Shelling Huntington Beach

After two days of waiting, I just couldn't take it anymore so I dragged Shannan to the beach. It was cold and windy, but I'm a smart little sheller (okay, maybe not little, but smart). We walked WITH the wind on the dry sand, so as not to get it in our eyes.  Going back we would have to walk against the wind so we dropped down closer to the water where the sand was wet and not blowing.  The waves were huge and bringing in lots of foam and cool specimens--so I made sure to return the next day.

Yup, lots and lots of shells. And not just little coquina shells either! There were scallops, shark eyes, California mussels and I think maybe a nice speckled Pismo clam (but I'm not positive on that one yet). Even Shannan was shelling with me! I'll make a sheller out of him yet, just let me get him to Sanibel Island!

I brought all of my little treasures home in a large ziplock bag.  They were still wet and needed to be air dried.  So I cut the back off of a cereal box, dumped them in, spread them around and placed them outside in the sun to dry.  They dried lickity-split and I brushed all the sand off of them and grabbed a few of my favorites.  When darling daughter got home we went through them.  I let her sort them and she kept the ones she wanted for her collection and we put the rest into my collection.

Oh what fun we had!

Main Street and the Huntington Beach Pier

One of the coolest things we did in HB was to walk out onto the Huntington Beach Pier. 
Shannan and I first walked down to Main Street to check out all the little shops and to eat.  We bought some souveniers and ate at a place called BJ's.  We had walked on Main Street a little bit on Saturday night (St. Patrick's Day) and we couldn't believe how busy it was with college kids running from bar to bar.  Well, once we saw Main in daylight and without it's crowd we noticed there was an Irish Pub right were it had been busy.  An ah-ha moment.  BTW the taxi cab drivers are crazy fast.

After eating and shopping, we decided to walk out onto the Pier. It had different little shops and a 50's diner at the very end (which we didn't know until we got there!)

There was this neat-o shop kite shop on the pier and we bought Autumn a nylon, rainbow pinwheel.

We walked to the very end of the pier, around Ruby's Diner.  They were playing music over the loudspeaker and the song was "You Make Me Feel So Young" and I think it was the Rosemary Clooney version.  If you turn the playlist off (to the right), you'll be able to hear it.

We didn't eat inside Ruby's but after hearing the 50's music, seeing the red booths, neon clock and soda jerks, I wish we had.  It looked so neat-o!  Next time for sure!

Ruby's from the air.

As we were walking, we saw this sea gull and Shannan said, "Oh, he only has one foot."  I hadn't even noticed.  How sad.  But he is banded (around the ankle), so maybe he was a rescue and release bird.

His lacking a foot didn't seem to bother his flying abilities and he was still a handsome bird.  I know they are basically trash compactors but they are still pretty with their white and grey feathers all neat and tidy.
The pier was a fun walk and if there is ever a next time, we WILL be eating at Ruby's and try walking the pier in the evening.

Home From Huntington Beach

What a great trip we had.  My husband's boss invited us to go to the National Taco Johns conference in Huntington Beach, California.  It was awesome!  The only thing that could've been better was the weather.  It was chilly and windy the first 3 days, but the last day was beautiful.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach which was right across from the ocean.  It just killed me the first night not to be able to cross over this bridge to the ocean!  I told Shannan (who doesn't collect shells) to imagine a beach covered in Blu Ray movies just laying there for the taking.  Then he understood.  This bridge stretches across the Pacific Coast Highway and connects our hotel to the beach.

Most of our hotel walkways were wide open.  This is the "Market Place" where there was a small grocery store, an art gallery, a pub and other restaurants and shops.  This fire pit is lite at night and once we saw some people making smores!

Time to learn a little something.  We had general sessions on two different mornings where we listened to motivational speakers, and had meetings about the restaurants.  I learned a lot and sometimes was even able to apply what I was hearing to my own profession.

Shannan the fish whisperer.  They came up to where we were because I think they were hungry.

The hotel grounds were beautiful and very well kept.  There were flowers everywhere!

On rainy days the hotel would set out these blue umbrellas.  You'd pick up an umbrella, walk across the open courtyard, then drop it in the bin on the other side.  I never used one.  The rain was nice.

Pete's Bar was my favorite place.  It had surf boards everywhere, Jan and Dean posters and album covers on the ceiling.  By the end of the week one of our regular bartenders (Dom) knew what everyone would want right down to the lime in one gal's beer!  Our group liked to meet there for "one last round" before bed. 

Record sleeves on the ceiling at Pete's

Jan and Dean!!

These flowers looked like birds!  Crane birds.

The crew took a cab a few blocks down Pacific Coast Highway and we ate at Spark.  It was here that I tasted my first Hefeweizen beer, which is apparently a German wheat beer.  I know nothing about beer but swear I drank more of it on this trip than I did all my college years combined.  I drank beers I'd never heard of and some I had.  Now I want to learn more because this Hefeweizen stuff was Gooooooood.