A Few Evenings in Huntington Beach

A few evenings in Huntington Beach, and most of them ended the same way: out on the terrace above Pacific Coast Highway, watching the sun come down through the palms and land behind the pier. The pier is the municipal one at the foot of Main Street — first built in 1904, rebuilt more than once after storms took pieces of it. The original plans called for ornamental concrete light standards with 16-inch globes; what's on it now is a modern lighting system, and it came on each night about the time the sun touched the water.

Between the terrace and the sand there's a pedestrian bridge with HUNTINGTON BEACH lettered across the arch, carrying foot traffic over six lanes of PCH to the beach parking lot. On the grey evening the wind bent the palms along the highway sideways, the tall one by the bridge worst of all.

Traffic below kept up long after the sun was gone.