family fest wrap-up: DAYS 2 and 3

Day 2: errands and gettin' stuff done

The second day of the family fest was the one I already gave you the gist of here. I took the nieces on some errands Friday morning, and we were successful in our aquirement of new flip-flops, snacks, and fairy-party necessities.  And it was heavenly to shop without all the kiddos along!  (they stayed with the grands)

Even more heavenly was driving off into the sunset with my parents to go pick up Rebecca at the airport and leaving the Big Girls in charge of their cousins for the evening.  I still can't believe Emily and Sarah made all the cookie dough for the party and headed up the garland-making.  My dear nieces, that was one of many times during that week when your Auntie was so, so blessed by you. : )

So, no pics from Friday.  But lots of fun and blessings!

Day 3: Sea life, and freezing our butts of at Point Lobos, and Carmel-by-the-Sea

I had really wanted to share the little town of Carmel with my sister, to show her the jaw-droppingly gorgeous and uber-relaxing beach, to walk around the town a bit admiring all the quaint architectural detail that money can buy, to dine at one of my favorite little restaurants there, Cafe Nico.  But unfortunately, while the weather was absolutely beautiful that day here in the Santa Cruz area, as we drove South we entered an incredibly heavy belt of fog that lingered on that end of the Bay pretty much all day.  So while the day itself was very fun, it was also a dark, damp and breezy 50 degrees most of the day, and so our experience in Carmel ended up not at all representing the best things about that town.  In other words, I did not get to share with Rebecca the Carmel I know and love.  (And I've discovered, none of us took any good photos while we were there either--except the "good hair" photo I already posted. : )  But everyone had SUCH great attitudes that day, and we hiked amidst dramatic nature till we were sore, and walked around Carmel doing our best to glimpse ts uniqueness until we were exhausted.  But excellent fare at Cafe Nico and some yummy warm drinks afterwards--plus loads of great memories--made it a good day nonetheless.  

On our way down the coast, we first stopped at Moss Landing State Beach, which is the wildest, emptiest beach I have visited in our area:

Moss Landing also gave us amazing, close-up opportunities to view a large group of sea otters, hanging out in the water doing all their normal otter things.  This picture cannot convey how cool this is, folks--at the Monterey Bay Aquarium there is an exhibit people pay money to see that features two otters in a small tank.  We were on an embankment looking down at a wild group of maybe fifty.  The image makes them look like they were much farther away than they really were.  (Good time to double-click to embiggen--I recommend you do this for all the forthcoming nature shots, to better help you see what we were seeing.)

Moss Landing also houses a wonderful group of sea lions!  In fact, while we found the famous sea lions normally residing at Fisherman's Wharf there in San Francisco have moved to better fishing grounds for a season, the numbers there at Moss Landing were strong.  And again, we were so close--the photos make it seem farther--it is so amazing to see them in their natural environment.

From there we went down to Point Lobos, where we hiked and visited the little whaling museum there.  I won't do much describing of the photos--they speak for themselves.

That's not seaweed--it's the top leaves of a kelp forest!

Any of you who appreciate the wild beauty is welcome to come visit!


I love being reminded by adventures like this what a wonderful part of the world we live in--and how we need to appreciate it as much as we can.