Okie Dokie Chicken & Macaroni

When I lived in Orange County I was at the beach at least once a week. All through college I created my work and class schedule so that I had Mondays off. I'd pack my beach bag with books and snacks and head down to Balboa Island. I'd take the ferry across to the Peninsula and lay out on the beach for two or three hours reading and relaxing before heading back to the island. I'd stop at Starbucks on Main Street for a chai latte and then walk around the island once or twice before heading home. I was a bit spoiled. Then I moved to LA. The beaches are so far away!! Not far in distance but time. It might take me twenty minutes to get to Santa Monica on a good day without traffic but it'll take two plus hours to get home. Never mind that the Santa Monica and Venice beaches are dirty and crowded. Malibu is gorgeous but the weather is always dodgy. It may be 90 degrees with full sunshine here in the Valley but by the time I drive over the hill it is blustery cold and overcast. Then there is paying for parking. It just isn't convenient. At least not when you live in an apartment with a huge pool in an area with consistently warm sunny weather.

Last Saturday I headed over to the beach with a friend to take some photos for a homework assignment for the online photography class I've been taking. It was the second time I've been to the beach so far this year. When we go to the beach it usually involves very long treks. Mostly we walk along the beach from the Santa Monica Pier to the Marina del Rey pier. It is a couple miles round trip. Once we decided to go the opposite way and trekked all the way to Gladstones in Malibu. It was about a seven hour walk round trip along rocky coastline and private beach clubs and in the end Gladstones was closed for the day due to a private party. My typical 'I Love Lucy' luck.

The weather here has been exceptionally warm. Last weekend it was 85 degrees and sunny minus the haze (aka smog). The beach was jam packed. We walked a little bit around the pier and the beach but the crowds made walking cumbersome so we headed towards Malibu instead. Of course not before I ended up with tar all over the seat of my pants. That is the thing about going to the Santa Monica beach. You always leave with tar on you - it's either on your feet, your shoes, your clothes, your hand, or the towel or bag you set down on the sand. You never see it before hand. Somehow it just magically works it's way up the sand to the surface to adhere to you and your stuff. It's totally not awesome. The whole 'off shore drilling for oil does no damage to the environment' is total bollocks. That stuff is a bugger to get off. I managed to get it off my pants with goo-gone thankfully though my pants now need to be washed in hot water because the goo-gone is highly flammable. Awesome again. But I didn't have to trash them so it is all good. Though I'm not keen on going back to the Santa Monica beach again. That is unfortunate. When I was a kid my aunt lived in this great old building on 4th and Montana. When I'd visit for the weekend we would go to the beach and the pier (which didn't have all the rides and stuff then, just a carousel, an old arcade, and a stand that sold pink and purple cotton candy - oh how I loved that stuff). My favorite thing after the cotton candy was riding the carousel and I still go on it when I go down there. I'm just not included to go there all that often anymore. So tomorrow we are going to go back to Malibu and walk around and explore the beaches up there but first here are some of the photos from last week.

My friend had one request for the day and that was that she take a photo of me taking a photo of her, which was fun. Who knew my lens was practically the size of my head. HA.

Although I also really like these pictures of her as well - The candid laughs and smiles...

The photo bombing guy in the background taking a picture with his phone.

And lastly, just a nice shot of her with the ocean behind her.

We didn't spend long in Malibu (we were too hungry) but the beach near Point Dume is definitely worth a trip to.

And my actual homework, which was on metering from different points to create a different mood or look.

Despite the fact that I don't get there as often as I used to I am still a beach girl at heart. It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that people live places that are completely land locked. What madness ;)

And a quick aside, my friend took the profile shot of me at the beach. I love it. I had no idea she was taking it. I rarely have photos of my self and it is even rarer to have ones I like. She completely nailed it!!