Tag Archives: Pelican Point

Waves

Do you find it irritating when people take photos of the same dang thing over and over again, like the waves at a particular small beach in Half Moon Bay, and think that other people will find it as endlessly fascinating as they do?

It’s almost as bad as people who just can’t get enough of their own puppy or baby shots.

Sorry.

It won’t happen again.

We have a particular stretch of beach that we rarely visit without our camera, but it’s not what you think.

Okay, in part it’s the thrill of the big boomers accompanying a high surf advisory after a storm that, without the stalwart intervention of The Big Rocks, would surely rip us away in a Current of Doom.

But that’s so cliche.

While, this–a ridiculously wonderful man playing with his ADORABLE puppy at sunset with little lapper wavelets kissing the sand*–is so NOT cliche.

What?? It’s contextually appropriate: waves, rock, light…

Yawn.

The secret, our friends, to endless fascination in location-redundant wave photography lies not in the spectacular, any more than the appreciation of cloud photography is found only in several dandy shots of tornadoes at 400 yards.

And, this secret is only accessible via photography and its inherent ability to slow a wave down to a single moment in time, AND… you played this game as a kid, only then it was called “what shape do you see in the clouds?”

See the snowflake?

No two waves are the same, yet they happen so fast that without a freeze-frame, we can only catch the artistry in the subconscious. Waves explode really, really quickly.

This explains (to us) why some people can visit the same beach every day of the year, year after year, and never get bored with the scenery, while others go once, figure they got all the sand, water, beach glass, yadda yadda figured out, and they’re good, thanks.

We think the parties of the first part have minds that soak in all those amazing lightening-fast shapes and ideas, and then those minds play the images back to them at a more leisurely pace in their sleep. The next morning, they’re standing in that lovely, warm, and safe twilight zone in the shower and… PAF! A brilliant idea appears “out of the blue.”

Get it?

Ever noticed how some types of creative communities congregate at the coastlines? Waves, dude… channels for the Muse.

Sometime it may even work retroactively. For instance, here I can clearly see the crochet circles of my Grandma Fentiman’s Christmas tree ornaments that she made a few years before she died.

Is it any wonder we feel so connected and comforted and whole down by the water?

Just as with clouds, you can see the speed of charging horses…

… and the fearsomeness of huge “Monsters, Inc.” style beasties charging in on you, gargantuous hairy paws grabbing at your head over the only line of defense, poor rocks… Hold on, rocks!

ACK!

So, aren’t you glad that the only actual hairy paws you’ll have to deal with from the beach will need to be rinsed gently in clear water before coming in the house so they don’t get sand all over the couch or develop an allergic reaction to salt water between the toes?

We thought so.

* I know that should be an actual em dash, but I don’t know how to do the html coding for that. Rick does, but he’s not at home right now, which is why I was able to sneak in such sweet photos of him with Winnie at the beach. It was worth it, right?

Dogs Save Potato Bug From Papparazi

This post is about a potato bug we met returning home on “The Path” a few weeks ago.

However, I find the bug so repulsive that I’m going to break us all in gently by showing you who we had met earlier in the day at Pelican Point Beach.

They’d grown, and they were dry and fluffy, but we recognized them right away as they bounded down the stairs on to the beach.

And yes, they were just as adorable and engaging to watch as they had been the first day we met them.

(Note: Oliver’s manners have not yet improved significantly. Everyone knows it’s rude to pee in the pool. Lulu seemed quietly resigned to the situation, though. Some of life’s “what boys do” lessons just come early, I guess. And no, we have no idea why we seem to catch all manner of animals taking a leak. Perhaps they’re just relaxed around us.)

Okay, I think you’re ready for a bug shot now.

You can’t say we didn’t warn you.

We’d had our play with Lulu and Oliver and were on our way back up the hill when we saw “it” in the middle of the path. We had no idea what it was, but I’m very clear on what my visceral and completely girly response was to the sighting: “EWWWW! That’s just disgusting!”

It was two inches long–which is a BIG bug for California–and looked like a cross between a grasshopper, wasp, and the biggest dang ant I’ve ever seen. Did it fly? Could it hop? If so, how high? A quick trip to Wikipedia made me feel better about how squeamish I was:

“In California, the Jerusalem cricket is known as a potato bug.Its large, human-like head has inspired both Native American and Spanish names for the Jerusalem cricket. For example, several Navajo names refer to the insect’s head:^[8]

c’ic’in lici (Tsiitsʼiin łichíʼí) “red-skull”
c’os bic’ic lici (Chʼosh bitsiitsʼiin łichíʼí) “red-skull bug”
c’ic’in lici’ I coh (Tsiitsʼiin łichíʼítsoh) “big red-skull”
wo se c’ini or rositsini (Wóó tsiitsʼiin) “skull insect” [Who, I ask you, would have warm fuzzy thoughts about a huge bug with a red humanesque head? Ick.]

Also from the same wiki page: “Despite their name, Jerusalem crickets are neither true crickets, true bugs, nor native to Jerusalem, and they do not prefer potatoes for food.”

Interesting, but somehow doesn’t make it any easier for me to look at it. Need a break now…

The dogs still adore each other.

Equals in size, maturity, energy, temperament and ear-biting skills, it was like watching kids let out of class on the last day of school before summer break.

Ready to get back to the bug?

(And note what kind and considerate bloggers we are? We even issue “disgusting photo” alerts for our readers. Who else does THAT? Come to think of it, who else posts disgusting bug photos? Hmmm… never mind.)

It was kind of dragging itself along, exoskeleton bumping along the gravel as it hauled its big disturbing self towards the grass on the side of the path.

Ack. Enough.

Resplendent.

Repugnant.

How many nasty weapons of mass destruction does one two-inch bug need? Look at all those blades and pointy bits! Are those eggs on the underbelly? And doesn’t that thigh also look kind of human as well?

Ugh.

Why do we find some creatures so delightful and others make us gag on sight? I’d love to know. What I do know is that there are many “human-like” attributes evident in these dogs: flowing hair, smiling faces, the joy of companionship and play, bling… and I don’t find them offensive at all.

I feel I’m missing something here.

In any case, we had reached the stage of “Honey, get out one of our cards and see if you can move it to a better angle, okay? Honey?” (Read: “I’m not going anywhere NEAR hopping distance to the thing, but I’d love a close up shot of that face.”) Just as “we” were getting within nudging distance, who should appear on The Path, but…

… the rescue squad.

One of the owners, obviously a native Californian, said “Oh, a potato bug,” upon which he bent over, scooped it up, and threw it in the bushes. “There! That’ll give him a chance. See ya next time!”

Sigh… you never know what you’ll miss until it’s gone.

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A Bird’s Eye View

One of the very best aspects of sitting on the cliffs at Pelican Point is that it often puts you at, or even above, the flight path of the seagulls, pelicans, hawks, and ravens that cruise the coastline.

The downside is that it really puts the memory card in your digital camera through its paces.

Not that there’s anything wrong with taking literally hundreds and hundreds of photos in an hour.

It’s just that it can get so painful to decide what to keep and what to dump.

For a painter who’s always on the lookout for a great reference shot for an upcoming painting, it means you or your designated alternate (the wee wifey, say…) shoot, keep, process, and store thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of photos.

I mean, really… is this shot that much different than the one above it, or the five others that where shot in between them? Same bird…

The answer is “yes, in ways too numerous to count.”

Even within a single shot, there are multiple images that can–and must–be harvested.

From one perspective, it’s all about the context and spatial relationships between objects…

From another, it’s about body shape and color.

And from yet another, it’s about how freaking wonderful life is as you recline on a cliff in the late afternoon light, leaning against your sweetie, shooting photos of seagulls.

The Sandbox of Pelican Point

Getting sand between the toes with friends and taking on the Pacific ocean are a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Sometimes people show up in multiple family units, dedicated to wearing the little kids out for an early bedtime so the big kids can reminisce about how good it used to feel when they were little kids and would play so hard they would go to bed exhausted, the fun quotient of the day thoroughly used up without anything wasted and nothing left over.

And yes, I’ll take anyone’s photo, anywhere, every time, going to great lengths to get strangers a high-res, Christmas-card worthy image, for free. It might be a sickness. I can’t help myself.

Sometimes the gathering is more “Hey, watcha wanna do this afternoon, Becky?”

For some it’s all about the thrill of bare, numb feet, racing towards the roaring crash of water coming at you, safe because you’re holding hands… and Mom has all the shoes…

… and sometimes the thunder of waves provides a refuge of uninterrupted mind space, exactly the level of solitude you need to become the hero, a doer of great deeds of daring on the open seas.

The beach is a “mistakes cost nothing” canvas one moment…

… and a catwalk for a high-fashion dreamer the next…

… and a chance to stomp ahead down the path in a little pink pout, if you feel like it.

It’s a 3D light box with no self-awareness and room to spread out a little and play with light and shadows and some new moves*…

… and it’s a time for kindred spirits to stroll along in a silence of understanding and companionship.

It sponsors spontaneous affection one moment…

… and coy-for-the-camera cheesiness the next.

But mostly, the beach is a clean slate, where nothing needs to compete for room to grow…

… including friendship.

* Stay tuned… coming to a screen near you soon!

The Real After Shock? No Tsunami in Half Moon Bay

Well, one out of three isn’t so bad.

Of my three predictions yesterday, only the final one came true: Rick and I now have an additional 317 fabulous wave photos in our archives.

We’re gonna need another external hard drive.

There was plenty of drama, but it was more of the “sun streaming through the clouds on breath-taking back-lit scenery” than the “tragedy at sea” type.

There were lots of people down at the coast, many choosing a safe perch from which to peer into the horizon for signs of the monster waves. The front yard of the Ritz Carlton is about 75 feet straight up from the beach.

It could be anywhere from 40 to 100 feet of cliff. I’m bad at guesstimating that kind of thing. But it’s up there.

See? Safe.

Some settled for the mid-span viewing zone. Adventurous, yes, but still within the “not likely to need an at-sea rescue” margin of sanity.

Others? Not so careful.

Of course, if you’ve traveled all the way from South Carolina and never had a toe in the Pacific ocean before and this was your only window, and you were only going to be down there for five minutes…

… well, there are always a thousand stories beyond the yellow tape.

P.S. This morning, March 1, there are reports of devastating tsunami damage and loss of life along the coast of Chile. Our hearts go out to all who are suffering as a result.

Tsunami Prediction

A short summary of pertinent facts:

There was an 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile today.
There is a tsunami advisory for the west coast of North America from Mexico to Canada.
We live on the west coast of California, a short walk up hill from a pretty wild and woolly section of beach.

A few more relevant data points:

Initial wave arrival at our beach is estimated at 1:26pm, according to a statement issued by the National Weather Service.
The wave heights are predicted to be roughly two and a half feet about normal.
The series of big storms here lately have already washed out several feet of the stairway leading down to our beach.

A couple of subjective observations:

People are fascinated by out-of-the-ordinary natural events.
Many people own cameras and like to take photos of waves.
People, on the whole, run towards stupid.

Ergo, my predictions:

The Half Moon Bay Review will run an article, with photo, about the brave lifeguards rescuing some doofus who was standing on a rock in the Harbor with a video camera at 1:26 p.m. on Saturday, February 27, 2010.
By next week, the town council will be arm wrestling over where to find the funds to replace the stairway down to the beach at Pelican Point.
Rick and I will have some amazing wave photos to share with you here tomorrow.

Neighbours

We were up with the birds today, so we took the camera along on our morning walk to see who was in da hood.

The poop factory was already up and attending to business. They’re a scrappy lot — just ask “Peg-leg” (third from the left).

Except for all the hootin’ and hollerin’ first thing in the morning around here, the resident aviary tends to be a pretty peaceful lot.

The thing is, there are a LOT of birds in da hood.

Some of them are pretty ordinary little things, nothin’ special, just on the look out for an ordinary breakfast beetle or two.

But don’t let their size fool you: some of them are super models with egos the size of Texas. They know their best angles, when to puff up and hold it, and where to sit so their fluffy little bottoms catch the best up-lighting from the rising sun, dahling.

Wait! Wait! Don’t you walk away with that camera yet! Check THIS out…

Ha? Wad-i-tell-ya? I’m so gorgeous, I make MYSELF green with envy!

On the other hand, some are not so pretty as they are fascinating, preferring wisdom over beauty. How can you look part pterodactyl and not be wise?

I don’t know if pelicans are intelligent, bird-wise speaking.

But even if pelicans are dumber than a sack of scrambled hammer handles…

… they always seem to get a good chuckle out of life.

But let’s let the crow have the last laugh. They love that.

* I’m using the “u” in honour of Canada currently being the Olympic “Host with the Most.” As the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, said regarding the games, “Go ahead and wave those flags! We’ll apologize for our immodesty later.”

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