He Restoreth My Soul II

This past week was a really difficult one. When it was Friday, it was definitely TGIF! LOL We had planned to go to the SF Zoo on Saturday, but changed our minds at the last minute. My asthma has been bad all week because of a forest fire whose smokes are being blown into the valley. Then I learned about a fire south of San Francisco and so we decided to go AGAIN to Goat Rock Beach on the Sonoma Coast. The day began quite gray and almost dismal looking, but we definitely made the right choice to go to the beach! (I made an error in posting photos and they posted smaller. If you click on photos you can see them a big bigger. I recommend that for any you may want to see with more detail.)

This and the previous picture are taken along the roadside before arriving at our favorite beach. The lighting wasn't great, but surf was crashing everywhere. I am not sure why, but the surf was quite different than it usually is and I am wondering if it has something to do with the recent full moon we had.

September is my favorite time to be at the ocean. It is usually glorious with blue skies and sunshine but not too warm and not too much fog. But Saturday there was quite a bit of fog. So we took our time at Whole Foods Market getting goodies for our picnic and stopping along the way for pics because usually the fog burns off mid day.

Here is the Arched Rock that you see on the beach adjacent to Goat Rock Beach. My friend Laura's ashes are spread here and so I have been trying to get a 'perfect' picture of it to share with her daughter. Haven't gotten it yet, but I'm having fun trying. There was a lot of pampas grass growing and when J saw it she cried "Bulrushes!" The girls have been studying about Baby Moses in Sunday School! :o)

Looking down on the drive that winds down to Goat Rock Beach. There are always a lot of people on this beach, sometimes surfing. The way the surf comes in on this beach is much safer than on Goat Rock Beach so there are usually more people there...which is fine with us! In California it is difficult to get off by yourself unless you are a mountain goat, so we are always looking for places that are less crowded!

The first half hour we were on the beach I just stood watching the surf crash in. The pictures do not look as dramatic as it was in person. The pounding spray would go up high as a house. Look at that gorgeous color in the water too!

Sometimes there was so much going on, I didn't know which way to point my camera and I just had to stand in awe and watch. I felt like God was saying to me, "I'm still here and I'm watching. I know what you are going through and you are NOT alone!"

Can you believe the color of the water? It was so beautiful and it was "striped" just like we saw it at Lake Tahoe a couple weeks ago. I have never seen the Pacific in these colors. I didn't know cold water got this color.

Last time I posted pics from Goat Rock Beach, someone asked about "sleeper waves". It happens only on certain beaches and the sign below shows...there is a deep trough right where surf pounds the beach and so a wave can start up, seemingly out of nowhere in that trough and crash over the top of an existing wave which has been rolling in from further off shore. It is highly dangerous because a person thinks the water is only a few feet deep but they can be pulled into that trough!

In spite of this danger there are a lot of people who think "Oh that would only happen to stupid people, I know better!" There is a life guard there which is fortunate because a lot of those people who think they know better, don't! We saw some of them in action yesterday.

It's hard to tell in this photo but here, some small sleeper waves are trying crash over the top of this previous wave that has already rolled. Sometimes there are several and it looks as if they are racing over the top of each other to get to the shore first!

It was so beautiful I just kept snapping away...the joy of having a digital camera. I would have used a lot of film and it would have been really expensive.

This photo shows the surf pounding. Like I said, the picture doesn't show how dramatic it is. The surf was literally pounding with a boom that was quite loud as it hit and then bounced up ten+ feet in the air.

Sometimes the water in the waves was very dark from the gravel and sand it picked up from the trough, but the waves that built up from the surface of the water were beautiful with this bottle glass green color.

Here some sleeper waves are coming over the top of others. This was about 6' or more in height. It was like the water was building a wall and these went the stretch of the beach, a good 100 yards or more. Awe is the only word that describes it.

Here is a close up shot of the waves. The brown is the first wave which has rolled and the spray at the top is the second "sleeper" wave coming over the top.

God gave us quite a show. I just stood there in amazement. I have been visiting the Pacific Ocean in three states and one Canadian province, my entire life and I have never seen a display quite like this one. It was like watching amazing fireworks, only better!

The troops were hungry, so while I took pics, they started lunch. J, D, A and Hubby...in our usual spot.

Here's J, all happy with her Ritz crackers! :o) This is one processed food we have not been able to give up yet. Working on it.

And this photo is not so amazing until you know that I took the photo 3" from the subject! This is with my new closeup lens! It came Tuesday and since we had such a horrible heat spell the last week or so before that, there was not a single flower alive to take pics of! So, I had to be resourceful to at least try it out. I have to learn how to manipulate the depth of field (how much of the photo is in focus), which is different in a close focus lens. I'm sure it will come in time. This photo is 1:1 life size and unretouched. Actually none of the ocean pics are retouched on this post...just so you know I did not "photoshop" the color of the water! LOL

The kids had a blast! They had more fun this time than when we went two weeks ago. Here's A...they always have to find these big rocks to show me how strong they are!

And this is what I saw on the way to make a pitstop! I don't know if you can see on this small version but there is a wave crashing through the Arched Rock...still working on getting a perfect shot of it.

Here's A, filling up her pockets with rocks to bring home! :o) In case you wonder if we ever change our childrens' clothes...yes we do. It's just that we don't have many long pants and warm clothes because we live in this hot place. So, when we go to the beach we end up wearing the same clothes. They do get washed in between! LOL

Here is Mr. D and Mommy. I had Hubby take some pics of me with the kids since almost all the pics are of him and them. I hate having my pics taken but if something happened to me, I would want them to know that I loved them heart and soul! Besides, when my Hubby married me and "carted" me off to California, my Mom made him promise to get me in the pics sometimes! LOL

Here is me and the Diva! Would you look at Miss A's face there!?!

She nearly knocked me out with the stick but it was the favored "toy" of the day! The pics with J didn't turn out but that was okay because we got one last time.

It was hard to stop taking pics...look at those waves!!! It reminded me of some of that Japanese art where they paint the waves. I have some quilting fabric with it. The Japanese must have "sleeper" waves too! LOL

Here is Miss A with her "flying dragon"! LOL They recently watched a princess story with a dragon so she must have had that in her mind. It could fly because of the seagull feathers on the end of it! :o)

And no, my children do NOT lack an imagination! Here they are bringing a "birthday cake" to Daddy. And since I usually sing "And many more" at the end of the birthday song, A sang "Happy Birthday to you...and More!" They filled the frisbee up with gravel and put a stick in it for a candle. Clever. A on left, J on right. In some other pics I did not post the girls looked so much alike. It is so strange for me to see that in pics because in person, I know they look alike but they don't look alike...they each look so different to me!

They were so tuckered out from their long day! This is A sleeping at 6:20PM! LOL We were stopped to top off the gas tank when I took this picture. We went to IHOP for dinner and I was really surprised...this is our third time in a row that we went to dinner as a family with no fits, no disasters, no screaming, no crying...WEIRD! Let me tell you, when you have 3 under 2, then 3, then 4, then 5....well, you just don't do restaurants, unless they have a drive through! LOL So this is just amazing to us. Not that we want to eat in restaurants that often, but WOW! afterall we have gone through with our little tribe, this was something to mark down on the calendar.

Believe it or not, I actually missed getting a picture up here...the one with actual knitting content. I'll have to post my latest sock tomorrow! And if you were wondering if I would ever get back to knitting and fibery goodness on my blog...don't despair, summer is nearly over and I will be back to indoor sports...knitting, spinning, sewing, quilting! :o)