Point Reyes

After yet another crazy March, Dave had the idea to use half of our Spring Break week to take a mini-vacation and he knew just where he wanted to go to relax too-- Marin County.  This is an area north of San Fransisco which includes the almost 60 miles of coastline part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  Many of our favorite day trips are located in this area, but it's one we have never explored fully.  Getting a major steal on a nice hotel cemented our plans.

On our first day we visited one of favorite places in this entire state-- Point Reyes.  This unique peninsula juts out into the Pacific and is teeming with wildlife.  Even the most mild of hikes rewards you with views of the ocean or incredible wild animals.

We started our hiking in these gorgeous wildflower hills.  The cool fallen tree trunks were fun to pose on and jump off of, until Dave spotted the furry, small-bone-filled poop piles and said, "I think snakes live here."  Seconds after bolting away, sure enough, we found one slithering around!  A boy who witnessed our commotion caught the Gardner Snake and the girls were each brave enough to pet it!  So we checked snakes off our "Wildlife We Spotted" list.

Next off that list were Tule Elk.  Since the tip of the peninsula is actually a reserve for them, they are very easy to find.  These guys seemed to have just shed their antlers and were budding new ones.  This picture of the girls watching them from the car window shows how close they were!

After playing on the beach (where we got an updated picture for the blog's header), we hiked along the coast to the lighthouse, where most of the migrating Gray Whales are seen.  The girls were so cute, ready with their binoculars, and they were not disappointed!  This month is the height of migration and 27 whales were sighted the day before we were there.  And we saw one too-- probably the best and closest whale we've ever spotted!  For a long time, we watched him make his way around the peninsula, spraying and lumbering his humongous self up out of the water for breaths.  It was awesome.

The last stop at Point Reyes was another little hike to the Elephant Seal beach lookout.  This time of year, it's all the growing pups hanging out on the beach.  We were delighted to watch them wrestle and listen to them make their funny noises. 

What I've described here are things we truly saw and did, but I'll be totally honest and say this day was a lot of driving and walking.  The girls tolerate these things, but don't love them.  Though we were seeing amazing things, we definitely heard our share of complaints.  Dave and I push our kids, though, because we never stop being absolutely blown away that these types of places exist and we're close enough to see them!  We trust that some day, when the girls are climbing mountains on their own or working as animal-loving zookeepers, they'll remember and thank us for these experiences we gave them!

And we did plan our next day of vacation to be much more kid-friendly...