Friday - already?

Goodbye for now...

Polly and Lewis have a last play session on the couch

a farewell snuggle with Nina

Paul driving "the Beast" out of their site and heading for the open road.
Safe travels - see you soon!

Paul and Nina et al drove away this morning, heading east towards the siren song of the desert.  We hope to cross paths with them in Arizona next month.

We had an exciting morning over outside coffees.  We spent an inordinate amount of time deciding whether the grebes on the bay were western, clarks or pied billed.  Binoculars, book consultation, discussion - binoculars, book consultation, discussion, and so went our morning.    In case any of you are on pins and needles, the consensus was that there were both western and pied billed.   We were also able to identify a group of ruddy ducks amongst the northern pintails.   Be still my beating heart.....

After such an thrilling morning, we thought we'd mosey over to Ocean Beach, a little town just around the corner from us.  We'd heard about a stellar burger joint there, named Hodads, and we were definitely in the mood for a burger and beer.   Ocean Beach is the ultimate haven for free spirits, hippies (young and old), surfers and assorted alternative types.   Its a unique beach town in a world all its own and we really enjoyed our time there.  Hodads is a tiny, jam packed joint of a place that assaults your senses with every inch of space filled with old license plates, surf boards and memorabilia, tattooed/pierced customers, loud music and baskets of insane burgers passing by just over your head.    Fun!    Hodad, by the way, means one who hangs out at the beach, but doesn't surf, one who is into cars and counterculture.  We fit part of that bill....

Dave trying to nonchalantly read the walls.
 Can you see the vw bus sticking through the wall to the left of Dave?

my view

the start of lunch....burp....

We really needed to walk off that lunch, so we turned right out the door and strolled the streets a bit before heading to the beach and pier.

If you read today's blog already, you'll remember that there was a picture of a guy with a huge snake wrapped around his arm right here.    I just removed it, even though it was posted innocently, because I don't want to publicize his hateful message.  But....the snake was really cool.

below the pier

Ocean Beach fishing pier as seen from the dog beach

We walked out to the end of the pier, its a long walk.  This is one of the  longest concrete piers in the world at over 1900 feet.  It even has a little restaurant halfway out with beautiful views of the crashing waves below.    After the long walk back we  gave up our perfect parking spot and drove down the coast just a little bit to find the dedicated dog beach.  Its huge, especially at low tide.  Lots and lots of room for dogs to run and play without feeling hemmed in.  We didn't have Lewis and Sasha with us so we just walked along and enjoyed the dogs enjoying themselves.

all eyes on a nearby seagull....

On our way back to Beluga we stopped and checked out two potential self service dog washes in case the weather doesn't warm up enough for us to bathe sweet Lewis outside.   I had a brief, but nice phone conversation with Lisa on the way home, so good to catch up with her.   She's orchestrating a big family contingent to attend Mike's "Colonel" ceremony in February.

Beautiful sunset at the end of another wonderful day.