Camping Therapy

This camping trip was planned months ago and it could not have come at a better time! We all needed it. Time to get away from the daily grind. Time with each other. Time to enjoy God's creation.
The first day we got there the weather was gorgeous! Bright blue sky, a gentle breeze, and warm temperatures. Our site was on the edge of a small cliff, over looking the beach of the Pacific Ocean. It was awesome...

Our campsite and the ocean.

Looking up at our tents from the water line.

After we all pitched in to get camp set up, the boys didn't waste anytime getting into the water...

Later, Magnus spotted something in the water. It was a whale! Turns out, there were at least 3 of them and they were Gray Whales. We spent a good hour watching them spout, breach, and play 100 yards from us. It was awesome! I couldn't get very good pics, so you will just have to take my word for it!

The night was a little rough as it dipped below 50 degrees and the wind pounded the sides of the tents. However, we woke up with a whole day ahead of us. We cooked breakfast and headed south on Hwy. 1. Our first stop took us to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

We also enjoyed watching the Brown Pelicans fly by...

Then we traveled on to Santa Cruz. We took a walk on Natural Bridges State Beach.

This is a really cool fossilized leaf (at least that is what it looked like to us) we found on the rocks. Perfect teaching opportunity since we are in the midst of our dinosaur study!

My boys in front of the natural bridge. Apparently a large section that connected the seen rock with a rock to the left, forming a "natural bridge", has broken off. If you click on the picture you will be able to see a bunch of Brown Pelicans sitting on the rock.

These cool patterns could be seen all over the rock formations we were climbing on. They were amazing!

And of course, no trip to Santa Cruz is complete without checking out the local surfers.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at my favorite beach...Pescadero. This place is rocky and has many great spots for tide pooling. The last time we were here we were able to observe many, many sea lions and hermit crabs. This time we were not so lucky. But we did find some of these...

And so...the sun sets...