Beach

This morning when I turned on my Garmin before starting out on a walk, it informed me that my altitude was 0 feet--not unusual for an RV park near the Pacific coast, but different from the mountain altitudes we drove through on the way to the coast. Crescent City, like Long Beach, is named for its beach, a broad crescent of sand. Later we walked out to the Battery Point Lighthouse, the privately-owned lighthouse out beyond Crescent City's pier.

The lighthouse grounds have more iceplant than we've seen in one place since we left Southern California.

The lighthouse was open for touring, but we decided not to go in. We'll be seeing more lighthouses as we continue north.

This afternoon we drove to the Enderts Beach Overlook and took the Coastal Trail along the bluff and down to the beach. Along the way we enjoyed the vista of the Pacific waves below, when we weren't too concerned by the steep dropoff to notice. We saw lots of wildflowers and butterflies. Ken spotted a tiny active bird with a bright yellow breast, flitting about and singing in a tree overhead, but it wouldn't sit still long enough to have its portrait made.

Along the trail to the beach we walked past a lot of interesting trees, bushes, and ferns.

This is the largest of the butterflies we saw, most spanned less than an inch.

On the beach we watched the seagulls and searched the sea for signs of migrating whales, but none appeared. Walking along the sand, seeing the waves sparkling in the sunlight, and listening to them crash into the shore was very restful.

We had Enderts Beach all to ourselves.

Lee found a good rock at the edge of the water to relax on.

From where we parked our truck we had a good view of people fishing on Crescent Beach.

Sweetie is definitely better, though still being picky about her food. She's turning her nose up to the canned chicken chunks in gravy that she used to enjoy, but she will eat it if some tuna juice or chicken broth is added. I never thought I'd be cooking chicken for a dog! She is walking better and acting more energetic, too.

This morning Ken dropped me off at the Econo Wash and took the truck in for its third oil change. The Driver Information Center had informed us that we needed to "Change Engine Oil Soon"--an onboard computer keeps track of the mileage and driving conditions and determines when an oil change is needed. Good thing we don't need one every 3000 miles, since this one cost us $88.05.