Walk On The Beach

Today R. took a vacation day and we ate breakfast down at the Beachcomber on Crystal Cove State Beach. You can Google it, if you have never been there. It is lovely, right on the water.
We ate and ate, overlooking the ocean, and then took a long walk down the beach as far as we could walk ( that is, until the way was completely blocked by rock and ocean). We watched a few surfers and a family or two digging sand castles on the deserted beach, the sky pure blue with nary a smudge of cloud. But mostly our only company was a flock of gulls, some small sea birds the name of which I do not know, running from the waves as fast as their legs could carry them, and long-beaked avocets, poking at the wet sand to find their own breakfasts. Piles of kelp and other seaweed washed up on the beaches was still wet from this morning's high tide, not yet covered with flies as it will be this afternoon.