Bowling Ball Beach, II

 While we continued to converse, off and on, cognizant of the other's main interests, we also meandered separately, each focused on our own main interest - Bib on the rocks with "finger" holes in them, and me on anything alive besides humans.  When I wandered a little bit south from our entry to the beach, I found huge accumulations of seaweed and poked through quite a bit of it looking for amphipods, flies, and crabs.  The wind was probably making me impatient because I didn't find much, and I wasn't as persistent as I usually am in such situations.

 Turning north again, wondering where the large bowling balls had gone, I recognized the furthest cliffs (left-hand edge of the above photo) as the ones immediately behind the bowling balls we had seen on our last trip here.  That area appeared to be around a mile away, so we decided not to walk that far.

 Back to looking for signs of life, I was intrigued by the glow of sunlight emanating from this bunch of grass.  Stealing a phrase from an iconic Ansel Adams photo, I love the "early morning light."

 This lone specimen of Bull Kelp seemed particularly photogenic to me.  The wavy pattern of mini-sand dunes brought forth images of desert and other places of isolation, but the kelp was a reminder of the tenacity of life found in such places - such as Ed Abbey wrote about after exploring Death Valley.

 Considering how the waves bash everything against the rocks, I felt privileged to find an intact crab shell.

Then, on the trail back up to our parking space, I found a great specimen of Harvest Brodiaea that I overlooked on the way down.  Again, the early morning light made this one especially beautiful.  Onward to points south - coffee, chile relleno, and bookstores.