Quick Trip to Morro Bay

We were able to take a quick trip up the California Coast this weekend. We stayed at James' grandparent's beach house. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of work and life and enjoy a much slower pace (although James did bring a good chunk of journal reading to catch up on!). We were able to go to bed late and wake up late(r), as the kids don't seem to care that you are on vacation when it comes to their morning routines. Still a great way to recharge the batteries. Here are a few pics from the trip!

I snapped this picture from the deck of the house the last night we were there. The whole sky was a red-orange color. It only lasted about 15 mins before going dark. Then it was movie time!

Here are Megan and Ethan out on the beach next to Morro Rock. This beach is one of the best for taking long walks as it is very flat and the sand is sooo fine. We did not get to walk as far was we wanted as Ellie wanted to stop and examine every shell and rock.

Ok, so maybe James was finding things on the beach too. He noticed this little guy while making a sand ball for Ellie. As you can see this little shrimp is well... a shrimp. He was translucent as well.

Ellie "caught" her first starfish down by Morro Rock while we went to go and see the sea otters. She was pretty impressed with herself.

Part of the day Saturday was spent at Montana de Oro State Park a little ways down the road from Morro Bay. Everyone had a great time dodging waves and throwing rocks.

We stopped by a pumpkin patch to let the kids pick out some for Halloween. They were partial to these giants, but Meg and I decided that $70 was too much for a pumpkin. Besides, who could make or eat that much pie?

Here are the kids at Tidelands park. Ethan was enjoying the taste of the grass (we tried to get it all out of his mouth!) and Ellie loved climbing on the toys and pirate ship.

Fleet Week 2009

We had the fantastic opportunity to enjoy Fleet Week in San Francisco from a unique perspective. While most see the parade of boats and the air show from the marina, we were able to watch from the deck of a 225 ft Coast Guard buoy tender. The Coast Guard clears a portion of the bay so that ships are not in danger during the air show which gives us the equivalent of a front row seat. Despite the windy weather we had a great time!

This was not our ship (the Aspen), but ours looked just like it only bigger. The buoy tender ships can haul up 30,000 lbs buoys in the worst sea imaginable. An interesting note about this ship, it was patrolling the sea down in Mexico and got a full on drug bust of 16,500 kilos of marijuana. The only buoy tender of this size to ever do that!

Here is Meg and the kids aboard the Aspen taking time for a quick snack. We drove from Duarte to San Francisco on Friday and then woke up early Saturday morning.

Here is Ellie sitting on the chains used for hauling up those huge buoys. Yes her butt got all dirty and yes I got in trouble (Megster doesn't like doing laundry?) for putting her up there!

Just call her Captain Brielle. She felt right at home on the bridge. You can see through the window the large crane.

Here we are on the very top of the vessel with the Golden Gate in the background. The ship was anchoring to act as one of the four corners in the restricted area.

Here is most of the gang on the bridge. We hope were were not too much in the way!

Passing under the Bay Bridge.

Here is a shot of the Patriots Jet Team. They were our favorite to watch for their stunts and close fly-bys to the ship.

And we can't forget the Blue Angels. Their show was cut short due to weather, but they were still impressive to see soar over the water with the city in the background.

A huge thanks to the Crumps for letting us be a part of this fun adventure!