Day 16: The Beach

After a day at Disneyland, one deserves a kick back go-to-the-beach kind of day. So, we took a drive south, then west to Newport Beach. I know that many people have suffered the loss of their jobs and their homes in the recent financial/banking crisis in the US, but it doesn’t appear to have reached Newport Beach. There must be more yachts in Newport than anywhere else in the world.  Of course, this is my own estimation, but, as we drove along the Pacific Coast Highway we saw marina after marina housing huge and beautiful vessels. In fact, in one area, these boats were “parked” side by side in front of side by side waterfront homes. The scene resembled busy urban parking in front of a strip mall only instead of stores, there were townhouse style homes.

We parked on a side street, had a picnic under a shade tree that I have yet to identify (and, by the way, shade trees in this part of California are hard to come by. You don’t get much shade from palms) then strolled between the townhouses onto Newport Beach. The beach itself was a wide expanse of fluffy white sand, warm but not too hot to walk on in bare feet.  There was no natural shade of any kind and it was virtually deserted except for the surfers – and they were there with good reason.  The surf was up and breaking in two or three rows of curls that finished by crashing onto the beach and spreading foam across the sand.

There are beaches for miles up the coast. But as we drove north to the community of Huntington Beach, we found that the parking lots in the beach areas appeared only to be accessible through toll gates. At that point, we only wanted to use a rest room but weren’t willing to pay a fee to do so. Fortunately, we found parking on the street again, walked a couple of blocks to Huntington Beach and found another group of surfers enjoying even larger breakers. (And, yes, we found a small restroom with a flush toilet but no other running water – thank goodness for Purell).

The rest of the afternoon involved a little shopping, mostly groceries, and then back to our motel room. We’re hoping to make it an early night because we have to catch an early shuttle to Universal Studios tomorrow.

Until tomorrow. . . .