The fires up north are causing horrible air quality in the Bay Area. Today got worse, so now it is unhealthy for anyone to be outdoors. Fortunately, I have a couple of air cleaners inside the house that are keeping the indoor air quality pretty good.

The smoke had me in a pretty sad mood, so I really needed a day where I could get outside and exercise. Yesterday afternoon I decided to escape the poor air quality and head over to the beach in Santa Cruz. I had heard that the forecast was for the wind to be coming from the ocean (a west wind – I think that is offshore), rather than the south east winds we have been getting. That change meant that the beach on Santa Cruz had good air quality.

I especially enjoyed watching the pelicans from the pier. It was hard to get a decent picture because it was into the sun, but here are the best of the ones I took:

Today I’m stuck indoors – hopefully that will translate to getting a bunch of work done!