Just after sunset this evening.

(Warning: full size image is 5.8MB.)

We enjoyed our visit to Pigeon Point Lighthouse in February so much that we went back there this morning. No elephant seal this time, but plenty of things to see. Check out the gallery here. I got a series of shots of a Sea Otter eating; they’re at extreme zoom, but still pretty clear. (DSCN0902-DSCN0910, plus a detailed blow-up at the end.) Then there were about a dozen Harbor Seals hanging around in a photogenic manner on a rock below the lighthouse.

And yes, of course we went back to Cameron’s for lunch. Beer, buses, and bangers-and-mash. How could we not?

Sea otter (detail)

Harbor seals

This morning we drove across to the old lighthouse at Pigeon Point, south of Half Moon Bay. It was foggy going over the mountains, and when we reached the coast we were unimpressed by the NWS forecast of sunshine. It was high tide, the waves were pounding, spray was flying, and the clouds were low and threatening. In the bay just south of the lighthouse we spotted an elephant seal playing in the surf; occasionally he would swim out around Prisoner’s Rocks, before returning to the beach. I managed to get some nice shots of him. After a while, the sun came out and the seas moderated. We saw a pair of Harbor Seals just offshore, but I couldn’t get a clear photo.

For lunch we scooted up to Half Moon Bay and went to Cameron’s Pub: the one with two “London buses” parked outside. Of course neither of them ever saw service in London: they are a couple of Bristol FLF Lodekkas. Both are in pretty shabby condition, and neither will ever run again. As to their actual provenance, one seems to be ex-Thames Valley, based on an annual inspection checklist in the cab.

Photos from both Pigeon Point and Cameron’s can be found here. Herewith a few samples: