Monterey Bay Aquarium

Purple striped jelly in the Open Ocean exhibit

Mackerel 

Wait for it...

Wow!  A wave crashing overhead!

A skate egg case or mermaid's purse, window to show wriggling skate embryos provided by the aquarium.  SO COOL!

Did you know that in calm water sand dollars stand on end?  Only in surf zones do they hang out flat or even slightly under the sand?  SO COOL!

Last time I was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium I was 12 or 13. I was completely transfixed by the kelp forest exhibit.  We spent all day there today and didn't even get to the kelp forest.  The place is huge and totally amazing. The beauty of being without much of a schedule means that we can take the time to go there for more than one day.  Yep, we applied our (admittedly very expensive!) admission fees today to a yearly membership.  We will be back tomorrow! 

Farkwar

I just found a nifty site that will let me post our GPS position from our Iridium Go! (satellite phone).  I can't get it embedded on the blog from my phone right now, but hopefully when I get wifi for my laptop I can add it to the sidebar. Until then, follow this link to see where we are:

http://farkwar.com/boats/yare

I'm sending the GPS location manually at this point, so don't get worried if you don't see a new point each day...there are many distractions in this life we are leading :).  I do commit to try to add a waypoint whenever we get somewhere new.  So, here's a good place to practice that patience, we aren't leaving tonight, so no new waypoint on the map until we move :).

Angel Island

After a jam packed, and amazingly fun time in San Francisco.  We left our slip, and the sea lions at pier 39 yesterday morning.  We anchored at Treasure Island and had a low key day of decompressing.  For Lars and Odin, that meant Lego and lots of time playing cable car in the foc'sle, complete with lines strung up to act as bell cords.  For Tor and me it was having time to get the boat back in order. We never even went up on deck while we were there, just spent the whole day below.  Just what was needed after our very full visit to SF which included many cable car and electric trolley rides, visits with friends and museums, and shopping at Trader Joe's. :)

This morning we got up and underway early on our way to Angel Island, a state park in SF bay.  The island has loads of military history and is notorious as an immigration station for the West coast from 1910-1940 because of the detention of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. It's also just a beautiful, natural place to be with great views of the city and the rest of the bay.

After seeing a cannon firing demonstration, and consulting the map in the visitor guide, we set out to walk the whole perimeter road.  With a map scale marked at 400 ft, it seemed reasonable for the five year old legs.  Turns out something is wonky with the map, and the whole hike is 5 miles! Despite the distance, the boys did great. They hiked the whole way with very minimal complaining...it was truly amazing, and fun. 

The Bay Bridge is lit up at night.  This is where we were anchored last night.  The car traffic is way quieter than sea lions!

The boat through the trees on Angel Island. Here you need to tie to mooring balls both bow and stern...something we've never done and that was painfully obvious!  Fortunately people from two separate boats took pity on us came over to help us get our lines on the two moorings.  What a (slightly embarrassing) mess!

Our awesome hikers!

Cannon demonstration!  Golden Gate Bridge in the background.  The cannon was an 12 lb mountain howitzer.  Might have been more cool for Mama than the boys, they were very worried about how loud it would be.

Using dividers to check the scale in the map...we get ~8600 ft, not 5 miles! Sleep happened very quickly tonight!

Tomorrow morning we get underway early to catch the tide through the Golden Gate.  We're sorry to be leaving, but it's feeling like it's time to make southward progress.

We are in San Francisco!

We drove under the Golden Gate Bridge late yesterday evening!  Yes, drove, not sailed, there was only enough wind to sail as soon as we turned the corner to go under the bridge coming out of Bonita Channel....we didn't feel it wise to take the time to put up the sails while current was sweeping us under the bridge just for a photo op.  We are tied up at pier 39  with the sea lions.  They are loud, but not as stinky as I feared.  It's really strange to be in tourist land after spending so much time at Point Reyes National Seashore with very few other people. A tad overwhelming, but it should be a great location for us to do all the things we want to do while in the city.  First on the boys' list?  Cable car rides!  Unfortunately Alcatraz tickets are all sold out and we won't be able to go this time.  Odin was very disappointed, but hopefully that was just the fatigue of the day setting in...hoo boy!

Lars was too distracted looking at the bridge, then a helicopter going under it, then at kite boarders and windsurfers to look at the camera for our celebration shot, too much good stuff!

Just a short post from my phone for now...

Lagunitas Brewery

We left Inverness this evening  (boo!) on our way to the boat in Bodega Bay (yay!).  It was necessary to get dinner on the road, since it was just that time for 5 year old stomachs, and Petaluma offered much better food options than Bodega Bay wven though it was way out of the way.  So Lagunitas Brewery it is! Yummy beer and food, and they brought us peanuts and pretzels.  Happy boys!

We will take a couple of days to get back into living on the boat, take the car to Oakland airport so Fritz and Erin can drive it back to Seattle (amazing huh?!), and then head into pier 39 in San Francisco on Monday, the trip begins!  Yee haw!

Recreating and Relaxing in Inverness

We are so grateful to have had this time to be at Inverness.  Thanks to the generosity of Doug and Joan we've had a lovely and comfortable home base where we can spend the time reconnecting as a family after our hectic summer of preparations. All summer the main theme was "let's divide and conquer so the boys have something to do and the remaining parent can get boat/ preparation work done." Now we need to shift to "let's come together as a family and enjoy this crazy thing we have accomplished."  For our re-connection place to be as lovely as Inverness and the Tomales Bay/ Point Reyes area, we couldn't be any luckier.  As with any transition, there have been rough times.  Tor and I spent all summer with our own separate task lists and we got used to working solo, so re-learning how to communicate has had it ups and downs, but it seems as we are through that transition and we have great family times ahead.

This truly is a magical place.  You take rural cattle ranching land, add rolling hills for visual relief, and then plop it on the edge of either the dramatic Pacific Ocean (at Point Reyes), or the shores of a quiet bay/ estuary (Tomales Bay) where wild life abounds, and you have one of the most beautiful places I've been.  And I grew up in Seattle, I know beautiful scenery! Amazing.

Despite the continuing boat and business to do list, we've taken full advantage of the area, and we still have more to explore!

Checking out the shipwreck in Tomales Bay (Inverness, CA)

Lars as sweater model

Odin as sweater model

The Point Reyes lighthouse

The Pacific Ocean from Point Reyes 

Checking out the view

Lighthouse guys

Lars and Odin

308 steps down to the lighthouse, then back up

Chimney Rock

Elephant Seals hauled out

Sunset in beautiful countryside

Boatshop workers

Sewing Projects abound!

"Welcome to the Boat Yard"

Fixed Dinghy!

Lego play!

Slave Labor

What we used to call and "arm shots," now it's a selfie I guess

Foggy Beach at Abbott's Lagoon

Watching a Great Blue Heron hunt at Abbott's Lagoon

Favorite Road Trip Photos

Odin, Lars, Jenn and I had such a great time on our road trip down to Inverness. Things felt lonely after Jenn went home, she is the best Auntie and Sister you could ask for. Thanks for coming Jenn!

It took us four days and three nights to get here, and the boys did such a great job.  There were a lot of questions from Odin along the lines of, "when are we going to get there?" But he was usually (mostly) satisfied with an answer of "a bit longer," or "every minute we are getting closer." Lars was pretty chill about the whole thing, and enjoyed Where's Waldo books.

Jenn and I took lots of road trips together as kids, so it was really fun to do it as adults with kids along...different perspective for sure! One night on the trip we talked to our Mom and asked her about our trips to Wyoming every summer. I told Mom that, yet again, as my perspective has changed, I see how much she rocked. We did those trips with her as the only adult in a VW rabbit. Tiny car, solo parenting, the amount of positive energy she needed to make those trips fun (and they were) was epic. She rocks!

The first night we camped at Fort Stevens near Astoria and got rained on. We, I mean Jenn, packed up all the wet gear and we never got it out again. The next night we stayed in Coos Bay at a hotel and then were able to connect with Yare while they waited out the storm. Next night we made it to a hotel in Crescent City with an indoor pool after a very late start from Coos Bay. Then we made it all the way to Inverness the next day with only a stop at the Redwoods...the boys were super troopers that day!

We had a few days all together at the cabin in Inverness before the boat arrived and I will say it again, it was so wonderful to have Jenn with us.

Fun times!

Camping at Fort Stevens, glow stick fun!

Tillamook Fun

Stretching our legs on the Oregon coast

What do you think they are discussing?  Geological processes, how
to attain world peace, or what they should build out of drift wood?

Working together

Auntie snuggles in the Redwoods

Majestic tree

Hiking

Earthquake trail at Point Reyes visitor center. See the fence in the
picture?  The other part of it is 16 feet away.  During the 1906 earthquake,
the ground moved enough that the fence split apart by 16 feet.
Jenn and the boys are standing on the San Andreas fault!

Hearts Desire Beach.  The name says it all.

More Auntie snuggles at the cabin