Friday, August 28, 2009

An Adventure

When we were at the Sawdust Festival a few weeks ago we stumbled upon a local photographer that we(well, I) was enamored with. His photos had a romantic, gauzy feel to them and I was instantly smitten with them. Many of his pictures featured what looked to be the turret of an old castle right on the beach.

The caption said simply “Laguna Beach”. I asked the photographer where in Laguna that was and he simply said “It’s a secret”. Then he gave me a wry smile. I asked him again “No, really, where was that taken? I would love to go there.” His answer? “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

Clearly the man was a comedian in his spare time. We wandered on to the next booth, never knowing what the location of those pictures was.

Well if you know me, you know that I am not easily dissuaded. As soon as I got home I G**gled “Castle Turret in Laguna Beach” and found it was on a beach called Victoria Beach. I told Joe that we HAD to go there.

Then I broke my toe. Not exactly conducive to walking on the beach.

Wednesday rolled around and Joe and I spent the entire day doing nothing. I had been feeling sick and hadn’t slept the night before and thought I might be coming down with something so I just laid around all day. I was bored and ansty and we had been getting on each others nerves all day(You know the other part of your spouse being unemployed is that they are home all day and night? All. The. Time. In our tiny little apartment. Sometimes you just need some space, you know?)

So at about 5:30 in the evening I was like "We need to get out of here. We have to go SOMEWHERE." And it needed to be free. The beach quickly came to mind, since it is one of our go-to places when we want to get away. And it was like 100 degrees at our house at the time.

So off we went in search of this elusive "Victoria Beach". The directions I had off of the internet said it was a little tricky to find. I didn't have an exact address so I knew better than to try our navigation system. It always leads me astray if I don't know the exact address. It also said that it was down a very private street and that the residents aren't too keen on people visiting.


After a few missed turns we finally found the street. We parked the car and started out towards the sound of the ocean. We did actually get a couple of dirty looks from residents out in their front yards watering their plants.

Too bad people. It's a public beach.

After walking a couple of blocks there was the entrance to a staircase, tucked into the side of a hill. They weren't kidding about it being hidden. We would have walked right by it if there hadn't been someone coming up the stairs on their way out.

There was only about 30 minutes left until sunset so we quickly got down to taking some pictures.

We had my sister's nice camera with us, since she left it behind last weekend(don't worry Lisa. The camera is fine. I told you I was gonna take some pictures with it! :)

The lighting was beautiful and Joe got some very good shots.

Is this not beautiful? Wouldn't it be cool to take some wedding pictures here?

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I love the light in this shot
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Joe did a fabulous job taking the pictures and I had fun being his model
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We stayed until it was almost dark. I hated to come home. We will be going back to this beach again for sure.
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I love a good adventure.

14 comments:

Brandi said...

Those pictures are GORGEOUS, Michelle! You make a great model!

Makes me wish I lived next to the beach!

Karen said...

I say good for you for foiling that photographer who thinks he's the owner of the world's best kept secret! The photos turned out beautiful! I grew up in Anaheim, California. I can't even count how many times my girlfriends, sisters, and I rode the bus to the beach for a quarter each way. Seeing the pictures was a great memory for me...thanks!

Kayce said...

WOW! I've been to Laguna a MILLION times and have never seen that! So beautiful Michelle. Glad you guys went and enjoyed the evening and that beautiful place! You look FAB by the way! FAB!

Sherri said...

Wow, what GORGEOUS pictures!! Just beautiful.

Fliss and Mike Adventures said...

If EVER I get there to visit you... we ARE going here... on my list of places to go... :)

Michelle said...

Oh Fliss, I would LOVE to take you there. You are such an amazing photographer and I know you would take some beautiful shots!

DeAnn said...

you have to tell me where this is.. GORGEOUS photos!!!!!!

Michelle said...

DeAnn-I can't tell you where it is. It's a secret. If I told you I'd have to kill you. *snort*

DeAnn said...

well your just gonna have to kill me then..hehe.. seriously.. we have to go.. I'll take some of you and Joe.. and you can take one of me..hehe.. it looks so dreamy there..

Deb said...

OH COOL! It is a castle! I love it! We didn't see that when we were in Cali last year! Laguna was our favorite place to be. We loved it there. I had to take a little video of the waves crashing on the shore to take home with me so I could visit it again at the push of a button.
I would think if we had found this It would have been a fav of ours too. I love the pic of you leaning against the rock wall. Beautiful.

M3 said...

Wow! Good for you. That place is gorgeous and the pictures of you are too.

Jake said...

Michelle - the turret was actually built to conceal a homeowner's spiral staircase to the beach! Unfortunately, the house is no longer there but the turret remains... Victoria also has that cool saltwater "pool... it's one of our favorite beaches.

Kristin said...

Michelle - Jake is actually me, Kristin... I was logged into Google on my son's account.

Carrie said...

Wow great pictures!