Thursday 16 August 2018

Breakfast is at the Cozy Cup Cafe where I have apricot stuffed French toast and O has a nutella pancake “sandwich.” Next, we catch up on laundry and with Dad. We are to meet Karen in Santa Cruz at 4, so we have just enough time to drive to Pinnacles, set up camp and then proceed to Santa Cruz. Karen has suggested ordering pizza instead of going out for dinner so that we will have more time to chat this evening.

We arrive at Karen’s home on time. She has a splendid view of the ocean through her large picture window which looks out past her deck to the crashing waves and the kelp beds beyond. Formations of brown pelicans fly by overhead and great egrets use the kelp beds as perches from which to fish. As we watch, a great blue heron wings by.

We have a wonderful evening of conversation while sipping tea and then dining on pizza with some red wine. After dinner we are off for a walk looking for raptors. We see a few black shouldered white tailed kites and watch as a red tailed hawk successfully hunts for a bird dinner. As the sun sets we return to Karen’s home and bid each other farewell with hopes of meeting again on some future trip.