Summer Vacation: LA and Channel Islands

Over the past several summers, we have found that heading out for our summer vacation as soon as school gets out works really well for us.  We beat the summer crowds and get our vacation done before summer activities get started.  It is a system that has worked well for us, so we did the same thing again this year.

As we I was deciding on our summer national park destination this year, I had a few various thoughts and ideas.  However, Staley had mentioned California as a state she wanted to visit.  We had to cancel a Disney World trip (that the kids didn't know about) in early March because of Zach's back surgery, and some of my short list of national parks would still be too cold in May.  When I combined all those factors, I determined that hitting a few national parks in southern California and combining that with a few days at Disneyland might be a winning combination.  And not to toot my own horn, but it really was.

We got the kids from school about 2 hours early on their last day so we could head up to Chicago for our early evening flight.  We listened to a few Clementine audiobooks on our way to the airport ('Clementine and the Family Meeting' and 'Clementine's Letter.') We ate some surprisingly yummy grilled cheese sandwiches at the airport for dinner before boarding our flight.

Unfortunately, things went a bit south once we had boarded.  (Pun intended.)  Our plane was a little behind schedule with boarding.  Once on board, we sat on the tarmac for over 2 hours.  Then our non-stop flight had to divert to Kansas City for more fuel before heading to California.  Our supposed 4 hour flight ended up taking over 7.  Thankfully our kids are great travelers.  They read books, watched movies, ate snacks, rested, and never really complained.  I really felt for the family who was several rows behind us with their 3 kids under the age of 5.  Yikes!

We ended up not getting to California until after midnight, which was after 2:00 in the morning our time.  Everyone was exhausted, but thankfully our luggage came quickly, our shuttle to the rental car place was timely, and getting our rental car was quick and smooth.  I'm so glad I booked a hotel right by the airport, because we were all just ready to crash.  And we did!

I had planned a buffer day between our flight and our Channel Islands day.  I'm so glad that we didn't have anything major planned for our first day.  Everyone got to sleep in, and then we ate a big breakfast at our hotel.  Holiday Inn Expresses all have very similar breakfast spreads, but we always find plenty that we like to fill us up.  After breakfast, we packed up and headed to Griffith Observatory.

After figuring out where we could park for free (I'm all about free parking) and asking several different people, we FINALLY found the trail head for the hike/walk to the Hollywood sign.  We ended up taking the Tyrolian trail, which was about 6 miles round trip.

The hike/walk was mostly on paved roads or well-maintained dirt roads, but it was closed to traffic and a great way to do a distinctly LA thing without dealing with all the distinctly LA traffic and people.

In order to keep her streak alive, Staley and I ran back down the hill from the Hollywood sign.  It was warm and had more uphill portions than I had realized, but it was nice to get a run in.

After our hike, we headed up the coast to El Matador State Park beach in Malibu.  We finished listening to our Clementine book and enjoyed some of the scenery as we drove along the coast.  Southern California was way more hilly/mountainous than we had realized.  The weather on the coast was chillier, but we enjoyed walking on the beach and climbing on the rocks.

We looked for some tide pools, but didn't have much luck.  The kids found a few sea anemones and some kelp and lots of birds, but no other wildlife sightings on this beach.

After exploring the beach, we stopped for dinner at the Malibu Seafood Patio Cafe.  It was just a tiny little restaurant that serves fresh seafood.  It has lots of tables outside all around the restaurant.  Staley, Zach, and I all opted for seafood while Adelie and Briggs went with the ever popular chicken strips option.  It was all very yummy!

After dinner, we finished our drive to Ventura, where we'd be staying for the night.  We settled into our hotel, and then Zach took the girls to get ice cream at the Coastal Cone.  Adelie got some type of mermaid-themed sundae with a fish-shaped ice cream cone.  Staley and Zach got Oreo Tsunami shakes.  Briggs and I stayed back and just got ready for an early bedtime.

After an early bedtime and good night of sleep, we woke up early to get ready for our day at Channel Islands National Park.  We again enjoyed a big, free hotel breakfast and then loaded up to check in for our ferry to Santa Cruz island.  We saw sea lions swimming in the marina while we waited for the ferry, as well as sea birds that were swooping and diving for their breakfast.  We sat on the outdoor top deck of the ferry.  It was pretty chilly, but at least no one was throwing up.  (Rumor had it that there were some seasick passengers on the indoor main deck area.)  While on our way to the island, we saw some whales off in the distance.  We only saw tails and blow holes, but it was still cool to have that experience.

Once on the island, we had a quick orientation to the island and then we headed off for a kayak tour.  It took awhile to get outfitted in all our gear, but then we joined another family of 4 with our tour guide, Brian, to explore the coast and sea caves around Santa Cruz.

Briggs and I were a kayak team while Adelie and Zach were another.  Briggs paddled for most of the time we were out there, and Zach said Adelie was paddling the entire time.  Staley was apprehensive about going solo, but she did great.  There was some hard paddling, especially with some waves and wind and small cave openings, but all the kids handled it like pros.  I was really proud of them!

We got to go into 4 different sea caves-one that looked like an elephant drinking water, one that was like a drive through, one that had a beach full of harbor seals, and then a large one that apparently goes really far back.  As we were paddling, Brian pointed out native birds, talked about the kelp forests, and helped us navigate all the caves safely.  It was a really cool experience, but also tiring.  We were on the water for almost 2 hours.

After our kayaking tour, we only had a few hours left to explore the island before our ferry back.  We changed out of our kayak gear and then headed out on a hike.  Our goal was to do a loop that combined Cavern Point and Potato Harbor, but we didn't quite make it all the way to Potato Harbor before having to head back.

The hiking on the bluffs above the ocean was just beautiful.  There were some wildflowers in bloom and the day, although chilly to start, had gotten warmer and sunny.  We got about 4 miles of hiking in (although the full loop hike would have been 5 if we had made it the whole way.)

I really enjoyed the kayak tour, but I also wish we had had more time to hike and explore the island.  Staley, although she persevered and did great, told me that she really doesn't like kayaking, so she probably would have been on board with more hiking and less kayaking as well.  I wish we had more time on the island.

As we were hiking back and gathering our stuff to head back towards the ferry, we saw a few Channel Islands foxes, which are a dwarf fox variety only found on the islands.  Apparently they don't have any predators on the island, so they aren't too scared or skittish around people.  Adelie had really wanted to see one on our trip, so I'm glad we did.

And although we aren't necessarily bird people, we also saw several Channel Island scrub jays, which are another indigenous Channel Islands species.

We made it back to the ferry, but were some of the last ones to board.  On our boat ride back, we came upon a school of dolphins that were leaping and jumping and swimming alongside our boat for quite awhile.  There were SO many of them.  Probably hundreds.  It was so cool to watch them!  Definitely a highlight of the ferry ride back.  The kids entertained themselves on the whole ferry ride back with clapping games and guessing games.  They had a lot of fun together.

After we got back and Briggs bought a little harbor seal stuffed animal (like the ones we saw in the sea cave) at the visitor's center, we walked along the harbor to get some dinner.  A woman at the visitor center gave us a great local recommendation for On the Alley, a casual restaurant that was very reasonably priced and really good!  My fish tacos were great!!  We followed up dinner with another stop at the Coastal Cone for ice cream treats before hitting the road towards Joshua Tree.

After a full day of kayaking and hiking, all 3 kids were zonked out on our drive to our next destination.  We had started a new audiobook ('The Thief Lord') after we finished our Clementine ones, but had to turn it off after we realized that no one was still awake to hear it.  We had really enjoyed our time in the Channel Islands, and we were excited to continue on with our family travels.  Stay tuned...

Track

Staley ran cross country.  She danced on the dance team.  And to round out her first year of doing school sports, she joined in with 139 other of her favorite 7th and 8th grade friends on the EMS track team.

There was very little coaching that occurred during Staley's track season.  Four coaches for 140 kids is a lot to handle.  The kids got to choose their own events.  There were at least 2-3 meets every single week with limited practice time in between.  Track practices were mostly choose-your-own workouts.  Lucky for Staley, she is intrinsically motivated, pushes herself even when there is no one asking her to, and was open to her parents providing her a little guidance over the season.  Staley also came into the season with a solid running base as she has continued her run streak (which is now over 400 days and counting.)

For this track season, Staley chose to do the mile, 800, and 4 X 400 relay.  Her season best mile time was 6:17, best 800 time was 2:47, and her 4 X 400 relay had a season best time of 4:37.

Unfortunately for Staley, the middle school order of events had the 4 X 400 relay coming immediately after the 800.  In some of the smaller meets, Staley had less than 5 minutes between running her 2 events.  She'd step off the track for the 800 and then be heading right back onto the track for her relay.  As the season moved forward, several other girls were interested in running on the 4 X 400 relay.  Staley was fearful of losing her spot on the relay, so she chose to drop the 800 and focus on her relay for the end of the season.

That decision paid off.  Staley held onto her relay spot, and her relay team ended up winning the sectional track meet, running state qualifying team, and moving on to the Class AAA state track meet.

Staley liked the 800 more than the mile, but she loved being a part of the relay team.  And the opportunity to make it to the state track meet was so exciting for this group of girls.

There is always a bit of fanfare whenever a team makes it to state.  There are state signs and a state send-off at school and a decorated bus and goodie bags.  Staley might have been most excited about getting out of school for the entire day on the Friday of state to support her teammates, even though her relay wasn't running until Saturday.

The state track meet was long and hot.  The girls did not run their best time.  They ended up placing 14th at state.  They were a little disappointed, but what an honor to make it there and to have that experience.

It was a great first track season for Staley.  It is so fun to watch her grow as a runner, compete hard, push herself, have fun, and encourage her teammates.  She is already excited and talking about next year.

End of the School Year

School ended.  Summer began.  Vacations have already been taken, camp has been attended, things have happened.  Unfortunately, I haven't kept up with blogging any of it.  In order to catch up, I'll need to back track all the way to those last few weeks of the school year.  Even though it's a month in the past now, I still vividly remember that end of the school year crunch with track and performances and special activities and school projects that get crammed into those last several weeks of school.  So here goes...

Briggs got to participate in the We Love America program.

He and Mikayla from his class painted the set piece for "spacious skies" in 'America the Beautiful' and got to present it during the song.  I thought they did such a good job!  I asked if it was paint by number, and he said they just painted it free-hand from looking at a picture.  Impressive!

It's always a cute program, and Briggs did a great job knowing all his songs and marches.  Zach participated in the We Love America program when he was in 3rd grade at Davenport, so 3/5 of our family have now been a part of it.  (I was not living in Eureka in 3rd grade, and Staley's class missed it due to Covid.)

Staley's quarter-long work for the World Day program at her school took a lot of time and effort, but she learned a lot about Afghanistan and her group's booth turned out great.

Although the naan bread she and Kaitlyn made wasn't quite as flat as it maybe should have been, it was still really yummy.  And this picture will be a good remembrance of why I now have 6 white heat marks on my table, all oval in shape and evenly spaced.

There was a chorus concert (on the same night at the same time as We Love America, of course)...

more backstage teching and performing for the rest of the Alice shows...

and lots and lots of track.  (It will be its own post.  Stay tuned.)

We celebrated spring/summer birthdays and Mother's Day with Zach's side of the family (2/3 of the family has birthdays between March and June)...

and then we celebrated some more with my side of the family.  Time with family is always a highlight!

The girls had their end of the year awards ceremony for the middle school.  Adelie got awards for straight A's and being one of the top 5 for reading points throughout the year.  (She and her best friend Stella were #2 and #1.)

Adelie also got the award for Mrs. Baner's outstanding student of the year for ELA.  What an honor!!  Each teacher picks one student to present their award to, so there were only 7 of these awards for the whole grade.

Staley also got awards for straight A's, map growth, and was Mr. Heider's outstanding student of the year for pre-algebra.

Because there wasn't enough stuff already in the schedule, I also attended Adelie's Mother-Daughter luncheon and puberty talk one day and her Dare graduation another day.  Adelie's group got to perform their rap about drinking, drugs, stress, and bullying for the graduation ceremony.  (Not sure why we need a whole ceremony to celebrate our 5th graders not doing drugs, but no one asked my opinion.)

Briggs and his friend, Freddie, performed in the 3rd and 4th grade talent show.  We planned our whole summer vacation dates to make sure Briggs would be there for the talent show since he'd been talking about it and planning for it almost the entire year.

Over the course of a number of months, they got together to free build this Lego castle every Tuesday after school for an hour.  They displayed their castle for the talent show.  They wrote and memorized a script where they talked about the process of building their castle.  I loved how hard they worked and planned to get ready for the talent show.

The end of the school year is always a lot.  There are so many activities and performances and special projects and fun days.  The schedule is full, but it's full of good stuff.

All 3 kids had a great year!  They liked their teachers, loved having time with friends, learned a lot, grew a lot, and all got to do and try new things.  Staley loved getting to do chorus and school sports.  Adelie thrived at the middle school, and her circle of friends grew exponentially as she grew close to kids from Goodfield and Congerville.

 We closed out the school year with a bang doing ALL THE THINGS.  And although it was a great year, we were all ready for summer.