Baby quail on the bay

Happily, you can’t tell from the photos, but the area around Doran beach and campground was pretty much wall-to-wall people when we arrived there on a Sunday afternoon last July. I’m not sure now why we thought it would be a bright idea to head to the coast on a weekend rather than midweek; but I know we’re never going to do that again! Waiting in line for 20 minutes to pay our day use fee was the first ominous sign. Once inside, we couldn’t find a single open parking space, and the Big Guy was about to grumpily surrender and head north without any ghost shrimp — until he decided to get creative, sliding the car in between some trees in the campground. Rather than helping him collect the shrimp as I normally do, I stayed near the car, just in case I needed to move it from the parking spot we had created for ourselves. That gave me the chance to look around and notice a few details I would otherwise have never seen!

Sonoma County Fire District Station No. 10

Hunting shrimp in the bay, with The Lodge in the background

Bumblebee and yellow Lupine

Common yarrow

Brown pelicans heading south