We stayed up in the hills of San Clemente during our stays in California.  The view from our place was simply incredible.  Every night I looked forward to seeing what the sunset would hold for us.  To the North we could see Dana Point and straight out was Santa Catalina Island.  Also of note was at this time we were in the midst of the supply chain problem wherein all the container ships were backed up and unable to off load their cargo up in Long Beach and Los Angeles ports.  San Clemente was at the southern end of the back log of container ships.  We could see them out there and at times it appeared they did not move whatsoever for multiple days. I became fairly familiar with the town of San Clemente and came to really enjoy it.  One trip I did not have a car while my son was at work and I would walk down into the town to get my morning latté.  The walk back up into the hills was a little rough though!  Definitely a “hotter” sun bearing down on you there than an equivalent upper 70 degree day in Ohio.  My favorite coffee shop in town was Sur Coffee.  Nice baristas and a little patio out on the back.  The patio view was not some amazing, glorious view of the pacific, but rather into the parking area.  You could look beyond the lot and see the Pacific out in the distance.  But what I liked was you got to see many of the locals who live here and their families in this largely non tourist coffee stop.  One other favorite was to walk down to the Sugar Blossom bakery to buy a cinnamon roll then go back up to Sur Coffee where Michelle and I would split it to have with our lattes.

We enjoyed time down at the pier as well.  The last evening of our final trip I stayed until sunset and captured some of my favorite shots.  The pier had a large Christmas tree on the very end.  My first time to be in a warm climate like this during the Christmas season so it was unique to experience the tree on the pier as the sun set.  This particular evening there were a lot of surfers enjoying the waves.

I watched them from above on the pier for quite a while.  As the sun disappeared beyond the horizon a group of them still waited in the water looking out to the sea hoping for a few more waves to their liking.