is still so hard to believe that we can email anywhere anytime…

We drove to a State Park, dumped and parked for the night. We are not happy that we have to pay and there are no services. However, we are now on Highway 1 and it is getting late. Oh, and they charge $6.00 to dump, almost makes me miss the State of Oregon…

Had a bevy and dinner, chatted for a bit and hit the hay.

We slept in this morning, got up and had our tea and coffee, made breakfast, had showers, did dishes, vacuumed, etc…

Then just before noon we left our site, going through two very narrow trees to get out of the campground. On the way out, we dumped and got fresh water again. We are all set to hit the road.

We are a bit apprehensive about going into San Francisco, we are not sure why, we have a few ideas, but we can’t exactly figure out what the reason is, maybe it is a combination of the following:

We will continue to head that way and see what the day brings us.

We traveled to San Francisco, and wouldn’t you know it, we scraped bottom on one of the last mountains coming into the city before we left Highway 1 and went onto 101. Very little damage, we only bent the license plate and scraped a bit of the bottom of the scooter rack. No problem J

We pulled over at a safe place to do a quick fix up and then had our lunch; we can see the entrance to the ‘on ramp’ for Highway 101 from here. San Francisco here we come!

Wow, the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay were beautiful.

Movie Clip

The streets were unreal, the size of the City was huge, we only got turned around twice…and it took us about 3 hours to get through from one side to the other…whew we are sure glad that is over with…it really was incredible to see.

We are glad to be in a small town on the outskirts of San Francisco, a little place called Pacifica. We did some grocery shopping, relaxed, drove down the road by the ocean and found out that it appears we can park on the street here, right along a fence that says ‘Private Property’ and we look right over the fence. Our coach is so tall that we have a view of the ocean and we are within 100 ft of the ocean… cool!

We are making dinner and relaxing, while looking out at the beautiful Pacific Ocean and the pink and orange horizon…too tired to take a picture of this sunset…

We woke up after sleeping in until 7:30 am, and chatted in bed for awhile. Got up had our tea and coffee. Set up the satellite and checked emails. We really enjoyed the feedback from everyone that looked at the first travel logs and our website. THANK YOU!!

It is 10:00 am, our breakfast has been on the table for hours and we have still not eaten yet. We were just sitting here relaxing and chatting. Barry is working on the computer while I update the travel log….ahhhhh…. J Still enjoying that view over the fence. Today is foggy and overcast and a bit chilly…time to head south J

We stayed here until about 4:30 pm, that was not the plan, however, I guess we just needed some down time. We chatted, I read, Barry went for a walk and then made some calls at a payphone…nice easy day.

We then decided we really should move on. We travelled to a place south of Santa Cruz, it was great to go through Santa Cruz, we took the scenic drive and there was a fairground, with lots of rides and lots of people, just what you think of when you think of California.

We continued along and saw lots of people at the sandy beaches… And wind surfers…at one point we counted about 14 wind surfers and 14 kite borders out on the water. It was so pretty and looked like so much fun.

We continued to drive south until it stared to get dark. We loved the drive down, it was straight and very little mountains, which is nice for a change, it was getting really challenging there for awhile…

We are now in a little town of off Highway 1. We will check emails, check phone messages, have dinner and relax for the evening.

We woke up late this morning; I think it was around 8:00 am! We made tea & coffee and decided not to drink it right away. We drove while enjoying our morning beverages: it was nice for a change. We stopped and had breakfast at a scenic viewpoint and then continued our travels for a short distance.

We stopped at Bixby Bridge, supposedly a famous bridge that was built in the 1930’s. The view and bridge were so good we ended up staying there for the whole day. I clipped Tiki and read, Barry worked on the computer. He was working on installing my new Windows XP. I need it for my wireless access with our new MotoSAT, so far if I want to email, I have had to use Barry’s computer. So I am really looking forward to using my own computer again for internet purposes, not just for writing the travel logs.

We decided to hit the road around 5:00 pm, we travelled along the coast until we came to a scenic view point that we just could not resist. It is so beautiful here we have decided to chance being asked to leave. We will boondock here for the night.

This evening we will pay our bills, return some emails, have dinner and read. Looks like there is going to be a beautiful sunset.

We got up, made tea & coffee, travelled for awhile while we drank it. Then we parked at a scenic lookout for the day. We read, worked on the computer, and relaxed.

I forgot to mention that Pampas Grass grows wild here, there is so much of it growing and it is quite incredible. I never saw Pampas Grass back in Ontario, the first time I saw it was in BC. However, as far as I know, it did not grow wild, it was always in someone’s garden. We actually planted some of it in our garden on Montreal Street. Anyway, it grows like a weed down here.

We were driving along and pulled into a rest area, with these information boards that described ‘Elephant Seals", and that they are only around this part of the coast for a couple of months a year. We looked and looked with our binoculars and did not see any.

We drove a little further and saw what we thought were some Elephant Seals on the beach. We wanted to turn around, but before we could we saw a car parked on the side of the road. We looked down towards the beach in a cove and I could hardly believe my eyes. The beach was covered with these seals!

We did a donut, tires screaming, and sped back down the road… Ok, we carefully turned around and drove back to park the coach in the Rest Area. We took our camera and binoculars and walked back up the highway to see the Elephant Seals more closely.

It was very windy, and foggy, we walked for a bit and saw one of the seals all by himself on the beach. He lifted his head and looked at us, then put it back down and rested again.

We walked further and saw a bunch of them on the beach; however, they were pretty far away. We rounded the bend and there was the cove that we saw earlier from the coach. We could get quite close, but we felt we were safe as we were up on a hill looking down on them. They were incredible, the baby ones were as small as 3 ft and the largest we saw would have been 12-14 ft. They were really something else.

We read that they can dive deeper than 5000 ft!! Almost a mile down, there is less competition for the food. They migrate between the California Coast and Alaska. The females give birth in December. The males are very protective of the females and the pups. The can move very fast on land for short distances. Although the females and babies are quite cute, the males are very loud and very ugly. When they lift their heads and growl their face looks a bit like a hippo.

It was incredible to see them and we had a hard time pulling ourselves away from watching them. We feel so fortunate to have stumbled across them. We walked back to the coach, just in time to see a beautiful ball of fire, the sun setting just below the fog and above the horizon. I felt energized and so happy to be alive.

With the sun setting we had to quickly find a place to stay for the night. We found a great spot, it was incredibly quiet. We sat with a glass of wine in the dark, and chatted about our relationship of eight years and our lives. It was really nice to just sit and ‘be’…

We woke up this morning and drove to a scenic viewpoint for breakfast. I read and Barry worked on the computer for awhile. We made arrangements to have our mail forwarded from Mail Boxes Etc. to a UPS Store near here. We found out they are affiliated: didn’t know that. We showered, bathed Tiki and went for a walk.

I worked on the Travel Log while Barry worked on measuring and cutting the Velcro for the scooter rack cover. It should have been done before we left Victoria…we just have not had time J Sorry J We have not taken the time to do it. We do these little jobs off and on at these scenic viewpoints, it works really well.

We went into Cambria, what a cute little town…looked like it was right out of the movies, from centuries ago, all the little shops were all attached along the street…really pretty little place.

We stopped at a rest area, had lunch and then went for a walk. We worked our way down to the beach, walked along the beach, saw seals basking on the rocks in the sun, pelicans, cormorants, etc…all out in this one area, we also saw these real cool rocks, and cliffs…

We walked about a mile then went up on the cliff overlooking the ocean and walked back to the coach.

We travelled to Cayucos, parked the coach, walked out the pier and through the town, it was another cute little town…Our curiosity finally got the better of us…What is "Salt Water Taffy"?  We went into this cute, very old, store and bought some. Originally made in Salt Lake City, the type we bought has been made by this company for over 100 years. It is a traditional beach candy. They are small individually wrapped soft chewy colored candy. They come in all flavours with licorice being one of the original flavours. Although very chewy and sticky, they are really easy on your teeth and don’t feel like they will pull your fillings out J They taste a bit salty, but not enough to take away the flavour of the candy. They are all wrapped in wax paper, and come off the wax paper really easy.

We then traveled to Morro Bay, where we drove around a bit. We went to do laundry; however, the washers were $2.00 a load, so we decided to wait and check out other places tomorrow. We have decided to stay at Morro Strand State Beach for a couple of nights, take a break, do some swimming, tanning, kite flying, kite buggying, body boarding, etc… This State Park is right beside the ocean, there are a number of people here, we can see and hear the surf from the coach… Very nice.

This is the place that we will be picking up our mail on Thursday, so we figure we might as well enjoy ourselves while we are waiting.

We walked all around the park, paid for two nights, had a couple of Mike’s Hard Lemonade while watching the sun set. Had dinner and relaxed.

We went to bed at 9:15 pm last evening and slept all the way to 8:00 am this morning. We must have been tired from all of the walking yesterday. Got up this morning, sat facing the view, had our tea and coffee and read.

We then had breakfast and planned our day. We went outside and took off the cover for the scooter rack. Washed the edges of the frame and the cover, and then put industrial strength Velcro on them. We then took the scooters off the rack, washed the rack and the scooters, and some things we had stored on the rack. Everything was soooo dusty. Now that the cover has the Velcro on it should keep the dust down to a minimum.

We then came in for lunch. Printed off some maps of the town and the surrounding area from the computer program "Streets & Trips". This program has been invaluable, and has saved us a great deal of time and money: a must for traveling anywhere in North America.

We are now heading out to go for a scooter ride J

Well, what fun!! We went all along the ocean in the residential areas that had lots of homes with a Spanish architectural influence. We saw plants and trees we have never seen before. It’s so neat to notice the differences from Canada. We also drove up these very high steep hills, straight up, and a great view, then straight down…very carefully. Then we headed downtown, Barry bought a ‘shorty’ wetsuit and I bought some surf booties. It was funny that I could not find a wet suit today and Barry could not find his booties. We will keep looking. We looked for shorty's in Northern California and they were $69.00 US, down in Southern California Barry paid $39.00 US…Cool.

We then walked all around downtown and on the piers, then we noticed that there were cars out at the base of the biggest Sea Stack that we have seen yet. We rode our Scooters out there and watched the surfers, rode the scooters 2/3 of the way around the base, walked a bit further, then just looked around…we could not go any further around because the rest was in the water. We read on an info board that this Sea Stack was used as a navigational tool, chronicled back as far as the 1700’s. And, that it is one of nine along the coast, with this one being the last of the nine. The rest are from here down to San Luis Obispo, which is about 10-12 miles south of here…it would have been neat to see all nine, however, the highway does not go along the coast for a bit, therefore we won’t get to see anymore.

When we left there to head home along the spit of land heading towards the main land, we notice movement in the water; we pulled over and saw these two Otters, one snoozing on his back, leaning against the big one. The big one was also on his back, however, he never stopped moving, he was bathing, scratching his face with his little paws, and then his head, then the back of his neck, then he was playing with some sea weed, he was so adorable. He must have been about four feet long. I had no idea they were that large. They were adorable. After awhile they both started doing these little summer salts and rolls in the water, always staying close to each other…just adorable.

Then, we looked to our right and there, swimming along in formation together were six white birds. At first we thought they were swans or herons (or cranes), but soon we realized they were pelicans. They were white with yellow eyes, orange beaks and orange feet, and a bit of black under their tail. All of the thousands of pelicans we had seen so far were a brownish colour. These were so beautiful and we think we got some great pictures…

We then scooted home, put the scooters back on the rack and took some pictures for Liquid Metal so she could see how the platform looked on the coach. Then, we went in for dinner.

After dinner, we chatted for awhile, then played 007…until 11:30 pm, well past our bedtime. We went to bed, listening to the ocean surf. It has been great staying put for a few days, taking the scooters off, and tooling around.

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