The Beach

Today I went south.

After eating a poorly toasted blueberry bagel and reading some more Dracula, I broke out my California map.  I checked out the areas immediately south of San Francisco and "Half-Moon Bay" immediately caught my eye.  I just have to make a quick note here - there may be a pattern emerging - cold falafel and a poorly toasted bagel, not sure if it's relevant but I thought I would just force a possible connection.  Anyway, I drove south.  Thanks to my GPS I found my way on Highway 1 heading south, and soaked in the beautiful Pacific coastline.  The best part about driving on these coastal highways is that I know it is a truly unique and new experience.  This kind of coastline does not exist in New York.  Plus it's a trip to let it sink in that I am literally on the West Coast.  As I was taking in the sights I saw a beach in the distance and pretty much randomly chose to stop there.  I would love to put some pictures in here to give you an idea of how the beach was secluded in a small bay and surrounded by cliffs, and how the hills rose directly beyond the highway.  Unfortunately I do not have my transfer cable, so the pictures will have to wait until I get back to NY.  

So, the beach.  The first thing I noticed on the beach was that there were blobs of clear goo strewn across the whole of the beach, right in the middle of the high water mark and where the tide was currently falling.  As I moved closer to examine the gooey blobs I noticed that they were in fact jellyfish that had been washed ashore, perhaps during high-tide.  Most of them were about the size of a baseball, but some were really really big, about 1.5 feet in diameter.  If anyone reading this has seen The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, these are the same jellyfish that they talk about in that film.  

So it was pretty incredible to see all of those jellyfish and I took a lot of pictures.  I made my way up the beach, and passed a group of teenagers sunbathing and drinking, saw a photo shoot in action which looked promising but the photographer said it wasn't anyone famous.  Walking further, I encountered two naked guys.  At first it was really shocking, I was definitely not expecting to see naked people on the beach, and it was even more surprising when one of the guys started heckling me for having a camera.  However, he proved to be a nice guy and much to my surprise we ended up having a decent conversation.  I told him that I was visiting from NY and was photographing the beach (not him).  He then related to me stories of how the beach used to be completely nude back in the 60's and that in the last few years, hooligans had been causing mischief by wearing clothes and bringing cameras.  He further related how I had to be careful because some of the biker nudists were not as gracious as himself and had beat the shit out of other guys with cameras in the past.  We parted ways, and I watched the sunset in peace.  It was a good time on the beach.

Tomorrow is unwritten (as usual) yet holds great promise.  I am either spending my last day in San Francisco or heading up to Oregon.  The decision mostly hangs on whether or not I can get another night at this hotel.  That's all for tonight.

- paul