A visitor

When we last left our heroes, they had just returned from Atlanta. Arriving back in sunny CA, Sweetie made contact with a former colleague, Dr. Drew, who was out west on the return leg of a trip.

Still exhausted from our trip, we launched right into host mode. We started with a nice stroll down the beach and poke around the intertidal zone. This was followed by a hike over to the lab. It was very hot that weekend - close to 90F, sunny and no breeze. It was a nice hike, but we got close to getting too much sun. The Things complained very little about the hike. Thing 1 spent most of the time lollygagging behind playing sword with fennel stalks. Dr. Drew and Sweetie caught up with each other, while I hung with Thing 2.

The next day was another beautiful, sunny, hot day. In the morning we took a boat out, and explored the coastline down to Empire Landing, then back up past Bird Rock, and all the way to Emerald Bay and back. Not too much wild life seen - a few sea lions, and maybe a dolphin or two. Bird Rock is covered with birds right now, pelicans and cormorants mostly, but also some gulls. It smells quite special. That afternoon we did a cookout on the beach with some friends. The kids splashed in the water for a while (it's around 57F right now). A good time was had by all.

Monday the kiddies went back to school, so we went snorkeling! There was an aborted first attempt - the water was too cold, so we all went back for hoods - but once properly suited up, it was a pretty good snorkel. Storms the previous week had ripped up lots of kelp, which was now decaying on the beach and casting off lots of particulates into the water, so visibility wasn't what it sometimes is, but Dr. Drew still got to see garibaldis, and kelp bass, a spiny lobster, a bat ray, black jacks, spot, blue-banded gobys, quite a few orange sea cucumbers, a nudibranch, and I was lucky enough to catch sight of a leopard shark. We also saw some very cool seaweeds, including kelp that wasn't washed up on the beach. That night we went to the restaurant for dinner; we practically had the place to ourselves.

Tuesday, Dr. Drew had to leave. Sweetie drove him across the island so he could see more of the interior and a little of Avalon. Coincidentally, I was in Avalon, too, that day. A former colleague from TIGR who now lives in Australia was in town and came out to Avalon for the day, so John and I drove over to see him.

Next exciting installment... Star Trek, island-style!

Spring Break

Spring Break for the children at the Little Red Schoolhouse was the week following Easter. We decided to go visit Auntie En in Atlanta. My folks also drove down for the week, so it was a big fambly reonion.

It was lots of fun. We dyed Easter eggs, MC Easter Bunny hid them in all sorts of secret places, but the Things found them all. Auntie En cleverly gave the Things joke books ON THE FIRST DAY OF OUR TRIP, so we heard funny jokes many times over the course of the week.

The next day (when we had recovered from our chocolate comas) we were supposed to visit some of Sweetie's relatives who lived farther south in GA, but it was stormy, so we decided to stay in. Not a bad idea, since trees were down all over Atlanta causing general mayhem. We decided to go to a local museum instead to see the 3D dinosaur movie, but the museum was closed due to a power outage (see the above line about downed trees causing general mayhem). So we went to a local park and got into a total-family monkey ball fight (well, we call them monkey balls - everyone else calls them sweet gum balls).

The next day was a trip to the fabulous Georgia Aquarium (even their website is awesome). The Things loved it and we got some cool pictures and video. Afterwards, we walked over to the Centennial Olympic Park (COP) (remember when the Olympics were in Atlanta?) and found the brick that Auntie En bought to help support the Games.

Wednesday was our big trip to Stone Mountain to (begin sarcasm) celebrate the Confederacy and secession (end sarcasm)! They don't really push that aspect of it, but good Lord, the carving dominates the place, and the 'viewing stations' commemorate only those state that seceded (or tried to). This is a very nice park, and an incredibly impressive geologic formation, and actually a rather incredible feat of engineering and sculpting, but the whole concept of it baffles me (as a Northerner). Ah well, we had had a nice time hiking up the Stone - no whining from the Things about being tired, etc. It was windy at the top, but the view was nice. We took the cable car, I mean, Skyride back down. Thing 2 said, "I've never been on a cable car before!" And he was right...

Thursday, Grammy and Grandpa had to leave and we finally got down to see Aunt Ann and Uncle Jake. They live near the Air Force base in Warner-Robbins that has a cool museum. It's not as extensive as the one in Ohio, but it's got a surprising variety of aircraft from WWII through the modern era - there's a B-1 bomber sitting right in front of the place. This, too, was very popular with the Things.

Then our trip was over and it was time to get back to sunny CA. We were expecting a guest. More on that in the next post.

Hooded Oriole

We've also seen the female. They must be nesting in our area. The cats love to jump up the screen at the poor male when he shows up. He chitters at them quite fiercely. I've taken to closing the sliding glass door so he can eat in peace!