Sea Ranch

My folks have friends that live here in Sea Ranch.  If I knew where their house was I might actually have knocked on their door.  But alas, when we looked in the phone book they weren't listed, and their house name doesn't appear anywhere that I can find.  Ah well.  Guess we'll just have to make do.

And let me tell you.  We're really suffering here.  Can you imagine having to stay in a beautiful home along the California coast, with windows looking out over the ocean?  Yeah.  You feel sorry for me.  I know.

We arrived last night about 8pm after an uneventful drive.  We took the MINI, which wouldn't be that unusual except that we had two dogs AND a bird with us!  And driving on Highway 1 in the dark, we weren't sure how well the dogs would do (with regard to car sickness).  We stopped a couple times to let them walk around, but otherwise there were no problems.  Though I think Sydney prefers the truck to the MINI.  She has to ride on our lap in the MINI and she gets her own seat in the truck.  Ah well.  Beggars can't be choosers.

Christine was here since Tuesday so she was nice and relaxed.  Ron arrived about 10 minutes before we did.  He was in the driveway with his flashlight to catch our attention.  This is the one house without a number at the street.  Would have had a very hard time finding it.  In the picture above you can see his truck peeking out over the top of the fence.  We would have had to drive up the driveway to see his truck (there are no street lights in Sea Ranch) to know we were at the right house.

Ken and Ron played Pass the Pigs (a 'dice' type game using pigs instead of dice - trust me - it's a fun drinking game) while Christine and I relaxed in the spa.

The rain held off until we were back inside and we could enjoy hearing it hit the roof.  Nothing like a relaxing evening by the fire with the rain pounding outside.

Today we slept in, and Ron made a great breakfast.  After breakfast (brunch?) we took a walk.  There's a hedgerow a couple hundred yards down the road from the house.

If you've never walked in a hedgerow let me recommend it. They're a long double row of Cypress trees that you walk between, and the ground is usually springy.  In the picture above you can see it goes on for quite a ways.  (a quarter mile maybe)

And if you keep your eyes open you can spot some interesting features...

Ken and Angus went down to check out the seals.  They stayed a respectful distance - though it looks like Angus is saying "I'm not looking!!!"

The hounds enjoyed climbing on the rocks.

We walked through some tide pools

Ron and Izzy and Ken and Annie looked for creatures in the pools.  No luck.

Ken is standing next to a blow hole.  Luckily it wasn't active since the tide was out!

The weather was breezy and cool, and the early afternoon was clear.  A perfect time for a walk.

Angus wasn't too keen to walk first along the bluffs.  He kept stopping and looking back at me with an expression of "Really?  You want me to walk here?"

And I guess there should be SOME proof that I was here.

And to finish off - a video montage from our walk.