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Category Archives: beach

The light at the beach is so inviting for photography. Maybe it’s just that it is so different from the mountain light where I live. It’s a different color and certainly less contrasty even when the sun is shining. Maybe from the moisture in the air? I return from beaches with lots of photos of just the beach, the waves, the sky – big empty canvases with little detail it seems. But there is so much to see if you look closely. Flotsam and jetsam from the sea and beyond. Birds. Anglers. Algae or seaweed.

Razor clam season opened up on our favorite Washington coast beach and we were able to get away for a long weekend for some much-needed fun times at the beach. We welcomed the vernal equinox (and my birthday) near Pacific Beach with fried clams and chocolate cake before going out to dig more clams. Ken did some surf fishing also. It was a fun weekend and a great getaway from the long mud season we are experiencing here at home.

As you might imagine, the dogs were thrilled with the idea. We even took along an extra dog, our old buddy Wyatt Ann. She’s not Sky’s favorite dog pal but Luna likes her. Sky seems to be recovered from her strained bicep tendon that has bothered her since December. We still do not throw sticks and balls for her since she puts all of her canine energy into retrieving. She was happy to just run on the beach, bring things to us and have the other dogs try to catch her.

Maybe it’s because we live in the mountains that we are drawn to beaches. We looked around for dog-friendly beaches on the trip and were pleased to find lots of places for them to run. This one at McKerricher State Park in California had a long open section in between two closed sections – one because the seals and sea lions hauled out on the rocks and at the other end was a nesting area for an endangered plover. We were there at an exceptionally low tide and saw a fellow out harvesting mussels. Yumm!

Meanwhile, I’ve barely made a dent in the photos from our road trip.

We enjoyed watching surfers playing at Sand Dollar Beach. The weather was so perfect and the water so clear and blue. It looks quite different from the Pacific on the coast of Washington. We went to the beach in the morning before the crowds arrived and again in the evening for sunset. Most folks were there in the heat of the day. When we left late in the morning there was a steady stream of folks walking down the steep stairs to the beach.

We had really good weather for most of this trip. And low tides too. These things made it hard to leave the beach. It’s always fun to explore a beach and see what’s been deposited by the tides. This beach has nearly no driftwood, making it hard to find a stick for Sky. She used the same stick for three days!