Saturday, August 05, 2006

Looking back

I'm back in the desert now, after a few blissful days along the coast of California. The area around Carmel and Big Sur is the loveliest in the world to me. Not only physically beautiful, but peaceful, quiet, healing. I can't spend enough time there, and I never want to leave. I spent a few hours hiking around "Punta de los Lobos Marinos" - point of the sea wolves - otherwise known as Pt. Lobos State Reserve, named for the sea lions always in residence. Along my journey down the Pacific Coast Highway, I saw harbor seals, sea lions, elephant seals, and sea creatures still scuttling in their shells. I saw a California Condor in the wild on Thursday. I have no words to describe that experience.

I'm not a good photographer, but with such beautiful material to work with, I managed to snap a few decent shots. Besides those here, I've posted some to my Flickr account.

Quintessential Big Sur:

Sea Lions at Pt. Lobos

Lichen, Algae, and some of the last wild Monterey Cypress

Cypress and Sea

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photographs. I always imagine California to be either 1) desert, 2) lettuce fields and orange groves, or 3) urban Los Angeles. Your photos make me want to visit there.

Dr. Lisa said...

Glad you liked them! My personal vision of California is all cold grey beaches and agriculture. The cities and traffic are the aberrations.

Virtualbri said...

Ooooh, how beautiful. I don't spend nearly enough time driving around our coast and taking in the wonderful sites like these.

Dr. Lisa said...

I didn't either, when I lived there. My family couldn't afford many trips to the coast, and when I lived in L.A., I rarely took time to even get to the nearby beaches. Now I feel the ocean pulling at me all the time. Get thee to a beach when you can, dude, and enjoy the views.