I’ve heard it said that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But I live in a place where rain is rare, which means we also don’t see too many rainbows. So I guess that means we need to look for our gold elsewhere.

With many of my university colleagues enjoying a three-day weekend thanks to Cesar Chavez, I found my day unstructured. I had no scheduled calls, no imminent deadlines, just wide open time to complete some of those work projects that keep falling to the bottom of my list of things to do. Gold!

Wednesday’s summer was short-lived. Today arrived cloaked in a gray cape, keeping the sun at bay and temperatures back down into the low 60s. And when I saw that the tide would be low near lunch time, it occurred to me that I should take advantage of my flexible schedule and take my walk smack dab in the middle of my typical work day! Gold!

As I walked along the shoreline, I watched the seagulls hanging out and as usual they were engaged in loud conversation with one another. I noticed interesting shells and bits of kelp and other algaes that had washed up onto the shore. And then I spied a bit of gold. A closer look revealed a tiny golden lion snuggled up against the red algae. More gold!

After I took a photo, my husband snatched up the plastic creature–we’re working hard to eliminate beach plastics and doing our part to keep them off the beach.

As long as we were out, we decided we might as well head off to our favorite hole-in-the-wall local Mexican restaurant: Juanita’s. My taquitos with guacamole were encrusted with golden cheese. and also picture perfect! (My husband added some of this golden treasure to his burrito, pictured in the background.)

We definitely struck gold with our day today. A perfectly unstructured day that allowed for both productive work AND a satisfying low-tide beach walk followed by a yummy, comforting lunch. The perfect way to end the work week!