The rest of the day.

After returning from Henry Cowell and my overuse of the words "Geeez!" and "Holy crap!" every ten feet, I went on a long walk around town.  Surprisingly, my stroll actually had a goal: find my way back to the Safeway because I had forgotten to pick up olive oil earlier (a requirement for the dinner I was planning on making).

Here's a tip: when in doubt, follow someone who looks like they know where they're headed. So to the pissed off middle school kid on a bike who was obviously  running an errand, thanks for turning right.

With my mission a success, and a bottle of extra virgin rolling around in my purse, I was all kinds of confident in my navigational and stalking skills. I decided to find my way down the beach. I trotted off in the general direction and sure enough I spotted a guy with a free and easy gait ahead. Gotta be headed to the ocean, too.

Then I realized he was on drugs. After proving he still had his balance, as shown below, he preceded to spin around in circles, then do some kind of electric slide shuffle down the sidewalk. In essence, he was having the TIME of his LIFE walking down to the beach, though at one point he just started jogging. After that, I lost sight of the dancin' fool, too bad.

But then I was on the beach and time stopped for awhile.  As I reached into my purse for some chapstick, I felt the giant bottle of olive oil and remembered I had somewhere to be and something to do.

So then I followed a family up what had to be the 'Secret Garden' of stairs leading back up to the world from the magic of the ocean.  Mostly hidden by trees and tree roots, then walls of flowering vegetation, I thought I had ended up in someone's backyard. Mild panic, but got my bearings back quickly. Made it back just in time to chop things and cook it. Oven baked fajitas, grape tomatoes, and avocado.

Other excitements can be summed up in short bursts of joy: Stellar's Jay! California bay laurel is the best smell in the universe! California poppies! A sand dollar! A harbor seal! Raccoons eating dirt? True story.

Tomorrow: Headin' down the coast.