The Sun, the Moon and the Stars-Newport Beach's Fabulous Balboa Peninsula

Well, they always say that happiness exists in our own backyards. This is certainly true for those living in Southern California's Orange County. In about 30 minutes or less you can reach the beach, and in this particular case, we are talking about the beautiful Newport Beach Peninsula that runs about five miles in length. On one side is the amazing Newport Beach boating marina and on the other side is the Pacific Ocean. Along the beach is a four-mile long sidewalk, wide enough for walkers, runners, bicyclists, unicyclists, segues (pronounced segways, the new motorized two wheelers that you stand up on), roller bladers, baby carriages, and dog walkers.

The Sun, the Moon and the Stars-Newport Beach's Fabulous Balboa Peninsula

The Sun, the Moon and the Stars-Newport Beach's Fabulous Balboa Peninsula

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The Sun, the Moon and the Stars-Newport Beach's Fabulous Balboa Peninsula

The Sun, the Moon and the Stars-Newport Beach's Fabulous Balboa Peninsula

The sidewalk is a wondrous place. As you begin the walk you will pass a wide variety of beach houses, cafes,restaurants, two different piers about two miles apart from each other, wide expanses of sandy beach, and an amazing array of people and activities. Depending on what time of day you choose to walk you will see and enjoy many different slices of life. The walk is particularly good for looking into houses, which householders at the beach seem to be quite used to, frankly you're looking in, but they're looking out and seeing the endless stream of entertaining passersby. It's interesting from both sides of the fence so to speak and nobody really seems to mind. It's like an ongoing movie show, sometimes rowdy with music, something good Cooking on the grill, parties, hammocks and snoozers, lots of get-togethers, bikinis, bellies and beer drinkers, kids, dogs and Cats. In general it's a pretty relaxed and happy place.

Every time you walk whether day or night there is always something to discover that is new, different and wonderful. Try this list for example:

-sunshine with blue waters and Japanese kites

-orange sunset with Catalina Island with colors so bright it rivals a volcano

-Il Gelato and Bella Luna hot Panini sandwiches

-Small carved dunes and pounding waves

-magnificent beach homes with porches and decks on top

-the Stuft Surfer at the 15th St

-the piers with sound of pounding waves

-benches to sit and rest along the walk

-Il Farro Italian restaurant bread dunked in garlic and olive oil

-little succulents and flowers and roses

-Slugger the kitty cat

-those two big ol' dogs that walk with their owner every night

-surfers in their wetsuits with boards and blonde hAir

-high school girls in their skirts luau at a beach Party

-this one place that always has a group of people sitting around the dinner table with a few good bottles of wine

-actually there are quite of few of those wine dinners on back porches

-outside grills and Cooking guys

-Fun zone with mochi chocolate ice cream

-walking in a light rain and spray of fine mist

-looking for my shooting star and instead I get the Vandenberg AFB rocket launch # 603 taking off high in the sky with a big powerful orange streak behind it.

-taking a blanket to the beach to lay down on and look up at shooting stars (which we find out later is a meteor shower)

-romantic dinnerfor two with tableCloth set up on the beach

-night winds coming off the ocean

-stillness and quiet like you are the only person there

-fog out to sea

-egrets running along the edge of the water

-people that beep their bike horns and pass on the left

-yachts and sailboats out to sea

-Sunday football on big screens

-Cantina noise and street lit orange and pink in the night

-planes coming in from the Ocean to Los Angeles, at first they look like stars, and then the lights move and get bigger

One night walking late, we discover something very wonderful. Amateur astromer (although he seems like a pro to me), Bruce Butler, has set up three telescopes at the 15th St. location on the peninsula walk. Looking into the telescope we see Jupiter and its four Galilean moons circling the planet. Bruce explains to us that Jupiter has some sixty moons, but we can see four of them that are approximately the same size as Earth's moon. They are Callisto, Io, Europa and Ganymede. Watching Jupiter through the scope, its size is overwhelming to comprehend with the moons that seem so small circling its big body. Jupiter is a giant planet, but when you stand back and look at it without the scope, it looks like a big shiny star. Of course it's a planet reflecting the light of the sun. My brain tries to grasp the scale of it. This video gif by Mike Salway produced for Nasa, shows the moons and the giant size of Jupiter the way I saw them through Bruce's telescope. (video) Bruce has been coming down to the beach to Watch the stars forover thirteen years. Standing there in awe of what I have just seen, I understand why. We come another night happy to find Bruce out on our walk. Two of Jupiter's moons are eclipsing and we see two distinct yet small dots on the surface of Jupiter. Bruce comes to the beach at optimal viewing times and notifies us on twitter.com/yousneak. It is such a treat to find him at the beach when we are out and about.

On another night Bruce brings out a special telescope to show us a close up of the Pleides. The rock country club of stars and their placeMent in the heavens overwhelms me. It is so beautiful I cannot speak. I think of Jody Foster's character in the movie "Contact," she takes a ride through the heavens, "I had no idea."

Bruce's passion has spread to us and other beach goers. THEcan now locate Cassiopeia and find the North Star. I look deep into space and my eye adjusts to the scope showing the light from billions of stars from our nearest galaxy, the Andromeda. My brain once again tries to realize what it has just been shown. Just like the universe we live in my head is expanding. Some time goes by, we find Bruce again at the beach, a beautiful clear night. We walk, star gaze and then come back later to see more celestial activities. Bruce is excited. The Orion Constellation is making its way up and over the horizon. Looking through the scope, Bruce has framed the center stars of Orion's belt, the Orion nebula. Once again, I can hardly breathe, I have never seen anything so majestic, the beautiful grouping of stars in the center of the Orion constellation. I amso hooked, even as I write remembering, the majesty of it overwhelms me.

Every walk is an amazing surprise at Newport Peninsula. The walks are fun, relaxing and invigorating at the same time. They calm the mind and build the body. It's like being on vacation and coming home from a really good trip.

The Sun, the Moon and the Stars-Newport Beach's Fabulous Balboa Peninsula