While we were just standing around after eating Case got excited and said “Pops look there!” and pointed toward the street.  There was a couple going by in their recumbent tricycles. They were actually passing cars. I don’t know if the operators were handicapped or not but they were hauling butt up the slope. On the back side of the park I saw guys climbing the cliffs. The cliff looked a hundred feet or so high. Made me think of the annual mud slides we hear about on the TV news. The guys were outfitted with ropes and other rappelling gear.  It was hard to see the houses and clibers on the cliffs. But across the road were houses with what must be magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. I truly envy those people. If I were forced to live in California I would chose a location like these.  However, I rather expect that the houses have all sorts of problems like storms and mud slides. Looking down the road away from the houses my eyes were drawn to the Pacific Ocean.  I spent the first 12 years of my life within 100 miles of the Pacific Ocean. The sight made me home sick again. After living for 50 years off the Gulf of Mexico and the recent cruise in the Carribean I had actually forgotten how green the Pacific Ocean water is. We loaded the limo and went back down the road to the highway 1 that parallels the coast. How magic that sounds. “Highway 1”!  When we got to the beach Wayne and I went off by ourselves while the rest of the family sorted themselves out. We saw this huge roller apparatus. Looked like something we used on softball fields. There was a couple standing next to the sign explaining the roller. When I brought the camera up they popped into a natural pose against the sign. I tell everyone who asks that they are long lost cousins. They may be. 8^)  Then Wayne had to have his picture next to the sign. I really enjoy being with him. His family raised him well grounded. The roller must be over 8 feet in diameter and about 15 feet wide.  We finally took time to read the sign and discovered that the roller is used to imprint a map of Los Angeles on the sand during certain acttivities and festivals. I remembered reading about sand castle building contests on the beach.  The next picture is of the pier. There were all sorts of shops and eateries and rides all designed to relieve one of the burden of carrying money.  I was impressed with the width of the beach. In Galveston, the town nearest us close to the Gulf, the beach is only a hundred or so feet deep. Here it looked like several hundred feet from dry sand to the water line. The picture is an attempt to give a feel.  At this point I discovered that Carolyn‘s scooter was broken. The wires to the connections where the machine breaks in two had pulled loose. Wayne and I went looking for electical tape. None to be found. A female beach cop had a roll of adhesive tape. So Caro and I and the driver loaded the scooter and took a short drive just to get off the pier. The cops had gotten surly about the limo being parked so long. Even though it was clear that a handicapped conveyance was being repaired. The driver found a lightly travelled side street where I could jury rig the connection on the scooter. Two years later Caro has still not taken the thing in for permanent repair.  We got back to the beach to gather the family. Wayne and I saw a pickup on the beach and teased each other that the baywatch girls were in it. Not! One of these days I hope to get back to the Pacific but several hundred miles north like in Oregon or Washington. One more page before the Parade Pictures. I have had the digital camera since 1999 and have taken almost 10,000 pictures from the Carribean to Branson, Missouri. The best picture I have ever taken deserves it’s own page. The picture is totally natural. I have no idea who the girl is. Something just made me snap this picture. She looks like she was totally absorbed in the moment of the beach.
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