Channel Islands National Park

Connor and I had been keeping a close eye on the weather around the Channel Islands for the last 8 months. There is a narrow window where the weather isn't too hot and the water isn't too rough. The weekend before last we saw that our time had come. Friday we jumped in the car and drove 6 hours (there was so much traffic...) to Ventura so that we could catch the morning ferry to Santa Cruz Island. It was worth the wait, the weather was glorious.

We took a morning kayak tour to see the different sea caves. Our guide, Mel, was lots of fun. We also made friends with the other people on the tour who were all pals from Quebec. Connor learned a new-to-him French phrase when one of the ladies jumped in the water: "C'est froid! C'est froid!" We already knew how cold the Pacific Ocean is around California, so we didn't jump in.

After kayaking, we opted to go for a hike to Potato Harbor. Along the way we saw one of the famous island foxes that is endemic to Santa Cruz island.

This fox was grooming itself rather vigorously. I got a picture when it came up for air.

It was good it wasn't too hot out because most of the five mile hike is exposed. But, being out there made us feel so free. On occasion we would pass someone, but for the most part we were alone on an island in the middle of nowhere.

Part of the hike is along the sea cliffs. Before we had gotten on the ferry, we picked up a patch. I thought it would be nice to get a picture of the patch that included the sea caves we had been in earlier.
There are whale tails on the patch, but we didn't have the pleasure of seeing one on the ferry ride to or from the island. They said that sometimes you can see a Blue Whale. I hope one day I'll get to even if it didn't work out to on this trip.

Once we made it to Potato Harbor, we sat and enjoyed the view. I thought about painting, but I opted to just take it all in instead. We live such busy lives, sometimes it is hard to remember to sit still and just be.

We ended up bumping into our Quebecois friends again on the trail and walked with them for a bit before splitting in different directions.

We timed our hike carefully. It's important that you make it to the dock in time for the ferry. They don't wait for anyone and if you are late, you get to camp. There isn't any food or water to be had on the island, so an unplanned camping trip is rather unpleasant. We got to the dock on time and found seats on the back of the boat. After such a big day, Connor couldn't help but nod off while I meditated on the day.

Funnily enough, we went out to dinner and bumped into our Quebecois friends again. Even though it was a quick trip, I'm glad we got to have it. The only regret I have is that we only had one day to explore. I hope that this isn't our last trip to Channel Islands National Park.

Arizona Adventure Pt.1

Where in the United States is it possibly the hottest place to go in the summer? If you said Arizona, you would probably be right. Connor had a business trip that took him there. Not one to let an opportunity to pass us by, we decided to go a few days before his conference so we could see some sights. We had already decided to drive from Phoenix to Tucson to go to Saguaro National Park. A month before we were to go, I found out that my old housemate from college, Brennan, had recently moved to Tucson. (Brennan has been on the blog before. See 1, 2, 3) We were double lucky that he and his girlfriend, Sydney, could make some time for us. The four of us visited the western section of Saguaro National Park.

This is the only photo I have of Brennan from the trip. Sydney's shadow also made an appearance.

Despite the heat, we chose to do two very short hikes: the Valley View trail and the Signal Hill trail. There were plenty of Saguaro cacti to admire along the Valley View trail. 

The trail is a there and back again, which takes you to a view of, you guessed it, the valley.

This Saguaro looked like a tuning fork to me

The Signal Hill trail was even shorter and rewards you with a view of many petroglyphs.

After Saguaro, we all had lunch before parting. Connor and I headed out to see the Titan Missile Museum.

I'll admit, part of the reason we wanted to visit is because we've been playing lots of Fallout 4. And after seeing all that there was to see, I'm sure that the creators must have toured this facility. 

Look! It's drinking water in a can.

Part of the tour includes a simulation of what would have happened if the missile had really been launched. I wasn't so luck as to be selected to turn the key.

An actual missile is also there. This one has never been filled with fuel. It turned out that all the ones that had been filled couldn't be cleaned enough to prevent toxic off gassing. The warhead on the top is a dummy as well. But what is neat is that there is a treaty with the Russians that allows this museum to exist. Part of the treaty requires that there are blocks so that the silo can only open half way, preventing a missile from ever being launched successfully. It is the last Titan 2 silo as the rest had to be destroyed.

All in all, it was a really neat day.

Northern California Coast Pt.2

The next morning, Connor and I went to do the Trinidad Head hike. It is one of the ones you can do as a Redwood Edventure. The museum where you could get the brochure was closed, so I loaded it on my phone from the website instead. We followed the clues, one of which took us to this magnificent view. 

I have since filled out the form for the patch. We will see how long it takes to arrive.

From there we stopped by Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, but decided not to stay too long. I have been there before as that is where Fern Canyon is located. We also considered doing the Edventure that was located there, but time wasn't on our side. Besides, the spot I wanted to see most was still further north.

After another hour or so, we reached Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. There is an Edventure there too, but we took a recommendation from the ranger at the visitor center and walked the Simpson Reed Grove Trail instead.

There were a bunch of banana slugs out an about. I don't recall seeing ones with brown spots before, but this guy had them.

Most of the redwood state parks in the area are also associated with Redwood National Forest. I think the Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP just might be my favorite. It seemed wetter and greener to me. I especially like all the moss and that ferns that sometimes grow out of the trees. 

Connor and I then continued on to Oregon. As we passed from California to Oregon, Connor saw in the rearview mirror that the California state sign was back up. The last time we had passed through, it wasn't there.

How silly is it to live in a state and not have a picture by the state sign? Despite the heavy rain, we righted that obvious wrong and stopped for our obligatory jumping photos.

From there we went reached Oregon and had a jolly time seeing family and celebrating with Oma.

We did end up with quite a haul in terms of patches and magnets. The patches have been added to the souvenir patch map for those who are curious about where to find them. They were acquired from Leggett to just past Crescent City in Hiouchi while following highway 101, then turning onto highway 199.

Hawai'i Pt. 1 - Haleakalā And The Road To Hāna

Neither Connor nor I had ever been to Hawai'i. I'd always wanted to, especially after I did my fifth grade state report on it. (Connor did his on Connecticut... where they make tires, he told me.) It always seemed out of reach. Well, a couple things came into alignment, so for our second anniversary (since I was sick for our first) we decided to go. Ever the aggressive tourist, I made an itinerary that allowed us to see as much as we could in our time there.

Day 1: We landed in Maui. Upon arriving, we realized that we couldn't check into our hotel for a few hours, so we made a few changes to our plan, went to a grocery story to get sandwich supplies (kinda funny that we were doing that on the sandwich islands), then headed up to Haleakalā. We had seen from the plane that even thought it was really cloudy over the entire island, Haleakalā was above the clouds.

This picture also signaled that I was able to complete another goal for this year: visit a new-to-me national park

We went to the Hosmer Grove and saw some native birds like the 'Apapane and 'I'iwi. Then we continued driving up the mountain, stopping to do a short hike here and there.

Connor could be his own Hike The National Parks advertising campaign

We stayed around long enough to watch the sunset at the top. It was beautiful. On our way down, we decided to park for a bit and watch the stars come out. It didn't take long for a good view of the Milky Way to show up.

Day 2: Originally we were planning to give Haleakalā a full day, but after having had such a good taste of it, we decided to drive the Road to Hāna instead. It was a tough day. The road is quite twisty and an hour into the two hour drive a woman flagged us down to tell us a tree had fallen and that we should turn back. I told Connor that I had a hard time believing that there wouldn't be a local with a chainsaw in their truck. We soldiered on and were pleased to find that my hunch was correct. Someone had cut limbs off of the tree so that smaller cars could pass under it on one of the two lanes.

Our goal for the day was to reach Wai'anapanapa State Park to see the black sand beach and dip into the fresh water pools. Well, when we arrived, we found that the famous fresh water cave pool was closed. Someone had drowned a half hour earlier after they had decided to explore the underwater cave with their cellphone flashlight in a bag. They had dropped the light (and probably got disoriented). I felt sorry for them, but also a little mad that they would have done such a dumb thing and prevent a bunch of other people from getting to experience the park. We still got to see the black sand beach, though.

We also walked into a nearby lava tube.

Then we went for a hike to search for a Pictograph that was in the area.

We never did find it, but felt confident that we found the area it should have been in.

We did spot a coconut tree getting its start in life

Sequoia/ Alabama Hills/ Death Valley/ L.A. pt.1

I have been rather unwell for the last five weeks. Two weeks ago I was certain that I'd be fine by the time Joe came to visit us. (Joe was the best man at our wedding and can be seen on the far left of the last photo on the wedding post.) Then another week passed... and another, and I started getting worried that I might not be able to go on the big trip we'd been planning for months. I kid you not, the night before he arrived, I started feeling better. Good thing too. I would have been sad to miss out on the Sequoia/ Alabama Hills/ Death Valley/ L.A. trip.

Our first stop was Sequoia. We were only going in for a few hours. I was horrified to find that we had to spend $30 on a week long pass. While I like to support the national parks, I wish there was a less expensive day pass option. It put me in a bad mood. Connor's response was, "There had better be some really big trees." And there were. We got to see the largest tree by volume, the General Sherman tree.

The theme of the day would be "Fees and Trees"

I had anticipated not having the energy to hike and brought my paints with me. So while Joe went off to hike for a bit, I turned around and set myself up to do a little painting.

Turns out I'm an angry painter. I spend lots of time muttering to myself that I don't know what I'm doing. It is only at the end when I put in the final details that it starts looking right. Midway through the painting, Joe came back and he and Connor hiked a bit while I muttered to myself some more. In the end I think it came out right. I did adjust a shadow or two when we got back to the hotel.

That night Joe, who was still suffering jet lag from being on Eastern Time, went to bed. Connor and I drove from Exeter (which smelled like orange blossoms all around, except at our hotel where it smelled more like manure) to Visalia to eat. We happened upon a nostalgia station (103.3 fm) and were thrilled to find that the Habit Burger we went to was 50s themed.

I love the neon!

The next day we started our next long drive to Lone Pine. We were treated to a rather under photographed bit of California. There are a lot of oil wells in southern California.

As we rounded the bottom of the Sierras, there was some concern over whether we would even get to see the Alabama Hills. I knew that the road going in was dirt, and it looked rainy. In fact, we had a ton of rain pour on us on our way up.

You can see a sign for Gus' jerky. It once said "Best Jerky in the World." Now it says, "Really Good Jerky."

We made a backup plan to go to the Film Museum in Lone Pine first. It was a good plan and we got to see all sorts of movie props from movies made in the area. The boys especially appreciated it as we decided that the roads looked dry enough to get out to the Alabama Hills that day.

To be continued...

From Gumboots To Alpine Fog

We left Chris in Wellington and headed up north towards National Park. I briefly practiced driving on the "wrong side" of the road. It was the most terrifying 30 minutes of both Dad and my life. I still got us safely to Taihape. 

I was sad to find that we were too late to see the Quilted Gumboot. It closed a little before we arrived in town. I peered through the window to see all the yarn and fabric I missed out on. Dad breathed a sigh of relief.

After lunch in Taihape, we continued on our way. We stopped for a quick picture by the Army Museum. Then onwards to National Park.

A fog surrounded us as we got to the Skotel, our accommodations for the night. It was thick and periodically rain showered by.

Dad and I went a little ways down a track to have a look at the area. Mist swirled by. Droplets collected on the alpine plants.

The clouds dampened every sound. We headed back as dusk approached.

For a very brief moment I spotted a bit of a mountain. Little did I know that this was the most I was going to see the entire time we were there.