We are back home, safe and sound. Here is our trip story with pictures. Link to full pictures (that have discriptions) at the end.
We had hope to leave about 8:30am but we left around 10am. Drove from her to Melpites and stopped at a mall there to eat lunch and check out a store i wanted to see (will for sure go back!). Then got back on the road. We were almost there (got onto the last hwy) and found out that the streach that we were on was a one lane highway with hairpin turns. It took us about 30 minutes to drive the whole 8 miles of that road.
We finally got at the camp ground headquarters, needing to go pee and a few grey hairs. Here is boo just outside of where you check in.
Then we went to our campsite. Set up the tent and unpacked what we needed. Once everything was set up we went out to explore our area. We found a cool area with a fallen tree making a bridge. Could not cross it but got to see a creek up close. Then boo made friends! And then she climbed the fallen tree!! Then hid under it too.
We went back to camp and cooked corn, chili, and cheesebugers for dinner. After dinner was over we rosted marshmellos and made smores. This all was a first for boo and she LOVED it. :) then we went to sleep (around 11pm) because we were going to get up at 5 am to get to the tide pools while it was still low tide.
I took forever to go to sleep, and heard a few critters outside, but i slept for a short bit. We woke up at 5am and started getting ready for the day. Ate breakfast and then off we went. We had to drive back out on the winding road. Saw some great shots of the hills with the fog just sitting there. We got on this one road (thought to be a short cut) and there was NO straight part to this road at all. We could kiss the ground when we got on hwy 1.
We went to the tide pools at Moss Beach area. Sadly the tide was already well coming in and fast. So it was a short trip. Mostly just saw hermit crabs and muscles and urchens. Boo was given some lessons on seaweeds. She held a hermit crab she named "hermie". then we saw some seals or sea lions. we could not get close enought to tell the differance. They were watching us and the ones still out in the ocean were swimming closer to us and stairing. we thought it would be BEST to leave before they came upon the shore with us. (for those that dont know, they can be deadly to be around. they will attack)
From there, we cruzed down Hwy 1 to Santa Cruz. We thought to stop in Half Moon Bay and went to the State beach there. It was quite cold and windy. Boo worked on making a sand castle. I went to hunt for shells for her. No luck at this beach though. After a bit, it was just too cold and windy, so we left.
Started cruzing down the hwy some more and turned on the cell. there was a voice mail so we stopped on the side of the road. While Mel checked her messages and returned calls, I got out and took some great shots! the cliff i was on gave away easy so i did not go very far out on it or stayed out long.
Then we drove a bit more. Saw a neat looking bluff and cliff. We thought to pull over and check it out sense there was a parking lot. We got some good shots of the ocean. Nice one of boo on the cliff. Another one of me and her. Then I went exploring on the one side close to the ocean. I tried really hard to get wet and fall in. Saw some muscles and a cool cove. Then i hiked back up from that look out point. Then went out over the cove i saw. Mel took a few pics of me out there. Then hiked down the natural dranage and took more shots of the cove (this time i really did try to fall off the cliff to get the shot!) and some of the beach there with the ocean feeding the river.
We saw more seals off this cliff. I tried really hard to get a close up shot from the top of the cliff. I thought i got a good one here. :)
After we were done here (and i saw this PRETTY flower), we got back on the hwy. We saw this old light house and turned off. It was Pigion Point Light House. They have a hostel here that you can stay in. The light house is closed down for rehablitiation. I thought it needed it because of all the rust it had. But you could walk around and get some really good shots of all the pacific ocean and rocks coming out.
We then hiked down to the beach there, because we saw people out sunning. So we thought it HAD to be warm there. And boo really wanted to find some sea shells. boy did we hit pay dirt there!!! Mel and Boo were hunting. I had saw before the different beaches. And from up top, it looked like you could get to all of them. So i just HAD to check it out. I got to see some crabs. Sam stayed hidden under his rock. Bob was chilling on the rock, while Susie was trying not to get her picture taken. (i named the crabs! :))
Boo only saw this crab. It was dead, but at least she got to see one. She found some cool shells. Climbed on a lot of rocks. This is a beach will will be having to go back and seeing this again. There was like no wind and it was warm there. We got a couple of pictures taken of us and a good one of Mel.
We got back on the hwy and ended in Santa Cruz. This is the first time i have ever STOPED there. Oh boy, i'm going back here too. I. MUST. GO. ON. THE. RIDES!!!!!! Anyways, we walked out on the pier. Mel pointed out some stuff to Boo. I could see the mini-light house from the pier. Then Mel showed boo some fish, octopuse and squid (fresh catch! eeewww). Then we walked to the end to see the seals we could hear. I caught part of one. And here we finally found some starfish for boo (main reason we went to tide pools was because of starfish). There was some really big ones. Trying to get the shots of them was hard because they were way down there and not enough light.
From there we went back to the camp site. We wanted to go to the campfire program, but did not make it in time. So we ate, this time corn, chili, and hot dogs. Then we roasted marshmellos again (no smores tonight) and boo had a bloody nose. Which i knew would happen. Me and Mel tried to play some card games that i know, but i could not remember the rules. Then we went to bed.
Got up this am (friday), and packed up the camp site. we had to check out at noon, so we did so quickly. We went on a hike to one of the falls there at the place we stayed. It was not much to see. Then we went to check out and took the "easy" route of the hike where you could see different things. Met Buddy. he is a squarl or a chipmuck. Not sure which. We saw a tree that fell in 1998. we saw a tree that was all burned out and part of it missing. the view looking up was cool.
Then we saw a tree they call the "chimney tree". It was hollowed out on the inside, yet still growing at the top. You could see the sky and a branch if you look up from inside the tree. We then saw the the "zoo" tree. see if you can find any animals in the wood. Then one that the base you could sit or stand on and climb. Then we saw the "mother" of the forest top. Its like over 300 feet tall. And the "father" of the forest. It is apx 2000 years old and the base of the tree (if you were to cut it) would mesure apx 16 feet long. Its really wide.
Then we got to see the base of the "mother" tree. There was a fire years and years ago, that hollowed out part of the tree. Its now growing back. Then there was a medow. It use to be a swamp. they drained it in 1942. made it into a pool. then let it grow back to being a medow in 1956 for health reasons.
From there we drove home. Here is a shot of one of the roads on the way out.
And that was our trip. we all had a really good time. Boo got some bug bites (misquitos), i got a bit of the sun (red face). And we all did not want to leave. there was so much more we wish we could have seen and do. So going back will have to happen.
here is a link to the full photo album. Anything that was lined above has links to a picture from that part of the day.
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