my kids in caves

'momma, can we go to the islands?' that was one of the first things my girl asked when she bought her ticket home. she lives in nyc now, coming back here to california for only a week, bringing her boyfriend who's not yet been to the west coast. she really wanted him to see the channel islands.

luckily, her step poppa, my chuck, works in the channel islands national park, as a sea cave kayak guide, so we made plans. we invited all the kids that could come. hannah and matt flew in sunday morning and monday morning early, we were on an island packers boat out to santa cruz....

(me, photo by chuck)

but first, on sunday, my kids are here!!

we went to lunch

 i gazed at them, happily watched them, all

day

long.

on the boat, i watched them too, as they watched the dolphins

thank you dolphins for showing up and bringing joy 

i watched them sleep too

and i knit

one hour later, we are here! scorpion anchorage at santa cruz island

when you come out here you must bring all your own supplies, even water, there are no services. it's a pristine environment.

yay! family reunion! i've missed chuck also, he's been out here for days. he was on the pier to welcome us

mi familia, with girlfriends and boyfriends too  :)

after our looooong safety brief by our guide chuck (it's funny having your husband, poppa, be your guide, he has rules to follow, after all he's at work. we did our best to remain serious and respectful.)

well, most of the time

he is a wonderful guide, at the end of this post i'll share information on how to do this trip. for many it's a once in a lifetime experiance!

here we go! all water photos were taken by chuck as i'm afraid to take my camera out of the dry bag in sea caves, better to leave that to the professional

here i am in the single, matt and hannah are in the double next to me and erik and nadine are in another double in front of us, ready to go in our first cave!

wait, some of us are playing with the giant seaweed!

and others are flopping around in her boat (hannah) hee hee, now we are ready!

this is one of the larger ones. some are so narrow you need to lean back in your kayak so you don't hit your head, or get caught and tip over!

after going in and out of many caves it was time to stretch our legs and take a break

we beached our boats at a beautiful pull out and had a snack and a swim

and then we went paddling again

sometimes the mouth of the cave is small, but once you enter it opens up and the exit is huge like this! channel islands national park has the largest concentration of sea caves in the world

 hello pelicans and cormorants

and finally the paddling part of our adventure was over, it was time for a hike

 cavern point on santa cruz

scorpion anchorage, here is where we came in on the island packers boat

chuck, and in the distance are the kayaks that are used for the tours

it's time to head back, our boat is already at the pier waiting to return us to the mainland

as we were leaving, for the briefest of moments, we saw an island fox!

these tiny fox can only be found one place in the world, here! you can read more about them here

i said goodbye to chuck, he had another tour today, so he stayed on the island.

we had smooth seas on the way back, and sat quietly for most of the time reflecting on our day, while drinking a delicious cold beer. the weather was perfect today, there was no swell so we were able to enter the caves, everyone had a wonderful time, success!

back at ventura harbor, the question was raised, if you could name a boat, what would it be? here is my answer, wanderlust, i love that word and what it means.

if you go:
to learn more,
channel islands national park california

to get there,
island packers ventura

to take the 'caves and coves' tour,
channel islands outfitters  a good tip: chuck graham is the best guide  ;)

thank you my dear husband, for everything, it was an incredible day, one we'll never
forget, you are the best!
xxx lori