Sea Ranch Birthday

Saturday night it rained.  And rained.  And rained some more.  Did it matter?  Nope.  We had a great fire going and were having lots of fun playing Mexican Train.  The rain sounded great on the roof, but we could still hear the tunes from Ken's iPod.

I had a few points left over after this round.

Sunday was my birthday.  Ken gave me my birthday present before we came up to Sea Ranch.  He knew I'd like to have it for the whole trip.  I am thrilled to say I have the Cannon G12 - the newest generation of my previous camera (that Blu ate).  I'm still learning some of the new features, but it is really nice not to have to learn a whole new camera.  And it's nice not to have to unlock my phone every time I want to take a picture!  I've lost out on a number of photo opportunities as a result of that delay.

Ron and Christine gave me a funny card and two really cute Christmas ornaments.  My first Western ornaments - a Cowboy boot and a Western Saddle.  I sense a new theme for a Christmas tree in the house!  And with Cowboy Christmas in Vegas coming up in two weeks I don't think it'll be hard to get a good start on it.

Christine and I found humor in the fact that we got each other birthday cards with jackasses on them.  Hmmm, what does that say about us?  Never mind, I don't want to know!

The rain stopped about 9am Sunday morning, just before breakfast.  The sky was blue again in time for us to go on another walk.  We went to a different section of hedgerow and followed it to the Monarch Sanctuary (not in use by Monarchs anymore), but a great walk through a rain forest type ravine.

Ken and Ron with Christine in the background

There were markers every few feet identifying things.  

Where the trail starts is a box that contained one well worn copy of a handout explaining the area, but we didn't want to take in on our walk not knowing if anyone else would need it, and I didn't realize the walk was a loop where we'd be able to put it back when we were done.  Next time we'll take it with us.

This time we just walked and pointed out each marker as we saw it, wondering where some of the missing numbers were and how we'd missed them.

I didn't know that Sea Ranch used to be a big sheep farming area until the mid 1960s.  Here is one of the sheep pens.

The gate was picturesque

We walked over a few bridges 

Everywhere you looked was another pretty site

When we left the Monarch sanctuary we continued along a trail through the community and eventually got on a trail that lead to the bluffs.  Angus and I were in the lead for the majority of the walk and we let ourselves pick the way each time we'd come to a fork in the trail.  There was a pretty trail that wound down by the water and felt like a million miles from anything.

The scenery was just too beautiful.  Everywhere I looked was something new to take a picture of.  I can see why Ron and Christine have been coming here for years and years and rarely stay in the same house.  There are so many houses to chose from that it's nice to be able to try out different houses in different areas of Sea Ranch each visit.

I wonder where our next house will be???


P.S. I'm playing with the new Blogger templates to see if I find one I like.  Feel free to let me know your comments.