We arrived at the visitor center to find Aunt Susan already there. She had picked up some picnic snacks so, after lots of hugging, we all sat and enjoyed the snacks in the picnic area. We had cheese, crackers, fruit and juice - all delicious.
Aaron was a happy baby to be outside hanging out with everyone.
We played in the big open park area, running races and playing an extended game of Duck Duck Goose that lead to everyone chasing everyone. The kids thought it was hilarious and probably could have played for another two hours!
We decided to check out the visitor center and then go for a walk on the Earthquake Trail. The Visitor Center was small but had nice exhibits on the plants and animals that were native to the area. Cameron's favorite part was this platform that had a telescope to look through.
Near the visitor center was a half mile trail called the Earthquake Trail that follows the San Andreas Fault. The park is one of the only places that you can easily see the fault and stand on two different tectonic plates. At the start of the trail was this really cool bench made out of a giant fallen tree.
The poppy is the California state flower. They were all over the place along the trail, such a pretty pop of color in the fields.
We don't have any pictures of it, but along the way there was a small bridge over a tiny stream. It was a beautiful little spot - lots of flowers and vegetation and enough water flowing to cause a wonderful tinkling sound of the water tumbling down the stream. Something caught Leah's eye as she was walking over the bridge, so she stopped Aunt Susan and proceeded to tell her a very involved story about the fairy that she saw and how she was sure that fairies lived along the stream. It was a great story (or the truth, in Leah's eyes!) - Leah has such a wonderful imagination.
Cameron, meanwhile, was interested in reading all of the signage (there were special signs for kids explaining what they were seeing and what earthquakes and faults were) and asking lots of questions. He has a great imagination too, but was definitely more interested in learning as we were going along the trail.
One of the highlights of the Earthquake Trail is a fence that used to be one continuous fence, but after an earthquake in the early 1900s, the two sections of fence now stand 18 feet apart . First we took a nice picture with the fence.
Then, at Leah's insistence, we took a crazy earthquake picture.
Leah quite enjoys taking crazy pictures
The Pacific tectonic plate and the North American tectonic plate come together in Point Reyes National Seashore. There are different kinds of rocks found on each of the plates, and on either side of the trail you can stand on the different rocks on the different plates. Here are Cam and Leah (and Mama, Aunt Susan and Aaron) on the North American Plate.
And here are Cam and Leah on the Pacific Plate (or "Aunt Beth's Plate" as we described it to them).
Further along the trail there was an amazing climbing tree. No one wanted to be the first for a photo op so Mama and Aaron stepped into the hole in the tree.
Then Cam decided it was a pretty awesome tree and up he went into it.
It didn't take Daddy very long to follow.
Cam was pretty proud of his climbing skills.
Leah was nervous to go into the tree so Aunt Susan took her in and showed her how awesome and beautiful it was.
Leah and Aunt Susan
Zoom out of the picture of them and you'll see two climbers heading up higher into the tree.
Cam, about as high as he could get because his arms and legs weren't long enough to reach up much more!
Daddy was able to go a lot higher
Leah even climbed up into a little indent in the tree. She called it her "nest" and loved climbing in and out of it.
Aunt Susan, Mama and Aaron, Daddy and Leah - photo courtesy of Cameron.
After we were done on the trail, we hung out at the picnic area for a while longer. Cameron and Leah checked out this giant tree stump. It became the base camp for a game they were playing.
Aaron hanging out with Mama
I decided to attempt a picture of the three kids.
Trying to determine the best set up. Having Aaron sit on the stump was not the answer.
So I thought maybe it would be better for Cameron to hold Aaron. The next five pictures in the series all have my hands in them because I didn't want to get more than a foot away from Cam holding Aaron, just in case!
After getting yelled at by Tim for wrecking the picture and reassurances by Cameron that he would tell me with plenty of time if Aaron got too heavy, I finally backed up. Then Leah decided she didn't want to stand still for a picture and instead danced all around. Cute, but not when my five-year-old was holding the two-month old on his own!
Finally, a cute shot! Not sure what Leah is doing with her hand but it just makes the picture cuter, I think.
Mama kisses!
After we were done relaxing in the park we headed to a nearby town for dinner. We wandered around the town for a bit and ended up at a great restaurant with very delicious brick oven pizza. It was a yummy meal with wonderful company. Here are Cam and Leah waiting for our pizza to come.
After dinner we were all pretty worn out so we headed back into San Francisco to have a good night's sleep.
1 comment:
Wonderful pictures of a great day! And also the earlier ones from Muir Woods.
The earthquake from the early 1900s that displaced some of the land along the Earthquake Trail was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. While we always hear about how much of San Francisco was leveled, the earthquake stresses radiated all along the San Andreas Fault, including out into the countryside at Point Reyes. Even though I've seen it many times, it's always so dramatic for me to see the place along the trail that shows how the fence moved so far apart.
And I do believe that fairies live along there, too!
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