Home?

We made it back to Monterey!  Home?  So strange to think that we are not in Texas and yet we are home.  I love this opportunity to be here but it still seems so odd to me.  I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that we have not lived here for the lost two months...three for Michael, but everyone back in Texas expects to already be settled into life here in California.    I would not have traded the time in Washington for anything; however, I knew it was getting to be a long stay when I started telling people there that I had just MOVED there from Texas.  WHAT!?!?!  I am not LIVING here...I am just VISITING!!!  But it was a nice place to visit.


SO...how do I make this California house a home?  First step...Most of all...just bringing EVERYONE back together in one place.  Meeting Michael at the airport back in Washington was the first step in that process.  We are so happy to be together again.  It makes all the time away from each other wipe away.
No more I am staying here...you are staying there and some others there.  We are all living under one roof.  Having this adventure together!  YAY!!!!

Step two...start unpacking our things...putting photos on the wall...putting our things away...and making sure all my crosses and religious items are out.  When the house looks "normal" then it begins to feel normal.  And then we feel comfortable enough and confident enough to spread our wings and follow through with the last step to this process...

Step three...discovering the area around us.  I think you will all agree from these adventures that we are starting to make this house a home...and embracing our time here in California.

Found the library...

The boys were at a teen event the day after we arrived.  They played interactive games with other youth their age.  Great motivator to get out of the house instead of sleep...even though we probably could use a little more sleep after our travels!

One library was not good enough for us, so the following day we went to a second library to watch a clown act (Coventry and Kaluza) for the younger ones.  It was very well planned and funny for everyone to enjoy!

Then back to the first library for the weekend to see a performance with Pete the [Groovy] Cat.  It was a groovy show but it reminded us of Miss Elizabeth who introduced us to these books.  We miss you and want you to know that no one can replace you!

The following week we went to a folk singer who paid tribute to Woody Guthrie as it was his birthday.  He told stories with his songs while he played his guitar and autoharp.  He told us that he is one of the few singers who makes his living telling stories.  Maybe you have heard of him (Adam Miller) as he travels all over the United States.

Then we enjoyed a marionette group (Fratello Marionettes) who performed a combination of "The Tortoise and the Hare," "The Three Little Pigs," and "The Ugly Duckling" to the musical composition "Carnival of Animals."  They did a great job and even let the children ask questions and "meet" the puppets after the show.  I really appreciated seeing the show, but also that fact that the children were fascinated with the puppets and the classical music.

The library is giving us an opportunity to continue this delve into the classical arts with a Bach concert.  It is also in a cute little town we drove through named Carmel-by-the-Sea.  We cannot wait!

Found the chapel...

Mass on Sunday at the chapel.  I do not know if this is where we will go to church while in California.  However, the other parishioners are happy to see our big family walk in the door and definitely making us feel welcome.  The priest is here going through language school as well so he is a good fit for the soldiers.  We are going to try going to the local Catholic church because we want the children to be around others their age, but maybe this is where we need to be for this short time.

Found some caches...

One of the main reasons I love geocaching is because it takes us places we never would have found on our own.  I decided to use this to our advantage when we had some time on the weekends.  We have now reached over 200 caches since we started this hobby a year ago.  Here are some of the places we have visited in the last two weeks:

We drove down the main strip called Cannery Row.  One day soon I hope we can actually walk down through all the stores and attractions.  We did manage to stop for ice cream at a Ghiradelli ice cream shop.  Did you know they make their chocolate here in California.  We also hope to visit their main factory in the near future as well.  We also found tributes to John Steinbeck  that we want to view as well.

Ocean View Blvd is a road that travels right along the coast.  It was easy to stop along the way for caches and just enjoying the beach.  The beach is very rocky here and we learned that swim shoes would be very helpful when we decide to try this trip again.  One cache that we were determined to find was out from the beach on a large rock formation.  I wish I had videoed the group trying to reach the coordinates.  It was high tide and there was no way to make it there but the boys made every effort to try.  We will need to find this one during a low tide.

Point Lobos Reserve was full of caches but I centered in on four Earth caches because it gave us several geographical locations of interest.  We were able to view harbor seals, fossils, conglomerate beds, and even an area designated for birthing area for seals (We spotted one as it came out of the water but never saw it again to take a picture.).

SIDE NOTE:  Michael had been on duty the night before and I only brought a change of clothes without shoes.  He chose to go barefoot (not normal for him) and the paths were very rocky.  Poor guy had sore feet by the end of the day.

Edward decided he did not want to go to the beach.  He stayed in the van.  I thought he was being dramatic and pouting.  So he only saw things from the van window and is not in any of the pictures. Poor guy ended up being sick...fever and vomiting later in the day.

Santa Cruz is only a short drive away and had heard there was a museum of interest for the children along with other sites.  However, it was a geocaching event that finally got us in our car for a brief visit.  We were able to go to the natural history museum as well as view the beach, board walk, and grab an earth cache (telling us about the shift in the river that empties into the bay) before going to the event at a park.  We were even the first to arrive and earned ourselves a new geocoin!  We will need to come back here to explore some more.


SIDE NOTE:  Notice the dog in the group picture.  This is a trackable dog...you can follow on the Log Your Dog website.  Sienna has traveled over 1500 miles in the last three years!  Very impressive!

There are so many things to see within a short drive from our home...that's right...I said home...at least for the short time we are here...loving the experience!  We are so thankful for this amazing opportunity!  Praise God!

Down the Coastal Roads

May 27-July 5 for myself and Edward, Brendan and Zaira

June 22-July 5 for Sean and Henry

But Michael was only allowed a four day weekend over the Fourth of July holiday, which ended up being two days of family time before driving back.  We had to allow some time to drive back!  Of course, we could not do anything easy...we had places to see along the way.  It turned out to be two 18 hour days (over 1000 miles) but it was well worth the effort to have everyone together and see as much as we could along the way.

Here are the details for the trip back to Monterey:

July 5

We were up before dawn...I fought off a raccoon that thought the diaper wipes would make a good breakfast...he took them right out of my hands!  I had to repack the back of the van because SOMEBODY (not mentioning names) did not put things where he was asked...but we were off in record time.  Little Madison even woke Christina and Shane so they could all say good-bye with a kiss.  SO hard to leave them but it was time to get back and make our house in California a home.

Best part about the early morning drive out of Bremerton...a bald eagle escorted out of town...it flew right beside us over the bay.

We could not resist a quick look at the Olympic National Park, so we drove around the lower part of the mountain and made a side trip into the Staircase Ranger Station.  We left early enough to see the park without a lot of disturbance.  Maybe a little too early as we arrived before eight in the morning.  We started on a trail but a large tree had fallen and it would have taken us to far off the path to continue.  We returned to the station and Michael happened upon a park ranger who was able to give us a junior ranger booklet and suggest a path down by the lake.

We were also able to drive near the coast on the west side of the park before continuing south to the next stop.  We would cross over the Columbia River on a four-mile bridge.  This river was so wide...I can only imagine what Lewis and Clark must have thought when they arrived at the mouth of this river.  We would learn more at the Lewis and Clark National Historic Site.

This park was the best stop...many might not even come this way, but it is worth the trip.  We were able to pick up our junior ranger books just in time to walk to the path to the fort.  On the way, we met a volunteer who encouraged us to meet the ranger giving a talk on hides.  He was not only talking to the group but dressed the part.  We found out that all the rangers at the fort were dressed for the era.  We met a ranger who played a harmonica. We had time to walk down a wetland path before watching a demonstration with a flintlock.  This included a great story about the time the expedition came across a grizzly bear that took nine bullets to bring down.

We left the park and drove down the coast looking for whales.  We stopped at one spot to take pictures and were convinced we saw whales.  We even told the others that stopped at the viewpoint to look for them.  We took several pictures but we will never know if what we saw were whales or not.  It was getting late in the day so we decided to change our course.  We stopped in the town of Newport for dinner at a buffet.

Someone mentioned there was a lighthouse up the road and I thought that would be a good place for a geocache.  Yes!  This made me even more determined to go to the lighthouse.  It was probably the best surprise of the entire trip!  We arrived at Yaquina Lighthouse just as a ranger was setting up for a program.  He had a telescope st up to see the harbor seals and common murres that were on rocks just off the beach.

Along with this set up, we were told this was the perfect time of day to discover tidal pools on the beach.


The ranger made the "mistake"of asking if we had any questions.  We had so many questions for him that he finally told me that we needed to slow down.  We were too excited for that...this was our first real sight of seals.

Then the children went down to the tidal pools and saw green sea anemones and barnacles.  After an hour of watching the children, I realized we were not going to make it to our hotel for the night until very late.  So, we made our way to the lighthouse where we met another park ranger.  She was very excited to show us her telescope that was set up to see the bald eagles...not one but several were in the area.  We were able to watch these birds in action among the sea gulls and common murres.

Then as we walked back to the van, we happened to see the strangest thing...the sea gulls were attacking one of the eagles!  We could hardly believe our eyes as we watched the eagle almost fall into the water!

By the time we got back in our van and drove to the hotel it was after midnight!  BUT it was worth the long day to see everything we discovered.

July 6


Believe it or not...we were back in the van by 7am the next day.  We were determined to start the day with two goals...see the Redwood Forest and make it back to Monterey (not really an options since Michael had to sign in by midnight).

Within an hour on the road, we had arrived at our first goal.  Little did we know that this park actually expands down the coast line...from the parks edge to right above San Francisco.  It it a national park that is connected by several California state parks.  We would be in the Redwoods most of the day!

We were given a special path just for us to follow to help us reach San Francisco (knowing we had another hour after this to make it back to Monterey) thanks to a kind park ranger and we were off...

We followed a rough dirt road through a massive forest of trees.  It was mainly a one lane road so we had to try to pull to the side if we met a vehicle coming from the other direction.  It was only 5 miles but at the speed we were going it took us almost an hour.  We stopped at one place a little too long but we had to have one of the boys hop out and have a picture taken with the trail dedicated to the Boy Scouts as a nod to my brother Nathan.  One of the things we were told to look for while we traveled through the woods was the banana slug.  We did not see any on this trek as it was way to dusty for a slug.  We would continue to look for this creature throughout the day.


We made it back to the main highway and followed the coastal road that seemed to show just glimpses here and there along the way.  I have to admit I was a little disappointed as I thought it would be like the movies with coast on the very edge of the road, but it was still a nice road to travel.

We were determined to find the drive thru tree and we thought it was funny because it is not part of the park at all.  We actually paid $6 to drive through a tree in someone's back yard!  An iconic photo that we will never forget.

Still no signs of banana slugs and we were getting hungry so I finally decided we had to get back to the coast for lunch.  We stopped in the coastal town of Trinidad where we found a little restaurant right on a pier.  We actually watched the fishermen coming and going during our meal.  Some of the boys even chose to wait for their food by walking on the pier.  Edward came running back to tell us that he had found sea stars on the rocks, but we decided to eat lunch before letting him take us to the spot.  It was great food and perfect place for us to stop and enjoy the view.

We took a short path off the road to find the last visitor center associated with the park to turn in our junior ranger books.  We were also told to be sure to stop at the Big Tree.  On the road, we saw the sign and stopped right away...we got out and got a picture with the tree...very impressive.  But then a few yards down the road, a sign pointed to a parking lot with another sign for the Big Tree.  We got out a second time and took a short path to A VERY BIG TREE!!!!!  It was so big we could not reach from side to side with all of us linked together!  SO glad we stopped the second time.  Not only did we see the Big Tree...BUT we also found a BANANA SLUG!!!!  YAY!!!!

Imposter Big Tree

Real BIG TREE!

We had no plans to stop again until we came to San Francisco...however, bathroom stops could not be avoided...at one cry for potty, we pulled into the Humboldt State Park.  It was a great path to drive and at the park we saw several Stellar Jays which are the most beautiful birds (My pictures do not do them justice...but I show you one anyway.).

Our last hoorah of the day was driving over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.  I do not know if we were just giddy from exhaustion but it just seemed like a wonderful landmark to see.  After driving across this iconic bridge we knew we were only an hour from Monterey.  Looking at the time, we were going to be lucky to make the midnight deadline.

We pulled up to the base gate at 2330...relieved that we had made it...then we realized that a truck just in front of us was being inspected...actually torn apart!  We will never know what the soldier did to receive this inspection but he was being handcuffed right in front of us!  Michael had to call in to check in for his leave...we finally got him taken care of and arrived back at the house at 0100.

What a trip!  I would not change it for the world...definitely will not forget the experience!

Fourth of July

What could I possibly say...the best thing to do is just show pictures of our last day in Bremerton celebrating Independence Day.  God bless America!