Crystal Cove Cottages

Near the South end of Crystal Cove State Beach are the Old Cottages, and on the Bluff thereabout is the Shake Shack run by Ruby's...the Shake Shack was once an Orange Juice Stand, and for years, decades, driving by, I always wanted to stop and get an Orange Juice...the Orange Juice stand owners re-opened another one in Laguna (I think, I see one there with similar décor, but maybe not) when the State took over everything...sometime I might stop in there!...but it was my intention after rolling out to the Coast with no certain intention, to park at the State Beach lots (nearest one is on the inland side of PCH), and walk over and have lunch at the Shack...walking over, daydreaming I may have seen Osprey, crowd noises were coming up from below the Bluff, by the Beach...a wedding I thought, or something, but broke loose from my revery, and peered down...oh, the Cottages, forgot about them, and a Café crowded with raucous beach goers...I paddled down for a looksee, and being hungry, asked to be seated in the curious Café...lots of guests and a busy crew...I'm always amazed how many servers and cooks small restaurants have, having worked in a very large and busy one that always had what amounted to a skeleton crew...looked at the menu..I'm in the wrong place...when entrees are over thirty dollars, I'm in the wrong place!...but ordered a salad and ice tea, fifteen, seventeen with tip, dollars...hmmph...but worth it to experience the quaintness...it must have been fun to live here when it was just fun...further south were once a row of ramshackle trailer homes tucked in a cove right on the beach, this below the first prominence of Laguna...but they're gone too, and the fun that was there...the Cottages now are fun I guess, but it's Disney fun with Disney prices!...I did walk back up to the Shack and get a soda...two ice teas in two different small glasses wasn't enough...or the salad, but real food waited until I got home and had a baloney sandwich, where I belong!...lot of daylight left, and I rolled to Dana Point, took the radio and blue chair, tide was out, sat on the sand, and listened to the game, and took pics...pre-wedding photogs were busy, and the groom came over to chat..."I really like this beach, didn't know it was here!"...wife to be and kids were goofing and playing by the surf..."Yes" I said, and related the story of Richard Henry Dana..."I'll have to read that book!"...I wanted to tell him what Dana wrote of the Beach where we were, 'the one true place' he had found on coast of California...but that's poet stuff which I often let go by the wayside as being too quaint!...clear warm blue...oh...the fishermen in the little boat looked sure to drown...they were way out, almost as far as the Fishingboats and Sailboat...that's a 200x magnification pic...have clip too...for sometime...there was a low L shaped wall back by the sunset viewing benches...Husky was on the long arm of the L, and owners on the short arm...Husky was backing up to be near them like a circus dog!