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

We woke up a little later this morning (because it was my birthday, and I deserved to sleep in a little) and mostly spent a relaxing morning at camp before heading back to the beach to check things out. I ultimately decided I didn't want to do the hike, as we were supposed to check out of our campsite by 11 (even though we didn't actually until almost one, and it was still deserted) and I didn't want to be rushed. We found plenty to do on the beach though, between investigating the remains of a huge seagull feast of shrimp, some little tidepools, and me taking a zillion pictures of birds. We're pretty easily satisfied. Oh but first, Brady stole my camera and traipsed around looking for foxes. Clearly, they found him. He has this crazy animal magnetism that seems to draw animals to him, even wild ones. He keeps his distance, but sometimes they just come be-boppin' right up to him! The foxes were no exception.

Alright, fine. He got some cute shots.

This is our buddy Stubbs, so named because of his stubby little tail. He was always hanging out at our end of the campground!

Feast leftovers!

We found a whole shrimp! He was deceased, but intact, which was really cool.

Fine, I guess I'll keep him.

Throughout the years I have acquired many photos pretty much identical to this one.

OKAY FINE SO I TOOK A LOT OF SEAGULL PICTURES.

Look at this little beaut! Getting him well lit and in perfect focus was a fun challenge! I missed those!

After the beach, we went back to camp to break down the tent and pack up. And of course, I did some fox hunting of my own!

We had been wondering what they eat... now we know.

 After lunch we headed back to the beach to catch our 3pm ferry. It was sad to leave!

The super cute PFDs we got to wear for the skiff.

Brady made fun of me for taking this. I thought it was rad.

While on the ferry back, we saw sea lions porpoising! That was pretty cool, since I'd never seen that in the wild before. They were too quick for photos though. :( We also saw dolphins and sea lions working together to catch fish, which was really cool. Apparently they had seen a humpback whale on the way out though, which was a bummer for me! I've always wanted to see a humpback from closer than the shore. Our dolphins were pretty amazing though, so I didn't feel too terrible. Once we arrived back at the harbor we got a quick dinner for my birthday, and headed to Lancaster to see our friend Alan. It was a little out of the way, but it was really good to see him. It had been almost two years! After visiting with Alan we made our way to Anaheim to get ready for Disneyland in the morning!! Woohoo!!

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

After maybe a few too many hours of sleep (well, Brady slept more than I did, haha) we got up bright and early the next morning to eat breakfast and get ready to head out on our hike! First on the docket was the Potato Harbor/Cavern Point loop. It was a reasonably easy hike, and I'm glad we followed the park service's recommendation to hike clockwise. The inclines were much more gradual that way, and we got to spend a lot more of our hike looking southeast to Anacapa on the way back! The island, while kind of dry and desert-like, is really so beautiful.

There are a few vestiges of the old ranching days left on the island. It was cool to have a little history mixed in.

I probably took 100 images of this dang lizard.

Work dat #ChacoTan.

Look at that gorgeous succulent! Those colors are incredible!!

Look at dat pwetty new camera!!

The only time we used the selfie stick the entire trip. Oops.

This one deserves to be seen in its full glory. Make sure to check it out full screen!

This guy. He sure puts up with a lot for my national park obsession.

Brady said, "Walk more pretty!" So this was, of course, the obvious response.

Yes, I AM in fact aware that I am strange.

I know a lot of people don't like it, but MAN I love me a good dreamy lens flare.

After we got back to camp and had a late lunch/snack, we hung out for a while before heading up to do part of the Scorpion Canyon trail, which left right from our campsite. We had planned to maybe do it the next day, but we figured we'd see a bit of it regardless.

Admiring my Chaco tan after a full day hiking in the sun!

After a yummy dinner of Mountain House beef stroganoff (seriously, it was SOOOO good) we got in the tent to hang out and read for a bit while we waited for it to get dark so I could try my hand at some night shots. Unfortunately, we waited too long and it was SUPER dark, so things didn't really turn out the way I'd planned (they were either too bright or too dark), but I did get a pretty cool star shot out of the deal.

Another shot that deserves to be seen full screen!