Copyright © 2004 Erik Goetze, All Rights Reserved
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After 12 or 13 days of record-breaking summer temps and sunny clear days, the first day of spring on the San Mateo County coastline featured a marine layer which would not go away except for a sporadic sunbreak at Pescadero Beach. I drove the entire coastline from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay looking for a place which captured the feeling I wanted to convey about Spring Equinox 2004, and Pigeon Point was that place. I walked out to this bluff south of the Light Station and waited for hours for the sun to break, but it never did. So it goes. The seagulls were constantly flying loops from the big rocky island to just above the bluff, to halfway to Franklin Point and back. Later I walked along the beach from below this spot to the lighthouse, and saw 28 starfish without even looking very hard. What's remarkable about this section of California coastline is, as Joan Baez says: "It's a miracle that the San Mateo coast hasn't suffered the fate of so many other national treasures around the world, which have been paved over with sprawling development." The Pigeon Point Light Station was just transferred in late March to California State Parks. There's something about a lighthouse which appeals to the human spirit.
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