Mushrooms glistened like candied flesh.

I saw a foaming tree. Why is it foaming?

Desmond made a wish. He didn't tell me what it was, but it might have had something to do with restoring dinosaurs to the earth

California poppies soaked in sunshine.

A banana slug stretched long, feeding on pine needles and oak leaves along the forest floor.

I resisted gentle waves and soft sand and stayed on the trail.

It was like entering a foreign land filled with exotic inhabitants. This dazzling Blue Gentian caught my eye.

The ribs of an old ship wreck poked from the gloom, conjuring images of Sir Francis Drake and his band of explorers huddled around fires on the beach.

We spotted a Great Egret hunting in Limantour Estero; the scene worthy of a Japanese woodcut.

I nearly stepped on a handsome little garter snake sunning himself on the path.

Dropping onto the dirt trail, I discovered a field of bunnies.

It was hot enough to find lizards sunning on the asphalt.

Cows eyed us incredulously, stood ankle-deep in the irrigation pond and nestled down in circular beds of purple Douglas Iris.

The soft pink and yellow blossoms of ice plant spread out around our feet. We rested on a giant drift log, marveling at what we discovered.

We admired the blue lupine and talked in hushed voices as we watched a gopher popping his head in-and-out of a hole a few feet away.

We communed with lighthouse keepers of the past through their words and artifacts.

It was a wonderful moment to be a seal or a human acting like a seal or a human acting like a human.

Drakes Beach is a sheltered bay used by elephant seals for pupping every year.

Everywhere great snarls of bullwhip kelp were washed ashore like art objects from the Creator.

You know what I love about surfers? They're cool! You know what makes them cool? They march to the beat of a different drummer: the sea.