Visit the kelpforest....

We went to the beach again to participate in Hands Across the Sand. Apparently the girls next to us were hestitant to hold hands with Angus; they wouldn't grab on until the last second, and then dropped hands and ran up the beach as soon as it appeared to be over. I chatted with the older man next to me who seemed to be from Northern CA and said something about having started one of the first organic farms in the state. He asked about the oil rigs visible a few miles in the distance, and I told him they were pretty much grandfathered from before the ban on drilling. However, the major oil spill we've had here was when I first started at the Department; an oil terminal right about a mile of Newland St. where tankers offloaded to the Edison plant. A captain forgot to take the shallow water and the tides into account and the ship sat on its own anchor. Guess what company it was. >:( The guy shook his head and nodded at Avalon running back and forth among the pier pilings and in and out of the water, then said, "We aren't doing this for ourselves. It's for people like her."

An older woman up on the pier looked down disgustedly and yelled, "DRILL, DRILL, DRILL!"

Hands Across the Sand
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
26 June 2010

( civic duties )

I suppose this could be in honor of the world cup...

Surfboard art
Huntington City Beach
HB CA
Canon EOS 1000D
18 June 2010

( A walk downtown... )

Thought I'd waymark the Dog Beach so I stopped by to take a few pics of some canines and their humans.

Dog Beach
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
14 October 2009

( +1 )

There was a small fair for city residents down at the beach, with bands out on the sand, food vendors, and games. The fry always love a bounce house (or whatever those inflatable thingies are called).

Beach fair
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
4 October 2009

We went for a walk downtown after the US Open of Surfing was done for the day. Lots of people watching still be had and we cooled off with some Dairy Queen, strolling around as we ate. These old beach bungalows down there are getting fewer and farther between.

Sunflowers and prayer flags
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
25 July 2009

( +2 )

Talked my brother into coming down and trying to go grunion watching, as it was an early 10 pm run, and the kids didn't have school the next day. We went to Seal Beach because it's one of hte few that doesn't close at 10 pm. He brought a bunch of friends with him, including new beau from Sweden, and his dog Luna, an Italian greyhound who's completely blind now. Unfortunately, we got skunked; nary a scout even showed up. I felt a little bad because one friend had come before and we hadn't seen any - he's going to believe they don't actually exist. I'm a little floored at how international Doug's friends are; the other two were from France and South America.

Seal Beach Pier and no grunion
Seal Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
24 May 2009

( +2 )

Two of the fry had coupons for a free meal at Ruby's that they got as a reward from school, so we walked out to the one on the end of the pier for lunch. Had to wait for 45 minutes and runsamuck was about to lose patience and leave.

Pier
HUntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D (Sorry, but that's much shorter than typing Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS - besides it sounds so pretentious)
15 March 2009

( +3 )

Went for a walk with fry down to the beach again, and turned out there was a kite festival going on. These two were absolutely huge, maybe 10 feet across. The way the octopus's tentacles moved was rather hypnotizing (video here, if interested).

In like a lion
Huntington Beach CA
Casio EX-Z80A
1 March 2009

( a bit more sobering... )

Gareth wanted to try to fly kites Saturday, and Avalon's had gotten its tail tangled up with a bunch of kite string. By the time I got that mess unraveled, it was an hour or two before sundown. Instead of parking on one of the residential streets across from the beach, for some reason I chose to park right on PCH where the parking meters are, which I was chagrined to see have increased their fees. A quarter only gets you 10 minutes, and the time of day they were active used to end at 6 p.m., it now extends to midnight. And the damn thing didn't register 50¢ of the coins I put in, so it ripped me off.

Anyhow, we got down on the sand and I took my clogs off as I hate walking in sand-filled shoes. There is what looks like a riverbed cutting through the beach to the water where storm run-off from the recent rain has cut a path. There are three foot sand cliffs where the water cut through the berm. The sand was freezing and my toes were getting numb, so I forbade any getting near the water, as someone always gets soaked, even when they're not supposed to get any wetter than their knees.

We had left the kites in the car because the wind was absolutely dead (probably because we'd brought kites). But once we got to the beach's berm, we did get to watch a pod of wild dolphins swim by. The kids had never seen wild ones before, but I noticed birds circling and told them to watch the water below them. Sure enough, dorsal fins surfaced in groups, and once I saw a little one leap clear of the water. The kid's attention had shifted to chasing each other around by that time, so they missed it.

I like the beach in winter time - although I suppose it wasn't actually winter just then, but the last day of fall. It's nearly deserted except for a few who've come to watch the sunset and some devoted surf fishermen. I only saw one surfer.

The fry wanted to go the beach again, so we checked out what some recent rain had done. The concrete pyramid is placed in from of some drainage pipes for street runoff; to prevent erosion, I guess. However, there is a big channel cut into the sand all the way down to the water, so I don't know how effective that is.

Huntington City Beach
HB CA
Sharp VE-CG30
29 November 2008

( Very low tide... )