Summer Pt 2

As the summer continues, we continue to have fun adventures!

We went out to see a little play in Redlands which was in the middle of a park as part of their summer theatre festival. We saw the 39 Steps, and while parts were good, there were a few interesting choices made by the group. 

One weekend was very busy for us; we went to a wedding of one of Mitchell's improv buddies in the morning (started at 11:30am) where they held a renewal ceremony and brunch. It was a very hot day to be outside, and they had provided water and fans for the guests. By 2:30pm people were starting to leave, which suited us fine as we had places to be!

After the wedding, we drove straight to Ventura and checked into our hotel for the night. We went out for some dinner and then went for a walk along the beach and the pier. 

The next morning we were up early to get to the harbour. I was prepared for awful parking like there is at Newport Beach, but there was plenty, so we made it in loads of time. 

We signed in, picked up a map and waited for our boat. We were off to Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the Channel Islands National Park. The boat ride was very rough, with several passengers having a bad time. We did see dolphins on the way though.

We disembarked at Scorpion Anchorage and were met by volunteers who gave us all a briefing about the island and how to preserve it. We then joined a guided tour by one of them, which taught us all about the history of the island and all the flora and fauna. 

The island is mostly rock, with very little soil and the vegetation was decimated by sheep farmers in the early 20th century. The island is recovering slowly, and the green scrubs which covered it are returning. The island fox is an endemic species which exists only on the islands, and is much smaller than on the mainland due to the smaller food sources. In fact, other than marine mammals and birds, it's the largest animal on the islands.  

We did the guided hike to Cavern Point and got to see some excellent viewpoints, and see the bright red kelp forests from above. It really stood out against the blue ocean. 

We then continued on the trail to another side of the island where we ate our lunch and saw another great view, this time of Potato Harbor. 

We made our way back down the trail and through the campground which we'd been told was the best place to spot the little foxes. We walked through without seeing anything, until I suddenly saw something on top of one of the picnic benches, it was a fox! It hopped down and we could see how teeny tiny they were. The legs especially were so short and they were proportioned more like puppies. We stopped to take some pictures, and they showed almost no fear of people.

After our hike, we headed down to the beach to wait for our boat back home. There were lots of people snorkeling and taking kayak tours around the island and its caves, but we'd done some kayaking already this summer and snorkeling last year on another island, so we decided to leave it for this time. 

The ride back wasn't as bad because we sat at the back of the boat, but the hour long journey was still pretty rough. 

The next weekend we didn't have so much planned, but we went to Joshua Tree on Saturday night to watch the meteor shower. It wasn't blazing hot in the evening once the sun started to dip, and we cooked some food as the group put up their tents and gathered. We laid out picnic blankets and watched the shooting stars until it was time for us to head home. The others camped, but I had work the next day and we didn't really fancy hiking in Joshua Tree when the sun came up and brought the 38 degree weather with it. Plus we've already done most of the hikes by now, so we didn't miss anything new!

We've also been having some game nights and lots of lunches together, and even went to an engagement party. Mitchell went for a beach day with his lab, and we went climbing a few times and for a little evening hike to Sycamore Canyon. 

One more fun thing we did this summer was to go camping in Idyllwild. We went back to the same place we went for our first ever camping trip here in California, and did the same trail again. We did it on a Monday this time, so it was a lot less busy, and also a lot hotter. We went through three litres of water each and were pretty tired by the end. 

But we did have a lovely weekend, and slept with the rainfly off the tent so we could look at the stars before going to sleep. It also meant that the moon woke me up because it was shining so brightly, but we could also see up into the trees in the morning without having to leave the cozy sleeping bags.  

On our last morning, we packed up the tent and went to visit the town of Idyllwild for the first time. There's lots of little gift shops and bakeries to explore, although not too many were open at 9am on a Tuesday. We did get a scone and some coffee before heading back down the mountain in time to unpack, shower and go to work. 

We also joined Marine, her boyfriend and their friends on a sailing boat for a day. We did some barbequing on the boat before heading out of the Dana Point harbor. We sailed for a few hours before I started feeling seasick and we had to head back. Mitchell and the others jumped in as we were sailing and were pulled along by the boat for some fun. 

We cooked some more food and then went to watch the sunset from a good point in the harbor. It was a really fun way to spend a summer day! 

I went out for a girl's night and we had dinner and spent an evening in the hot tub in our apartment complex. 

That's it for this summer blog, but we have just come back from our biggest adventure of the year, so I will be busy writing that up as quickly as I can! 

All our love,

Emily and Mitchell 

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