After deciding not to travel three hours up the coast to Coos Bay in Oregon that would supposedly offer the best views of the annular solar eclipse, I stayed put in Crescent City, California. I was rewarded with the most magical view of the eclipse, on the beach, right in front of our trailer.

With hot steaming coffee in hand and wrapped up warm and cosy in a blanket, I made the short walk to the beach and found a beached log on which to sit as I waited first for sunrise and then the solar eclipse.

It was a cloudy morning but ever so still, the waves were gently lapping on the shoreline in quiet anticipation. The birds were still and quiet. Some on one leg, some on two, resting, facing east, watchful, as if praying in some unspoken ritual.

The sun rose and peeked its cheery head through the clouds. And then the astonishing phenomenon began ever so slowly, with the moon passing between the sun and earth.
An annular solar eclipse is when the shadow of the moon does not completely cover the disk of the sun leaving a bright glowing ring, or annulus, around the sun creating a startling contrast of light and dark.  The eclipse took a good hour from start to finish. 

Even though it was cloudy and I did not get a really clear view, the clouds added magic and mystery, color and contrast. It was breathtaking. 

All photos were taken with my trusty iPhone 13 Pro Max.

After some rainy days, finally the sun came out and we ventured out to find the barking seals in the dockside area of Crescent City, California. We could hear them barking from our trailer about a quarter of a mile away.

We explored the dock area and could see seals and sea lions flobbed out on the floating docks. Some were barking and jostling for position, but most of them were basking in the sunshine and sleeping.

The fishing season was over. Someone on the campsite had told us they had been able to buy tuna straight off the boat the previous month. Alas, we did not find any fishing boats loaded with tuna, so we had to make do with visiting the restaurant for some hot, deep fried fish and chips with lashings of salt and vinegar, but no curry sauce I am sad to report.

Gorgeous weather and beautiful views! Lush!

We were mesmerized watching the weather roll in to Crescent City from our prime location, right on the beach. Henry and I were getting cabin fever. So while Kim continued tweaking his graphs (not a euphemism!) for his stock market trading, Henry and I set off in the rain to check out Ocean World in town.

​Henry and I love aquariums and we are always excited to discover new ones. However we are now aquarium snobs having visited the crème de la crème of aquariums in California; the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium and the highly esteemed Aquarium of the Pacific. 

Ocean World was small and a bit, as Henry would say, "budget," but had some memorable features. Henry and I are always determined to have a good time and we entered with buoyant expectation. Billed as "...more than just an aquarium; it is entertainment for the whole family," we were hopeful it was going to be a fun experience. We certainly had fun outside posing on a surfboard set against a huge mural of a giant wave!

After mooching around the store for 15 minutes waiting for our timed entrance, we were led with our group through a nondescript door to a patio area with a simulated rock tide pool where we could "pet" the starfish and observe the flowery anemones whilst being silently observed by some fibre glass statues of pirates. There was also a life size model of a smallish orca. The most interesting and authentic artifact was the whale bone pelvis that had been found washed ashore in Crescent City.  As you can see from the pics, Henry was mightily impressed. 

We were then shepherded down some concrete steps into a basement that allowed us to view two large tanks. To our right was a tank of seals and sea lions and to our left, a tank of rays, leopard sharks, sturgeon and striped bass. The tanks were presented through a series of large windows that created a dramatic cinematic effect. The tanks were clearly very old, not very well maintained and quite small for the number of marine mammals and large fish living there. The sharks, rays and fish circled mindlessly. We padded about on the carpeted flooring between the two tanks, watching the sea creatures watching us. In the middle was a smaller tank titled "Sandy Bottom" containing local rockfish, Dungeness crab, spiny dogfish and silver and rainbow surfperch. In the hushed environment, time seemed to stand still. It was a little unnerving. Thankfully, a small child in our group shrieked and that seemed to waken us from our trance.

We then made our way up and out of the basement, plodding up some more concrete steps and were informed we were going to have a  real treat; the opportunity to "pet" a shark. Woo hoo! I wiggled my eyebrows at Henry. Henry rolled his eyes back at me. He  was suitably impressed and tried very hard to conceal his excitement. He succeeded.

We entered a room with a shallow pool and a single shark circling. I immediately thought, "We're going to need a bigger tank." The shark was a large and rather docile leopard shark and we all obediently stuck our hands into the water after being reassured with the good news that "no one has lost a finger yet." 

Henry and I then had fun mucking around pretending to be eaten by a great white shark. There was a fibreglass model and we took turns pretending to be gobbled up by the shark. Our death cries began to disturb the children on the tour and so we stopped.

The tour continued with a visit to the outside portion of the seal and sea lion tank. We noticed it was still chucking it down with rain so we stood watching in a covered breezeway with our hoods up blowing warm air into our hands. Our tour guide, a slip of a girl, who was clearly not Sea World trained, fetched a bucket of fish and threw some to the lovely mammals.

The two seals and one sea lion were clearly rescues as they were a motley crew. Scarred skin, missing eyes, withered whiskers and bitten fore flippers were the marks of these rescued mammals. It was really kinda heartbreaking. Henry and I exchanged sad faces. No words necessary.

We watched the "grand finale" as these brave little animals slid down a slide, jumped at a ball hung over the pool and waved at us in exchange for a few fish. 

We exited.

We love animal encounters, and we did have some giggles, but this visit felt just a little bit sad on a wet Friday afternoon.

Chasing waterfalls in Trinidad, California, was a joy!

We found leaves as big as your head with the most amazing colors of mustard yellows, rusty browns, lime greens and burnt oranges. The idyllic scenery was complete with the gently flowing waterfalls. Spectacular!

We puddled about in the water, hugged lots of trees and made a wish every time we caught a dancing leaf.

We are definitely seeing the change from Summer to Autumn. Feeling the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.