My little ones and I are in CA for two weeks, so we dragged my mom and
younger brother out to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve along the coast
in Huntington Beach, CA today.

The Pelican letterbox link on the LBNA site is dead, but I found a copy of
the clues on a cached Google page. It's possible the link is dead for a
reason - the box is gone without a trace. After musing on what constitutes
a prickly pear cactus "grotto," we believe we found the correct eucalyptus
tree, especially considering the small path dead ending at it and the
unnatural hole covered by debris at its roots. Alas, the hole was empty.

We backtracked and set out to find Gwen & Don's Shore Bird box. Well, at
least two of us did, as Uncle MoJo JoJo and Mrs. T waited on the benches at
the interpretive center with little Strawberry Girl (muttering something
about the heat getting to them). Lone Wolf and I continued on our quest but
were ultimately unsuccessful. I think we found the right "large bush," but
it's possible that it's grown so much in the almost two years since the box
was planted that the hiding place is now even deeper inside. If we didn't
have impatient family members waiting (and if the box is still there) I'm
sure we could've found it with a little more effort.

The trip was definitely not a failure, though. The sky was clear and blue,
the sun was warm and bright, and we could almost hear the waves crashing on
the other side of Pacific Coast Highway. The best part of all was exploring
an amazing bird sanctuary less than five miles from where I grew up that I
somehow had never set foot in before. We saw brown pelicans, "regular"
pelicans, terns, seagulls and so many other unidentified feathery friends.
We watched in awe the little birds that dove underwater after fish and
stayed there for unbelievably long periods of time. Thanks Gwen, Dawn and
Wendy for giving us a reason to go explore.

TurtleMcQ

P.S. On another hike with a different set of relatives yesterday, we
planted a new Orange County box. Clues to come as soon as I find time to
write them...