Labor Day weekend

This weekend is Labor Day weekend. Lots of people have a long weekend off and go to the coast. The little town is completely jam packed and the beach is crowded. I love the atmosphere, people are picknicking and bbq-ing in the park at Lovers Point and I saw a beach wedding, a birthday party and a family reunion.

Last Saturday I took the Elkhorn Slough safari boat trip from Moss Landing. I was a lovely trip, the boat is a pontoon boat  and it leaves from the harbor in Moss Landing and visits the Elkhorn Slough, a wetland nature reserve. Lots of wildlife to see (and hear... and smell...). Harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters and lots of birds. The kids on the trip get all an assigment, so we have sea otter spotters, seal spotters and every animal we see gets counted and written down and make up some impressive counts at the end of the trip. 88 sea otters, more then 400 sea lions (most of them piled together on 2 pontoons), lots of habor seal and lots of birds.

I started 2 bigger paintings, one from the little watercolor sketch I did in my journal. The size is 11"x 14". The paper is from the same brand I use at home, but it behaves completely different. The pelican is painted on smooth watercolor paper and is difficult to work on. Not sure I like it...

Pacific Grove

Pelican

And some sketches of rocks with pen in my sketchbook, I added a little bit of watercolor later.

Today I am leaving the car behind, and will take another walk to Monterey on the recreational path next tot the ocean. I might do some people see-ing :-) and go for lunch. I will be back later!