Camping with Penny

After the redwoods, we booked it through Oregon to Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Southern Washington. We had camping reservations with Mia and Terry, which meant we would finally get to meet baby Penny! 

S was immediately smitten with Penny and wanted to be close enough to touch her the whole time. 

Penny's first 4 mile hike, all the way up to Falls Creek Falls. 

Parker looking up at the awesome 335 ft. high waterfall. 

Papa Terry at the bottom. 

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest sits adjacent to Mt. St. Helen's National Monument. It was awesome to see it so close, and also to imagine the power of the last eruption in 1980 which blew 2,000 ft. of rock off the top. 

S & P spent their camping time building fairy houses, creek stomping, balance bike riding, playing with other kids, fawning over Penny, and not sleeping.

Next stop...Portland! 

 

NorCal

After Oakland, we headed north to the motherland of hippiedom: Humbolt County. 

But first we stopped off for a quick visit in Vacaville with my Aunt Dorothy and Lyle, who were kind enough to host us for a late breakfast. I'm so glad they got to meet the girls, and it was awesome hearing about Aunt Dorothy's love of backpacking and her adventures around the Sierra Nevadas and American West. 

Rob and Delores' amazing house up a mountain in the redwoods. This house is the stuff of dreams! The property encourages wildlife (like the pond they built that local salamanders made their home) and respects their space and right to thrive (there was bear poop in the yard when we arrived), while also providing R & D a comfortable and modern lifestyle (complete with wifi and a hot tub). 

They have the skeleton of an immature grey whale displayed over the front door of the house. Rob's friend found it, almost fully decomposed, on a nearby beach and he said they spent the whole night digging it up before the tide came in again. The whole house is filled with hundreds of incredible natural and cultural wonders that they have found or purchased on their travels around the world. A few things that come to mind are: a 3 foot tortoise shell, a tapir skull, dozens and dozens of exotic succulents and carnivorous plants, fossils, geodes and other beautiful rocks and minerals, not to mention art pieces and textiles from Africa, South America, and Asia. R & D love to travel and, as as he said it, "Find the weirdest places we can and fully immerse ourselves in them."

When I was in middle school, we took an epic family trip to California and stayed with Rob & Del. Coming from the suburbs of Houston, it blew my mind to see and experience their outdoor, active, and adventure-based lifestyle (traveling, paddling, surfing, and caving are just a few examples). We went on a hike in Redwoods National Park called Fern Canyon, where the sheer walls were completely covered in ferns. I credit that hike with sparking my love of hiking, so it was an awesome experience to complete the circle and take my own kids there with Rob and Del. S&P were in heaven splashing through the cool clear creek and yelling, "This place is a wonderland!"

A bit of perspective to see how high the canyon walls are. If you zoom in you can see Mike & P walking through the canyon. 

S was in adventure mode, finding all kinds of cool things including a banana slug and an oyster mushroom. Turns out banana slugs love to eat oyster mushrooms, which we discovered when she put them on the same leaf together and the slug started chowing down. 

Rob is a retired high school science teacher, and told us that one of his students' favorite things to do on field trips was lick banana slugs because they excrete something that has numbing properties. We weren't sure if he was just messing with us, but I had to find out. It's true! 

After the hike we had a picnic on the beach and caught a glimpse of a seal or sea lion swimming in the surf. 

On the way home from Redwood NP, we stopped to take a short hike to a beautiful view of the coast. 

Our time at Rob & Delores' was too short, but I'm confident we'll be back in a few years when the kids are a little bit older for more adventures and outdoor lifestyle indoctrination. For now, on to camp with Mia & Terry in Southern Washington! 

Bay Area

Out of the woods and into the bustle of the Bay Area!  

We came across this mural while walking back from early morning bagels in Piedmont near Rocky's house.  When the girls have been waking up super early (partly due to time zone change and partly due to sleeping on the road in unfamiliar places) we have done our best to sneak out and let our hosts get an hour or two of extra sleep.

Blackshores!  We met Ashley and Emily, and their two new babies, Avery and Eli, at Faction Brewery on Alameda Island.  Team MMR has grown from 3 to 8.  We are starting to plan our next backcountry adventure...we should be ready to go in about 12 years.  You can go back to our 2007 New Zealand Adventures & our 2011 Alaska Adventure to read about our incredible Team MMR adventures together.

After our Team MMR reunion, we went to Matty and Arli's house for a pizza party with Team USA 2013 teammates.  One of Matty's many specialties is homemade pizza.  It was great catching up with some of our frisbee friends.  Opi, Cree and Dan, George, Emma, and Nancy were all there.

Amari, Matty's oldest daughter, was awesome!  So kind and playful.

Rocky's dog, Noodle is double Hudson at about 120 pounds!  The girls had a great time walking and playing with him.

Rocky and Titus were kind enough to hang out and host us in Oakland.  Rocky is a friend we met later in our Ultimate careers although I had played against him a few times when he played on Revolver.  Besides being a superstar on sand, he's super generous, active, playful, and easy to be around.  He welcomed our sometimes rambunctious crew in without hesitation and made us feel at home instantly.  He is also the founder of Ultimate Impact which is a non-profit focused on helping the youth of Oakland through ultimate frisbee. If you are in a giving mood, his organization is doing great things and has been steadily growing since 2016 and could use your help to hire more coaches and full time staff.  

We had an awesome time with Rocky doing living room workouts, trail runs, an ultimate workout/throwing sesh, sushi supply shopping, so many delicious meals and conversations over a few drinks.  Possibly most importantly he taught me about "Devils and Angels" and how they never mix.  Devils are kitchen towels used for cleaning, especially if it touches the floor, and Angels are the towels used for drying and other not so dirty tasks.  Cara was especially happy for me to hear this from someone else besides her.

Rocky set up a hang with Josh and his family for an afternoon of swimming and Dinosaur Train for S&P and Jessie (Josh's son), and ping-pong for the adults! We had a great time in Sonoma at their beautiful place.

Tal and Jenna recommended we take the girls to the Berkeley Marina playground which is a huge maker space for kids.  S&P had an hour to grab a bucket full of tools: a hammer, saw, clamp and some nails or pails of paint and just go at it.  It was easily the fastest hour of the trip.  

Parker was a huge fan of the paint, while Sybil practiced hammering and learned how difficult hand saws are to use.

We went into San Francisco for a morning to play tourist. We gawked at the sea lions at the pier, caught a glimpse of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, ate doughnuts, and drove down Lombard street...all in 2 hours! Sybil has been excited to ride in a cable car ever since Jenna gave us the book "Maybelle the Cable Car" (which is awesome), but it will have to wait for another trip since they were still closed due to COVID. 

Next stop: Humboldt county and more huge trees!