Early on a bright summer’s afternoon, the drive going north along the Malibu stretch of Pacific Coast Hwy is gorgeous... it's my favorite part of going up to Paradise Cove. 

Enjoying a relaxing excursion after a particularly complicated workweek and the anticipation of an especially mouthwatering lunch were only the excuses we gave ourselves for indulging in the exorbitant cost of an almost forty mile road trip in our luxurious gas guzzler but, budget be damned, off we went. 

Dropping down from Sunset Blvd onto PCH never fails to take my breath away. The sun’s rays reflecting off the water always remind me of diamonds dancing glittering pirouettes atop each tiny wave.  Since the weather was so beautiful and both of us were coincidentally at loose ends, (which hardly ever happens), we decided to make a full day of it and made plans for dinner along the coast as well, so I restrained myself to lunching only on a small fresh crab salad and iced herb tea...but dinner was going to be another story.

Later that evening, after a sumptuous meal served on the beach, we waddled up to the car continuing to smack our lips while remarking how pleasantly stuffed we were…grateful for the change from our usual weekday fare.  There were appetizers of calamari left over and we decided to pull over to the side of the hwy and enjoy the sun’s last dance on the water and feed the leftover tidbits to the seagulls.  I was throwing bite-size pieces of calamari out the window and the gulls were gathering and scurrying to get their share...it was fun to see them maneuvering each other out of the way in order to get a nice morsel.  Well, one clever little gull decided if he could get closer to us maybe he could charm us into giving him more, so he flew on to the hood of the car and walked right up to the windshield and peered in, his beak almost touching the glass.

 Mark immediately got excited because he didn't want his paint job scratched so he leaned his head out the window and started waving his hands and yelling, attempting to shoo the bird away...but the bird was so bold he would not budge…he just stood there, staring fixedly, beak against the windshield, brazen brown eyes bent on conjuring seagull magic.  Mark was getting frantic in between peels of laughter...I was no help...I was cracking up at the boldness and persistence of this intimidating seagull stance…finally Mark got out of the car and shooed the determined bird off the hood.  In the meantime, I tossed the paper container, still full of calamari, to the ground and rolled up the window.  Suddenly, that same bully bird swooped down out of the blue, grabbed the rim of the container in his beak and took off into the evening sky carrying the whole thing away streaming tidbits in his wake, leaving a gaggle of angry, squawking, hungry and confused seagulls behind...it was soo funny…it made our day!

lovespirit