OC Exclusives Blog

This is Part III of my favorite photos from 2008; these were all taken in Crystal Cove and Pelican Hill – two sublime areas in Newport Coast.
Crystal Cove

This photo knocks my socks off; I love the cerulean blue color of the ocean, the warmth of the sand and the big traveling clouds moving overhead.

This is one of the picnic areas in Crystal Cove State Park; it sits slightly elevated above the sand and beneath the restored bungalows that you can stay in. The BeachComber Cafe is to the right of the photo and is a fantastic place to have lunch or dinner; they give you blankets if the breeze picks up, the food is surprisingly excellent and they have a full bar; need I say more?

This is a quick shot I took out of my window as I drove along PCH heading to Laguna Beach; that’s Catalina Island in the distance which never fails to make me feel like some great adventure awaits.
Pelican Hill

This is the driving range at the newly-remodeled and revamped Pelican Hill Golf club designed by legendary course designer Tom Fazio in Newport Coast, California. I played the course with another three friends on a Friday afternoon and we saw two other golf carts and one group all day – it was an amazing day of quiet breezes, big clouds, sporadic rain showers and all around perfectly-imperfect golf I’ve ever had.

This is probably the fifth hole; Crystal Cove is in the distance at the center of the photo and Marriot’s ‘Newport Coast Villas” are at the left.

Pelican Hill Golf Course, Newport Coast, CA 2008. Slow day, no rush, good friends, enough said.

The last few holes are played on the ocean-side of PCH; the course surrounds the exclusive Pelican Point enclave.

Ocean Course at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, CA 2008.

Blustery day on the Ocean Course at Pelican Hill Golf Course in Newport Coast, CA 2008.

This is Part II of “My Favorite Pics for 2008″; here are a few of my favorite pics this year.
Laguna Niguel

This was near the Badlands Park trailhead in Laguna Niguel, which overlooks Laguna Beach. We were only there for a short while; I can’t wait to get back there again.
Ladera Ranch

This was taken right behind the Covenant Hills area in Ladera Ranch.

This is in Ladera Ranch looking down Antonio Parkway towards Ortega Highway; we were headed off to a camping trip up on Saddleback Mountain.
Laguna Beach

I took this at the trailhead of the “Top of The World” park in Laguna Beach; it’s a great place to spend an afternoon walking along the hills above Laguna. The views take in everything from the Pacific to Saddleback Mountain.

I can’t think of the name of this newly-minted wilderness area in Laguna Canyon, but it is one of three where you can pull off and spend a day hiking around the hills that lie between Laguna Beach and Shady Canyon in Irvine.

This was taken in earlier this year when we had a huge outpouring of wildflowers across the hills; these are California Poppies – the state flower.

This was taken this summer in downtown Laguna Beach; we had some take-out pizza with friends and sat and watched the people go by and the sun go down.

I was heading home in August and I couldn’t resist the light changing in the sky and playing out over the water; I stopped at Heisler Park in Laguna, skipped down to Picnic Beach and shot this quick panorama. The beach is a bit wider than this photo makes it look, but it isn’t all that big; the tide was sweeping up and I had to move before I got swamped.

This was taken right above the last photo, at Heisler Park. The stairwell leads down to Picnic Beach. I put together a map of pretty much every accessible beach in Orange County at www.beachyoc.com; take a peek sometime.

Like I said in my last post, I shot a ton of photography this year for my site; in all, there are over 350 different photos in that main photo bar at the top of the site. Some of the pages rotate the photos automatically like the Buyer’s page, and others pull a random photo for whichever area page you are on like the Crystal Cove Real Estate page.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Coto de Caza

This was taken in the south end of Coto de Caza, looking onto Mission Viejo Company property which extends for miles. Cows still graze here occasionally, which to some might seem ho-hum, but to me, still means there is a bit of old Orange County still around.

This is taken in the same spot as above, but just pulls in closer to that amazing oak tree which is illuminated by this passing sun coming through those big blustery clouds. And that green! It’s electric… It reminded me of the green hills in Waimea on the Big Island – a green that vibrates it has so much pop to it.

I was out walking one day and caught these deer peeking out of the orange groves on William Lyon’s property.

A nice cloudy day in Coto.

This was on a hike I took recently with a friend. He called me up to tell me he just bought a handheld GPS device and that he found this geocache website that let people upload different geocaches all over the planet. We found one in Coto and decided to head into the hills… we had a blast tramping through the grass and when we finally found the stash off of one of the trails, I thought it would be a good idea to leave our flashlight – you’re supposed to take something in the stash/cache and then leave something in return. There was enough daylight left when we left the flashlight, but then we decided to try and find another one his GPS detected… bad idea… we walked back in almost pitch black. I’ll bring two flashlights next time.

This was a panoramic shot I took on our geocache hike; please click the photo for a bigger version – it’s worth it.
I’ll post more photos later when I get a chance.