I got up as the sunrise brightened and ate some of my food for breakfast.  The Piru kids came back to the park as I was rolling up my sleeping bag to head for Ventura, maybe 35 miles or so farther downhill.  As much as I enjoyed interacting with my new friends, I left them in a group at the park waving to me as I coasted downhill to the highway.  Not much traffic was there, and I was glad of that.  The morning air was cool. The road was slightly downhill with little noticeable wind.  My trip was quick, probably just over 2 hours so I got there a little earlier than I had expected.

When I arrived, a view of the lovely blue ocean and golden sand beach greeted me.  I felt the soft warm sand under my feet as I pushed my bike toward the shore.  The sun was bright and a few low, puffy clouds hung out over the ocean.  A warm breeze felt nice. The beach was wonderful with golden brown sand, waves peacefully lapping at the shore and gulls sailing overhead as they screeched.  Dozens of people dotted the beach, plenty of them were girls too, and many wearing bikinis, much to my liking, but being the shy introvert, (also self-conscious of my skinny non-surfer body) I didn’t say anything to any of them.  I leaned my bike against a sign post since the kickstand would be worthless and just poke down into the sand.  I walked along the beach looking for shells or other interesting stuff.  There was quite a bit of kelp washed up in small heaps here and there along the bank, but no shells.  The slightly fishy saltwater ocean aroma was delightful.Lunch was bought at the grocery, a jar of crunchy peanut butter and a loaf of bread, some carrots and more apples.  That would do for a few more meals too.  The late afternoon was spent digging in the sand with my hands to make a sand castle that would soon be washed away with the rising tide.  

As the evening approached, many left the beach, but there were numerous campfires starting.  I joined one and found out that there would be a special occasion high tide.  Small fish called grunion swim up at high tide and lay their eggs in the sand.  At the same time, the eggs laid during the previous high tide hatch when washed up by the waves.  Then the tiny, nearly invisible hatchlings would swim off into the expanse of ocean to grow and eventually repeat the cycle.  Lots of folks were beginning to fill the beach, and eventually we heard yelling.  The grunion run had begun and would only last about an hour or so.  I ran down with the group from the campfire and tried to grab some rapidly flipping  grunion.  They are small, only about 6 inches long, silvery, slim and slimy.  I only managed to catch 7, which I gave to the group I was with since I had brought no cooking stuff.  

After the grunion run, I rolled out my sleeping bag on the sand next to my bike, scooped out a nice form fitting spot and conked out for the night.