04 July 2009

Come with me...to the sea

Cuyler Harbor
San Miguel Island

One of the items on my bucket list is "Visit all 7 Channel Islands," which is going to be a really good trick. Two of the islands are super-secret military bases, or so says my friend Ish, who works on San Nicholas Island.

He says he absolutely cannot tell me what happens on the island, lest we both be spirited away to a CIA black site and submitted to the Comfy Chair treatment. So I may have to shave my head and disguise myself as a Marine to sneak on, or something.

But I have high hopes, so still I forge ahead. I have had two memorable trips to two Channel Islands - Anacapa (25 years ago, with my crazy boyfriend Mr. Mojo) and Santa Rosa where I found the first shreds of solace after my sister's death two years ago.

This weekend I visited my third island in Channel Islands National Park, San Miguel, on an Island Packers trip.

The long beach
Beach at Cuyler Harbor

San Miguel is the furthest island out, a windswept little place where thousands of birds nest and seals rest on the warm white velvet sands.

Male Elephant Seal
Elephant Seal

And if you think the ISLAND is pretty, you should have seen the boat's crew. They were truly something to bring a tear to the most jaded eye.

There I was, a large wrinkly hulk of a human dressed in 7 layers of warm clothing, surrounded by a crew made up of people who have been banned from Abercrombie and Fitch ads because they would humiliate the other models.

Ok, I made that up, but really, it was like a shipload of freakishly mutant gorgeous people who gracefully danced around the ship in bare feet and shorts like it was their own seagoing jungle gym.

Looking at seals
The woman on the left and the guys in blue are crew members. The guy with the big hat is a really nice guy who goes out to the islands all the time.

And then there was me:
On San Miguel Island

I also made some new friends. Let me introduce them:
Double dolphins
And you know? I can live with that.

Lots more photos in my Flickr set.

6 comments:

flutter said...

how absolutely gorgeous

J said...

Yay for dolphins! I've only seem them in the wild once, but it was magical. (OK, twice now that I think of it).

Looks like a great thing to have on your list. I have no such list, because I'm afraid that I would croak as soon as I finished it. Hmmm.

mar said...

that is beautiful. reminds me that i spent the 4th of july in greece 8 years ago. le sigh.
and i'm pretty sure you'll find a way to make it on all the islands. you're kinda devious in a good, cute way.

Anonymous said...

hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

Mocha said...

Amazing! I'm not even a smidgen jealous that you're doing this! I'm just glad you get to DO it.

Suzanne said...

That's the day
I knew you were my pet
I wanna tell ya
How much I love you

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