Pacific Ocean

This is my last free daytime, as tomorrow's game is at 1.05pm and will thus consume the whole day.  Therefore, I took the L-Taraval metro out to the beach.  It was one of the new Muni Metro trains, with all the seating along the sides of the carriages.  They still have a transformation once you pass West Portal station - they convert into buses, with the steps reconfigured automatically so that you can board from ground level instead of needing a platform. 

When I walked over to the beach, I found a rare piece of road furniture: a roundabout!  With a sign explaining how it works, no less.

The sand is very soft when you get on the beach - you tend to just sink into it quite deeply, which makes it quite hard to walk anywhere quickly.  This is the state of the beach up near the Great Highway (the road along the coast).

The beach gets a bit firmer closer to the water, where the high tide reaches, with all the associated seaweed and junk that's floated ashore from the sea.

As I neared the water's edge, I saw the little birds running around, with their legs all ablur.

There were quite a few shells and there seemed to be a lot of jellyfish too - some of them even looked to be still alive, going by the way they were flinching.

I brought my new backpack with me, a "cheap" one that I picked up at a discount, as I don't think I'll be able to fit everything into my usual two bags for the flight home.

I was able to put my shoes in there whilst I took out and put on my hat & coat, as it was quite chilly in the strong breeze.

I had a very quick paddle in the Pacific Ocean for a few seconds when a larger wave came in, and then went back onto the sand, again avoiding all the jellyfish!

I walked up 4 blocks worth of the beach, from Taraval to Pacheco (in this district, they seem to be named alphabetically) before returning to the path by the Great Highway, where I found some benches where I could dry off, using the towel I'd also brought with me, and put everything back on again ready for the journey back to the hotel to get ready for tonight's game.