One of Many Walks

On my vacation at Sunset Beach, my day would start with a walk on the beach with my girl friend. In addition my mom, step-dad and niece also got to come on this vacation and were included on these walks which was also nice. The mornings were so calm, cool and relaxing. What a great way to start your day!


On parts of the beach it was roped off to protect these birds and their nests. They are so small and fast that you didn't even realize that they were there. You can see how small this one is against the dried sea weed. They also have tags around their ankles.


I saw a lot of this type of bird feeding on the shore.


There is a story behind this little one. It broke my heart. Our first night camping after the sun went down, we could hear a sea lion barking. We didn't think anything about it at the time until the next morning on our walk. My girl friend and I walked up on the pup and scared each other half to death. We all just froze for a few seconds and it scurried into the waves. I looked around for the mom and realized that it was all alone.


The entire week that we were vacationing at Sunset Beach, it would swim along the beach bobbing its head as if it were looking for a safe place to rest. It would do this off and on all day. I couldn't take it and flagged down a Ranger to see what we could do to help it. The ranger explained to me, that as long as it was strong enough to swim, they needed to leave it alone. They only rescue when it is absolutely necessary. It actually causes them more stress to be hospitalized.


He went on to say there was a recent surge in weakened and malnourished sea lions found along the Northern California coast. It could be a result of a decline in populations of smaller fish that young seals and sea lions eat while developing and is likely a problem with the food web, something lower in the food chain that is affected.


A shell to add to my wreath.


Sand dollars buried in the sand.


When they look like this, you leave them alone.


They belong to the sea.


Is it a shark?


No... it is just a dolphin. You could see dolphins swimming with the surfers on their boards. Once in a while they would come flying out of the water and do some flips. It was almost as if they were saying to the surfers, "Oh yeah... I bet you can't do this!"