The Teach At Seal Beach

Tuesday, 8/18/08
We left early in the morning for the beach. The skies were overcast and the breeze was cool, but we held out hope for another beautiful day. As we sized up the surf for fishing, we noticed a lot of people out on boards in the waves. This was a surf school where kids of all different ages gather to hone their skills. We watched in amazement as they tried over and over again to ride, stand and surf the modest swells. What determination! Dan found his niche along a rocky jetty where the fish were jumping and chasing his fly. We had to leave them hot, though, since we had an appointment at noon to tour the Autism Partnership Clinic.

As many of you know, Melody has worked with children with Autism for the last 15 years. In college, she started with individual families who had their own home programs and paid for the therapists to get extensive training in Applied Behavior Analysis. After a few years, she consolidated her clients through Autism Learning Center, which was supported by Autism Partnership (AP) in Seal Beach, CA. Through regular training sessions with Sandy and Mitch, Melody began a long standing positive relationship with the partnership.

After getting her Masters Degree and teaching the Preschool Autism Class at Cub Run, Melody was pleased to be under the guidance of AP once again. Ron Leaf and his colleagues were selected to be the consultants for the Autism programs in Fairfax County Public Schools. It was like a homecoming for Melody. Now, in Seal Beach, she had the chance to tour the facility and observe a young group of kids during a summer camp program called "Sparks". It was heart warming to finally see the clinic that started it all so many years ago, and she counts it a privilege to know such authorities in the field of Autism.



After the tour, we made our way back to the beach and had lunch in a Fifties Style Restaurant at the end of the pier. While walking the pier, we couldn't help but notice an older couple enjoying a peaceful afternoon together, still so very much in love. It was inspiring and it was beautiful. It is fun to think that perhaps one day we may be the subjects in a young lover's photograph. We made our way back to the jetty, but the tide had moved out taking the fish with it. So we settled for some ice cream on the Main Street and hunted more stickers for The Egg in the shops there. We loved our time at Seal Beach, and left much later than we had planned.




We made it to Venice Beach just in time to catch the sunset and go for a twilight bike ride along the boardwalk. We were surprised, though not alarmed, to see the sheer number of homeless people in this area. It is not hard to understand, however, given the beautiful beach scenery and consistently delightful weather. We pedaled until dark, then decided it was time to head farther North through Malibu and toward Simi Valley, home of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
We checked in late at a Motel 6 just outside of Simi Valley, where we had our first experience at In and Out Burger, a West Coast fast food chain. The service was uncommonly enthusiastic and the food was quite good, especially this late at night. It had been a full day, and we rested well from its many blessings.