Puffins!

The Feeding of the Aliens

Tomales Bay

I lagged a bit selecting the destination this year for my annual January getaway.  With a loud, tiny human in tow, options like a serene yurt campsite didn't seem quite as plausible.  We ended up at Dancing Coyote, one of my longtime favorites, which is situated nearby the best hike ever.  Hurray for baby's first elk sighting!

Vancouver Island, BC

We stayed at the Prancing Horse, about 20 minutes north of Victoria.  Our suite even came with a resident cat, which made us feel right at home.  Lots of mini hikes between rainstorms, fish and chips, and bird-watching. 

28 weeks. 

Tom was determined to see a bald eagle on this trip.  He had nothing to worry about as we saw several of them fly right by our window in both Port Angeles and Vancouver Island.  Here's one we spotted on a beach hike. 

Otter Love

Whiffen Spit
Sooke, BC
4/17/2014

We were trekking back up the spit, feeling pleased with ourselves for spotting several harbour seals and two baby otters on the rocky, stump strewn beach.  And then...

An otter galloping toward...past...tackling a second otter on the beach two feet away from us.  We could see the struggle through the rock crevices, and a moment later one otter was being dragged by the scruff of the neck into the water.  And then things got very National Geographic.

We watched until it started feeling a little creepy.  Then, standing in the rain, we stayed for another half hour.  About twenty minutes in we noticed another tiny commotion thirty feet farther out in the water and realized that it was actually another otter couple going at it.  Oh, Canada!

Tubbs Island

This past weekend we tackled Tubbs Island in San Pablo, a little over 6 miles since part of the full loop was washed out.  I'm rapidly becoming more and more wimpy and must admit that it took me the rest of the day to recover.  This was a gorgeous setting, with flitting sparrows, a handful of egrets, and giant mushrooms aggressively bursting out of the ground.  HOWEVER, I'm not completely sure it was worth the paranoia that ensued after we came across a couple frantically swatting ticks off of each other.  We found two on Tom and then quickly escaped home for a more thorough tick check and laundry!