A Covina Fish in Paradise

I had an especially lovely, wonderful walk this morning. It was a super dense fog morning, not as thick as it was that day a few weeks ago, but the air was white and richly moist with very limited visibility and a gorgeous halo effect around the sun.

There were the usual birds: noisy seagulls, fidgety shorebirds with all their adorable fuzzy little baby chicks, and also some pelicans doing a delightful flyby over the ocean out just above where the waves begin to grow.

But the greatest treat of all this morning: two seals swimming and gorging on fish just 10 to 20 feet offshore. One of them was so close I seriously could have ran out and touched it and possibly not even gotten my shirt wet. It was rather high tide which means the sandy shoreline descends at a pretty quick slant into the ocean, hence the reason the seals were able to swim so close to the shore, and okay, maybe I would have gotten my shirt wet.

At first I had only seen one of them and I was afraid that it might be sick or in distress since it's so unusual to see a seal so up close like that. Paulina, a morning regular, jogged towards me & stopped for a moment to talk about the seals, which I now saw that there were two of them. She assured me that they were fine and said that they eat the Corvina fish (I thought she said Covina fish - I grew up in Covina LOL!) which eat the sand crabs and that's why they were so close to shore. It was like a seal buffet!

As usual, the beach was none too crowded (just how I like it!)and most of us who were there remarked to each other about the seals and shared our enjoyment of them and the beautiful foggy morning as we passed each other and then continued on alone on our peaceful, solitary walks.

Lastly, just to mention, a girl/woman/lady I often see who in my mind I refer to as Tracy Nelson (actress & daughter of Ricky Nelson) introduced herself as Stephanie, but I still prefer to think of her as Tracy Nelson. Is that bad?

Which Way the Wind Blows

Yesterday morning was cool and cloudy which made for a wonderful morning walk.

This morning was cool and sunny which made for a wonderful morning walk.

I really, really love walking on the beach in the morning.

For most of my life I always went to the beach in the hot sun of the afternoon, to hang out with friends, to party, to get tan. It's only been this last year that I realize that, except for one or two really awesome afternoons, I was doing it all wrong.

Being young I didn't care or believe that my skin would ever wrinkle. Sunblock? Hah! It always seemed stupid and unnecessary even though I always turned pink instead of brown & burned easily. It meant nothing to me, less than nothing. And now my skin is starting to wrinkle and I'm so far away from that careless young girl who made stupid choices sometimes and never thought about the future. I'm the result of that girl & I wish I could talk to her and give her a heads up, about life, about love, & about sunblock, even though she wouldn't listen or take it to heart.

Life after Labor Day weekend

Two weekends ago, two friends & I found ourselves out and about in Seal Beach on the sunny Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. We had a great time hanging out and wandering through some of the shops on Main Street and took a walk out on the pier.

We looked like this:




and the beach looked like this:



which bummed me out & made me want to yell, "hey you kids get off of my beach." I kept in mind that in just a few short days everyone would be back doing their regular routine & I would be back doing mine, once again enjoying my morning walks on my lovely, quiet beach.

On the plus side, we saw a really cute guy on the pier:



So now it's two weeks later. My son is back in school & my mornings are free and are mine all mine. I've spent at least a half a dozen mornings back walking on the beach and collecting shells. Sometimes I walk the beach on both sides of the pier although I really do prefer the north side.

This morning there was a terrific fog with the sun trying to break through. It looked like this:



Something about the fog and the sun was so magical. It felt special to be there. I felt lucky. I felt good.

:)

Life, Death, and Trash

And then there's this, too.

It's probably about the fourth or fifth time I've seen this in the morning: seagulls eating a dead (I hope!) stingray for breakfast. I've even seen seagulls eating other dead seagulls. Nice. Or not so nice.

That's life. That's death. For some reason all the stupid trash on the beach bothers me much more than this ever does.

Catalina! Catalina!

She's blurry, but she's back!

:)

Carol Burnett was on the Tavis Smiley show last night talking about her daughter Carrie (who died too young - like in her 30's - from cancer). She said that even while sick in the hospital, her daughter kept a positive outlook because in spite of everything she had decided she was going to love her life. I kept her message in my heart & spirit during this morning's walk and I plan to keep it there as much as possible.

:)

Back in the Sand

It's been 2 weeks since my last walk. It's good to be back!

:)

La Laguna de Benjamin Dominguez

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There's a park in Garden Grove, CA called Atlantis. This is not that park. These photos are from La Laguna de San Gabriel at Don Lugo Park in San Gabriel, which is sort of where this story begins and ends.

My son & I were planning to visit Atlantis Park last week, but his friend couldn't go so we didn't go either. I had taken him there once several years ago and we both loved it. He loved it because it was cool and fun; I loved it because it reminded me of the park in San Gabriel that my family used to take me to when I was a kid. I loved that park and went there a lot, including for birthday parties. It was THE fun park to go to as far as I was concerned. I'm not generally a super nostalgic person, but I always remembered this San Gabriel park fondly and as an adult I've gone back to visit several times.

Both Atlantis Park & Don Lugo Park (formerly Wells Park) are full of giant cement sea creature slides and climbing things. As far as I knew this was a sort of common thing for parks of the time. Last week after googling directions to Atlantis Park, I started clicking on links and made the most wonderful discovery. Both parks were designed and created by the same man, Benjamin Dominguez. Both parks are masterful and precious and fairly unique (Legg Lake - also a childhood spot! - still has some of his playful structures) and La Laguna de San Gabriel is his masterpiece. His is a wonderful story which you can read if you like at this link:

http://www.friendsoflalaguna.org/

Anyway, several years ago, La Laguna was in danger of being demolished due to modern safety & accessibility standards. Luckily for all of us, some people got together to stop that from happening, and so La Laguna lives on. The more I read about Benjamin Dominguez and La Laguna and Atlantis, the more I feel like my heart is growing like the Grinch's heart when he hears all the Whos in Whoville singing with no presents yet still with love in their hearts.

What a lucky child I was to get to innocently enjoy this magical park without a clue as to its story, and what a grateful adult I am now to have learned about the artist who created it. Although my prior love for La Laguna was strong, it is deeper now than ever before. As one of his grandkids wrote, now instead of La Laguna being a memory, it is a legacy.

So thanks, Ben! And thanks to the Friends of La Laguna!

(The above pics from La Laguna are from Feb 2013. Very, very soon we will make that short trip to Atlantis and it won't be long until I check out Legg Lake again, too.)