Outdoor Living

For the Thanksgiving holiday, I travelled to Orange County, California for a family reunion.   As always, my sketching kit traveled with me.  While awaiting departure at SeaTac Airport, I caught a mesmerizing performance by an electronic cello musician.   Rich and mysterious, her music transformed an hour wait into minutes.

Electronic Cello Player at SeaTac

Once in Orange County, the sun and water took over my psyche.  As it was 91 degrees on Thanksgiving Day, we joined other families and played on the beach.  An outdoor yoga class happens at Dana Point City Park every day of the year, rain or shine.   I went along with a group not to do yoga but to sketch people doing yoga. However, I could not ignore the view from the city park.  The azure sky expanded the view of red-roofed houses tumbling toward the sea.   I sat in front of about 70 people doing yoga and did not include one of them in my sketch. Since it’s offered everyday of the year, maybe next time I’ll concentrate on the yoga moves.

Dana Point City Park

One morning we woke to cool weather and thick fog rolling in from the ocean.  We decided to go to an inland swim facility in Mission Viejo.  It was a dramatic surprise driving into sun and heat once again.  The fog bank over the beach community could be seen in the rearview mirror.

Mission Viejo Swim

On the last day, I went to Trestles Beach with the surfer in the family. Located off Interstate 5 in San Clemente, we parked our car on the side of the road and walked about a mile to the beach.  Popular with surfers, it was fun to see young and old, male and female, riding bikes with surfboards attached.  The wind was so strong my beach umbrella blew away.  I had to chase it down the beach while it flew like a kite.  Grabbing my gear after catching the umbrella, I moved further back from the beach behind a trash barrel.  A young surfer boy dropped his bike and flip-flops right in front of me and ran off into the surf.  Before I could finish the drawing, my son came in and balanced his surfboard on the trashcan. Now it's finished!

Trestles Beach

It was back to business on the flight home.

Across the aisle