Judy “Flying” a Kite

Judy "Flying" a Kite
Originally uploaded by rwclark.

Today, we left Berkeley’s sun and warmth for the fog, wind and cold of Pacifica. Ok, it wasn’t unbearably cold, but it was a shock to look at our destination from the (totally clogged) Bay Bridge and see a thick blanket of cloud as the rest of the sky was a radiant blue. Past the hills of SF, it was really foggy. On highway 1 going south (which we required the help of mbarrien‘s help to find; thank you good sir), you could see the fog line 40 feet or so above the road–trees and the tops of hills were obscured, but not the cars around us. On our way back, the fog covered everything. Fog is weird.

Yesterday, R and I got a kite each at games of berkeley. I couldn’t resist getting a sailboat kite in 3d: it has a blue and red hull, a large rainbow vertical sail with flags, and two yellow horizontal sails that look like wings. The sailboat is really terribly cute, but doesn’t fly too well. It’s fond of weaving back and forth and taking sudden nosedives, but it’s so adorable. I’m contemplating asking if I can exchange it with this other kite I was attracted to, a more conventional flat kite that was shaped like a bird, which was also cute because its wings had many colors. It would probably fly much better, but the sailboat is just… so, so cute. At any rate, the kite you see in Ryan’s picture (I can post other peoples’ flickr pictures to my blog!) is Ryan’s stalwart pick. He’s the more sensible one.

The sand on the beach at Pacifica is gravelly. We’d find a patch of smooth sand to stand on, and after a wave or two of surf we’d find that it was gravelly again, and migrate to the left a few feet. I’ve waded in it many times, but I’m always surprised by how cold the ocean is, then surprised in turn at how quickly my feet forget the cold and splash about on the sand.

There were tons of people standing along the beach (and tons more along the nearby peir) casting into the waves. Is “casting” the right verb to use for “when you hold a long fishing pole and then swing it so that your hook-thingy goes pretty far out, then you reel it back in and do it again” ? I am unfamiliar with the sport. “Do you think they catch anything?” Ryan asked. What lives in shallow water in northern california?

Speaking of questions, on the way there we drove next to some girls in a pickup who were towing a giant 5-stall horse trailer behind them. Horses always stand, right? But sometimes they lie down. They don’t “sit” though, right? Do horses sleep standing up?

I like the beach. I also like sun, though, and hope to go again this summer and catch a day that’s sunny.