April 2, 2013 - Sunrise over Monterey Bay

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by SPUCK

...Here's one I took off of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz...

So you're a cliff driver, then?



I'm here all week, folks.

Try the Rhodesian Ratback.

[SPUCK]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMama

Is that a sunset? Did you see the green flash? I have watched hundreds, yes hundreds of sunset and I have never seen the green flash.

I am always so amazed at the color variations the sky can make. I guess that on the coast lines it is much more dramatic because of the water in the air.

I did actually see the green flash then. I've seen it about 4 times. Never very obvious that's fore shore.

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

So you're a cliff driver, then?



I'm here all week, folks.

Try the Rhodesian Ratback.

LOL

No I'm not a cliff... wait! I did in fact fall off that very cliff!

I was in the second grade and lived a very short block from that cliff. The entire cliffs and the beach were my playground. I knew every crack and crevice. There were huge smooth rocks that seasonally were exposed and at just the right tide you could slide down them at a blistering speed to smash into the waves.

There was the absolutely coolest place NO one else knew about. It was a large jagged rock standing out in the surf. It was about the size of a two story two-car garage. There was a slope with with a curve on the front and a lip. Directly above the curved lip was an eroded hole near the top. I found I could crawl into that eroded scoop and wait for a big set of waves to roll in. As long as they were no taller than the upper curved lip when they hit they'd be directed straight up in front of the scoop. I could sit there and an enormous wave would build, (and huge tension!), as it approached. When it hit. WoW. Tons of water would jet straight up in front of my face. If I stuck my arm out a foot it would've been torn off. It went from almost silent as it approached to deafening violence that started out white then shifted to near darkness and mayhem, then sunny and calm all in about a 20 second period.

But I digress.. On day while skirting the cliff I tripped taking a header right for the edge. It's about four stories to the beach. Of course I saw my short life flash before my eyes while frantically scrambling for anything to arrest my trip down. I snagged the ice plant, of which there's tons of around there. It stopped my plunge about the time the cliff face became vertical. I very carefully used it to pull myself back up the face. To this day I have a warm place in my heart for ice plant. Course now they want to tear it all out to revert it back to something else.