Abalone Cove Tide Pools

Stepping out of the airport and into Los Angeles is like Dorothy opening the door of her tornado tossed house to the colorful world of Oz.
It's a completely different planet.
I hopped into my old pickup, flipped on the radio and the very first thing I hear is a commercial about "treating yourself" to body improvement.

Buy a new boob get the second one for free!
Use the plastic from your Starbucks cup as an implant for your ass!
No lips? No problem! We'll tattoo them on for 20 low monthly payments of $99.99!

It's so different from au natuale hippyville Fort Collins where people are more interested in getting stoned than making themselves look like they're perma-smiled and on Ecstasy.

It had been a minute since my last visit so it took me a bit to readjust to the same things that I never even used to notice.
Like, for example, every single corner has a kid with a surf board in their arms. I forget how prevalent the surfing community is in all the little towns, and although I'm not a surfer, it was refreshing to be reminded for some reason.

Anyway, since I wasn't quite feeling 100% yet, we decided to drive up through San Pedro and go wander around the Abalone Cove tide pools. It's the perfect thing to do if you're on vacation and you feel like shit but you still want to be out in the sunshine and keep your 4 year old busy and entertained.

So,
you know,
if you're ever in that same predicament...

We had an absolute perfect and crisp view of Catalina Island. 

There happened to be a surf contest going on that day, with swells higher than they had been in over 30 years, so there were a ton of people in the water and a ton of people up on the shore cheering them on.

It takes some energy to get up over the rocks, but once you've made it you'll find the hike was completely worth it. Even if you felt like you might lose your lunch and the world is spinning and you have a fever. Still worth the hike.

Our timing probably could have been a bit better had we gotten out of bed early enough to catch low tide, but there were still tons of star fish, crabs, sand dollars and sea anemones for our viewing pleasure. 

We had perfect weather, clear water, and a live sporting event to check out so other than my constant nausea, I really had no complaints. 

All in all, aside from teetering on the edge of fatality from this awful flu, I'd say day two was a success. I had to postpone my trip down to Orange County for fear of passing along my near death experience to my BFF, but we reunited later in the week and all was well in the world. 

The following day we headed over to a couple of missions that I hadn't seen before but more on that later in the week. 

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day!