Today marks the one month mark. Seems like that went by really fast...

I can now check off Pig on my list of animals seen around town. I turned up a side street coming in off the beach and found this guy sitting on the side of the road. From a distance it looked like a giant rock, and as I approached it seemed more like a large dog. Then it moved & grunted, and I nearly ran away...

About two weeks from today, my buddy Scott will be arriving, and I am really looking forward to his visit. The current plans are for him to stay about two weeks, so it will be a welcomed vacation for him & a nice long visit for me.

Over the past week I have been feeling more and more homesick. There are specific things that I miss about home, like my dog, my family, my friends... but some strange things too, like a DVR, my road-cycle, a dishwasher... Some moments are tougher than others, and for the most part I am content with my adventure. It is a bit unsurprising that I would be feeling distant at this point in my travels, exactly one month in... I just need more time.

Last week I saw a couple of guys with a large bulldozer trying to pull a boat off their property, and back into the ocean. It looked like the boat had been sitting for a while, but was in decent enough shape to sail. I didn't have my camera at the moment, bummer.

Yesterday I ran into the same group of people, and they had managed to drag their boat down to the waterline. I sat and watched for a while, and it seemed to be stuck in the sand.

The sand here is very thick, unlike the fine-grain sand in Southern California. It comes from the volcanoes, is dark-brown to dark-gray, and slightly coarse compared to bleach-blond sand. Its no wonder they had so much trouble, and it certainly seems like there's an easier way to do this.

Unfortunately, they didn't succeed in their launching efforts, and decided to let the boat sit on the beach for a day. At the time, the weather was mild, and showed no sign of turning.

Later that evening however, the weather picked up, and although it wasn't the biggest rain we've had here, the wind was enough to buried the boat overnight. So now it sits, half sunk in the sand, and surely more damaged than when they started. Maybe they're waiting for high tide, or maybe they've given up on it, but at some point its going to take a bit of work to get her back out to sea.

Le Tour de France has started, and the World Cup has ended. Congrats to Spain, and my condolences to Lance. Yesterday Lance had a terrible day in the saddle, and looks like any dreams he may have had about a podium finish have been extinguished.

Today I plan to finish my iPhone development book. I have been studying nonstop lately, and really have enjoyed learning this new programming language, once I got past the fundamentals. I am really looking forward to starting my own development, and laying this studying business to rest.