Two days after Christmas, the busy-ness had calmed down, and it was time for a Saturday drive to Solvang, via Lake Cachuma.  If you've followed my blog, you know that the lake, the city water supply for Santa Barbara, has been dwindling in size for some time, due to the intense drought that the area has had during the last few years.  This particular weekend, the lake was less than 28% full!  It appears that the spillway  gates are being raised and lowered, perhaps to prevent them from rusting in place.

 On the back side of the dam, which is usually covered with water, you can now almost see the lake bottom.  This is the back side of the earth-fill dam.

Looking more closely, you see a pipe up the back face -- that is used to discharge small amounts of water each day so that the steelhead trout living downstream will have some water.

And looking across to the other side of the lake, you can see how low the level has become.

The following shots show the regeneration already of some of the natural vegetation.  Notice in particular the weeds growing on the side of the slope.

The camping and launch facilities at the county park (on the right hand peninsula) are now way above water level.

As we left, we stopped at one more little viewpoint for this shot.  Because it had rained a little the week before, the grassy fields and hillsides are greener than they have been for a while.  That will last until about two weeks after the rain, and the color will revert to its drought-stricken brown.  The lake in this shot is a little darker blue than in the others due to the different angle of the sun.

 

During the two weeks between the Monday before Christmas and the Monday after New Year's, I was in Santa Barbara.  The first few days were rather busy, preparing for Christmas, delivering gifts, and shopping for Christmas dinner.  On the day after Christmas, though, it was a pretty day, and we took time for a short walk along Shoreline Park.  The Channel Islands were very beautiful that day -- the following photos show the islands from southwest to southeast.  First, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands (Santa Rosa is on the right side, low, and not very well defined, due to the direction of the sun, but it is there!).

Next, the center and eastern end of Santa Cruz Island,

and the eastern end of Santa Cruz Island.

On the eastern end of the chain is Anacapa Island, which is actually closer to Ventura.  From this direction and distance, you can only see about half of the island, which trails off eastward, with an arch rock at the end.

Between the islands and Ventura, there are eight oil drilling rigs in the sea -- hre are 5 of them..

The trees along Shoreline Park are beginning to show the effects of the drought -- this group looks considerably less than healthy!

The surf was low, but there are always hopefuls waiting for a wave in this particular area as the swell comes around the corner of the cliff.

The birds enjoyed the beautiful day.  This pelican had just caught a fish -- they fly low, looking down at the water.  When they see a fish, they dive straight down, and seemingly bounce on the surface of the water, coming up looking a little shaggy!

And the cormorants were finding their spots for the evening in this tree.

It's been a lean month for new photos.  Part of that is because of two major winter storms which brought us a little rain, and kept me indoors for much of the time.  I did visit Dana Point Harbor on the afternoon of December 7, and found one nest that seemed to be occupied.  Even looking at the photo, though, I'm not sure if it was a heron or a crow -- or a piece of nest material!

On the 16th, I was there again, and definitely saw one great blue heron.  I hope that by the time I return from the holidays more of the colony will have returned.

It's also the time of year during which the Christmas Candles (otherwise known as Red Hot Pokers) are in full bloom.

I particularly liked this shot of the eucalyptus tree bark with the flowers in front.

I'll not be able to post for the next couple of weeks, although I do hope to be out taking some photos.  It's a time for celebration of three events (if I throw a birthday in as well as the Christmas and New Years holidays), and there will be limited time for outdoor activities.  I hope everybody has a very merry Christmas (or happy holiday, whichever holiday you celebrate!), and a very happy 2015!

Last night I awoke at 3 am to  the roar of heavy rain on the roof -- and it's still raining!  This is the second storm in as many weeks, and I heard last night that we may have a third on its way!  I also heard that this is the first true storm that we have had for at least 5 years -- I think it may be longer!

There has been a lot of flooding and mud slides in the "burn areas," where there were fires earlier in the year, and there are about 100 homes under mandatory evacuation in these areas.  You may see news stories about mud as high as the second stories of some houses, or mud coming out the living room windows on the other side of a house.  These are isolated, and in burn areas.  And the Pacific Coast Highway (Hwy 1) is closed again north of Malibu due to mud slides.  There is flooding in low-lying areas, affecting roads and freeways.  There will be LOTS of traffic accidents, since we've forgotten how to drive in the wet weather. 

I plan to stay indoors today -- well, I might pick up the newspaper if there's a lull in the rain.  My house is dry; it is at the top of a gentle knoll, and not in danger either of being hit by mud or of sliding down a hill.  It will be cozy and warm, and a good place to get some constructive work done.  It will be a good place from which to enjoy the rain!

Ironically, this rain, as heavy as it seems, will not do much to break the drought that has enveloped this area unless it is followed by similar frequent rains through this winter and next.  It is, however, a good start towards making us all feel that there is hope for a more normal season.

Last week I drove to Santa Barbara on Monday, and I came home yesterday.  I had Thanksgiving with my friend, who also turned 85 last Thursday, and we celebrated his daughter's recent birthday as well.  We bought a pre-cooked turkey meal, which was delicious -- it was the best turkey dinner I never had to cook (though we did have to reheat it).  The first part of the week was pretty busy, with all the pre-holiday errands that had to be taken care of.  By Friday, I needed a break, and went for a short walk along the top of the cliff.  It was a gorgeous day -- a little cooler than the 90 degrees we had experienced on Thursday, but still sunny and warm.  There was a fog low to the surface of the sea to the south of Santa Barbara, and looking towards the islands, the fog was a little thicker -- if you look very carefully, you can see the outline of the islands in this shot, just at the top of the fog bank.

Looking in the other direction, the sky was clear, and the mountains stood out beautifully.

In the last few years, because of security reasons, some cruise ships have come to Santa Barbara rather than stopping in Mexican ports.  Last Friday, Santa Barbara saw the last of 11 cruise ships during the fall season -- just in time to send 2,600 tourists and 1,000 crew into town for Black Friday shopping and other tourist activities.

Even the seagulls enjoyed watching the ship!

Because the water at the end of the wharf is not deep enough, the cruise ships have to anchor off-shore, and they bring the passengers to shore in tenders -- actually in lifeboats, which they use as tenders.  In the next two shots, you can see the tender approaching the ship, and going around the stern to a ramp on the other side.

Santa Barbara will again see cruise ships next spring, when they bring the ships back from the Caribbean for the summer in Alaska.

On Saturday night, it rained overnight, and the car surface looked like this in the morning -- it's a long time since there have been rain spots on the car!

As I left to drive home on Monday, I took one more photo -- the weather was partly cloudy, and we were between storms.

I came home on Monday after rush hour.  There had been three mud-slides alongside Pacific Coast Highway, the coastal road I usually use, so I had to drive freeways all the way home.  Surprisingly, the traffic was light, and I got through in record time!  And today, Tuesday, it has rained all day, since the wee hours of the morning!  We've had between 1 and 2 inches of rain, depending on one's location -- too much in a short time after all the drought and fires, but enough to feel that there has been some rain.  And it's been enough to cause several more mud/debris slides.  It will rain more overnight tonight, and there may be a third storm behind that!  Unfortunately, most of the water will end up in the ocean, as it's too dry for it to soak in.  Our drought is still not broken, and we still have serious water issues, but at least we now know that there is rain in some of the clouds that have been blowing by, and hopefully we will have more rain through the winter.  I'd be happy with a day or two of rain each week, but that's too much to ask for, so I'll happily make do with whatever we get!

Each year, I take a few of my favorite photos and make calendars of them for family Christmas gifts.  I've just completed the project for this year, and have been requested to post the pictures I selected.  Here they are:

Cover

January

February

    

March

    

April

              

May

              

June

         

July     

         

August

         

September

                   

October

              

November

December

Because it's too early for Christmas, I'll wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a while since I've posted -- I've been buried in selecting 13 photos for my family Christmas gift calendars, a daunting task when you begin with over 1,000 photos!  I did go to the harbor about 10 days ago to see if there were any great blue herons -- the only one I saw was standing guard on the roof of the Harbormaster's Office!

It has been a lot cooler this week, averaging between 65 and 70 degrees.  And we've actually had a little rain overnight several times!  It's hard to tell at this point what that means as far as the drought is concerned -- the total rainfall here is probably less than 1/2 inch, but every drop helps at this point!

When posting my states-visited post, I also thought it would be interesting to see what countries I've been to.   There are 20 countries shown here in red (including the US) -- count carefully, as some are just little dots on the map!  On this one, I did include a couple of places that we landed, but only to refuel.  In the early days of polar route flights, and long before jet travel, we landed at a US air force base in Greenland (and in Winnipeg) to refuel on the way home from Copenhagen -- and on the way to New Zealand, we stopped in the Cook Islands, which is, in total, about the size of a runway!  They also include 2 "countries" which I would call continents -- Australia and Antarctica.

visited 20 states (8.88%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Brazil travel guide for Android

Lynn (JstNotherDay) posted a map showing the states where she has been -- I thought it would be fun to see where I have been, and the following is the result.  I have been in all the states painted below in red!I've also been in airports in OK and GA, but not outside the airports there, so didn't count those states.  Much of this travel was business travel, although in the western part of the country I've also done a fair amount of recreational travel.  There's also a site where you can see what countries you've travelled in -- I have visited 19 countries!

visited 37 states (74%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Amsterdam travel guide for Android

On Thursday afternoons, there are sailing races off the harbor at Dana Point.  This week I happened to arrive at the harbor just as the race was ending.  I couldn't see the actual buoy that marked the end of the race, but these are some shots of the boats on approach to the finish line.

Even the pelicans sensed that dinnertime was approaching -- the man in this little boat was throwing fish scraps overboard for them.

Today was summer again -- around noon, the temperature was about 90.  At 4:30, it was still 82, and at 7:30 it was 64.  At this time of year, it starts to cool down as soon as the sun goes down, so the nights are actually pretty cool, no matter the daytime temperature.   The forecast says that the daytime temperatures will cool down gradually over the next week, to about 70-75 degrees, the more normal temperature for this time of year.

Between Halloween night and the next night, we have now had about 1/2 to 3/4 inches of rain.  This is a good start, but not yet a drought buster!  Tomorrow it will begin to warm up, and within a day or two we will have moved back to summer weather!  This afternoon I drove to Dana Point to see what had happened overnight.  The air was very clean, and there were a number of sailboats outside the harbor.  But imagine my surprise when I looked to the treetops to see my Great Blue Heron friends and saw this instead

Although there was one heron sitting in a nest, it seemed that overnight the bird had  been joined by an Egret!  I wish I could turn my head as far around as these birds can do!

It looks as if somebody has begun to build a new nest.

And one more shot of a beautiful white bird!

Last night about 9:00 there was a pounding rain for about 5 minutes -- and in the middle of the night it rained hard enough to wake me from a sound sleep.  All in all, the area had about 1/2 inch of rain.  It's the first winter storm of the season, and everybody is excited that it really rained for the first time since last March or so!  Today I took a few shots of clouds -- they were still in the area, but there wasn't much rain left in them.  The first two shots were from just outside my home, one in either direction.

I then went to the bluff above Dana Point Harbor to see what the sea looked like.

Moving down to the harbor, I found one lone Great Blue Heron sitting in a nest.  The trees seem to have been severely trimmed, whether by people or by nature, I'm not sure.  I do think it's probably a little early to see may birds there yet, but I fear there won't be as many this year.

This evening, as I was reviewing and editing the above shots, I noticed a very colorful sunset -- because the clouds had been pretty all day, I suspected that this would be  a pretty sunset.

For the first time this year, the temperature today was in the high 60's, and never broke 70!  Tomorrow it will be warmer, and by Monday it will be into the 80's again.

On Tuesday evening, in an email conversation, RighteousBruin and I decided to meet at Crystal Cove Cottages for lunch and a walk on the beach.  It had been a year and a half since I'd been out there, and I've not walked any distance walking for two or three months, so this was a wonderful idea!  It was a lovely clear fall day (after a very drippy foggy morning), with temperatures between 70 and 75 -- perfect for a day at the beach.  While I waited a few minutes for Gary to arrive, I watched the idyllic life of the area. 

This man was throwing a frisbee with another while he watched his fishing pole (no catches while I was watching!).

Gary arrived, and we had a delightful lunch, sitting on the back portion of the patio of one of the restored houses and talking about family and travels and life in general.

There were a number of small shore birds -- lots of little sandpipers scooting around!

And a couple of slightly larger birds that I hadn't seen before.

And we were off on our walk.  The cottages have continued to deteriorate since I was last here, although there was a sign on the fence that there is progress being made towards continuing to restore them.

The next cottage used to have a wooden tea-cart on the outside deck.

The boardwalk has completely disappeared -- but the wooden stairway to the left of this cottage is evidence that some work is being done.

And this roof has been covered to protect from leaks.

At least the workers can now get to the second tier of cottages safely -- the old stairs were beginning to rot out pretty badly!

Even the trees are now showing the signs of neglect!

There used to be a blue and white canoe -- I didn't remember this one.  It may have been buried under vegetation when I was here before.

The outdoor plumbing and shower has disappeared from under the deck of this cottage -- it was quite elaborate, and a wonderful way to wash off the sand before entering the house.

The perspective as we walked back was just enough different that it brought out some wonderful angles in this house -- tipsy deck and trim, tumbling staircase, and neglected landscaping!

The roof needs a little attention here, particularly over the front door!

The waves continued to lap on the shore as we walked along. 

The cottages that have been restored appeared to be well maintained, and are still being occupied on a weekly rental basis.

As we left the area, I noticed a dilapidated windmill -- do you see it in the center of the next shot between the telephone pole and the palm tree?

This is a wonderful piece of Orange County history -- the Irvine family donated the area to the State so all could enjoy the cottages -- I do hope that the State will be able to continue the restoration of the cottages so that more can enjoy them.  In the meantime, it's a wonderful place for lunch and a walk on the beach!

During the week of October 6, I was again in Santa Barbara.  On Wednesday, we drove past Lake Cachuma, the water supply for Santa Barbara.  The lake now is less than 30% filled, and I wanted to see what it look s like.  There is a short road to the main lookout, but I usually stop halfway at a secondary lookout.  This is what we saw from there!

From there, we drove another 100 yards, and the dam came into view.  The two straight lines up the side of the dam are hoses used to release small amounts of water to the "river" below so the fish are protected -- unfortunately the water simply soaks into the ground, and does not get to the fish for which it is intended.  It does help the aquafer in the Solvang area, however!

The lake level is visibly lower than it was six weeks ago!

A second purpose of this trip was to visit my sister, who is in Santa Barbara visiting her son and daughter and grandson.  Her daughter actually lives about 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, so we met my sister in Santa Ynez, a rural village outside of Solvang.  We had lunch at the Vineyard House Restaurant, where we could sit on the patio under shade umbrellas and enjoy the lovely weather.

I've shown a number of photos of the courtyard of this hotel and restaurant previously -- there used to be an old windmill in the center.  The windmill is not there right now, although it looks as if it might be "out for repair."  Its absence allows for a better view of the old wine cask also in the courtyard.

Another day, my friend needed to visit the bank and post office -- as I sat in the car, I shot the following two shots of another courtyard, ground level and looking up.  In the central "Old Town" part of Santa Barbara, everything must be built in the old Spanish tradition.  The top of this building looks surprisingly like the tower of the County Courthouse. 

Since coming home, I have been down to the beach once -- the weather was not very clear, and there were no waves to speak of.  There was one heron in a tree -- the trees appear to be thinned out, whether by human effort or by nature I'm not sure.  I still hope there will be birds in the remaining nests!

Today, the heat wave has returned -- it was over 100 at one point at my house, but dry air, so not terribly oppressive. 

I drove to the beach to see how well the sand is returning, and to see the "big waves" that we are having.  The sand is coming back -- the beach is still narrow, but the slope to the waves is shallower -- and the waves this time are 3-5 feet.  There were seagulls in profusion -- they like this beach!

The waves were pretty, though not as spectacular as the last round.

I was also delighted to discover that the herons are beginning to return to their nests at the tops of the eucalyptus trees at Dana Point Harbor.  The trees have been thinned, but there are still some good nests for the birds to settle into -- there were two sitting in the trees, and hopefully they will all come back to nest once again.

Some of my readers have noticed that I haven't been posting as often as I used to do.  It has been so hot recently, and I've been working through a stiffness of my leg due to a silly minor injury -- I've temporarily not been very inspired to go outside and enjoy what nature offers.  I'll be out photographing next week, and should have lots of photos to post when I return.  And particularly if the birds return, I'll be visiting them more often as the weather cools.  Hopefully we'll have a wet winter, but even so, I'll still be here!

Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we had "big waves" again.  This time they were generated by Hurricane Odile, the hurricane that flattened Cabo San Lucas earlier in the week.  I was at the beach both days, and took hundreds of photos.  I'll not comment much here, because the waves are mesmerizing by themselves.  On Wednesday, I was there just as the tide was coming in.  The waves were coming in in sets of three or four, then a short lull, then three or four more waves.  I was shooting to the southwest, which meant that I was shooting into the sun -- the darker shots were more directly into the sun than the others.

   

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

 It was time to leave when the run out from a couple of waves came under the bench I was sitting on, and out into the parking lot!

    

On Thursday, I was at the beach when the tide was low -- the waves were a little smaller, and not running quite so far up the beach.  It was easier to shoot in directions other than straight into the sun, too.

    

    

    

    

Today was considerably cooler, with a marine layer overcast most of the day.  The waves were not spectacular, and hopefully our weather will move back to something more normal.  BUT -- there is another storm forming off Acapulco -- Polo.  If Polo becomes a hurricane, it could conceivably repeat the events of the past few days!

Fire update:  There have been 12 major fires in California this week.  Only two have destroyed houses -- in a little town called Weed, with 3,000 people, on the border with Oregon, 100 homes were lost a couple of days ago.  Too, east of Sacramento, in a forested area of the mountains between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, several homes were lost today.  This is the King Fire -- it jumped from 30,000 acres to 70,000 acres overnight Wednesday night, and is currently holding at about 75,000 acres.  Until today, it was burning in wilderness, and had not taken any homes -- they are telling us that this fire could burn for weeks, or even months, until we have some wet weather to help put it out.

Southern California is currently in the first day of at least four predicted to have temperatures approaching 100 degrees in the downtown LA area.  That means the valleys will be in the area of 105-110 degrees for the next few days.  This heat is accompanied, but fortunately wind is not included in the forecast.  This morning around 11 am, a fire was reported -- it began in the back yard of somebody's home, but they have not yet determined how it was started.  By the time I was aware of it, around 2 pm, it had burned 1200 acres!  As I left a meeting, this is what I saw.

And when I got to a location where I could see the base of the fire (actually it is burning on the other side of that hill), this is what I saw.

From a vantage point a little higher, but a little farther away, the fire already looked huge -- it had been burning about 4 hours by this point.

Through a lens or a windshield that needs cleaning, this shot was taken about 1/s hour later.

And as I was editing the above shots, I saw this view from my desk!

The fire is fuel-driven rather than wind driven.  There is a lot of dry grass, and the hills in the area are undeveloped for some distance from the location of the fire -- no homes are currently threatened, although it will be a long evening for some people, and some have actually evacuated already.  As I was looking at news for this fire, I saw that there are also brush fires all over the State today.  This may be the "fire season" that we are all dreading!

EDIT

As of 9/15, this fire is now still at under 2,000 acres, and about 80% contained.  It has been determined that a homeowner had wrapped a small wooden fence around his yard in metal to keep the rats out -- the sun reflected off the metal, and sparked the fire!  They are fortunate that no homes were in the path of the fire, and that there were no appreciable winds for the last few days!

Over the last couple of days I've been to the beach to see if there were waves.  I did see a few splashes, but nothing like what came from New Zealand last week.  What I did see, though was rather shocking.  Aliso Beach has a parking lot with 4 roads running through it -- 7 rows of cars, and one side that just has a curb, some grass, and the sand.  The following photos showwhat happened to the parking lot over the weekend.  By Saturday, the parking lot had been washed over with sand and waves -- they now break just short of the grass, and splash onto the parking lot.  Everything between where I was standing and the benches used to be road and parking -- they've had to close 3 rows of parking!

 

 

I had to laugh today at the people carrying their umbrella across the parking lot to their car -- it looked as if they were planning to extend the beach back from where it belongs!

 

One guy was out in the water, but most of the beach was not very accessible.  Today when I was there, there were no lifeguards, but the beach was completely blocked off, and not very attractive!  The sand normally begins where the grass leaves off on the right hand side of this shot -- the sand then normally extends out almost to where the swimmer was today!  It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the beach to restore itself with sand washing down from northerly beaches.

On September 8, 1914, a baby was born who later became my mother.  Today would have been her 100th birthday.  This has made me very reflective over the past few days -- thinking of all the things that happened in those 100 years!  She was born only a few weeks after the beginning of World War 1 -- how many wars there have been in the 100 years since then!  She was born 3 weeks after the opening of the Panama Canal -- think of the changes that brought to the world.  Her dad was an engineer on the first Aswan Dam in Egypt.  And the Americans landed on the moon during her lifetime.  I wonder if there will be as many changes in our lives.

ZSA_MD posted the following list of questions, asking that we indicate what we would be, "if I were,"  The following are my answers

 

If I were a season, I would be spring

If I were a day of the week, I would be Monday

If I were a time of the day, I would be morning

If I were a facial expression, I would be happy

If I were a pair of shoes, I would be sandals

If I were a planet, I would be Earth

If I were a sea animal, I would be an orca

If I were a direction, I would be north

If I were a piece of furniture, I would be a hassock

If I were a liquid, I would be water

If I were a gemstone, I would be diamond

If I were a tree, I would be an oak

If I were a tool, I would be a kitchen spoon

If I were a flower, I would be rose

If I were a kind of weather, I would be a sunny, warm (not hot) day

If I were a musical instrument, I would be a flute

If I were a color, I would be green

If I were an emotion, I would be happiness

If I were a fruit, I would be orange

If I were a sound, I would be a symphony

If I were a car, I would be a Toyota

If I were a food, I would be ice cream

If I were a land animal, I would be a kitten

If I were a body part, I would be the eyes

If I were a place, I would be a beach

If I were a material, I would be silk

If I were a taste, I would be sweet

If I were a scent, I would be sweet ginger

Yesterdaywe had a lull between the storms.  Marie has disappeared, and the next hurricane, Norbert, was still forming in almost the same spot as Marie.  I visited Aliso Beach to see how much damage had been done.  The beach has changed, and is now about 10 feet wide from the parking lot to a drop-off in the sand.  This made the waves seem larger than they really were.  There was a seagull walking along beside the parking lot when I arrived.

 

Turning to the Southeast, the rocks are uncovered to the point that the lifeguards are keeping people away from that part of the beach.

I took one shot looking straight out to sea to show the colors of the water.  You can tell tht the sand is settling gradually in the shallow portion -- then the deeper water looks more normal.  The change in color is about where there has always been a drop-off -- it'snormally about 5 or 6 feet into the water!

 

 

And looking to the Northwest, one can see a longer view of the narrowed beach and the new drop-off against which the waves had been breaking.

 

Two more gulls watched the waves.

The waves had also settled down at Dana Point, and there were several sailboats out racing for the afternoon.

There has been a hurricane in New Zealand which is generating waves that will arrive here tomorrow -- the news is very strongly advising people to be careful near the beaches.  And this is the weekend scheduled for a tall ships festival at Dana Point Harbor, with battles, races, etc.  I just read that the tall ships did not arrive this evening as scheduled -- I wonder if they will cancel the entire festival.  The New Zealand waves are just an interim show -- there is also a hurricane sitting off Baja California, just about where Marie was last week.  Norbert is not quite as strong yet, but will send us waves, and also has the possibility of turning eastward and raining on Southern California by the end of the weekend. 

Once I was able to tear myself away from the waves at Aliso Beach, I moved a few miles down the coast to Dana Point Harbor to see what was happening there.  From the blufftop, I could see that the waves were breaking over the breakwater.  The first set of photos shows the sequence of one wave hitting the breakwater and splashing over it, then calming down on the other side.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

 

Each wave moved on into the State Park.

    

    

I then moved down to the harbor end of the breakwater. 

    

    

    

    

There was about a 3 minute wait between large waves that created these waterfalls.  I didn't see the fisherman catch anything -- I don't remember ever seeing anything being caught in this particular part of the harbor!

    

    

    

A helicopter flew by -- and there were more waves!

        

I thought this was an interesting sailboat -- till I realized there were two!

Moving around by the State Park, I had a different view of the waves as they hit the next beach down the coast.

    

And I discovered where the great blue herons go during the summer days!

This past week, we had four days of big waves generated by Hurricane Marie.  Marie sat off the coast southwest of Baja California, and progressed all the way to a Category 5 Hurricane, moving slowly to the northwest.  She was not a threat to Southern California, but provided us with hot weather, and big waves.  My last post included shots taken on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, I again went to Aliso Beach and spent a couple of hours with the camera, shooting the waves!  I took about 200 shots of waves -- plus another 100 at Dana Point!  I'll break this post down to three parts -- the waves, the people, and the beach.  When I arrived, the tide was high, though our tides are not big differentials.  This is a pretty long post -- but there are some sequences that you can scroll through pretty fast to get almost a sense of the motion of waves or of surfers.

The Waves

The waves themselves need no comment.  In a couple of the next several shots are people -- I included them here to provide scale.  I don't know for sure, but I expect that some of these waves hit the 10-15 foot scale -- many are not that large.

 

The People

This was actually the first shot I took when I reached the beach.  At that point, there was one surfer enjoying the waves -- the lifeguards had ensured that he was capable of handling himself in the waves before allowing him into the water.

He sat for a while, watching out to sea -- watching the incoming waves.  When a good wave came along, he would turn toward shore in order to catch it.

 

 

After a while, a second man slid down the eroded sand and entered the water -- the lifeguards called him back, saying that they needed to talk to him before he went into the water.  After about 5 minutes, he swam in to do some body-surfing.

 

And meantime the board surfer was scoring some good rides.

The Beach

Aliso Beach is one that I've photographed many times in the past.  It was severely eroded by these waves, and is now about 1/4 its normal width!  There is about a 8-10 foot dropoff now, and the waves were breaking right to the bottom of that dropoff. The fire pits looked as if they were about to fall into the sea.

 

They actually moved the lifeguard stand back about 8-10 feet shortly after I got there.

The lifeguards were running back and forth across the beach, talking to people who might not realize how strong and dangerous the waves might be, or to people who were approaching danger a little too closely.

After a couple of hours, I was finally able to pull away from Aliso Beach -- and proceeded to Dana Point Harbor.  The tide was now about half way from high to low, but the waves were equally spectacular at the Harbor.  For my next post, I'll show some shots of waves breaking over the breakwater!

For the last several days, we have been hearing that the big waves we had last week were small compared to what we would have this week from Tuesday through Friday.  Hurricane Marie has been churning the waters off Baja California, as a tropical storm, and as a hurricane all the way to Category 4 and back again -- this morning she is a tropical storm again.  Yesterday, I decided to see the big waves, and went to Aliso Beach, a beach that I've not visited for a while, but one that my followers will recognize.  I first saw a fairly typical sight -- 3 pelicans flying low over the water.

Let's see what the excitement is all about!

The run-out came way up on the beach, and had filled in the channel that is the creek outlet.

And the waves kept coming, and coming, and coming ~ ~ ~

Some had a nice curl, some long run-out.

Looking towards the northwest.

The birds enjoyed watching too!

Sailing into the wind.

I moved on down to Dana Point Harbor for a few minutes -- hearing the call of a heron, I went hunting, and found one -- can you see it?

The usual large boats were doing their thing -- the Border Patrol's Thresher, and a whale-watching boat.

This was the first day of a 4-day run for Marie and her waves -- today I was at Aliso Beach again, and the waves were much more spectacular.  I took about 200 shots in a couple of hours, but will post some of the best in the next couple of days.  I'm unfortunately busy tomorrow and Friday, so today's waves (the next post) will be the last I get to see.

After several days of hearing on the news that there were big waves along the coast, I decided this afternoon to take a look.  The waves were not as huge as they apparently had been, but the tide was fairly high, and it's been a whle since I've seen waves crash over the breakwater at Dana Point Harbor!  The waves are the result of a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Lowell.  There are two other hurricanes brewing off Baja California, and there may be big waves for a bit longer.

I only stopped in this one place today, because as I was headed towards other beaches I heard that there was a search on there for a man who had been swept away in a rip current.  While I was at the harbor, a search helicopter flew to the end of the breakwater and turned around to go back up the coast.  I saw this guy a couple of times while I was watching the activity.  As of this evening, it appears that he has not been found. 

          

Meantime,

 

And a rescue boat brought in a Sea-Doo from just outside the harbor.