One Year on the Road

Huntington Beach ranger station and store.

It&#039;s a wonderful park, so well kept.

After breakfast, we took the fur kids on a walk.

There was a boardwalk path through swamps...

Out to the beach. Wheelchair friendly!

Cat friendly, too. It kept the sandspurs off her feet.

Just a few yards to this!

Miles of white sand beaches.

A storm was coming from the west.

But lots of blue sky and sun right now.

Bailey was in heaven!

Digging is the next best thing to running.

Gypsy tries to figure out the appeal.

My three loves.

We all loved this empty beach.

Next, Kate and I rode bikes just up the park road to tour a &quot;mansion.&quot;

We didn&#039;t know what to expect of this unusual mansion.

It was a winter hideaway for millionaires Archer and Anna Huntington.

But it was distinctly un-mansion-like.

They named their home Atalaya.

At the front of the house were stables, a large dog yard, bear pens, and a garage for their RV.

The entrance is a long covered walkway.

With courtyards on either side.

Ivy wall and windows.

Anna had both an indoor and outdoor studio for her sculpture.

The rooms were all brick and very plain.

Butler&#039;s passway in the wall?

This was their master bedroom.

Archer&#039;s bathroom had a shower.

Anna&#039;s bath had a tub with a view.

Vent in the bricks.

This was their library, which was filled with books. (Archer was a scholar.)

The back patio.

Many of the walls have shifted.

Courtyard on the other side.

Flowers in the walkway window boxes.

The servants had the whole east side of the mansion with many bedrooms and a comfortable living room.

One of two servants bathrooms.

The laundry drying area.

Ivy on the bricks.

From Atalaya, we rode our bikes on a park loop.

Through swamps and live oaks on the first part.

Keeping an eye out for alligators.

Kind of creepy looking in there.

Across the road was the garden filled with Anna&#039;s scuptures, but we didn&#039;t go in.

We road over the causeway.

There were lots of places to stop and observe wildlife.

In the winter it&#039;s mostly blue herons...

And cranes.

This crane was hiding.

This guy was dozing just below the bike path.

He was a big guy!

We walked out to one of the observation decks.

We watched this beautiful guy fishing.

A stop at the ranger station, where another camper took our photo.

Gypsy was a litte mad that we left her.

So we took another pet walk, and ran into friends we&#039;d made in Pennsylvania!

One last beach walk for the day.

Bailey was so happy for this.

A ball, a beach, and thou.

These little sandpipers were so cute.

We laughed and laughed as they scurried on blurry feet along the shoreline.

They weren&#039;t afraid of us.

Bailey would have loved to chase them.

Pelicans flew overhead.

Bailey and I waded in the surf.

It was cloudy but so warm.

After such chilly fall weather, it felt great to walk barefoot in the water.

Patterns in the sand.

Bird footprints.

Kate points out sand patterns for me.

Gypsy got left behind on this walk. She was still recouping from her surgery.

On the drive out, a flock of storks flew in next to the causeway.

Those are some ugly looking birds!

Gypsy settles in for the day&#039;s drive.

An underwing inspection.