Santa Monica Bluffs at Sunset — June 26, 2015

As Dorothy from the “The Wizard of Oz” once repeated about her home state of Kansas,

“There’s no place like home.”

“There’s no place like home.”

I, too, feel the same way about California, but I have special place in my heart for the rugged bluffs overlooking the seashore in Santa Monica, near its famous pier.

The photos here show it all. You call almost feel the warm, dusky glow by the looking at the people gazing at the at sight before them, utterly transfixed by the beauty of nature’s masterpiece of whispy cotton-candy pastels spread out across the sky … trying to get closer by standing on the fence and pushing their bodies toward the light.

Maybe it’s because the sunset’s beauty is so fleeting, like an Etch-a-Sketch, lasting only a few minutes before it’s gone forever, never to be seen exactly the same way again. 

Above, onlookers are enveloped in a dome of orange, yellow and blue hues, with the smell of sea salt in the air, and that special breeze that you only feel at the beach … and for the very short span of time during the day we call The Magic Hour, we completely forget about everything else.

Of all my travels to the special beaches and seasides in the world, Santa Monica is my heaven. Whether it be Monaco, Tulum, Cancun, Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer or the rest of the French Riviera, none of them can  give me the dreamy, peaceful feeling that this special place does. And, I’m forever grateful I’m a just short drive away.