I’m out of the house by 9:45 and it is a beautiful Wednesday morning here in Dana Point. There are some scattered clouds lingering about the fringes of the sky but it’s mostly blue and the air is warm.

I park next to a very nice and homey sprinter van. The side door is open and the owners are in the kitchen. It all looks pretty fancy. I wish I could just put the day on pause, sit this couple down and ask them a bunch of questions, but I must proceed with the task at hand.

I notice that one of the beach shuttles is parked and waiting for passengers and I do take the time to ask the driver where he shuttles to. I had thought that he goes to Salt Creek, but no, he just drives to the other end of the parking lot at the southern entrance than goes through the beachside homes and has the least amount of steps. Boy was I wrong about the Salt Creek drop off. I’m glad I stopped to ask and get to the bottom of this.

I continue down the stairs and enjoy the heat of the sun on my back. There are a couple long boarders surfing in front of the lifeguard hut. The surf is up just a bit today as a SSW swell peaks.

I walk down the beach and the water feels good on my feet. It feels about the same as it did on Monday and it felt great on Monday. All of the local buoys are reporting 70 - 74 degrees. Surfline bumped the local beach water temperature to 70 yesterday. The lifeguard station is not yet staffed to report it’s daily randomly generated number but I suspect it will be up by the time I am done.

I make my way into the water and past the surf. The water feels great and just like Monday there are many cold spots but there are also some particularly warm spots as well. On average, it is very comfortable.

I head south again today and the light over the water fades in and out from shade to abundant luminescence. One moment the southern cliffs below the headlands look dark and the next they are illuminated and I can see the greens and browns in the rocks and shrubs that are scattered about the face of the bluffs.

As I pass the main surf break, I am not too far from some surfers that I notice are staring intently ahead of themselves and seem to be in a rush to paddle forward. I turn my head away from the shore and towards the horizon. Oh look at that, a nice sized wave that breaks not long after passing under me. I swim just a little further west to put more distance between myself and the breaking waves.

A little further and out of the corner of my eye I see something dark lying on the ocean floor (it’s pretty clear today) that blends in with all of the other dark rocks and kelp on the floor. Then suddenly it jets off toward the shore and into cloudy oblivion - a bat ray.

The ocean surface feels smoother than it has been in a while. This is likely due to the fact that I am swimming before the late morning/early afternoon uptick in onshore wind. As I swim northward, I briefly stop to take in the scenery and note my location just north of the middle stairs. I’m curious if the swim to the boardwalk will be the epic journey that it was on Monday. I resume swimming and note my progress after about 5 minutes or so. Hey, here I am. I’m already at the asphalt road. It doesn’t take much longer and I’m getting close to the bathrooms.

I’m happy to be moving along but as I near the end of the swim, I admit that I’m not crazy about leaving the beach. I refrain from throwing a tantrum like my toddler son is capable of doing when told it is time to leave some fun place. As I pass the lifeguard station on the way back to the stairs, the temperature is posted at 71. While I agree with the number, it doesn’t feel any warmer in the ocean today than it did this weekend when the number was 67.

When I get to the funicular station at the top of the stairs, I notice a new sign near the non-functioning funicular entrance. It mentions the beach shuttle and includes the exact location of where the shuttle goes to. I’m betting this sign has been posted for a while. Well, little did I know that the answers to my beach shuttle questions were right here in plain sight all along.