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

fairbanks

fairbanks alaska: 

our epic adventure began at a small bed and breakfast on the outskirts of town....

 i'm so pleased to introduce the most lovely travel companions in the whole world, bob, rose and my sister lindy! the warmth and friendship and fun i experienced with these three was easily as memorable as alaska is amazing.

(notice the car clock, it reads 9:51 pm, and it's still light out!)

we had arrived in fairbanks three days ahead of the tour we were taking. we set out to explore soon after dropping our bags at the townsite gardens b & b. first place we went was inua, interior alaskas oldest yarn shop! (thank you lindy, rose and bob!)

at inua you can find qiviuk (kiv e ought), the incredibly luxuirous fiber that comes from the arctic musk ox. eight times warmer than wool, lighter than a feather and softer than almost anything, i had to bring some home. qiviuk came in colors, and blends, cashmere, silk, merino, how to choose?!

here is liz, she is wrapping up my purchase. i remembered what i came for when i saw my sister and friends waiting patiently for me, i really hoped for just this...

i chose the 100% qiviuk in the undyed natural color. it comes in one ounce size, with two hundred eighteen yards, at ninety eight dollars an ounce. here are the two ounces i brought home. it was a knee wobbly moment to hand over this much money for two balls of wool the size of a (small) plum. a once in a lifetime for sure! and that's rosy the musk ox, a gift from rose!

we found the mountain top rob at the b & b told us to go to to view the northern lights. it was SO thrilling to see them. you have to stay up late, they don't start showing until after midnight. unfortunately, we were so anxious to go, we forgot warm clothes and temperatures dropped to 30 degrees (-1 celsius). the following night we were much better prepared!

the thing we wanted to do the most, besides seeing the northern lights, was to see the yukon river and cross the arctic circle. so on day two, we went. on the way we saw the alaskan pipeline.

here my sister has found a poisonous mushroom, the fly agaric. i've never seen a red spotted mushroom! luckily lindy was okay and agreed to pose. it's so beautiful!

have you seen the show called 'ice road truckers?' i hadn't, till now. it's a show about a road, a treacherous road, and the truck drivers that take it through the interior of alaska. this is the road we took up to the arctic circle. it's called the dalton highway. it's mostly unpaved, empty, save for fantastic landscapes and once in a while a huge truck (going a hundred miles an hour). hilltop is one of the truck stops along the way.

after the truck stop, we didn't see any more signs of civilization, until we came to this house ~ shop. which looked occupied, but when we drove down the dirt road it looked suddenly (abruptly) abandoned. lindy and rose felt uncomfortable as we looked around and said lets get out of here. i took a few photos and we drove away, giggling nervously. it was a little spooky.

along the way the pipeline was visible most of the time. this photo was taken with a zoom lens as we bounced down the gravel road, but it shows how the pipe was adapted for earthquakes.

we stopped at a place called finger mountain. there was an interpretive trail. the tundra plants were so interesting and the views so beautiful, i could have stayed awhile. but it was getting late, so we moved on...

the road went up and down, there were blind corners, we were on high alert for big trucks...

but not for this! coming over a rise, right after we'd been out of the car, we saw...

a huge grizzly bear! in the road! i wanted to get closer, then i didn't. rose wanted to go backwards and lindy who was driving kept saying 'what do i do?!' bob was photographing with his gopro. SO exciting! we ended up driving behind him for a bit until he finally bolted off in the brush with a thundering run.

not even five minutes later we crossed the arctic circle! there was only this sign and nothing and no one else around. highly aware the grizzly was heading in our direction, we jumped out of the car for a photo, giggling nervously again. the certificates we are holding were given out at the ranger station when we crossed the yukon river. they say 'i crossed the arctic circle'    :)

on our return we stopped at the yukon river camp, another truck stop, where there was really good pie and...

dorothy.

dorothy, her husband, and children homestead near the river. she makes items out of birch bark to sell. we enjoyed meeting her and hearing her stories. and looking at her cool crafts.

here is her purse made out of a wolverine trapped by her husband. she showed me the claws and i said eeps dorothy. and then i asked her what became of the wolverines head?

she showed me a photo of her husband and his hat, the wolverines head.  :)  we bought some of her handmades and said farewell!
we made it safely back, learning later that rental cars are not allowed on the dalton highway. it was a long day, almost twelve hours in total, but a complete thrill and one we'll never forget.
we saw the lights again, returning to fairbanks around midnight, this town is one of the best places in alaska to see them. epic.

the next morning we went to the large animal research station, institute of arctic biology * university of alaska fairbanks. and we saw the arctic musk ox!! here is a photo of a baby.

and there were reindeer and sandhill cranes! i learned the difference between caribou and reindeer. reindeer fly. hee hee. they are the same thing actually, reindeer are just tame.

we took a short tour

the babies at breakfast

i think they are very elegant looking, in a prehistoric sort of way.

this is amy, she explained more about the qiviut, the arctic musk ox fiber. can you see some of the items  knitted with it in the display case? i bought a beautiful book she recommended, called arctic lace. i recommend it now too, it's a treasury that any knitter would love. we went to the north pole next. and we met santa!

the last of the flowers, first snowfall is on the way soon

it was time to return to the airport, turn in the keys to our car and join the tour. we were taken by bus to our first lodge, the bear lodge in fairbanks. here is rosy enjoying happy hour with us!

 one of the things i'd hoped to do was visit creamer's field, a migratory waterfowl refuge. after a bit of investigation we found out we were within walking distance. so in the morning, at first light, lindy and i were there. 

sandhill cranes at creamer's field

canadian geese too. we only had an hour and then it was time to go....

we went on a riverboat down the chena river!

we saw a flight plane, did you know there are more pilots per capita in alaska than anywhere else in the united states?

from the riverboat we visited a sled dog demonstration

see them run?!

good dogs!

they ran in the river to cool off. someday we'd like to come back and see the iditarod.

we sailed to a recreated chena village, where we learned about the athabascans, native americans who lived here.

a bald eagle

me, hi!

my sister and i are happy to be here

just as the boat was leaving we were able to get a photo of david monson, the author of granite. a book about the greatest lead dog in iditarod history. lindy and rose bought his book and were so happy to meet him! thank you david!

on the way back i had a reindeer dog for lunch. i asked this riverboat man if it was really reindeer and he assured me it was. everyone said ew. but it was good!

we're on our way to denali next!

today is my son's birthday, happy birthday kyle, where ever you are! he's off traveling right now, we've talked while he was in hawaii, tokyo and taiwan, i think he's in bali today. i hope your having a wonderful time honey exactly where you are, if your reading this, i love you so much! and i'm on my way to los angeles this morning to pick up my daughter and her boyfriend at the airport, hannah's coming home! erik too!, my middle son, he's coming tonight and bringing his girlfriend, we've got a big day planned for tomorrow, there is a boat involved and kayaks!
xxx lori