Today we took a drive over to the Pacific Coast side of the Peninsula. The trip over went through the hills and redwood forests, but that’s not what I’m writing about. It is a lovely trip, and we enjoyed it, but we wanted to get to the ocean before the winter weather hits. We hadn’t seen it since we moved back up. As you can see, it was lovely. We came across a beach filled with kite surfers, who used parafoil kites to pull themselves along on surfboards.
A way up the coast we came to Pigeon Point Lighthouse, a lovely old lighthouse that has been converted into a Youth Hostel. It’s a classic design, similar to a number of west-coast lighthouses.It was damaged in a storm last year, and they haven’t had money to fix it, so we couldn’t go up inside it We’ve been there before, but this was the first time there was someone in the little shop to talk with. They seemed almost as hungry for company as the keepers must have been.
While we were there, we saw what looked like miniature palm trees down at the surf line. They obviously weren’t real palms, since they were in the water, so we went back to the little museum shop and asked them what they were called. Rather to our surprise they are called Sea Palms, which seems far too logical. It was enought to look them up when we got back, though. We learned two important things about them. There are a lot more resorts named “Sea Palms” than you would believe, and they are edible and in danger of being overharvested.
