O is for Ocean

Looks like I ended up behind on the Alphabet Photo Challenge again.

But, I have a very good excuse...sort of.  I've been gone.

But, this might make up for it...the letter this week is O and...

I went somewhere that starts with "O"!   The Ocean! 

Hubby is lucky to work near the ocean.  And, one week every ten months or so, he has to work at night.  So, to avoid him having to make the hour drive home in the middle of the night, we took

our RV down to Carlsbad (northern San Diego county) and stayed by the ocean.

It was only about 10-15 minutes from his job.  That was much nicer for his drive "home".

And, we were able to escape the heat at home and enjoy perfect weather...about 75!

We made very good use of the day time hours.  One morning, we rode our bikes to Cardiff, turned around and had a delicious breakfast at the Encinitas Cafe.  Then, we made another stop at Pannikin for coffee.  It's right on highway 101, in an 1888 Santa Fe train station.  Isn't it cute?!...

The inside is fun too.  This is what you see when you walk in one of the doors...

They have a cute, old fashioned looking store that sells coffee, tea, teapots and other fun things.

Then, you turn to the left and follow the line (they're always busy) to place an order...

Their bakery case was overflowing onto the counters with yummy looking treats.

Some were even gluten free!  I had to resist because I was still full from breakfast.

More fun things to look at above the coffee making area...

What a great use of an old stove...they use it to hold cream, sugar, honey, etc...

Their coffee is delicious.  But, I think it's a little weird that they serve a hot vanilla latte

in a large glass....there's no handle and it's TOO hot to hold!  I had to use several napkins

to pick it up.  I was hoping for one of those big cups with coffee art on top.  I love those!

We went outside to sit down and enjoy our coffee.  Parked at the curb was a 

TV news van with their tower up.  They were getting all set up to cover a story...

There was a group of people that had started early in the morning for a run from Camp Pendleton to San Diego for a children's charity of some kind.  It was fun to get a behind-the-scenes look

at what it takes to get a news story.  We heard them making arrangements to meet

 the runners at the finish line later that day.  They were going to run about 46 miles that day.

This adorable little dog was waiting outside for it's owner.  It was so cute!

Our RV that was just a little cabin in the woods a few weeks ago

became our little cottage by the sea this week.  

Yes...that's the ocean right behind it!

Salsa seemed to love the cooler weather.

She took naps on her little pink hammock every day.

We could tell that she was thoroughly enjoying the shade and the cool ocean breeze.

Hey...this starts with O...sort of...it's an Old tree!

I had hoped to bike more but I'm not used to my road bike and the long ride earlier in the week

made my neck too sore to ride again.  But, the week was filled with lots of other fun stuff.

Hubby did more riding in the mornings and boogie boarding in the afternoons.

I went for walks and beach combing for more rocks to crochet lace around.

Of course, I did some knitting, a little shopping, and relaxing.

We finished our stay with a walk along the beach this morning.

The water temperature is really nice right now.  Ahhhh!

We really enjoyed watching birds...especially the different sand piper types.

There were teenie tiny ones, larger gray and white ones, and big brownish ones.

The bluff to the left is where our RV was parked.  We heard the sound of the ocean

all the time.  And, we enjoyed sunsets and and watching the moon set every night.

There are stairways like this one that lead down to the sand.

The lack of crowds during the week (and, since school has started) was wonderful!

The size and shape of the waves improved a lot today and there were lots of surfers.

You might be able to see some of them if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Well, there's my O post.  It's not a lot of things that start with O.

It's one very large thing that starts with O...Ocean!

And, it was much more fun than some of the things I had planned on like olive oil and onions.

I didn't even take my camera out of the case....I used my cell phone for pictures.