For spring break this year we had the idea of taking a road trip to southern California -- a last hurrah before "Agent P' joined our family in June. I realized a few weeks ahead of spring break, on a drive to San Francisco for a friend's 40th birthday party, that spending 8 hours or more in a car, no matter how charming the company, was not going to work for me at 30+ weeks of pregnancy :-(. SPL and I also were recovering from upper respiratory bugs and SPL, an ear infection, so we had to delay our plans due to that as well.
So we opted for a close to home vacation at Costanoa, a beautiful
on the Pacific Coast. The boys had planned to get a canvas tent (on a cement block) and "rough it" a bit together while I got a cabin with heat as I was still on antibiotics. Well, due to the wind and the noise it created in the canvas tent, John and SPL decided to join me in the heated cabin :-). It was still a bit of "roughing it" as the bathrooms were a walk away out doors (no small issue for a pregnant lady, I might add :-). It was
and much more fun as well.
We had a easy paced vacation seeing a local goat farm on day one. SPL loved that the
would
and I told him to get prepared as his little brother-to-be will do the same :-). We noticed that there were llamas in the pasture with the goats and learned that llamas are great protectors as they will encircle a threatened herd of goats and use their strong legs to kick any approaching predator (e.g. coyotes).
On day two we found our way to Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals. The males had all gone back to sea but the juveniles and the females were still on the beach and
-- we even almost stepped on one on the walk in as it was
near the path and looked like a large rock. SPL and John also had fun
and
from the top. SPL had a question for the docent that was volunteering on the beach: what were the 2 small skeletons that we saw on the walk in? The answer: they were 2 skeletons of pups that had been killed by a bull elephant seal.
There were many
as we drove up and down Highway 1. Didn't capture
as
but we enjoyed ourselves :-).
This was the funniest photo we took:
at a local art shop along Highway 1.
On day 3, we visited Pigeon Point lighthouse. It's condemned and supporters are trying to secure funding so it can be restored but for now no one can go inside. So we were left with having
snapped from the vista point. We also went to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at the recommendation of a friend and it did not disappoint. We had to time it just right: low tied was at minutes to 5 pm. We had to go pretty far out on the rocks but it was worth it:
,
, and mussels everywhere (they looked like rocks at first so it was important to watch where we stepped). I was bummed as the battery on my camera was out so I didn't get as many photos as I'd planned but that's also good (as John always reminds me) as I can be more present with the experience :-). Here's one of
Our last day in Costanoa was Easter and Costanoa sponsored a huge egg hunt. People come from all around to participate -- we had no idea!Â
-- even found a golden egg (only a few of those). Here he is in a tree
 After the egg hunt we found a
and headed home. All in all a relaxing, fun spring break. Just what we needed!