Pinnacles National Park

Matt and I haven't been on a proper hike in ages, so we decided to skip our usual Saturday morning yoga routine and get on the road.  We drove south to Pinnacles National Park, which was just added to the National Park system earlier this year.  It's known for towering rock formations left over from an extinct volcano, which makes the park pretty popular with rock climbers.  Pinnacles is also known for talus caves, which are essentially caves formed by piles of huge boulders.  The caves house at least thirteen species of bats, although we looked but didn't see any of them on our hike.  Matt also read that Pinnacles has one of the highest diversity of bees on the planet -- over 400 species live in the park.  And if that weren't enough, Pinnacles is also a release site for the endangered California Condor.  We didn't see much beyond the occasional ground squirrel and a small flock of deer, but we were also in a cave half the time, so that might account for the lack of wildlife sightings.

We decided to skip the highest elevations this time around and headed for Bear Gulch Cave instead.  We started out hiking along a dry stream bed, stopping along the way to admire the large Ponderosa Pine and Chestnut trees.  The California Sycamore were also showing their fall colors, which made the first part of the hike quite colorful.  

Once we got to the caves, we climbed up through piles of huge boulders and stairs carved into the rock.  At times it was pitch dark without our flashlights, and all we could hear was the trickle of water through the cave.  Matt was on the lookout for bats, but we never found any.  We emerged at the top of the cave system and had lunch by a little water reservoir.

From the reservoir, we skirted a few large rock formations before heading back down to lower elevations.  There were glimpses of even more Pinnacles from the trail, but the sun was getting low, so we decided to come back another day to explore the highest peaks.  

Mountain unicycling

Matt's got a new hobby:

 

Full photo set here.

It's been quiet

It's been a quiet couple of months here. Ever since our wedding in July, we've been keeping a low profile. With the start of school in September, most of my photography, crafting, and cooking has been dialed back significantly, for better or worse. But that doesn't mean we haven't been keeping busy -- Matt's been unicycling and yoga-ing regularly almost every weekend, Henry's been a teenage joy and terror all at once, and I've been thinking more about teaching and how to get better at it.

I also took a little trip to western Mass to witness the marriage of one of my college friends. We've known each other almost 14 years now, so she is the closest thing I have to a sister. Her wedding was tucked away in the woods of a beautiful Quaker retreat center in Deerfield. Here are a few outtakes:

The above shots should give some indication as to why I'd make a pretty lousy wedding photographer -- I forgot to photograph the people! I was having such a wonderful weekend catching up with old friends, eating delicious food, dancing, singing, and roasting marshmallows that I completely neglected my camera for most of the weekend. Sometimes just the memories are enough, though, and this weekend was full of lots of special ones.

Meet Henry

The newest edition to our family, Henry came to us about two weeks ago. He's been a mostly joy and occasionally a terror, as kittens are. 

Happy Birthday, Matt!

We celebrated Matt's 30th last weekend with birthday muffins for breakfast, a dinner at Davenport Roadhouse, and a quiet evening watching the sunset over Waddell Beach.  Hooray for birthdays!

 

Oatmeal raison carrot banana birthday muffins

The birthday card I made for Matt, featuring our favorite llama

Sunset over Waddell beach

We sat in the back of Matt's car and watched the colors change

Taking advantage of the light

24 hours in Mendocino

I took a little solo trip while Matt is in China this week.  I booked a cabin in Hendy Woods on Sunday night, threw my camera and a bag of groceries into the car, and drove north for about 3 hours.  The weather *sort of* cooperated in that it didn't rain, but sort of didn't in that it mostly misted on the coast and made the sky and the sea the same bright, blinding shade of grey.  But I still managed to have a couple of adventures (and one VERY tasty campfire pizza).

 

Bowling Ball Beach

The "bowling balls"

Glass beach

A few of my finds at Glass Beach

Date night in Davenport

Yesterday Matt and I decided to check out the Davenport Roadhouse, which we've driven past numerous times en route to our favorite strawberry patch. Davenport is a seemingly quiet little town along Route 1 with one flashing yellow light and not a whole lot else. If you're not looking for it, you can easily miss it. We'd heard about the Roadhouse from one of Matt's coworkers, and they'd been written up in Sunset Magazine recently, so we decided to check it out.

On our way there, we took a detour through Soquel to check out a local farm stand. Everett Family Farms did the flowers for our wedding, and I'd noticed a really excellent spread of fruits, veggies, and flowers in their farm stand when I was there meeting with Carra about flower arrangements. So Matt and I decided to make a pit stop there to load up on some produce.   It was a sunny and quiet in the late afternoon when we arrived.  Aside from a farm cat hunting in the grass outside, we were the only ones there (the stand is run entirely on the honor system). The plums were some of the juiciest and sweetest we've had all summer, and the raspberries and strawberries didn't disappoint either.

 

From here, we headed south to catch Route 1 and then headed up to Davenport.  We arrived around 5:45pm and got a great table by the window immediately.  A live band was just warming up as we looked over the menu.  We had a hard time choosing what we wanted to eat for dinner -- the menu is full of local produce and lots of yummy-sounding veggie options.  In the end, we decided caramelized brussel sprouts (surprisingly sweet and buttery), garlic and pepper crostini with lemony arugula, and two pizzas. YUM!  Needless to say, we will be returning again soon for another date.  Who knows, we might even stay a night at the Inn upstairs, too.

Lake Winnipesaukee family vacation

Last week Stacey and I headed to the east coast for a much needed vacation. We kicked off the trip with a visit to Boston, where we stayed with our good friends Mark and Colleen. They were generous enough to pick us up from the airport at midnight on Friday and let us crash at their place in Boston for two nights (thank you!). We had part 3 out of 4 of our wedding activities on Saturday: a picnic by Lake Waban on Wellesley's campus with a small group of friends. We all enjoyed plenty of yummy picnic food, beautiful weather, adorable dogs, and one inflatable kayak. Then on Sunday we headed up to New Hampshire.

We stayed at the same place as we did two years ago -- a little cabin on Furber Point of Lake Winnipesaukee.  We spent just under a week there with my parents, my sister and her boyfriend, and my two uncles.  

 

The cabin on Furber Point

Much like last year, we rented a boat for the first part of the week to explore the lake, waterski, and take the scenic route into town. This year, we got a much more powerful boat, which made water skiing easier and tubing much more exciting/treacherous than last year (they don't call us the Action Taylors for nothing).  My parents were the guinea pigs for the first tubing run and got tossed dramatically into the lake, although they were (mostly) all smiles at the end.  Luckily everyone survived their experience on the water with only a couple bruises and sore muscles the next day.

We also managed to fit in some canoeing and swimming, too.  And just like our last visit, we were treated to some gorgeous sunsets from the dock.

We don't get summer sunsets like this in California

Sunset over the lake

We managed to see a little more of the town of Wolfeborro (or, at least it's surroundings) this time, too.  Stacey and I joined my parents for a walk along one of the trails that heads out of the town and visits some of the neighboring lakes.  It was a beautiful day, and we ended up walking for about 2 hours through the outskirts of town and the surrounding forest. We even made a feline friend along the way...

New feline friend

Lush forest undergrowth

Stacey and my dad stopped for a lengthy berry photo shoot

On Thursday we all went for a family hike up to the top of Mount Major, a moderate climb with a steep scramble near the summit.  Luckily, our efforts were rewarded with thick patches of wild blueberries at the top of the mountain, and Stacey and I wasted no time picking enough for everyone.  Once we got to the top, we enjoyed lunch and incredible views of the lake.

Trail signs

Moss photoshoot

New froggy friend

Picking blueberries

One of many handfuls

Wild blueberry bushes

Stacey and me at the summit of Mt Major

On our last full day at the cabin, we spent most of the time relaxing/napping in the hammock, making a run into town for some post cards, and one last trip to Bailey's Bubble for monstrous ice cream cones.

Hammock time

There was talk of going back to Winnipesaukee again in two years, although since the house where we stayed is currently for sale, it's unclear whether we'll get to go back to what seems like "our" little cabin on Furber Point.  Even so, we're already looking forward to more waterskiing, boating, swimming, puzzles, ice cream, s'mores, and quality family time.