When I was working as an engineer in Tucson, part of my job required fairly frequent trips to the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, California. The big rock in this picture is Point Mugu, and the Navy base is right around that bend in the road. It smells pretty nice here with the salty wind blowing off the ocean. Around that bend are also the onion fields of Oxnard though, and the smell gets less nice in a hurry. The road is the Pacific Coast Highway, and this scene is just one of hundreds of picturesque scenes that grace its length.

There are many things I liked about going to Point Mugu. The flight was an easy one from Tucson, just over an hour, the drive out of LA’s smog and then up through the ritzier Malibu and then the winding, scenic highway along the Pacific was always a delight. Neptune’s Net was always a favorite stop for fried seafood if it was even remotely near lunchtime.

And I invariably made it to the Whale’s Tail in Oxnard for great seafood while in town. Being from Florida I crave seafood, and Tucson is not exactly known for it. Great Mexican food, yes. Decent seafood, no. I frequently see shots of Point Mugu in commercials on tv, usually car commercials. They make me crave seafood.

My model for the shot of Point Mugu, cleverly disguised as a seagull is, in fact, a seagull. His name is Frank. Or at least when I raised my camera and yelled, “Hey, hold still, Frank,” he did so. I suspect seafood was also on his mind.

The shot was taken with a Nikon D700 with 24-120mm lens set at 32mm and f/5.