Swami's, How I Love Ya, How I Love Ya, My Dear Old Swami's.

As part of our last few days in southern California, we decided to picnic at Swami's Beach. It's one of our favorites, a swimming and surfing beach beneath the high bluff housing the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple--an old-time S.C. landmark featuring lovely meditation gardens surrounded by whitewashed walls and gaudy, gilded minarets.

The day was warm, but overcast, and the beach was uncrowded.
The surf was relatively light, though there were occasional large sets.
We swam, body-surfed and boogie-boarded until late in the afternoon.

Even after we were done swimming, the girls wanted to frolic
in the waves. They are practically fearless swimmers,
diving like dolphins beneath even the largest crashing breakers.

I remembered the fun I had growing up at the beach, playing and swimming in the ocean nearly every day during the summer. It seemed a fitting end to our sojourn here--a way to say goodbye to a place I deeply love as we prepare to make a new life in a very different environment.

P.