Pink Saturday - Beach and sky

Pink Saturday - Beverly, at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you.

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It was one of those "pull over the car!" moments. I was driving home along Pacific Coast Highway, and the sky was unbelievably beautiful.

I turned into the little road near an historic Mediterranean-style building and parked at the curb.

Old postcard showing the bridge circa 1935

This building is part of a 1920s era real estate development called Castellammare, and like its namesake in Italy, it's a picturesque seaside enclave. Here a handful of original homes cling to the hillside along with newer, more modern neighbors. The development included stairways and cliff-side walkways, and an arched bridge that spanned the old Roosevelt Highway, which is now called Pacific Coast Highway. The building here is the only commercial property in Castellammare; it held retail spaces including a cafe that later became notorious for its involvement in the unsolved death of movie star Thelma Todd.

I locked the car and took my camera, and walked back to the foot of the steps leading to the bridge. Here the hillside has crumbled, and reddish dried mud from October rains crusted the steps. Overgrown oleander shrubs billow over the wall. Near the first landing, I suddenly smelled the sharp pong of urine, and realized that the sheltered landing had become a camp for a homeless man. "Hello," I said, and continued up the steps, trying to avoid treading on his blankets.

Across the bridge, I faced the ocean. Though the sun had just set, the sky was bright with twilight, tinged with a tender and delicate pink, and the water shone with reflection. Down on the sand, a couple waded in the waves. Even the wet sand reflected the pinkness of the sky. Far out on the water, a lone figure on a paddleboard poled across a sheet of silver.

The pink sky was deeper at the horizon, then darkened to lavender.
I crossed back to the other side on the bridge. At the top of the stairs, I said "excuse me" so not to surprise the homeless man, smoking his cigarette. I wished otherwise, but I had nothing to give him, since I'd left the car without knowing he was there. Even so, "Good night," he said to me as I passed and continued down, leaving him in the shelter of the oleanders, beneath the pink sky.

It was such a beautiful sky.