On The First Day Of 2016

We woke to a beautiful clear blue sky. It was bone-chilling cold with temps at hard freeze levels, but we knew we wanted to start the year with a nice long walk. We first headed out early into the neighborhood and saw more robins than we'd ever seen before. They were everywhere, in every field, on rooftops, and in the trees. I thought to myself, "How cool, robins! Now there is a lovely auspicious sign for the beginning of the year. It's all about ME!" Hah! I tried to photograph them, but big fields of little birds just don't present the most photographable moment. Oh well.

Google Earth View of the Jetties

So we headed home for a late breakfast. We had walked a little more than two miles, but it was still such a beautiful day, I said to Roger, "Lets go see the ocean today." He was delighted with the idea and said, "What do you think about exploring the North Jetty?" Oh yes! He checked google maps, and found which little road to turn on. He had been to the North Jetty only once before (maybe 1976), and I had never been there. So, we headed out. It's only a fifteen minute drive from here, but truly a world away.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the North and South Jetties where Humboldt Bay meets the ocean:

The unimproved state of the mouth of the bay was a crescent-shaped bar covered by a line of breaking waves.^[15] The entrance of the bay is protected by two sand spits, named South Spit and North Spit. The bay mouth was stabilized by jetties with one jetty projecting from each spit.^[4] The South Spit jetty was built starting in 1889, but by 1890 it was apparent that it was eroding the North Spit and widening the channel.^[16] The jetties are approximately 6,000 feet (1,800 m) long and 2,200 feet (670 m) apart.^[4] Storm damage led to rebuilding of the jetties in 1911, 1927, 1932, 1939, 1950, 1957, 1963, 1971, 1988 and 1995.^[16] Entrance currents are strong ranging from 2.0 knots average maximum ebb and 1.6 knots average maximum flood; although peak rates can be nearly twice as high.^[4]

It is quite a walk from the sandy dune parking to the end of the jetty. Each step has to be taken with forethought. It is slippery; it is variously full of eroded wood, cement, and rock; it is full of holes big enough to fall into up to your knees or deep enough to fall in over your head. There are no soft surfaces anywhere. I was paying attention, but the waves kept pulling my eyes in their direction. We were walking far out into the ocean (2000 feet out) and had a stunning view of the breaking waves.

I had never seen such interesting sprays, flowing back off the crest like that.

 Wave after wave, rolling to the shore.

It's a slow, laborious walk to the end of the jetty. I made it even slower stopping every few minutes to be wowed by another wave.

And then, I noticed the rainbows.

They were frustratingly hard to capture.

In fact, I didn't think I had gotten a single shot.

But, as it turns out, I did. There were some rainbows in the sprays that were truly magnificent. We gasped out loud at their beauty.

And then they were gone in an instant.

So, that's how we spent the first day of the new year. We hope yours was as wonderful and full of beauty.