Admiring the View

Something in today's sermon mentioned taking time out to admire the views around you.  Slowing down, refreshing your soul, really seeing the beauty of the world around you.  Before we were even back in the car, Mr. Scottie Dog asked if I'd like to take a drive up the coast.  We live in Eureka, CA...away up North in CA.  The sea is cold and rugged.  Since we will be moving this year to Minnesota we've already begun to experience some "lasts."  Last Christmas in Calif.  Last New Year's (spent taking inventory).  So on this trip today we slowly wound our way on the side roads up the Coast to experience the beauty of our coastal Redwood Forest perhaps for the LAST time.

 This is the view looking back at Eureka in the distance from above Luffenholtz Beach, just south of Trinidad.  Eureka is on the thin line of land in the distance. Even with my naked eye, I could see the pulp mill on Somoa Beach.  I like this shot Bill got with the Pampas Grass....somehow I think that long after man is gone there will still be cockroaches and Pampas Grass.

 This shot was taken just a bit North of the last shot.  That is Trinidad Head in the center top of the picture, sheltering Trinidad Harbour.

 As we drove down to the Trinidad Pier there were hundreds and hundreds of Crab Pots stacked up (so very more stacked just to the right of this picture too).  Workers were loading them into the back of trucks and onto trailers and then out on the pier and onto the boats.  Crab season has finally begun and every time we looked at the ocean we could see many, many boats out either setting their pots or bringing them back up.

 Here's a shot I found on the InterNet of a crab pot being uploaded on a boat.  At the harbour I had seen one guy with a huge meat cleaver chopping up meat bones to put as bait into the pots.

 We stopped at each of the Lagoons as we traveled North: Stone Lagoon, Dry Lagoon, Big Lagoon and Freshwater Lagoon.    There were a lot of kayakers on Big Lagoon.  As we drove up from the campground there we encountered this Heron who was much larger than this photo leads you to believe.  He was just sitting there taunting the cat that was about 20 feet away.  He was twice as tall as the cat and has quite a long and strong beak.  The cat made a twitch or two, getting ready to chase the bird but thought better of it.  In a battle I believe this bird would have won.

 Driving North again we came to these Roosevelt Elk eating right beside the road....again, they were much closer than this photo leads you to believe.  In all there were probably 60-75 elk in two adjoining fields.

This is as far North as we went....Trees of Mystery.  Here's Paul Bunyun and Babe the blue Ox (and our green Tahoe).  It was a great trip...sunny although quite chilly for us...temps ranged from 34-41 F.  Lots of frosted vegetation where the sunlight doesn't actually touch, even a few places with ice formed on puddles.  I expect that in MN and not CA.

Our visit with Beka and her family over Christmas was wonderful.  We had to say goodbye last Thursday morning.  The house is quiet now...and clean.  The dishwasher isn't running three times a day and it's quiet.....too quiet.  I keep listening for a little chaos....Now to begin to pack up our things.  We'll be moving before we know it (probably in the summer).  It's nice to know that we've made the right decision.  It will be wonderful to have all our family close.