Fire on the beach

 A fire on the beach, and some Whittaker's chocolate. (the urchins are feeling a little homesick)

Pelicans

 The moon rose over the point, and the urchins burnt pinecones on the beach.

 How fast can an urchin run, with a flaming pinecone, until it falls off?

 Muir Beach is about a 10 minute walk from where we are staying on Starbuck Drive.

Great evening at the beach, and seeing 3 skunks made it even more special. Erik and I were walking along the shore, and suddenly the seaweed moved, and it was a skunk.  We kept our distance.

At the Beach

Today was a rest day, we rested at the Beach.

Maybe a 10 minute walk from the house,  Muir Beach is extremely busy during the Weekends, as people from the City like to visit. The beach is much quieter during the week.

 There is a small stream, that creates a fresh water lagoon.  The urchins prefer this to the Ocean.

 The water is warmer than the Rotorua Lakes in the Summer time.

 Nicole is visiting with us as well.  She is from the same school as Anneke and Quinn.

 Haven't seen the fog for a fews days now, and the temperatures are in the mid 20s.

 Quinn and Tighe like burying each other in the sand.

 Now they have decided to tunnel through to each other's holes.

Plenty of crows on the beach.

The tunnel worked!

One the walk back to the house in the twilight, BATS flew around us, like butterflies.

Foggy Day - Exploring time

Hummingbird in vege garden

San Francisco Bay Area has fog. It rolls into the Bay in the evening, and normally burns off by 11am.

 The travelling classroom. The urchins keep upto date with their school work electronically.

 

 The fog didn't clear, we went exploring anyway. These are the steps down to Muir Beach. The hill in the background is our destination.

Despite the foggy day, lots of people at the Beach.  It's their Summer break, people were surfing.

As is the nature of the urchins, they climbed up rocks, and along cliffs. We found wild strawberrys, and heard rustling in the bushes. (no snakes though)

There are plenty of Hawks in this area, and nearby Hawk Hill, has over 1,000.

The goal was to get into the fog. The fog wasn't cold, which was disconserting to begin with.

Finally we got to the start of the fog.

The Bumblebee only has two yellow stripes.

At the top of the hill, the fog all around.

The fog creates these mosaics with the water droplets.

Above the Fog

We are living at Muir Beach, near Sausalito, Californian. Erik is commuting to San Francisco, the urchins and I are spending a few weeks in California to escape the New Zealand winter.

The sun is shining, and today we took the urchins up the west side of Mt Tamalpais, known locally as Mt Tam, to watch the fog roll into the San Francisco bay,

 Even though it was early in the afternoon, the fog had started.

 Quinn spotted these rocks on the ridge, so exploring we went.

 I think this rock has copper.  The colour reminded me of the copper hills in Utah.

The city being covered by fog

Tighe was delighted that there were lizards on the rocks.  The urchins spent ages finding the reptiles.

 

 Erik, Oscar, and I explored the Pantoll trail, and enjoyed the panorama of the fog covered bay.

 The long grass is slippery, and the seed heads stick to clothing, socks, and shoes.

 On the trail are two benches, and between them, under a tree is a magical swing.

Looking down onto the alpine meadows on the slopes of Mt Tam, and then over the fog covered bay.  I felt I was up in the clouds, like flying.  The sensation was incredible.

The rock pile that fascinated the urchins

 The fog rolled back, and we could see Mt Diablo in the distance.  We are driving that way tomorrow.