Vacation Blog: Exploring

Yesterday, we explored part of the country that my spouse and children have never seen before. We saw tall cliffs, historic lighthouses, and beaches tucked into little coves. On one rocky beach, we listened to the rattling noise the waves made as they shifted piles of rounded rocks back and forth. We climbed down to ledges to feel the spray of waves as they came crashing against rock. We saw sea lions lying in the sun and listened to their characteristic bark – and then drove inland to see the darlingtonia, a lovely translucent green plant that lures insects to a murky death.



I find it hard to resist any beach, hiking trail, or scenic vista – but after a whole morning of stopping every mile, the teenagers began complaining that it might be nice to stay in the car for more than a few minutes at a time. They were still protesting that I had gotten them up at dawn, even though I kept explaining that it should not have felt like dawn because our bodies were still on east coast time. Spouse pulled out his secret weapon, a CD that contained everything from Barry Manilow to David Cassidy, and tortured the teenagers with sappy seventies music until they were begging to stop and get out of the car again.

And once out of the car, they could not resist exploring yet another combination of rock and water.



With-a-Why and Boy in Black go off exploring.