Paul and I went with Brian today on a whale watching expedition organized by his boy scout troop.  We were told by the boat’s crew that we were exceptionally lucky in our encounters with humpback whales - statements made credible by the sight of the crew and captain themselves running around the boat, snapping pictures of their own.

It was awe-inspiring to be in the presence of the whales.  They are so different from us, we might as well be from different planets, alien species eying each other for a few moments.  Nevertheless, our worlds did briefly touch, and I know we communicated peace with each other; or at least that was my exuberant take on it.

The whales were so close to us, actually touching the boat at times, that they occasionally blew geysers of funk-breath water on us.  Way better than the splash zone at SeaWorld.  All in all, it was a magnificent day, no doubt our coolest nature encounter this year.

This is a nice park in Marin County.  We went on a short hike Saturday afternoon, then later cooked steaks and roasted corn, and sat up late playing cards and talking.

 There was poison oak everywhere, even on the short path from the car to our site.  We really had to pay attention, and still had a few close calls.

We spent Saturday night camped at Big Trees, and hiked the North Grove Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning.  The boys enjoyed the Stanislaus River, much clearer and colder than we experienced at Caswell Memorial earlier this month.

We went back to Salt Point for two nights this weekend.  The highlight was probably the guided hike on Saturday.  We hiked to the Pygmy Forest and picked Huckleberries along the way.  Back at camp, we picked more huckleberries and fed Cheetos to the blue jays.  Later Saturday, we hiked the beach, where we saw sea lions and abalone divers.

On the way home Sunday, we stopped at Fort Ross and learned a little about the area’s history.

This is a nice campground located beside the Stanislaus River.  It’s a kind of oasis in an otherwise dry landscape.  The boys were big fans of swimming in the river.

We just can’t get enough Diablo.  It isn’t the most spectacular park, but it is nice, has a great view, good campsites, and it’s relatively easy to get reservations and is located nearby.  This particular visit was enjoyable, as usual.  We had a great site with plenty of space and privacy.

We spent one night at Chabot.  Lots of beautiful eucalyptus trees and acres of poison oak.  This campground was a little short on privacy, but was nice nonetheless.  Our site was overrun by a band of turkeys in the morning.

We drove up to Salt Point Wednesday afternoon, and stayed two nights.  We camped at the Woodside campground, which was only about 10% full when we arrived.  By the time we left on Friday, it was more like 95% full, with the arrival of the 4th of July weekenders.  It was nice to miss most of the crowd.  Even with the crowd though, there was pretty good privacy.  There was nothing but woods behind us and the sites beside us were pretty well hidden with underbrush.

 We had a great time, watching sea lions and suffering from poison oak (I think I got the poison oak a few days earlier, on Diablo.  Note to self, wash hands prior to going to bathroom next time I get poison oak).:

The beaches all along the coast in that area were spectacularly beautiful.  We stopped several times to admire the scenery that passed by hundreds of feet below.

Just got back from our fourth camping trip to Mt. Diablo, our first camping trip with Paula.   The weather was nice and we had a good time roughing it, living off the land, coming down only briefly on Saturday for Peet’s coffee, Jamba Juice, and Burger King.

We just got in from overnighting at China Camp.  Very nice campout, highlighted by seeing a lot of deer.  It was warm enough to sleep without the rainfly on the tent, giving us a nice view of the night sky.  We woke up this morning at 5:45 to the sound of deer running across the side of the ravine we were camped in.  When I stood up and looked outside the tent, one adult deer was standing nearby while a very young doe ran at an amazing speed in a circle around the sides of our ravine.

A raccon managed to get inside our ice chest and had a major feast, relieving us of a half dozen eggs and some left over chinese takeout.