Pismo Beach

by Kaylah Stroup

I’m throwing it back to last month’s road trip again today. After driving the extraterrestrial highway, visiting Tonopah Cemetery, making friends with a jackrabbit, and getting  our fill of the desert (that’s not really a thing. I could never get my fill of the desert!) we headed to the coast. Two years back we drove a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway and I LOVED IT.  This year we wanted to see even more of it. Luck was not in our favor though. Huge chunks were closed meaning we had to start a lot further down the coast than orginally planned.

It wasn’t long after leaving our hotel room in Paso Robles that I spotted the pier at Pismo Beach. The day previous I had been so excited to see the ocean but felt a little letdown with what we had seen. I was desperate to find somewhere nice to dip my toes in the water. Pismo Beach was one of those names that sounded familiar so I suggested we stop, just to check it out real quick.

This “real quick” pit stop turned into an hour and a half – if not longer – of me frolicking in the ocean, taking photos of birds, and searching for sand dollars. It was the best. To say I loved Pismo Beach would be an understatement. It was exactly what I needed right then.

beachcombing, sand dollar

One of the biggest highlights for me at Pismo Beach, other than finding sand dollars galore, was photographing birds. I had recently fallen head over heels in love with Jeff’s 70-200mm lens. (Huge bonus to falling in love with someone who shoots the same brand of camera as you – you can share all your equipment!) I hadn’t really played with it too much before this trip but the shots of the jackrabbit convinced me this lens was something I should really experiment with more often. It’s massive, and kind of a pain in the butt to lug around but so worth it. Being able to shoot animals close up like this without disturbing them is so much fun. I took SO many shots, it was hard to choose which ones to include in this post. I’m particularly excited about the one above because I’m a sucker for reflections. The first photo in this post ranks among my favorites as well. I like that upon first glance its hard to tell how many birds are really in the shot because of the reflection.

The man in the photo above had kind of been hanging around me while I was photographing birds. Eventually Jeff came over my way and when I turned around he was talking to the guy. After they were done I mosied over to Jeff to see what they were talking about. He handed me a film canister and inside were two super tiny sand dollars. I looked over to the stranger to see him smiling back at us. Its so wonderful that there are people out there who do things solely to make others smile. I didn’t even realize that you could find sand dollars that small. They’re one of the very few things I brought home with me from the trip. Thank you, kind stranger!

tiny sand dollars, pismo beach

See that dog? He was running back to his dad after greeting his mom who had just got back in from surfing. It was so darn sweet. I cried…

Until next time, Pismo Beach!
xoxo

Check out more of my road trip adventures under the ‘travel‘ tag.

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6 comments

Allie June 20, 2017 - 10:00 am

These photos are incredible! I’m intrigued by this lens – the photos you’ve posted from it are just so good. I used to shoot with something similar at my old job but it was just SO big. I wish I wasn’t such a wimp about lugging around equipment.

Kaylah June 22, 2017 - 9:37 am

Thanks, Allie! 😀

Izzy McLeod June 20, 2017 - 11:55 am

Those bird shots are gorgeous! I can’t wait to explore more beaches this summer

The Quirky Queer

Kaylah June 21, 2017 - 10:20 am

Thanks so much, Izzy!

Molly June 20, 2017 - 3:06 pm

Pismo Beach always reminds me of “Clueless.” It looks gorgeous!

Sarah June 20, 2017 - 3:58 pm

I’ve lived walking distance from the Pacific Coast beach my whole life so its funny and weird to me when people get excited about the beach and freeways i use just to get to work. I actually die and gush when i see your parents property. If you ever make it down to Santa Barbara or Santa Monica (not close, like 2 hours apart, but everything in SoCal is hours apart, so i’m used to it). I could really see you dying over those piers

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