Good morning, weather fans. This will be the final blog of summer 2008 which means October, the fall equinox and Derek Jeter and the Yankees not being the playoffs are right around the corner. And yes, once again in this most Halloween of months, I will be opening my heart, my home and my personal stash of photos to the fans, followers and devotees of Open Studios. This is an event when artists around Santa Cruz County open up their studios to the public. I really enjoyed the meeting and bonding with many of you last year so I’m ready for round two. Or as Donald Fegan of Steely Dan once told me, “You go back, Geoff and do it again.”
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So in staying with that theme and since I’m reelin’ in the years, the next three weeks on the blog will be Open Studio City as I will be blasting out photos, themes and poignant comments all related to the two weekends of peace, love and music in October. It will be a westside happening and my only concern is that Rikki doesn’t lose that number.

I like to keep track of the important dates in my most current lifetime. You know, things like my birthday, my bar mitzvah and most importantly, my cutting edge bris. In 2008, two very important dates on the photographic front occurred on January 22 and 23. We’re talking epic day, boys and girls. January 22 was an extreme low tide day down at Its Beach that was followed by a gorgeous sunset. The evening of the 23rd brought us the most beautiful dusk delight of the year that had veteran sky watchers buzzing up and down the coast. It was an amazing night. Or in the words of Terri Hatcher on very mammorable Seinfeld episode, “Oh, and by the way, they’re real and they’re spectacular.”

Earlier in the year I blogged out shots from both these beach bonanza days which including a shot of a rainbow thru the arch at Its Beach, snowy white egrets and incredible sunset colors. But on each of those glory days there were photos that never made it the page so that’s where our story begins.

We start out in late afternoon looking west at Stockton Avenue (photo #1) along lovely West Cliff Drive. As you can see, the sky already had a rich assortment of cloud action. We then head down to Lighthouse Point (photo #2) where the clouds were darker than the ones hanging over Lehman Brothers earlier in the week. We then hit Its Beach (photo #3) for a look at a cloud formation to the south before returning to the Mark Abbot Memorial Lighthouse (photo #4) for some more southern exposure. Or to quote Pamela Anderson’s ex Kid Rock, “Singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long.”

It was an amazing January sky as yours truly and cliffgoers sensed we were in for something special. As four and a half star sunset was lining up I headed to Steamer Lane (photo #5) to see the pinkness of the clouds to the east. Clouds of every race. creed and color filled the skies along the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, Monterey Bay. We end today’s journey on the grass at Lighthouse Field looking west and see the sun battling for face time before dropping into the Pacific.

Next time we’ll take a look at the extreme low tide this day brought us and the amazing sunset that followed. Then we will turn our attention to the following day and a sunset that I will be featuring at this year’s Open Studios. After that it will be arches, sunrises and a cavalcade of westside stars. So enjoy the sky, the last days of summer and we’ll catch you under the goalpost. Aloha, and remember, in case you forget any of this, “Any major dude will tell you my friend.”