home again...

Well, I'm home. I was just getting into the swing of things at Sea Ranch so I wasn't really ready to leave. I got up bright and early today so I would have time to go out to the beach again and still pack up the car and clean. I just love the silence on the beach in the morning when it's not windy and the tide is out. I looked for more shells and checked on Starsky. He was still on the same rock but had moved over about 24". I walked over the tidepools to the place where the family was abalone diving, which they were again today. I went up the stairs and walked along the bluff to get to the beach where I had found a lot of abalone the day before. Boy oh boy, there was a lot of it this morning! It was just laying around on the sand in pretty good sized pieces. I happened to notice that there was what looked like a pretty big piece just beyond where the little waves were breaking. I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my already wet pants and waded out into the freeeeezing cold water to get it. I sort of had to wrestle it out from between two rocks and it broke in half but I got some of it! It was still sort of slimy and not as pretty as we are used to seeing because it hadn't been tumbled and smoothed down.

After drying off my feet and getting my shoes back on I hightailed it back to the house so I could pack the car and clean up the remaining stuff I had to.

I was sad to leave for sure. I hope to go back sooner than the 3 years or so it's been since I was last there.

Before I left Sea Ranch I stopped at the lodge and had a pastry and a latte (that was worth it at the time but I am now regretting) while sitting on the grass outside the back of the lodge. These pictures, as with all of them just really don't do this place justice, the smell of Sea Ranch alone is worth going for. I hope that some of you will go and find it as wonderful a place as I do!