BLOWN INDOORS ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Wow, wild weather - California style (no fear of tornados). Last night brought gusty winds and occasionally heavy rain, but we awoke to sunshine. Sunshine, and WIND. It was too windy to enjoy a walk on the beach, so we drove, instead

I don’t know how much the weather had to do with it but, by 11 am Sunday, the rigs we had seen streaming onto the beach on Friday afternoon for a weekend of camping were packing up and heading out. Cars, trucks, trailers and motorhomes were moving along between the water and the dunes, sometimes two lanes, sometimes three or four lanes - or in a swarm. Far more vehicles on the beach than on the road.

Most of the campers had let air out of their tires for better traction in the soft sand of the campsites in the dunes. A business I never knew existed: providing generator-operated air compressors so the drivers could refill their tires as they regained the hard-packed sand away from the dunes.

They ran four compressors at a time, apparently charging $1 per tire. There were several other businesses set up for the weekend, too: ATV rentals, sand rail rentals, and horse rentals.

Though the wind made for crummy camping and walking, it was exactly what the kite surfers wanted. To the north end of the beach, away from the traffic of the campers, hearty surfers in wet suits inflated the edges of their big kites and took to the waves.

They tore along the surf, back and forth, sometime jumping up into the air, even turning somersaults. We parked and watched from the warmth of the Jeep, all the windows rolled up to keep the sand out and the warmth in. We felt like wimps, warm and cozy wimps.

The wind never died down, so we gave up on walking today… maybe we ARE wimps?!