Lake Tahoe

 So we are heading out on our whirlwind adventure vacation. First stop Lake Tahoe. We stayed in Tahoe for one night. Then we went onto Monterey and stayed there for four nights. We ended in Yosemite and stayed two nights before heading home. It was a big U shaped vacation on the map and I thought we did well with each place. Just a little sampling of what each location had to offer.

 Lake Tahoe was full of rock skipping fun. We arrived at our hotel and there was a live band playing right across the street at the Lake's edge. I am sure the entire city came out to hear them because it was crowded! We walked over to enjoy the music and strolled up the shoreline. We discovered monster sized pinecones with pinenuts in them. I picked a few from a tree and we are drying them out to see if we can harvest some fresh pinenuts in a few weeks.

 We were setting up a timed photo here and some nice woman had compassion on us and just snapped it for us.

 This is day two at Tahoe. Ali and I are resting on a cool red bench outside the museum. They sold us trout food to throw to the trout. We could see the enormous trout from the top of the bridge but none of them would come over to eat our food....hummm seems like a bit of a scam going on to me.

 Hiked to the top of Eagles Rock. Beautiful views of the lake and bonus we got to see new species of birds we hadn't spotted before.

 Timed photo from a rock. Not too shabby! Byron set this one up. We had been having timed photo fun on vacations since our honeymoon. Sometime when people offer to take our picture I am disappointed because setting up a successful timed photo is fun.

 Tyler looking rugged and handsome. Looking off into the distance and contemplating life. Probably more like wondering when we are ever going to move on....how long can you stare at a lake anyway?

 Our new favorite photo move is the reach out and snap photo. I always think I look weird if I reach out my arm to snap the photo but Byron is better at managing a good smile and reaching at the same time. Longer arms I guess.

 After our hike we headed up to Squaw Valley, the old Olympic Village to check out the ski resort. We found a great pizza place and spotted a Brewer's Blackbird. New species!

 We promised the kids a swim in the lake so before heading off to Monterey they took a quick snorkel in Lake Tahoe. Quick because it was freezing cold in there not because the parents were pushy and made them get out early.

 Drying off on the warm rocky beach of Lake Tahoe. Dang my kids are cute!

Ali's new nickname is Sunshine because she is brings a ray of sunshine with her wherever she goes. Her hair may be the actual color of the flaming sun. She is always happy, always singing, always whistling or chatting away but she will always bring a smile if her attention is turned toward you.

Monterey

 Looking down onto Lovers Beach. We affectionately nick-named it Poo Beach after we read up on why there were beach closed bio-hazard warning signs on the shore. Apparently the sewer lines are not flushing out to sea properly at this beach on some days. Eeekkk!!! We drove south quite a ways to get out of the Monterey Bay and onto the shores of the good old Pacific Ocean before we set sail to play in the waves.

 Byron was reading a how to ski book while lounging on the beach. What is wrong with this picture?

 Eating at the best burger and wrap restaurant in Monterey....might be the only burger and wrap restaurant in Monterey. The good news is there was this awesome gas fireplace they turned on for us and we all got to warm up after our chilly morning at the beach. Have you ever seen so many jackets on a beach vacation?

 The birds were fond of the rocks we were climbing over. We even found some nesting sites.

 Timed photo from a rock. I had a hard time getting back up there and Tyler is half covered by Byrons hat. Not the best photo ever but rare to have all of us in it.

Lots of crabs on this trip. The kids became expert crab catchers, they could turn over a rock and catch any size crab that happened to be hiding under it.

Carmel-by-the-Sea

 So I probably won't convince you to actually pick up and fly to Carmel in the post but if I could adequately explain the quaintness and cuteness and awesomeness that is Carmel you would stop whatever you are doing and just go there. Let's just say Carmel is my favorite place I have seen, maybe ever in my whole life. I just adore this little sea-side town. I have been telling friends and family anyone who will listen really that at the first opportunity I get I will be buying my 4 million dollar beach home and moving to Carmel. Well, bad news folks because according to the flier I picked up while there I now need 7.9 mill to get a beach front home in Carmel. Oh, crying big tears and weeping with sadness. Seriously though I love this town and it was the highlight of my trip to get to spend the afternoon here.

 Tyler enjoyed himself in a knife store and while I had my back turned for two seconds in a jewelry store Byron and Tyler picked up this little souvenir for Ty. Oh how happy was Tyler? Very happy. He proudly carried that knife around for days, until sadly it was lost somewhere. I take no responsibility for it getting lost. I am sure it will turn up one of these days  here pretty soon but I am enjoying not worrying about him slicing a finger off for a few moments.

 Ali was trying out their cool water fountain mounted into a rock wall at the local park.

 The shops here are full of charm and lots of character. The little cottages (7.9 million dollar cottages) are just as quaint.

 The half door is very common in Carmel. It lets the breeze come through but not any little crabs.

 The kids and Byron stayed down on the beach after we ate lunch under a tree in the shade. I headed back up for another hour of art gallery strolling and shopping. I enjoyed myself immensely without all the little hands to watch over. The kids were very thrilled that I gave them the option to stay and play in the waves on the beach. I entered the realm of cool mom if just for a few moments.

 Not only did we find my perfect cottage below, I also found the most perfect vehicle. How cute is that VW Van? I am in love!

 Ali found this little alley that was charming and contained a secret souvenir shop at the end of it.

Ali told us she liked going to the bakery in Carmel, they did have scrumptous pretzels. Byron said he enjoyed packing and repacking the car a million times....we did do lots of this on our trip, not just this day but every day. Carmel I love you but you may be a little bit chilly for me in the long run. I will just have to come and visit Carmel in the winter months when it is warmer; strange but true. My beach house will have to be located further south so it is more consistently warm. Plus it needs more turtles so I can be the turtle lady. I digress from the vacation at hand. Carmel was a blast and I love love love the idea of the place. Go and visit if you never have, you won't regret it.

Point Lobos State Park

 Byron and I took a trip to California two years ago and found this State Park while we were there. We were so excited to bring the kids with us and explore it again. Point Lobos is an awesome park. We walked along the boardwalks and enjoyed the stunning views. We beach combed and had fun finding treasures of sea glass, red rocks and green rocks.

 China Bay is such a pretty little place. I am not sure what makes the water this emerald green color but it is stunning to look at.

 The Tidal Pools at Point Lobos were so fun. We spent lots of time searching for crabs and fish and anything creepy or swimmy that we could spot.

 Even the moss was pretty at this place.

 We enjoyed this little cave for a bit. This was the mother load of red and green smooth sea pebbles. The kids filled my pockets to over flowing.

 Byron is the sun hat Nazi. He made sure everyone was wearing sun hats as much as possible.

 Carter won the prize with the best find. He leaped and semi-swam out to this little rock he named star fish island. He found six star-fish out on it and had to bring them back for us as no one else dared to go out so far. There was about a five foot drop off between the rock he is standing on in the photo above to the island which is that rock outcrop beyond him. He lept over there and nearly made it all the way. The problem is the landing is mossy and very slick so he did a bit of swimming to get back up onto it.

 He was generous enough to bring a star-fish over to show us not so adventurous types.

 This star-fish was eating a clam when Carter got it off the rock. He pulled gently so he wouldnt break any of the star-fish suckers.

Point Lobos will always be a favorite spot. When we pulled up there was a painter setting up for the day. We did our beach walk and came back a few hours later and he was just packing up. I of course being interested and okay slightly jealous went over to have a look. The short ending of the long story is I bought his painting and we are now enjoying a beautiful momento of our trip. He painted the rocky shoreline of the tidal pools we had played in all afternoon. Now we have a painting of star-fish island. I should take a photo of the painting and post it...I should but I don't know if I ever will.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Day with Anderson's!

We met up with our good friends Debbie and Erik for a fun day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and a dip in the ocean at Moss Landing

 It was fun to see the Kelp Beds from underneath. Much more impressive than looking at the tops that are all over the ocean right now. It is like an underwater forest.

 Carter recently earned his birding merit badge. It has thrown us into the world of birding and we have had fun identifying birds and finding new species. California was a treasure trove of new bird species and we had fun checking off new birds every day. We didn't count the birds we saw at the aquarium but we did learn how to identify a few new ones that we later saw at the beach and were able to check off in our bird book.

 Touch pools are always a favorite!

 These are three of the Andersen's kids who we hung out with for the day.

 Ali got a hold of the camera and took lots of cool underwater fish pictures.

 After the aquarium we were starved so we headed over to the Denis the Menace Park and had lunch.

 Carter enjoyed his lunch while rock climbing....

 Ty loved running across the really long suspension bridge...

 Ali really liked the zip-line and went back and forth many times.

 We made our way to Moss Beach to meet up with the Anderson's for some beach time!

 Moss Landing was a sand dollar graveyard. We found tons of broken sand dollars and a few whole ones. I particularly enjoyed the sand dollar hunting. The kids liked the waves and fully enjoyed the boogy boarding even though the water was well, frigid.