Pinnacles NP

For a long time now, Pinnacles National Park has been on my list of places to check out.  Though everything I read about it sounded like a fantastic adventure-- red rock formations reminiscent of those in the Southwest, long hikes through pitch-black bat caves, a natural condor refuge-- its location is just far enough away to put it out of our day-trip range.  So, this Spring Break it was my goal to put together a little getaway that would finally make a trip to Pinnacles possible.  We broke up the driving with a night and second destination by the coast.  This was the perfect way to tackle Pinnacles and a nice grand finale to what has been a really excellent Spring Break. 

In many ways, Pinnacles NP is in the middle of nowhere.  We drove into the park not really sure what we'd get.  But once we parked and started hiking, the impressive red rock monoliths were immediately visible.

In fact, it didn't take long until our hiking path had us squeezing through the red rocks!

The caves were what we were most excited to hike.  I guess there is a pretty significant bat population that makes its home in the Pinnacles caves.  To protect these bats, the caves are only all the way open in the spring.  We timed it right and got to hike the entire cave system, and we didn't have to bump into any bats.  Now, let me just say...we've been in caves before.  You know, those touristy caverns with guides that take groups of people down some stairs and show them funny shaped rock formations.  These caves were not at all like that.  These caves were for real, yo.  Flashlights were definitely required as we navigated rough steps, streams, low hanging rocks and dark tunnels by ourselves.

Let me also just say that the first trip through the caves had the girls pretty freaked out.  They were clinging to us and wishing for it to be over.  When Dave suggested we all turn our lights off and just stand in the dark listening to the waterfall...FORGET IT!  But, later when we had the option of taking a looping path back to the car, or returning through the caves, the girls chose to go back through the caves!  And once we reached the end, they begged to turn around and do it ALL OVER!  So, once again we had some pride that our kids faced an initial fear, but then totally conquered it!

To help us find our way in the dark, the walls were marked with these white arrows.  The girls thought it was a huge adventure to find them and lead us.  They also thought it was pretty hilarious when they could squeeze through crevices that Dave and I had to crawl through.  We adults definitely had our share of scrapes and head bumps!

The end of the cave hike opened up into this beautiful reservoir where we ate our picnic lunch.

Then we walked on a high cliffs trail for about half a mile.  This trail led to some great views of the canyon that the condors supposedly swoop over.  The park ranger told us that the condors are pretty active and not hard to find, but we didn't see any on this day.  Though, when Delia manned the binoculars she was certain every single bird she saw was a condor, even little ones!

It took some driving to get here and some bravery to conquer the trail through the caves, but with each new turn at Pinnacles, Dave and I were just in awe that we have access to some of the most unique and fun hiking we've EVER done.  We already started talking about which adventurous family members will love to come back here some day and see it with us. Anna?  Kyle? :)

Video in the Dark

Just for fun, here's a quick video we shot in the dark in the caves at Pinnacles.  I'm having a hard time describing exactly how cool this hike was, so this is another taste (I'd say "peek", but you can't see anything!).  FYI, this was the third time through, so the girls are okay with turning their flashlights off at this point.

  

By the Sea

As mentioned, we broke up the Pinnacles trip with an overnight by the coast.  A friend recently showed me how I can use my library card to get free tickets to museums all over our state and I am in heaven!  We tried it out for the first time by securing 4 free passes to the Seymore Marine Discovery Center.  Now, having been members at the Monterey Aquarium, my expectations for this small educational facility connected to the University of California were not high.  I thought we'd maybe spend an hour here and feel thankful that our tickets were free.  We were so wrong!  We spent over 3 hours and viewed this stop as a real highlight!

What we loved about this place was having it ourselves.  Dave and I talked about how the aquarium is so huge, you always feel the need to keep moving quickly to see it all.  Since this place had only a fraction of the exhibits and a friendly volunteer at each one to educate us with interesting information, we spent a long time engaging in Q&A and hands-on activity about various ocean animals.

One of the many cool things we got to do here was pet a shark!  We were taught that of the 500 some species of sharks, really only about 5 are dangerous and even capable of biting a person.  The sharks in this tank are nice ones.  They felt like sandpaper.  The girls are excited to tell their friends that they hiked through caves and petted sharks this Spring Break!

We also spent a very long time at the starfish touch pool.  The volunteer here even asked if we'd ever seen a starfish turn itself over.  Um, no we hadn't.  So, she flipped one for us and we sat for 15 minutes watching the starfish do a slow, but fascinating, somersault. (Open the pic below to see it for yourself.)

My favorite is always the octopus and today I fell even more in love with this amazing creature.  He was active today so we watched him traverse his entire tank, changing from bright red to sand color to seaweed color.  He opened all up and showed off his 8 tentacle-y legs and he squished all up into a shell and crawled around looking like a crab.  He is a true master of disguise and to spend a long time watching this great show with no other crowds was quite the treat!

We also took a guided tour behind the scenes and learned interesting things, while visiting with dolphins that are being studied and monk seals that have been rescued (couldn't take any pics of the tanks that hold research animals, though).  After this taste of marine biology, Ella has picked a new college and future career!

We ended our time at the Marine Discovery Center with some otter watching out in the ocean.

Then we spent the afternoon at the cutest beach ever.  It had these colorful little beach houses, and a long wharf to walk down, and an inlet of water that wasn't quite so freezing or wavy to play in, and a whole crowd of friends from our church and school!  It was fun to bump into some familiar faces and visit for a while.

Our beach had a super fun little downtown area to roam around too.  We let the girls pick out a salt water taffy treat for the drive home.

It's only been a week, but we feel like our Spring Break has gone on forever (in a good way), because each day has held something different.  It started with a nice weekend in SF, then 3 days of dinners, playdates and sleepovers with friends, some productivity, plenty of time to read and relax and watch Frozen, and now this mini-vacay.  It's back to life as usual in just a few days, but before we know it, summer will be here!

Race Weekend

Back in December Dave was given the gift of a race registration by my sister.  The race was this Across the Bay 12K in San Francisco, and part of the gift was that Heather and her boyfriend Jeff would fly out and run it with him.  It was a great gift! Dave loves having something like a race to train for to help motivate him to run.  The length of this race was the perfect challenge and its course couldn't have been cooler-- all around and across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Because of a change in their plans, Heather and Jeff were only able to spend these 2 days with us, but we loved having this time to catch up and get to know Jeff better-- especially since we learned that he recently changed from being Heather's boyfriend to her fiance!!

After we picked them up at SFO, we did the first thing a first time visitor to San Francisco must do-- take a ride on the historic cable cars!  We caught it at the wharf, where the line is always the longest.  But, it was a warm sunny day and we had life and wedding plans to discuss, so we didn't mind.  Above, Ella is silly showing off the humorous "Cable Car Safety Tips" sign and below she poses with Auntie Heather and Uncle Jeff and the rainbow race bracelets she loomed for them.

We were also able to watch the trolley turn around on the turn table a number of times.

Then it was off for a ride!  All the adults except me got to stand and hang off the side, which is the most fun way to ride.  They got their pants brushed by cars' rear-view mirrors and high-fived standees on cable cars coming the other direction.  Delia viewed each hill as a roller coaster and spent most of the ride with her hands in the air.  This experience is so unique to this city.  We've done it a few times now and never get tired of it!

We ate dinner and did some quick shopping in Union Square then took the cable car back to our hotel on the wharf.

A fun night of card playing at the hotel was followed by Race Morning!  Jeff, Heather and Dave got up early to catch the shuttle to the start line in Sausalito.  The girls and I walked to the finish line a few hours later.  While our racers tackled huge hills and crazy fog across the bridge, Ella, Delia and I waited for them.  We found a place to watch cable cars rumble by while eating breakfast pastries in a shop. At the Finish Line some company gave us free cowbells to ring all the finishers in with. 

And pretty much right when they said they would be, we found our favorite runners headed to us at the Finish Line.  We were excited to see and hear that they were able to stay together for the whole race!  I'm always happy to see smiles in that final stretch.  I know those happy faces are a combination of seeing a personal cheering section AND the words "FINISH".

 (Dave, Heather and Jeff ran in the second wave of starters, so note that this Finish Line time is not accurate.  They were about 15 minutes faster than what is shown here.)

Here are our 12K finishers and their medals!  Everyone was pleased with their efforts and time.  They all said the race was a ton of fun.  Dave was thankful for such a neat birthday gift.

We had some time to explore SF before Heather and Jeff flew out to their next destination.  Though fog, traffic, millions of people and impossible parking tried to defeat several of our attempts to see stuff, we persevered and found a few things to explore.  First up, a revisit of the "Enchanted Stairs" we discovered last summer.

Then we walked around the wharf for a while.  We saw seals and funny street performers, ate crab cakes and soup in sourdough bread bowls.  This stroll actually ended up being the perfect way to round out our SF weekend.  This picture shows one of my favorite parts of this weekend-- Uncle Jeff was holding one of the girls' hands for pretty much the entire two days.  Delia told me she thought he'd make a good uncle because he is "funny and handsome."  Jeff won Ella's approval too, though he never did complete the "Can He Dance Test?" she told him she'd subject him to! :)

One of the best parts of this quick visit was that at goodbye time, we were able to say, "See you in a few months!"  With a wedding in the Midwest now this summer, we get to take an unexpected trip back in 2014.  Yay for more family time! :)