Helen and I were in the lounge at 7:30am, Peter and Heather joined us shortly and then we waited about a half hour for Kate to hike down and see Lake James and then take Trail 3 out through the Nature Preserve to Hell’s Point and back (about 2.5 miles). We called Stacy and Chad at 9am (woke them up!) and they then joined us for the buffet brunch – with Santa!
It was a 3.5 hour drive to northeast Indiana and Pokagon State Park. Helen, Chad and I arrived first and immediately rented a toboggan and did the quarter mile refrigerated run. Peter and Heather were at the bottom to meet us. We hiked back up and I did a video of the four of them flying down the track. Stacy and Kate arrived shortly thereafter and we rented a second toboggan and continued doing the slide. The four guys hit the top speed of 38 mph. It was in the low 30s and snowing when we arrived but by the time we returned the sleds it was starting to drizzle and getting slushy.
Stacy, Kate and Chad were in a cabin while Peter & Heather and Helen & I had rooms in the Potawatomi Inn (Lodge). Our room served as the hospitality suite for drinks and then we had a delicious buffet dinner in the dining room. Afterward, we all played Texas Hold Em in the lounge (fireplace and decorated for Christmas) until Stacy, Heather, Kate and Chad lost all their chips. Yahtzee games followed until we went to bed at 11:30.
After celebrating Leva’s second birthday in Columbus, we continued to “The House on Harmar Hill” B & B in Marietta. We ate at the local Harmar Tavern and had their specialty – the “Soon to be Famous” Grilled Bologna sandwich. The next morning fog covered our view of Marietta College.
After breakfast we took the Fenton Glass Company tour in Williamstown WV and then drove back roads to Athens.
We then visited Ash Cave State Park and did some trails at Old Mans Cave State Park in the Hocking Hills.
Tom – We had a nice breakfast with Terry and Barry at the Rose St Café in Venice and were back in Springfield to walk Lucy at 10:30pm.
Helen – We had the best time!!! Kayaking was great and both of us survived, my shoulder wasn’t affected by the paddling and neither was Tom’s elbow!
Tom – Anacapa is composed of three islets: East, Middle and West. We arrived at Frenchys Cove on West Anacapa about 9am. We then kayaked along the northern coast going in and out of sea caves and eventually paddling under Arch Rock on East Anacapa before returning to the boat. One of the best parts of the trip for me (about half of our group did not try this) was negotiating the tidal zone between Middle and East Anacapa. I paddled as fast as I could from the north with the waves going through the opening between the islets. I surfed down a six foot wave and was then hit by an eight foot wave coming in the opposite direction! According to spectators, it was a spectacular capsize! Anyway, I got back in the kayak and made it through. I just made it through the return trip surfing down the eight foot wave without capsizing.
After lunch we snorkeled in a kelp forest (some 100 feet long!) in Frenchys Cove. Even in our wetsuits, it was cold (about 55 degrees)! So we only stayed in the water about a half hour but were able to see lots of fish (e.g. including the gold Garibaldi, CA state fish) and other aquatic life. As the “Truth” returned to Santa Barbara we were at times accompanied by at least two pods of over 50 dolphins! They enjoyed surfing in the bow and stern waves of our boat. After returning to Santa Barbara, we drove to Venice and stayed in the Ramada Inn.
Tom – We started the day by climbing from the boat to the top of a pier at Bechers Bay on Santa Rosa Island. We then hiked (about 3 miles) to and through a Torrey Pines forest (only two in the world) and then bush wacked down a canyon to a beach where we were picked up by the skiff. We had lunch on the boat while traveling to Santa Cruz.
The boat laid anchor by Painted Cave (on Santa Cruz) which is the largest of over 1,400 sea caves in the Channel Islands, about 250 of which are at least somewhat negotiable by sea kayak. The Pacific and North American tectonic plates meet in the deep Santa Barbara Channel. The Channel Islands are on the eastern edge of the Pacific plate, have never been connected to the continent and the sea caves have been produced by the pounding action of the Pacific Ocean. We were fortunate to have calm seas for half of the trip and with lights were able to kayak into several sea caves. Seals and sea lions inhabit some of the caves and were not too happy for us to be there! Helen returned to the mother ship at the 6 mile mark and I continued for the 12 mile paddle. Two-thirds of Santa Cruz is owned by the Nature Conservancy and the other one third is part of the national park.
Helen –We slept in port and then departed for the first island at 4 in the morning. The water was choppy and when we awoke, I was sea-dizzy until Tom gave me the wristbands that work like acupressure, then I was great. Lucky for him he had the patch behind his ear; this was the first time on a small boat like this that he didn’t get seasick! San Miguel is the westernmost of the Channel Islands and receives the brunt of the severe weather from the open ocean.
Tom – after breakfast, we kayaked in rough seas along the coast from Harris Point to Cuyler Harbor enjoying the seabird, seal, and sea lion rookeries (even saw two elephant seals battling for territory, some of them weigh over 1400 pounds!) and then returned to the boat for lunch.
In the afternoon we had better weather and were ferried to a beach by skiff and hiked through a coreopsis (tree sunflower) forest to the ranger station. Juan Cabrillo (Portuguese explorer) was buried on the island in 1543.
Helen – We walked from our B & B in Marina del Rey to Venice beach (the weird one!) but most of the weird people were still sleeping so we just got to see the youth surf camps and those walking cycling and skating…it was fun. We then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway (Rt 1). We stopped to see Pepperdine University and then continued to Ventura where we had lunch at the harbor and then toured the Channel Islands NP Visitor Center. At 2pm they had a live interactive video with a park ranger SCUBA diving in a Kelp Forest off Anacapa Island – pretty cool! We also visited the San Buenaventura Mission (1782) and hit the thrift stores.
We arrived at the Santa Barbara harbor about 5:30 but had to wait till 8pm to board our boat the “Truth.” We checked in with Paddle Sports of Santa Barbara where I bought a long sleeve Lycra shirt to wear under the sleeveless wetsuit (thank heavens I did!) and then had fish dinners at Brophy Bros before walking downtown where they were celebrating “Fiesta.” After boarding the boat we picked out a double bunk, of course I had to sleep against the rounded side of the hull. But I had my revenge when I had to climb over Tom twice during the night to go potty!
Tom – The flight from Cincinnati to LA was a breeze! It was the first time we flew to CA non-stop and at a decent hour. Terry and Barry took us to a Serbian restaurant (Metro Diner) for a delicious Chevapchiche dinner. After a couple glasses of wine, Helen was convinced that the older gentleman eating alone two tables down was Serbian. He was in the middle of his dinner when she sat down across from him and proceeded to speak Serbian. He didn’t have a clue! She returned shortly thereafter and he left without finishing his dinner – it turned out he was Dutch!
The Martin's Blog 