Shipyard was pretty tough on me this year. In a lot of ways I feel like it took a little piece of me, maybe took some days off my life, or something. I haven’t ever to this day felt the stress or burden that I did during that period of days. I’m not saying that I couldn’t handle it, because I did, but what I am saying is that it wasn’t easy.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, when you experience a seriously stressful event like that the thing you lose is your sense of adventure. Your sense of the very thing that I celebrate here on this website, and over the last few days I’ve come to realize that I’m not about to give that up. To be honest with you, I’ve come too far to give up now. Many people wander through life going from one negative experience to the next, and I don’t want to be one of them. A couple of years ago I made a conscious decision to be the person that chooses to go from one positive experience to the next, and I’m not about to give that up.

In my effort to regain my soul, I decided to make a trip to the ocean. I knew that I needed to spend a night camped on the beach and I knew that there was only one place I would be able to do that. Pismo Beach, or more specifically Oceano Dunes OHV area. Oceano is a huge set of dunes and beach that are open to the public and they allow people to drive right on the beach. It’s a very special thing, and quite a sight to see.

The kids and I made the journey down, about a 7 hour drive from home, to the dunes. We didn’t make it down until after dark, which in a way added to the suspense of the trip. We were all set up, camped out when it hit me. We are camping RIGHT on the ocean! No matter how many times I do it I am still amazed at how soothing it is to sleep with the waves in the background.

The next morning we woke up with the sun, took some pretty solid pictures and stomped around on the dunes for a while. Even with all of those people the place still creates a sense of serenity.

After breakfast we took a look at some of the sand rails and atv’s as they blasted their way over the dunes. These machines are truly a testimony of the ability of man to conquer any terrain. There were so many high dollar, high quality rigs running around, it truly was impressive.

Once the sand toys settled down a bit we went just down the road a bit and had a look at the monarch butterfly habitat. The butterflies were pretty cool, but all the kids wanted to do was catch them! Since this wasn’t allowed, I quickly snapped a couple of pictures and we went on our way.

We decided after a while to hit the road and make a side trip on the way back home. My friend Tim told me about a place called Pinnacles National Monument that we should stop and take a look at on the way home.

The Pinnacles are a set of rock formations formed by fault lines coming together, and they reminded me of something I would have found in Colorado. It was a miniature version of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, would be my take on it. Really, the park was nothing more than a nice backdrop for a bbq, and maybe a good place for a hike or two.

I took the kids down to the Santa Cruz, California area to see the ocean and some redwoods last weekend. I’ve been wanting to get back to this area for some time, it really is a beautiful place. For a short part of my childhood I lived in Santa Cruz and we would visit the redwoods occasionally, so I knew that my kids would enjoy the visit as much as I used to.

As is normal, I didn’t get to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but take a look at the ones I got and enjoy.

We pulled into Friday Harbor, WA today after transiting through Canada the last few days and it signifies the end of the line. We will drop anchor tonight outside of Seattle, then it’s all over for the Alaska season officially.

Tomorrow night we make the 36 hour journey down the coast to the Columbia river. With some luck we will have calm seas, but I’m not holding my breath. Only time will be able to tell….

Hopefully I’ll be able to post some more pictures up tomorrow, but it may have to wait till we get to Portland.

Sawmill lake is a “classic” camping spot for me, it has a long history in my life. My first solo 4×4 camping trip with my now deceased friend Preston was to this lake. Countless early 20′s camping trips and best of all my daughter was conceived there.

Our trip up the mountain wasn’t as eventful this time, though it was my sons first time to this place and we did do some testing and photo stuff. The weather has been awesome here lately so heading up to 6500 feet I knew it’d be just right for us.

Sawmill lake is a fairly small lake positioned above the popular Bowman lake and just below a small lake named Faucherie. It’s around 20 miles north of the Interstate 80 and highway 20 intersection which is 60 miles west of Reno, Nevada and 70 miles east of Sacramento, California.

There’s many reasons to love this lake, from the water fall on the south side to all of the dead trees to paddle through. I also don’t mind the picturesque mountain tops surrounding it, and the Grouse Ridge trail to walk up them and take a look.

We did give the new 12 volt fridge a test on this run. Look out for the write up on that when I get my laptop back in a couple days here. I will say it’s a great piece of equipment and it’s amazing to be able to have cold food with no ice bath.

Look out for pictures soon, too!

We spent day two in Monterey at the Aquarium. This is one of the coolest places ever. The last time I visited the Aquarium I was in the second grade, and I had some great memories of it. This trip was even better than I remember.

The Aquarium has several interesting displays, with the sea otters taking the lead for the most popular, of course. I found the Jelly fish the most intriguing, personally. The kids enjoyed the petting section, where they got to touch the stars and other cool things, but they also loved the shark tank.

It wasn’t nearly as busy as I thought maybe it might be, but it may have just been the fact that it’s not summer yet.

Today we went out on the “Sea Wolf II” for a cruise around the Monterey Bay, and we sure did get lucky. The seas were flat, the winds were calm and the whales were good. We left off the dock at 9am and got back in around 1 pm. It was just the right amount of time to be out. Even though it was a nice day out, I wished I would have brought heavier clothes for the family. Once again, we see that being on the water will take the heat right out of your body.

We ended up seeing three different humpbacks, which was pretty amazing, and I would have been happy with just that. After we found them, we moved over and came up on a real treat. A pod of transient Orcas! It was a great show. They were playing, pushing babies up out of the water and having a good time checking out our boat. A a couple of times they even swam right under us, giving all a good view. It was quite and experience for everyone. I was hoping to see some dolphins, but we got a pretty good show and I can’t complain.

The Monterey Bay Whale Watch crew was outstanding. Very on the ball and helpful. There were a couple of people who got sick, and the crew has very sympathetic to them, keeping a close eye on them the whole way.

It was my son Eli (3 years old), my daughter Mia (8 years old), my mom Bev and my sister Jessica on this trip. Eli did get a little bit sick, but I think that was mostly due to the fact that he couldn’t really fallow what was going on. He kind of lost his mind for a bit, then took a nap for about an hour. After that he had a good time and got to see the “big scary, cool, killer whales”. Mia handled the boat just fine, and had a great time. Jessica got a bit sea sick and kind of just hung out most of the way. She did hang in there and I give her credit for that. Many didn’t fare as well as she did. Of course, mom did great and had a good time. I would like to note that at 3, Eli was a bit too young for this, and Mia at 8 was having a great time. I think next year Eli will have a better time doing this type of thing.

If you ever make it down this way, I highly recommend this trip.

Tomorrow we go to the aquarium!

It turns out that I had a free day yesterday, to I took the boy for a ride down to Moab. With a little bit of snow on the ground and not very many people around, I would have to say that this is a really nice time to visit the area. I think that there were only four or five other cars in the whole national park while we were there, how nice is that?

Once we got into the park, Eli and I went for up close look at the balanced rock and enjoyed the solitude for as long as we could stand the 20 degree weather. From there on out, we just drove around and stopped where we pleased, enjoying the ability to hang out in the middle of the road for a bit to snap pictures.

After our tour, we went down into Moab for some food and to check it out. Every time I go to this town I’m amazed at how thriving it is for it’s location. Moab is essentially 2 hours from the nearest town of any real size, and 4 hours from Salt Lake City. Despite it’s solitude, it is always busy and active. I’m not sure who is in charge of tourism for the area, but they should write a book and every small struggling touristy town should read it. It still amazes me that towns like my hometown of Nevada City, California don’t take notes from places like this. To put it simply, adventure tours and eco-tourism are where the money is at. People all over the planet are traveling for these things, and people all over the planet are making a good honest living off them. All I can think is that people just aren’t hungry enough, or poor enough to change, yet.

Over the next couple of days I’ll write up a full trip report and add tons of pictures, so look out for that.

And now I’m off to the beach for one last swim before I go to the snow…..

Well……. Cable beach was a pretty big let down. It’s basically where all the Sandals type of all inclusive resorts are located, and there isn’t much else there. So let’s chaulk that one up to a lesson learned, places not to worry about.

Down town Nassau is pretty touristy, but there are some good places off the beaten path. Luckily, the good people off the cruise ships were too busy buying t-shirts and perusing diamond stores to make the cooler things busy. I stopped into the pirate museum, which was interesting, but not too full of good info. It was just enough information to make me want to learn more about pirates in the Caribbean.

I know that I’ve said it before, but dang is this place expensive! I wanted to get in one good meal while I has here, so I thought I would try a Greek place on the water. The food was great, so that counts for something, but the bill for one with one glass of wine was $50! I think that’s approaching Napa Valley type of prices, but not quite the quality. Oh, well.. I guess I paid for the view, too.

One more full day in the Bahamas. What to do next?