Today I drove down to San Luis Obispo and visited the Madonna Inn. I would never had know this place was anything special, except I had seen it on the Travel Channel. The woman whose vision this was, fashioned this place as kind of a story book cottage, in pink and white and flowers - and decorated each of the 110 rooms in a different theme. You can stay in the Rose Room, or the Old-Fashioned Honeymoon room, or the California Poppy room, etc. Cute. There was pink and white everywhere. I ate lunch in the cafe and even the sugar on the table was pink!
After lunch I drove up the coast and spent a long time at a little coastal park in Pismo Beach. So beautiful. There were many squirrels there, but they are a kind of squirrel I'd never seen before, the California Ground Squirrel - with white shoulders.
Several cormorants had hatched chicks on an outcropping on the side of a cliff, and they had to keep them constantly close, as there weren't many inches for them on the slim ledge.
I saw some pretty little black water birds that I'd never seen before. They have a white area on their wings - found out later they were Pigeons Guillemot.
The Western gulls use the top of a big flat rock as a nursery and I saw a bunch of chicks there. I also saw two upsetting things there: a dead gull hanging from a cliff – looked like it had been thumb-tacked to the side of the cliff by the tip of its wing – and two adult gulls killing two baby chicks. I have no idea what happened to the dead gull, as there is no way that anyone could have gotten to where the gull was hanging. Watching the chicks get killed was the most upsetting. The chicks were trying to get away. The adults kept away any other adults who tried to come near. They kept at it till they killed them. Horrible to watch. But the beauty of the place – the gorgeous flowers and coastline – kept me there for hours.
After I got back to Morro Bay, I walked through the Elfin Forest there.
I'd never heard of an elfin forest, so named because of the dwarf trees that grow on the sand dunes there. I got a good look at a male California quail, sitting on top of a bush, as fine as you please, then several more running on the boardwalk. Lovely quiet place. For those of us whose souls are recharged by nature, places like these are like breathing air. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk.
In the evening I followed the local custom and drove over to the Rock – where the sun was shining! – and watched some surfers, a wedding photography session, a couple otters playing in the bay, lots of gulls, and pelicans dancing in the air.
I've seen several photography sessions, of several different kinds, on the seashore while I've been here. Taking pictures on the coastline seems to be a favorite thing to do.
Several times in the past few years I've seen various birds in different places doing a kind of choreographed "dance" in the air. It's amazing to watch. They seem to be flying in unison, twirling, circling, just for the sheer fun of it. This time it was pelicans, and I was mesmerized. Again.
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