Chasing the Super Moon

This is the photo I got, and it's...ok. It wasn't the photo I wanted to take.

I started out in Santa Monica (at about 3:30 a.m.). I wanted to take a photo of the full moon setting over the ocean.Too much cloud cover sent me driving up PCH in search of the Super Moon. It was a nice drive - not much traffic at that time of morning. The clouds finally thinned out around Oxnard and I could see the moon. It was still pretty high in the sky by then and I seemed to be several miles away from the ocean at that point. I thought I could get up to Santa Barbara or Goleta before moon set (sometime around 6 am).

I got to Goleta a little after 5 and walked out to the beach from the Butterfly Preserve parking lot. It was a lovely walk so early in the morning. It was (human sound) quiet but alive with the call of birds. Small rabbits scurried off the trail in front of me. I've never seen rabbits there before, but, then again, I was going to the cliffs from a different direction than I normally go. 

 The moon was getting "ghosty" because the sun was coming up. I checked today and sunrise yesterday was about 5:30. Had I known that, I might have stayed in Oxnard.and tried to get to the beach there. Oh well.

The moon slipped behind the marine layer shortly after I took this shot, so I wandered down the bluffs, enjoying the morning, taking photos here and there. It smelled lovely and although it was cloudy, it wasn't uncomfortably cold.

There is a lovely, full spider's web just to the right of this plant, but it didn't have any dew on it so, of course, it doesn't show up in the photo. I should carry a mister with me.

Breakfast at the beach.

The beach here has these odd striation of rocks in the sand. I haven't been able to find out what geological formation has caused this. I've never actually been down to the beach here. Maybe that will be one of my adventures for this summer. I'll have to look up the tide charts and go at low tide so I can check out the tide pools.