living on love

the best parade ever.

last saturday ob hosted its 32nd annual holiday parade & i dont think i could have prepared myself for how great this parade would be. i should have known... its in the evening, anybody can sign up to be in the parade, & its in ob, which means anything & everything goes.

(picture source ... click the link to see lots of fun photos from this event!)

festivities were not limited to those in the parade... the parade watchers were all decked out as well in ugly sweaters, elf hats, santa hats, reindeer antlers, blinking lights, etc.

then the parade started... a dog riding a motorcycle by himself, a big lebowski float, a big half pipe on a flat bed truck with little kids skate boarding on it, a large group of unicycling kids whos unicycles were all decorated, a bail bonds float made into a prison cell complete with prisoners & a guard, burlesque dancers, volkswagons all decked out with lights, boy scouts, girl scouts... all spreading the holiday cheer ob style. oh, & did i mention it lasted 2 hours, but felt like maybe 45 mins. 

best parade ever.

low tide.

well it has been approximately 13 days since i last posted a picture of the beach / ocean & i think that is pretty good for an ocean junkie like myself. i just cant help it, i always find myself in awe at the beauty, power, mystery, & sheer magintude of it. if you are like me, then i have a good dose of ocean for you today...

recently it has been low tide around the same time we go on our walk which makes for lots of exploring... so many crazy look shells to be collect, rocks with holes in them, tidepools full of little crabs, fish, & anenomes. the pup loves all the room for fetching her tennis ball & playing with the other pups that whos humans are busy exploring as well.

the top 3 pictures were taken at boat ramp beach & this what it looks like in high tide. the bottom 3 pictures were taken at rock beach which is actually at the bottom of the boat ramp that boat ramp beach is named for. we had never gone to this one before until a couple of days ago. all the ground in the photos is normally covered by water.

happy sunday!

the red tide.

there is an algae bloom along the shore right now called the "red tide" because it turns the water around it a dark brown color. the algae blooms are bioluminescent so at night time they make the waves glow this crazy neon light blue color.

i found more about it here in an article from the la times...

"The movement of the waves turns the tide a brilliant blue, visible only after night falls.

It’s caused by a chemical reaction on the cellular level, according to Scripps Institution of Oceanography Professor Peter J. Franks, who calls the phytoplankton “my favorite dinoflagellate.”

“Why favorite?” Franks wrote in an email Q&A. “Because it’s intensely bioluminescent. When jostled, each organism will give off a flash of blue light created by a chemical reaction within the cell. When billions and billions of cells are jostled -- say, by a breaking wave -- you get a seriously spectacular flash of light.” 

both images were found here.

me, ran, & the pup went for a walk down to the beach last night to watch the waves turn blue & ended up spending 3 hours just mesmerized by it. the color would start in one tiny area & then grow along the wave until it was a bight blue line running a giant length. there were a few times when a few lines of glowing blue would start & grow into each other. it was so great we are going to head back down tonight. "they"... the scientists, dont know how long it will last, weeks or months... i hope its the latter.

 

boat ramp beach & stair beach.

every couple blocks where the road dead ends to the ocean there will be some stairs leading down to a little beach, a rocky area, or some cliffs. there are usually trails or paths that connect them as well so we can go down one set of stairs & then come back to street level 6 blocks away. well last week we went exploring to some of these instead of just going for our usual walk. first we went to boat ramp beach, named such because you have to walk down this super steep old boat ramp (people around here normally name these little beaches by whatever street they are on, but we make up our own names for them).

(looking toward the ob pier)

(ran was exploring at the bottom of these steps when a big wave came in...)

(so with wet pants up to mid shin he retreated up to the top of the stairs)

we walked down a bit farther to discover stair beach... because it has these cool stairs leading down to it. it looked like a super cool beach, but unfortunately some people were having a party & we didnt want to crash it, so we just looked from the top.

big surf.

leading up to the weekend we had a big surf warning... waves from 9-11 feet high. the warning was in effect for a few days & drew in lots of surfers & curious folks. we would walk to the beach everyday to check out what it was doing... big loud waves crashing pretty far out, really high tides, & really low tides.

the ob pier was closed during the entire warning because the waves were crashing over the edge. in the picture you can see a wave that is pretty close to the top of the pier, but it didnt quite make it. you can also see how far out the tide is & all the lumps of seaweed... made for a smelly beach =)

 

 

our favorite walk in black & white.

the majority of the time when we head for the water the walk we go on starts about two blocks from our house at these stairs...

the broken sidewalk makes it look a bit rough, but we love it all the same. we love to explore in all the rocks before we head on the path.

this walk leads to one of our favorite beaches that we call "log beach" because there a few washed up logs on it (we are really creative like that). we always find such interesting things there... shells, sticks, & rocks.

we love that there are hardly ever any other people around. we can just enjoy the loud crashing waves & the beautiful views.

hunting for treasures @ sunset.

we spent the evening down at our favorite water front spots hunting for all sorts of treasures...

the sunset was gorgeous, the water was glassy & blue, & the sky was all sorts of pretty colors.

july wrap up.

to celebrate rans birthday we went shopping at our favorite little local store, 2 dollar thrill, where ran got a few cd's with his birthday money & then we had lunch at a local chinese food place called little chef.

ran really wanted to see harry potter for his birthday but he had to work that day so we waited for the weekend & then went to see it. the mall that the theater was in was an open air mall... all the main walkways were all outside & there were still all little carts in the middle that try to sell you crazy things. when we walked out of the theater it was dark, but palm trees where lit up, twinkling lights were hanging, & we felt like we were on vacation.

this month is also kitten littles birth month, but we have no clue which day. she mainly just wanted to nap for her birthday, but we did convince her to where a cute little pom pom on her head for a while.

 

rans mini vacation from work got a little longer... instead of 4 days they are now looking at about 10 until the repairs are done, so there have been quite a few more walks in the evening...

more trips to the beach & cliffs for ocean treasures,

& working on the patio area.

log beach

this week the restaurant where ran works had to close down for a few days to make some repairs to their refridgeration unit so he got a few unexpected days off. when he came home from work after being gone only about 30 mins i was so surprised & so excited that i would get to spend the evening with him. we decided to take full advantage of it & headed to the ocean. we went to the "beach" at the end of our street although to get there you either have to a couple blocks down to get the stairs. we call it log beach because there are a bunch of logs there & we are creative like that =) we had such a nice evening hunting for beach treasures, watching the sunset, & getting misted by the crashing waves.

welcome to ocean beach.

a few weeks ago we tried a pizza & sub place thats down the street called poma's. the outside & inside are nothing to get excited about, just bare essentials, but it always smelled really good when we walked by.

the pizza was really good, i really like the sauce. it was a tad on the greasy side, but a few dabs of paper towel took care of that. they also give a litte cup of red pepper flakes & parmesan so you can add a little spice & cheese to your pizza if you want. good pizza & within walking distance... two thumbs up.