Little Towhee discovers the Big Ocean

July, 2018

The Pacific Beach State Park campground is very quiet at night, exceptionally so, but kids and dogs and even adults can’t help but make noise during the day.  I was tired of hearing the kids and the dogs and the truck engines during the day, even though they weren’t terribly loud, just loud enough.  Too, the beach at Pacific Beach always had other non-camping folks and kids and kites on it.  It was wonderful and great fun, but I was ready for a little quiet time.  So this next morning, I jumped in the truck and headed out to find a beach that didn’t have a town or homes or a campground or people around it … just a large, empty expanse of Pacific Ocean beach.  I wondered if I would find such a thing.  I did!

I headed south from the town of Pacific Beach, south-bound on the main (and only) road out there along the coast (photo below).  It sure was pretty.

There were a few dirt roads off to the right, heading towards the ocean, but none looked promising.  About three miles south of Pacific Beach, there was a sign pointing to the right to “Roosevelt Beach”.  It appeared to be just what I wanted.

Tire tracks led WAY out onto the sand, but I was a bit trepidatious about following in those tire tracks since there were no other vehicles out on the beach when I arrived and I wondered if maybe those tracks were made by off-road vehicles that had better traction than my truck did and that weighed less than my truck did.

I drove out onto the sand, but stopped before going very far and just hopped out of the truck to take photos and walk around a bit.  The photo above is looking north along the coast.

A close-up of the cliffs to the north.

The photo above is looking south down the coast.

A close-up of the cliff to the south.

Wind and salt water and erosion do take their toll on that first, exposed rank of trees.

As I examined the tire tracks that led further out towards the ocean, I realized those tracks were made by regular cars and pickup trucks.  The tread was just normal street tread, not what you’d find on all-terrain or off-road vehicles.

I walked all the way out to where there was ocean water on the sand … still regular tire tracks there too and still hard-packed sand.  I was getting braver by the minute.  Eventually I said, “what the …. heck” or something like that, walked back to my truck, got in, and drove out to the ocean.

Whoop!  I drove right through the Pacific Ocean!  Well, you know, not all the way to Japan or anything, but a for a little way down the beach my truck tires were IN the Pacific Ocean!  🙂

I was careful and watched the back tires in my mirrors to make sure they were on hard ground.  And I was primed to put the truck into super duper low SUPER sub-zero low four-wheel drive if needed.  I kept wanting to take a video of my tires while driving through the ocean, but I didn’t feel comfortable stopping out there in order to get my camera ready to do that, so I didn’t.  Now I wish I’d done a second pass with the camera hanging out the window, but that’ll be something to do during the next trip.

I drove back onto relatively dry hard-packed sand and parked the truck, still close to the ocean and a long way from real land.  I walked towards land, turned around and took the photos above and below with the Pacific Ocean in the background.

As long as I was outside the truck anyway, I let Little Towhee out too.  She was making a lot of fuss about where we were and why and what were we looking at, so I figured she should have a piece of this adventure too.

She didn’t much like the texture of the sand, said it didn’t feel like real dirt.

She came upon this yellow sea-urchin-y thing, took one sniff and said “yuk, Ann, that smells real bad!  It stinks!”

Then she came upon this bit of sea shell, took one whiff and said, “yuk, Ann, that smells bad too!  Are these smelly pieces of things the ocean? and why do they smell so bad?”

(Remember, towhees are land/dirt birds.  They don’t fly much and they don’t like water.  They even nest on the ground, in shrubbery, on real dirt.)

Then Little Towhee did flap her wings a bit and lifted off the sand for just a foot or too … and then she caught sight the BIG OCEAN!

And the big waves!

Oh, she did not like that!

She half flew and half ran back towards land and jumped behind the first log she could find.  She was taking no chances.

I let her stay there a few moments but then convinced her to come out for another look.

Half way back to the ocean, she came upon these bird tracks (above) … seagull tracks in fact.  Birds!  She liked that and she began to feel a bit bold and daring.

As soon as she spied these folks out VERY near the Big Ocean, Little Towhee lost all fear.  If they could be out there, then so could she!

It was still a long way out to the Big Ocean, but nothing could stop her now.

She hopped and skipped and flitted over the dry sand and then the wet sand as fast as she could.  I could barely keep up!

The Big Ocean got closer and closer.

Eventually, there was one LONG stretch of trapped salt water standing between us and the actual waves of the Big Ocean.  But Little Towhee, bless her brave heart, kept on going out onto that little sand-spit peninsula there to the left in the photo above.  She wanted to see what those other birds saw … and go where they went.

She was at the very end of that little peninsula, with a very large stretch of water between her and the Big Ocean.  Too much water for us to cross, too far to fly, too deep to wade, and it went for miles and miles up and down the beach in both directions.

Little Towhee stayed there for a long time, looking at the Big Ocean, listening, smelling (she still didn’t like how it smelled), and watching as much as she could from that distance.

She finally said, “Ann can you pick me up so I can see more?”  Of course I could, and did.  I held her high over my head so she could see even more of the ocean than I could see.

And just then some really BIG waves pounded into the beach from the Big Ocean and made a terrible lot of noise.  Little Towhee watched that, but her eyes got bigger and bigger, and pretty soon she peeped at me to let her down again and maybe just kind of hold her in my arms.  She was mighty impressed with the Big Ocean, but in the end she decided she would leave ocean adventuring to the seagulls.

We walked back to the truck, got in, had a little drink of fresh water, and then we drove off the beach and back to real land and the road that would take us back to our campground.

As I was driving off the beach towards the main road, I noticed this sign (above) but I was careful not to let Little Towhee see it.  That might have really done her in!  As it was, she had a great adventure that she will always remember and enjoy … seeing the Really Big Ocean!

After I got back to the campground, I pulled the Big White Truck around to the dump station and rinsed off the salt water (and the already dried on salt) as best I could.  A real bath for the truck would be on the list as soon as I got home from this trip.

What a great morning this was!  Little Towhee and I both had nice naps right after our lunches. 🙂