Cryslers Are Tripping: February 4, 2015 California: Pacific Coast Highway - North / Laural in Seal Beach/ Santa Barbara

February 4th: We headed north on The Pacific Coast Highway

John had never been to California so the sights were all new to him

including touching the Pacific Ocean

California State Route 1 ~ US Route 101

State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north-south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. Highway 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway (PCH),Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway.

The highway is famous for running along some of the most beautiful coastlines in the USA, leading to its designation as an All-American Road.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_1

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We passed Pendleton Marine Corp Base as we headed to Laguna beach.

http://www.pendleton.marines.mil/About/Introduction.aspx

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the Corps' largest West Coast expeditionary training facility, encompasses more than 125,000 acres of Southern California terrain.

Located approximately 38 miles from downtown San Diego...Camp Pendleton is one of the Department of Defense's busiest installations and offers a broad spectrum of training facilities for many active and reserve Marine, Army and Navy units, as well as national, state and local agencies. The Base... contains the largest undeveloped portion of coastline in Southern California. The ecosystem includes beaches, bluffs, mesas, canyons, mountains and Southern California's only free-flowing river. There are more than 1,000 species of plants, fish and animals, some of which are either threatened or endangered. Wildlife and habitat protection is a top concern of all who live, work and train at Camp Pendleton.
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Finally we reached a beach

Johns first step on to a Pacific Coast Beach and mine also.

I've been to California but never actually visited any beaches.

It was very beautiful but unfortunately, there were so many signs posting to stay out of the water because of 'High Levels of Bacteria'.

Maybe because of all these birds?

There were hundreds and they were scurrying back and forth ~ into and away from the waves.

So the Birds were really fun to photograph and the waves were beautiful! I loved the color and their motion and stayed just far enough away from the water while taking photograph after photograph.

Then I shot these three pictures

watch... here it comes!

And this one got me!!

It came rushing quickly in.... I turned to get away and as I tried to run from it,

I sank into the sand as the water hit me and I stumbled~

falling and my camera went into the water!!

Yup! not all the way, but .... enough!

I was wet and upset, my new Camera was wet and, as far asI knew, ruined.

I ran to the car...grabbed all our laundry~the quickest material I could grab to try

to dry my camera.

I was very lucky. The Camera was very lucky.

After 48 hours it seemed to be working fine.

(There seemed to be no residual issues with the camera the rest of the trip!)

Thank you Camera Gods!

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Later that day, John and I had lunch at the

River End Cafe in Seal Beach with Laural Gaumer.

~Laural is another amazing Wykeham Rise schoolmate that we had the honor of visiting on this trip~I also new her before Wykeham, as she was a neighbor of my grandmothers in Middlebury, Ct.