July 6, 2010 - Tonight I am parked at Half Moon Bay. But let me back up a bit and tell you about my last few days.
I joined other campers in our RV park on the Fourth for a picnic. It was so windy they took the tent down when it started to blow away. The wind tired me out, so I didn't stay out there as long as some of them. I had on my fleece jacket over my denim jacket and I was still a little cool. The others were in shirts only mostly! I am such a wimp when it comes to cold weather. I tried menudo for the first time; it's a Mexican soup made with tripe (cow stomach). It was spicy, which I liked, but kind of fatty for my taste.
Yesterday it was sunny in the afternoon at my RV park in San Juan Bautista, so I drove to Moss Landing, hoping it was sunny there too. Not! It was cool, windy, and cloudy, but I watched the sea otters at Moss Landing State Beach for as long as I could stand it. They are so much fun to watch. The younger ones just can't seem to keep from playing and play-fighting, and even the older ones (with the white heads) are so cute - just like swimming puppies! One of the things I've learned about otters is that their fur has one million hairs per square inch, which is the thickest fur of any animal in the world, but they hold their hands up out of the water to keep them warmer.
I've enjoyed driving around in the Santa Clara valley the past couple weeks. It's been amazing to see acres and acres of tomatoes. Or lettuce.
Or raspberries. Etc. I saw commercial eucalyptus 
growing in the field for the first time [photo below, red and green lettuce photo right]. There seem to be always workers in the fields. There must be 50 roadside produce markets in the Gilroy area alone, so you can get whatever produce you want, but right now the cherries are in season so they are everywhere. And you can always get garlic in Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World. :-) I am not going to miss the micro-climate at the RV place. It was warm and sunny in Gilroy yesterday, and cloudy and cold and windy at the RV place, just eight miles away. I guess one reason for all the micro-climates around here is the mountains; you don't have to go up or down much elevation before you feel a difference in the temperature. But that's only part of it. Having the coast so close by is a big factor. But, that's not all of it either. It seems to be almost always windy at the Betabel RV place I've been staying the past week, while it's quite a bit warmer in Gilroy,just eight miles away. For some reason the wind really blows down the valley right there. I don't begin to understand it.
There is a beautiful flower I've been seeing since I got into California that kind of looks like a huge purple/blue onion flower. I finally found out that it's called a Lily of the Nile, or agapanthus. (There are white ones too but I love the blue ones.)
I realized as I was driving into Gilroy yesterday, that I was eager to get back on the road. I drove up to Pacheco Pass just to see what was there. And this morning I was exhilerated when I actually got on the road.
This morning I stopped at a Truck/RV Wash I'd seen last week, and got Carri a bath – finally!!! She's needed it for some time, and she looks 100% better, like a new girl!
I spent this afternoon in Half Moon Bay. I had fond memories of this pretty little upscale town on the coast from my last trip to California, and wanted to spend some time here before I head north. It was worth it just to make the drive here from San Jose. Although it was sunny and warm in San Jose, as usual, a blanket of fog hugged the Santa Clara mountains, as usual. [photo above, San Francisco Bay in foreground] As I headed over the mountains, I entered the fog blanket, and the surroundings changed dramatically. Instead of the golden hills on the other side of the valley, the hills here are usually covered in fog, and so are a bright green.
I ate lunch at a good restaurant right on the water, and watched the surf while I ate my lunch.
After that I walked around Venice Beach for awhile [photo right]. I enjoyed very much walking through all the wildflowers on the cliff, looking at all the flowers and birds and the coastline.
I saw a new gull today that I'm having trouble identifying. One of the things I've learned is that gulls are tough to identify, even for expert birders. One of the reasons is because it takes them three or four years to mature, and each of those years they look different! And there are at least 20 different kinds of gulls in California. Here are photos of Western Gulls - first year juvenile on the left and adult on the right!. You'd never know they were the same bird.
Then I drove to the Pillar Point Wetlands , which was a real find.
I loved it! I walked out to the point, and spent a long time there, just watching the shorebirds (saw lots of marbled godwits). I watched three surfers for awhile, surfing at famous Maverick's Point. For most of my time there, there was just one other woman and myself on the beach. She was keeping an eye on a lone sea lion up on the beach. She said it’s very unusual for a sea lion to come ashore on that beach, and alone. She thought he had come there to die. I had to agree with her. He didn’t look good. 
I’m hearing a beep every 12 seconds this evening. I assume it’s a foghorn, but I guess I’ve never spent the night near one before, because this is new to me.
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