When Flooded, Turn Around, Don't Drown

Wednesday, December 3, 2014
It has been raining for five days.  Last night during the final half hour of our drive from San Francisco, the rain began pelting down so hard,  I had the feeling of being completely surrounded by water, with the waves crashing on the beach to my right and the rain falling from above.

California has been in a drought for three years-- the worst drought California has experienced in 1, 200 years, dated by tree rings.

When the skies cleared today, we donned our jackets and rushed out for a walk. The following photos show the beach after the rainfall.

For the first time, today, we saw piping plovers. The Pacific variety look very similar to our Atlantic plovers.

                                                 Some of the trail is covered by water.

                                       Nearby we watched six seals lounge on the rocks.

  We watched four deer grazing in the meadow. One deer noticed me before I saw her. We waited,
then they trotted across the trail.  They stopped, turned and looked at us, then continued on.  They were just as curious about us as we were of them.

                                          The rain drew out the smell of the Eucalyptus trees.