End of Dunes Project

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Last week Bea asked me if we were getting excited about moving on, and I said no, not at all. By Monday that feeling had changed in both Bob and I. This last week everyone is talking about where they’re going next (Bea and Barney don’t have another project until January, and Rose and Ron aren’t going to do any more projects, because of Rose’s health) and we’re talking about routes, and what has to be done before Thursday, and we’re ready to be moving on! The rain makes it a little easier, I suppose, but I am going to miss being so close to the ocean. But I’m excited to see what’s next…what we’ll be seeing, and who we’ll be meeting. We’re going to a conference center in northern California, but our plans are to be in Eureka, CA by Friday night, where we’ll stay for a few days. We will be close to the Redwoods, and Eureka has some kind of festival over the weekend! We love festivals!! I'm posting some pictures that show the effects of the storm we've had for three days.

An additional thought: when we first arrived at camp, and Bea and Barney were giving us a tour, every building we went in had an odor, and it wasn’t a warm fuzzy smell….it smelled damp and neglected. When we were walking through the buildings before we left, I didn’t notice the smell at all!! And the fishy smell of the ocean that was so strong when we arrived was barely there four weeks later! The smell was just smelled like The Dunes Bible Camp! Did it change, or did we?!

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Photos

Sand drifts
Doesn't this look like snow that has drifted? It showed us how the dunes appear. There was a large log on the beach that we would sit on to watch the ocean, and after three or four days of wind, you wouldn't be able to sit on it without digging down to have a spot to put your feet. I wonder how much longer it would be before the log would be so covered with sand that it would look like a dune. But then Steve reminded us that just as quicly the surf and wind can uncover it. Unbelievable

Trashy
This is foam and seaweed brought up at high tide. It must have something to do with the amount movement in the ocean, because it didn't look like this every day after high tide.

Gulls
These silly gulls stand in groups (like teenagers pretending they're lined up!) waiting for something to wash up on shore. At first we thought they do it before high tide, but later decided they do whenever they don't want to go find food! There were at least three times that we found carcasses of sea lions that had washed up. A gull's thanksgiving! You can see the foam here, too. If you put your finger in that foam it's really warm. And the foam stayed through the next day.

Friendly gulls
By looking at the man's face, you can see who has to wash the car! At one point the gulls were sitting on the hood and roof! I don't know what she was feeding them, but it doesn't matter to them. Even moving your arm like you're throwing something is enough to get them all excited.