playing hooky

Ok, so maybe I took a day off last week even though I already had Monday off as a holiday (president's day) but the weather was just too perfect to spend the whole week (ok, the 4-day work-week) in doors. So I burned a vacation day to go to one of my favorite places - I won't mention exactly where, but it's one of the few places I've always gone to when I need a break from city-life without having to drive for more than 45 minutes.

I used to hate this beach as a kid because during the summers, it was always too rocky and stick-y to walk around. In the winter though, the shoreline is scattered with all kinds of little shells, filled with little critters walking around in the little tide pools. There was this bird showing off for me, fluffing his feathers so of course I took a few photos of him and, as it turns out, he may very well be an albatross (according to my know-it-all boss) which I guess is a somewhat rare sighting around these parts - sort of like an LA native around here these days.