The Strand

It's been two weeks since we returned home.  We are finally getting caught up with ourselves, our family and the outside world.  I have come to the same conclusion as before, that much as I enjoy traveling about, I am really just a homebody at heart.  It  was so good though, to be able to hang out back in some of the places where I spent my growing up years.

We were able to spend over a month on the California Coast of North San Diego County visiting all the different beaches we used to enjoy years ago. You all know how much I love being near the beach.  It's hard for me to imagine what it would be like to live in a part of the country where one might never see the ocean in person in their entire life!  It's actually a generational thing for me.  My grandparents met on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of  Los Angeles, CA.  They returned there often with my mother. and her siblings.  When my grandfather finally retired they bought a little cottage just two blocks from the beach in Oceanside.  I shared photos of their house on a previous blog here

A couple of miles from their little house was the downtown beach known as The Strand. 

 

It was here that my mother met my father and where she lived for a while when he was overseas. She always loved this spot. Over the years my parents brought us often to this beach to play in the sand and this is the place where my love and earliest memories of the ocean began.  Needless to say, while The Inspector and I were staying in the area we returned to this beach again and again.

 
 



 


 As always, many things have changed, but the old band shell is still there.  I remember listening to marching bands playing patriotic music here as we would sit and watch  fireworks shooting off into the night from the pier on the 4th of July.

 

 As a kid the shore was lined with little beach cabins rather than the big condos you see today.  These are some of the few that are still here. 
 
 

Much of the old pier I remember was destroyed in a series of storms in the late 70's and eventually a new one was built after we had moved away, but this one was built to reflect the style of past years and so the memories still live on.

 

One afternoon as I watched this young man leaning over the rail with his fishing pole, it brought back memories of fishing here with my dad.  

 

 One really neat addition to the scene which wasn't here when I was growing up are the brown pelicans.  I love that they have migrated into the area.  Isn't he beautiful?

 The Inspector was just waiting for this fellow to reach over and take a nip out of my fingers.  It did let me get pretty close.

 

And so, as this day on The Strand is coming to a close never forget..

GOD'S GRACE

is an ocean.

Blessings to you this day.