White Water Rafting...

 It was quite exciting once we got onto the river. I hadn’t realized that we’d be balanced on the side of the raft with just a tube to tuck our feet under, which left me very nervous about falling overboard. Lucky for us, we had an awesome guide. Colin was brought up rafting; when he’s not on the river, he’s an artist in Oakland.

After lunch and the orientation, we did the South Fork gorge, which was beautiful. We paddled a total of 10 miles with 12 Class II rapids and 3 Class III rapids (Fowler’s Rock, Satan’s Sesspool and Hospital Bar). Our raft was the only one of the five with OARS that didn’t drop anyone overboard thanks to Colin’s expertise. The top photo was taken by photographers standing along one of the rapids. The bottom photo was taken on Jimmy’s new GoPro video camera especially designed for adventure sports, which he’d tied onto the front of the raft. Colin and Jimmy also took turns wearing it on their chests.

Adventure in California...

Ashlynn really wanted to do something adventurous this summer. She suggested that we go kayaking with the orcas in Washington, but that was a bit too adventurous (and expensive). So, we told her to scale back her ambitions and she came up with white water rafting. She also wanted to go camping, so was thrilled when I found OARS. They had the perfect set up for us: two half days on the water with a night camping and they provided the meals. I was very calm until our orientation and I learned all the ways that I could fall off the raft and drown. On our way to the American River, we spent a night at Darlene and Mike’s. Not only was it great to see them, but it was nice to finally visit their home and town of Martinez.

Our 18th Wedding Anniversary...

Despite overheating on our hike (as you can see by my red face), I was happy to be in the hills. I was scared on the downhill, but Jimmy was nice enough to hold my hand while I took baby steps down the steep path. After our return and a shower, we headed out to a few more wine tasting rooms. Our favorite was the Snosrap wines at Parsonage Winery.

We enjoyed our anniversary dinner at Vineyard Bistro. The following day, we stopped in Monterey for a  walk along Cannery Row and a nice seafood lunch before heading back to Dad’s. It was so nice to have some alone time!

Our Carmel Valley Getaway...

When Jimmy asked me what I wanted to do for our 18th anniversary, I said I wanted to go hiking. We weren’t sure where to go, so we were happy to follow Leigh’s advice and ended up spending two nights in Carmel Valley. Our first afternoon was spent wandering the small village and visiting some wine tasting rooms, followed by happy hour at the Country Garden Inn and a wonderful dinner at Café Rustica.

The next day was our anniversary. After breakfast, we went to the market to buy fixings for a picnic, then set off on our hike. Little did we know that the route we chose would take us basically straight up and straight down; at least we enjoyed the views from the top. We didn’t see much wildlife, but Jimmy almost stepped on this snake. Luckily, it wasn’t poisonous or threatening.

Love Those California Sea Lions!

On our way back to the harbor, the boat swung past this dock that was overflowing with California sea lions. Sure would have been fun to kayak among them – maybe next time. Anyways, just had to include these cute creatures.

Who’s Driving the Boat?

After the boat had turned back towards the harbor, the captain invited Ashlynn up to the bridge to take over the helm. We thought it was just for show and that he’d keep his hands on the wheel, so were surprised when he stepped outside to take a call. Veronica thought napping was more fun than taking a turn, but that didn’t stop her from putting together a video of Ashlynn’s big moment, which you can see here.

Thar She Blows...

We were very excited when we had this first sighting of a humpback whale. These whales can grow up to 52 feet long, but as baleen whales, they only eat krill and small fish.

This was our best sighting. We did see some water spouts from the blow hole, but never saw any breaching. It was also difficult to tell how many whales we saw as we only ever saw one at a time and they can stay submerged for around 15 minutes. It was exciting and yet a bit disappointing at the same time. Despite Ashlynn wearing her lucky Orcas Rock sweatshirt, we weren’t lucky enough to spot any orcas or dolphins.