Sooty Sunset

The clouds pictured in the above sunset picture is really soot from the fire that has been burning in the Los Padres National Forest, just south of Monterey, all summer long. Earlier this summer, my brother Chris captured a picture of this fire, when it crested the hill across Carmel Valley. He took that photo not far from home. This was the sunset that greeted us last night, when we arrived at my Dad’s house. Today, Dan, Anne and I first headed to Point Lobos State Park, which is just south of Carmel-by-the Sea. It was even more crowded than before, but we got in OK. We first did some rock crawling and tide-pooling. Eventually, the fog moved in and all the ocean vistas disappeared behind it. A north wind had blown the smoke away, but had also brought the fog. Instead, we walked one of the more forested trails and saw different, but still interesting things. The park is suffering from both the drought, but also from too many visitors. Later, we lunched at the Village Corner, in Carmel. My Dad later informed me that when we were little, Chris and I got ice cream cones there, almost sixty years ago. Dinner tonight, with the whole family, was also in Carmel, at the Rio Grill. It was pretty fancy. It’s not that we’ve been spending all of our time eating out, it just sounds that way.