A Trip to Beach Dog

When desert plants bloom they are bright and flamboyant. On our morning walk I took pictures of flame trees, bougainvillea and ice plant in florescent colors, orange and lemon trees so loaded with fruit you could barely see the branches and an aloe field full of yellow spiky blooms.

The trip to the dog beach (or "beach dog" as Rick's granddaughter Emma called it) was a veritable blipfest. It was a perfect clear day when we arrived at Del Mar Beach, as it is properly known, and I could not hold on to Ozzie when I let him out of the car and he realized he was at the beach. There were were lots of dogs running in the surf, running on the beach, even running around the rocks. Since he disdains to chase after a ball, Ozzie brought his own stick, which he was loath to give up merely to chase after it again. Much better to just carry it with him and detour into the waves as he saw fit.

The cliffs here are dramatic--embedded with large and small shells, eroded into fins in some places, and completely caved in in a few others. I took a picture of a fence hanging over what had once been the solid ground of the cliff top and is now mostly air. Behind it are buildings which are clearly substantial--probably houses. On it is a sign which says UNSTABLE CLIFFS--to which any observer would simply say, " duh..."

The rocks at the foot of the cliffs form tide pools which no doubt teem with life forms. We saw small crabs scuttling into their holes and brilliant green seaweed which contrasted nicely with the bright blue sky and the whitecaps on the waves.

My comment to the others as we walked back to the car invigorated by the salt breeze and the waves and the sun, with a happy, wet dog in tow, was that it was so nice to be somewhere where one could see people playing with their dogs and their kids, running on the beach or playing with boogie boards--people acting normal and not a cell phone in sight. One doesn't realize how pervasive these devices have become until there are none in sight.

A stop at Chino's, a famous produce stand produced more blips of ancient corrugated iron buildings, equipment which was still in use 20 years past its sell by date and the most beautiful produce. We bought some strawberries which were huge, sweet and red, and a few items for the impending feast. I hear the men returning from a further hunting trip to the store--time to put on my apron and get to work....