field trips

 

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

–excerpt from Sea Fever, by John Masefield

 

 

My friend Karen and I are taking some of the same field trips I remember from my childhood—the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, the county fair, tide pools along the Pacific Ocean. What I like best about these child’s-eye views of Orange County: They’re raw and real, not spoiled by the media’s distorted lens. 

 

I spy, with my little blue eyes…

tide-pool treasures, spilled from…

Mother Nature’s pocketbook!