Yosemite: Spring Break 2013

Yay, Spring Break!!!  And Yay for Brian having vacation to take a vacation.

We took the train/bus to Yosemite to stay in the Curry Village tent cabins. I assure you, they had 300% less contamination than last year.


Brian will have more to add. But here are the first round of pictures.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Horse walk

A few weekends ago Dawn and I took the kids on a walk to go see the horses that are pastured near us.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Burrowing Owl Hike

The Cesar Chavez park near the Berkeley Marina, hosts a few Western Burrowing Owls each winter.  The burrow site is just above the bay, and right next to an off-leash dog park. Sounds a bit, um, incongruous, but nature is funny that way.

We headed out after school to hike out to see if we could see any feathered friends.

Who dressed the wee one????

At the Northeast end of the park was the cordoned off area protecting the owls.  We looked and looked, but apparently there are no owls this season. 

We still had a great time and the girls did fantastic on a 1.25 mile hike. 

Ladybug Hike!

My girls like ladybugs.  Really like ladybugs.  Who doesn't, they're the cheeriest and friendliest beetles around. 

So when my friend E told me about a short hike, practically in our back yard, that would reward us with thousands of ladybugs, all piled together I immediately said, "when can we go?!"

Just 2 miles from our house, as the crow flies, is Redwood Regional Park.  It's many trails wind through the rolling hills, ridges, and canyons that separate Orinda from Oakland. With oaks, bay and eucalyptus making the top of the hills fragrant, the bottoms shaded by serene redwood, Redwood Park offers many wonderful hikes close by. 

And every winter, between November and Feb, thousands, maybe millions of ladybugs descend on the park during their migration.  They stop.  They wait. They huddle.  They rest. I have no idea what they are doing there but it is quite magical.

We started off on the 3 mile loop at the Skyline Staging area, heading down the Stream trail.  The shaded, peaceful hike took us half way through the loop, where the Stream trail met with the Prince trail.

This was the place. 

There were thousands of ladybugs.  A red carpet of ladybugs. So many ladybugs!  

Mostly they were massed together in clumps along the ground, covering leaves, stems, branches.  A few were scattered along the trail and it made me nervous to step anywhere lest I smoosh some of these beautiful little beetles. 

The littles couldn't resist saying a gentle "hi" to one or two of the wee red friends. 

The ladybugs showed us which way to go.  How considerate. 

All too soon it was time to go.  We still had 1.5 miles to walk back, and it was mid afternoon.  We had another small snack and headed back up the Prince Trail, then back to the car via the Ridge Trail. If the girls and boys were tired their energy and spirit soon returned, as the Ridge trail is a favorite off-leash area for walking dogs.  We petted every single dog on the way back. 

I was so impressed with the kids.  Erin did the whole hike and never needed to be carried.  Robin only went in the Ergo a few times, and only briefly.  The other two boys we were with were just as energetic.  The 3 miles took 2.5 hours, but that included LOTS of stopping, examining, exploring.  We were all happy, and exhausted. 

Angel Island Camping - August 2011

We did it!  We backpacked for 2 nights with an almost-4 year old and 18 month old.  Before the trip, I was questioning our sanity, but it was quite an easy introduction to non-car camping.

We took the ferry from Tiburon to Angel Island.  The grown-ups anticipated carrying the gear and having Erin in the Bob stroller, Robin in the Ergo in a front-carry.  It was MUCH easier, however, to cart all the gear in the stroller and hoist the kids.  Erin even figured a new way to ride in the stroller, atop the canopy, and imagined herself to ride a horse named "Lala" all weekend.

Our site was remote (heck, there's only 10 on the island), and was a bit windy, but we had incredible views of the East Bay.  The evening/morning fog kept temperatures kind, and pesky wildlife was limited to a few raccoons.

We hiked about the island, checking out this historical sites, including the West Coast's Ellis Island equivalent and an army base used throughout WWII.  It was sobering to have such crumbling monuments nearly next door to where we live. We ended the day with a hike to the top of the island, Mt. Livermore.  Perfectly clear weather permitted a spectacular 360 view of the bay area, complete with the picturesque San Francisco skyline, the Golden Gate, Richmond, Berkeley (we could see the UCB campanile!), Tiburon and more.

This was the 3rd summer camping trip so the girls were total camping pros.  But backpacking limited the gear (toys, books, etc) we could bring.  The girls did just fine, making up lots of fun games and being generally energetic and silly. Plus, they got to eat SPAM.  I think there will be more backpacking in the future!

Of course, there were TONS of pictures.  And movies.  But pictures for now:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Big family outing......

As in big outing, with the family.

Last Saturday we had an Adventure day.  We started with a hike up Vollmer peak in Tilden Park, atop the Berkeley hills.

Then we went to the Berkeley Marina to picnic with some chums and let the kids run wild and free.  First we hit the plain playground. Then we went here.  Really, places where kids can freely wield hammers, saws, paintpots, awls, and vice grips should be the norm.

Admission to this wondrous, imaginative playground?  Free.  Well, Erin had to do some chores to earn her tools: pick up stray nails or large splinters and the like.

Even Robin agreed it was #1 cool.

Pronunciation part I

Timothy Lake

We escaped the hot temperatures in Portland today to take a hike to Timothy Lake.

We had kept Erin up two hours late last night, and Ms A and I were up at 4 AM due to our kitties crying in the middle of the night due to the fan we had on ("You're fine, kitty, go to bed. Or I'm going to make a hat out of you. I'm serious. Don't make me do it."), so there was a good deal of groggy stumbling, plus napping in the car.

Anywho, we got free Smokey the Bear stuff from the ranger, saw the incredibly clear water of Little Crater Lake, picnicked in the woods, killed many, many mosquitoes, and took a swim in Timothy Lake. The water was perfect -- I haven't heard Erin laugh as hard as I did today swimming with her.

McMiller Rating: Awesome+.