Travel moments

Travel moments
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

So many people have asked us how the kids amuse themselves while we're driving in the Barth. I was sorting through some of the files on Tiegan's camera today and came across this short video so thought I would share - this about sums it up!!!!!!

Jamie has been so very excited to drive down to California,where the sandy beaches and big waves of the Pacific coast are.  He grew up reading and re-reading every bit of surfing literature he could get his hands on, buying Ocean Pacific t-shirts and growing his hair long to fit in the day he could himself become a surfer!  However, growing up in Ottawa, the chances of him actually becoming a surfer were slim and over time he let that dream die.  His hair is no longer hanging in his eyes, he rarely wears a pink t-shirt and I haven't seen him pick up a surfing magazine in years.

Until recently.....it seems our arrival into coastal California has reignited his spark a little more, and even Ryland's limited vocabulary is quickly increasing to include words such as "surfboard" and "big wave"!  We spend hours in various surf stores, we watch little black dots out on the ocean trying to catch waves for hours, and we listen to Jamie talk about how he wants to buy a surf board to strap onto the top of Bartha.  That was, we did until the day he rented a surfboard and hit the waves for an afternoon.  After that, I noticed the talk died down quite a bit, and now instead of buying himself a board perhaps he'll rent once or twice.  Or maybe not!  I suspect he was feeling a bit cold, a bit beat up by the waves and a bit sore from all the paddling.  I, on the other hand, was very impressed to see him standing up so quickly after getting out there - not quite riding in the centre of the wave, but still....surfing!!!

We've been having lots of fun with our new skateboards - when we're staying places that we're allowed to ride them!  We have to hide the skateboards from Ryland, otherwise he drags them out and insists on going for a ride.  And the girls have moved up from sitting on them to standing on them, occasionally moving with the help of sticks!

It turns out that when you're a father of three and you want to pull out your skateboard for a spin around the cul-de-sac, you better make sure you invest in a longboard!

Hello from Pismo Beach!  I had all sorts of plans of updating my blog while we were here, but somehow the days all melted together into each other and now it's our last night with a bit of internet connection and I'm far too relaxed and tired after a lovely soak in these natural mineral springs so I need to go to bed.  Soon, though!

I thought I would leave you with a website that was given to us during our hike to see the elephant seals - a lot of great information on the work they're doing, and you can also track numerous marine animals during their migration!

Sweet dreams!

And as promised.....

An elephant seal making a challenge.
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

I'm uploading a couple of our photos from the elephant seal walk - ironically it was the one and only rainy day we've had for weeks, and apparently rainy days are the best days to see the seals in action. The heat makes them lazy, which I can understand with all of that blubber!!!!! They're really funny looking creatures, and the sounds they make are rather amazing (Tiegan claims it sounds like they're farting out of their mouths - to me it sounds like their throats are half-filled with water and they're gurgling it about!).

We're now in Pismo, California enjoying the heat of the sun and spending a few days just hanging out - doing laundry, cleaning out the rv, perhaps taking it in for a much-needed oil change and catching up on correspondance. I'll slowly update the blogs, website and photos, but for now I'm crawling into bed so I'm somewhat prepared for the early birds amongst us!

Checking us out.....
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

One relaxed elephant seal!
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Hello!  Just a quick update to let you know we're all fine - just camping at a bunch of different state parks, so no access to internet right now.  We're in Santa Cruz right now, it's sunny, we're surrounded by surf shops and beautiful beaches, and we're pretty content!  We may check out the boardwalk later today, and go on a few rides....get the kids even more pumped for Disneyland!

Yesterday was a rainy grey day, and as we were driving towards Santa Cruz we decided to stop in at Ano Nuevo State Park on a whim.  It's where you can hike to see elephant seals really close up, and although the guide book said you should book a spot weeks in advance, we figured we'd check it out as it was rainy and the first Monday after the holidays.  Wouldn't you know it, they had room on a tour starting in 20 minutes - all the others we were with had waited 2 weeks to finally get a spot, so we felt VERY fortunate!  And what an amazing tour, I can't wait to upload a couple of photos.  Apparently it's best to go when it's cold and rainy, as then the elephant seals are much more active.  And active, they were!!!!!  I was SHOCKED to see how quickly they could move, but apparently that's just for the first 10 feet, then they have to rest and let the rest of their blubber catch up!  It's the law that we have to remain 25 feet away from all marine animals, and that actually became very tricky at spots because they kept moving so much.  The males would challenge each other, and the ranger would exclaim, "okay folks, move move move!  Oh, move the other way now!"  At one point, two males were shuffling towards each other, and the ranger said, "Okay, here we go again.  Well, wait, take a photo.  Come on, take a photo, this is a rare opportunity - take your photo and then run that way!"  Now, that's MY kind of park ranger!!!!!!  (And just to clarify, we were NEVER in any danger, just getting close to breaking the law of staying away 25 feet!!!!!)

Anyways, the kids are getting wrangy in this coffee shop, so I"m off to enjoy the sun!!!!

Happy New Year!

We're here in San Francisco , parked side by side like sardines in a local rv park - but if we just look out our back bedroom window, we have a gorgeous view of the ocean and fall asleep at night to the sounds of waves crashing in. We were very excited to come to the city for a bit of culture and shopping for much needed shoes and pants, but we're now realizing that the holidays were probably not the BEST time to come. Oh well, live and learn!

Yesterday we joined the masses to visit the new science museum here, and although we had to focus a lot on our patience as we lined up for everything, it was well worth it to get a chance to see a bunch of really cool stuff. The world's largest green roof was amazing, and almost like a pilgrimage spot for Jamie. We were constantly amazed by the many new animals we saw that we had no clue existed, there was a great interactive play space for the kids and then the amazing albino alligator! The other nice thing was there were tonnes of volunteers everywhere, willing to answer all sorts of questions, so we learned a tonne about this LEED platinum green building - fascinating!

And lastnight we swam in the pool here, soaked in the hot tub and watched a movie as we waited to bring in the new year. We had decided that we wanted to clean up the Barth, attach a few more shelves to feel more organized and bring in the new year with a clean space. But then we got home from dinner and the kids were begging to go swimming, and well, that seemed like a much better way to spend our new year's eve! We talked a bit about the concept of new year resolutions, and many of the things that came up included learning to surf, taking up scuba diving again, learning to read better, figuring out skateboarding......and then things like, remembering that greasy Chinese food is always a bad idea and we don't really like to eat it, even if it seems like a good idea at the time!

I hope 2009 is a wonderful year for all of you!