CALIFORNIADVENTURE Part One: Channel Islands National Park! [Day One]

So, I'll be honest. I had originally intended to simply split this trip into three sections (Channel Islands, Disneyland, and our grandparents' house), but then I realized there are just WAY too many photos and I don't want to overload anyone! We'll see about Disneyland, and there honestly aren't many photos from our grandparents' house, but Channel Islands at least will be daily posts! So without further ado, I give you... Channel Islands, day one!

After spending an undisclosed number of hours cleaning and getting our house ready for my friend Sara to stay with our critters (and a sad amount of sleep), we left our house at about 430am to head to the airport. I was admittedly kind of shocked at how busy it was, and my stomach kind of dropped when I saw all of the people waiting in line at the Alaska Airlines counter. But I just went straight to a kiosk to check in and check our bag and got that done fast, so I'm actually not sure why all of those people were standing in line...
Anyway, we went and got in line for security and it moved pretty fast, until I got to the front and was asked if I had another form of ID (I had just BARELY changed my name because the ticket was booked under Groves, so I had the paper ID from the DLD)... of course I don't, lady, this is a government issued ID with my new name. So then she had to call her supervisor and I had to pull out our marriage certificate and be like, I just changed it... I'm married to this person and this is my new legal name and this is all I have. I ended up having to have my bag EXTRA searched and a full patdown, which, whatever. It kind of blows my mind that TSA agents in Utah, where there are more weddings than we know what to do with, wouldn't recognize that as a government issued identification. Oh well.
We got on the plane, flew to LA, and picked up our rental car (with a few snafus there that aren't even worth mentioning, but let's just say I'm really glad I turned 25 two days into our trip!) and headed up to the port to catch our ferry to the islands! After a quick stop at REI to grab some fuel for our camp stove (because you can't fly with it) we had arrived at the harbor. We checked in for our ferry, re-sorted all of our camping gear into the right bags, and headed to the visitor center.

The Chacos-in-sign-pic streak continues...

Got our stamps! Our first Centennial stamp (I know... I don't want to talk about it) and our first green stamp (also sad)!

Loaded for bear! Backpack on top, camera bag on bottom.

Obligatory photo of working on my Chaco tan.

I have to take a quick little aside here to brag about my awesome sneaky husband. He signed up for a really cool rewards program through his work and secretly bought me a new camera using nothing but his points (Amazon gift cards)! Gotta love Amazon and their good deals. He surprised me the night before we left and I was freaking out. I've been really pining to get another SLR and he got me a great one! So needless to say, I took over a thousand photos. Hehehe.

Anacapa, another Channel Island which is next on the list!

While we were crossing the channel, our ship captain slowed and came to a stop. We looked over the edge of the boat to see one of the most magical things I have ever seen in my entire life- a MASSIVE pod of dolphins! Our captain said he had never seen that many dolphins in one place, and estimated there were well over 400 dolphins. I was running around trying to take pictures and videos and simultaneously trying to just enjoy the wonder of it all. It was genuinely awe-inspiring. I took a couple of videos that I spliced together (they're pretty bad, but I'd never done video with an SLR before, I'm still learning!) to try and capture just how many dolphins there were, but even the videos simply are not sufficient. It was SO INCREDIBLE I could gush about it for hours. Our captain eventually got the boat going to get the dolphins to play in the wake, and I got a couple of shots that I'm really happy with. It was hard! Those dolphins swim so fast and it's tough to guess where they might surface, especially when all you can see is through your tiny viewfinder. It was still a seriously magical and wondrous experience, and one I will not soon forget.

This is the closest I came to capturing in a photo how many dolphins there were, and it's not even close.

Those dolphins can really rip! They swim SO FAST!!

I'll be honest. I cried a little when I was going through my photos and saw this one.

I really liked how you could see the bubbles from the blowhole of the dolphin closest to the camera. In the very next frame he's underwater, and I was shooting super fast. They're just that quick!

After we left the dolphins to whatever fun they were having, it was pretty quick to get to the island and skiff to shore (since the pier has been condemned). The crew at Island Packers were so great and efficient and friendly, I was really impressed. (And our captain had a cute accent. So that helped. ;)) Once we had arrived on the island, it was about three quarters of a mile to our campsite (yes I mapped it with my watch, yes I am a nerd). As per usual, I had done my research and reserved a super awesome site, pretty secluded and right under two giant eucalyptus trees! We set up our tent, ate lunch, and moseyed back down to the beach.

If you've never been to or heard of the Channel Islands, especially Santa Cruz, you've probably never heard of the island foxes. I'd heard a lot about them, and I REALLY wanted to see them. I was worried I wouldn't, and man was I wrong. At the campground they were EVERYWHERE!! There were a few on the beach as well. They're tiny, and fluffy, and adorable. Foxes are one of my all-time favorite animals, so it was really fun to watch these little guys trotting around the island. And I won't even apologize for the shameless number of fox photos I took that I'll be posting in the next couple of posts. Hehehehe.

I like this camera. A lot.

It's pretty common to find fox and bird poo on the tables... so next time I'll probably take some bleach wipes, haha.

You can see Anacapa there in the middle of the shot. It's pretty close!

After a while at the beach we decided to go take a nap... which accidentally turned into us sleeping until 7am the next morning. Ooooops. Well. 14 hours of sleep after a week of cleaning like crazy and getting like 6 hours of sleep a night, AND only getting about an hour of sleep before leaving on our trip, was nice, and got our biological clocks reset. And to be fair, I did get up at 8 for about an hour to eat dinner. Haha. Oh well. It was quiet and peaceful and restful and got us all ready to go for fun hiking the next day!