June - Part 1

Christian finished school at the end of last month and it couldn't come too soon. We were supposed to take a several day camping trip together that first week off, but a series of unfortunate events aligned to keep us from going. Mainly a package that was en route but delayed and another package that we ordered and asked them to delay the shipment but our instructions were ignored, left us with  several packages that would arrive while we would be away. At the last minute, I told Christian to just take off on his trip and that I would stay home with Caitlyn to receive the packages.  That way, he can get away without having to worry about anyone else and having his packages stolen. We actually had most of the camping gear out and ready to go already. We just had to repack to take all the extra stuff Christian wouldn't need by himself out. 

He left early the next morning, heading out to the border of California/Nevada. Caitlyn had prepared for the trip by getting a jump on her homework for the week, so technically, she was free to do anything we wanted. After I was able to track our incoming packages to find out exactly when they would be delivered,  it was determined that they would not arrive until the next day. After Caitlyn woke up, we decided that we would go out and do something but neither of us had any idea of what we wanted to do. We went over several ideas over breakfast but still didn't come up with anything. 

After our trip to the outlets out in Cabazon, Caitlyn kind of wanted to go find more. The only other place that is relatively close-by is the Ontario Mills Outlets and we had already made plans to go with Emily the next weekend.  There was another one in Orange, but that seemed a little farther than we wanted to go for just shopping. The rest seemed significantly farther, so we scrapped that plan and started looking for some other diversion. We briefly looked into places that we might want to go hiking in. Perhaps some place that Christian wouldn't normally want to go to because it was too crowded but not so crowded that we would  also find it unpleasant. Most places that seemed interesting was either a bit farther out and it was getting late and/or maybe more challenging than I could currently handle. In the end, we decided to go out to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve to take pictures. That would get us close enough that we could also take a walk on the beach afterwards. We did realize that that was farther than we were initially considering going to but we thought it much more worth the effort than shopping.  

Decision made, we hurriedly through some things together and got dressed. By the time we made it out there, it was already lunch time. We packed a quick lunch and had our sandwiches in the parking lot before heading out.

Parking was limited, but not too crowded, so we did not have any issues. The preserve is actually right across from the Bolsa Chica State Beach. It is just divided by the Pacific Coast Highway. The day was partially overcast, so it wasn't too unbearably hot. I was hoping there might be a few trees on our path but it is just a coastal wetland surrounded by neighborhoods on one side and facing the beach on the other.

Caitlyn brought her long zoom lens and was able to get much better pictures than I was able to. I only had my kit lens since I got a new camera for Christmas and I do not have the mount to be able to use my long EF lens. We originally that that would be a possibility, but found that the mount is kind of expensive. When they first started pushing the mirrorless cameras, they had great deals on the conversion mounts and some packages even had it for free to entice you to move over to their new system. Once they were well and underway, they discontinued their DSLR line and they are now just focusing on the RF lenses for their new mirrorless cameras. At some point, you won't have very much choice but to move over and so they stopped giving incentives for the conversion mounts.

We got a nice walk along the paths and took hundreds of pictures...most of which we were afraid would be blurry! But we figured we probably had enough that we were sure that we would have some that would come out okay!

So after a couple of hours, we decided to check out the beach next. We were not sure what the state beach here would be like and didn't think that we would stay that long, so we didn't want to pay the $15 daily parking rate just for maybe an hour at the beach. Plus, there were a bunch of school buses full of screaming children in the parking lot and decided to try out luck elsewhere. We ended up going further down to Sunset Beach. We found excellent parking but initially, we were underwhelmed by the beach. Apparently, we were a lot closer to Long Beach than we thought and all we could see was the shipyard and tons of cargo ships clogging up the waterways. Plus, it was still fairly hazy out and the combination looked somewhat distopian. We walked for a bit and took a few pictures,  found some really nice shells and were thinking of heading out when we discovered that what we though was just a kite was actually kite surfer's coming out. There were several out on the water as we made out way in their direction and got caught up watching them and taking pictures.

We had never seen them before and it was pretty neat watching them. A couple of the guys were really good and were practically flying out of the water as their kites caught the wind just right. We marveled at how they could leap out of the water and seemed to miraculously find their boards and hop right back on.

After following them down the beach, and the zoomed through  the waves, we found that we walked clear back to the border of the state beach. We headed back to where we parked but found more and more kite surfers coming out into the water. Pretty soon the beach was just full of them. They, of course, had to give each other space as not to get tangled in each other's lines.

We caught some more of the birds along the beach. Mostly just seagulls and some pelicans. We couldn't get enough of the kite surfers but after a couple of hours out here, Caitlyn's hands were starting to freeze as the sun started getting low in the sky and so we decided to head out.

It ended up being great timing because as we headed out through Seal Beach, we got caught up in the rain storm that was forecasted for this evening. We heard thunder and saw lightning flashing in the sky. We wondered where Christian was and hoped that he had found somewhere safe to spend the night.

We had also actually passed right by the outlet stores in Orange on our way to the beach and had decided that we would hit that on our way home...you know, since we were already all the way out here. Luckily, the rain had already mostly tapered off by the time we got there, although, I did have an umbrella in the car.

We did find a couple of things, but we were pretty exhausted by the time we made it through all the stores. We made a quick stop for dinner before heading the rest of the way home. By the time we got back, we only had enough energy to clean up before turning in for the night. We had a pretty long and eventful day.

Since we were expecting packages the next day, we planned to just spend it recuperating and going through our pictures.

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Christian was having his own adventures...some good, some not so good. Every time he contacted us, he seemed to be in a very different place than where I would have expected him to be. Needless to say, he covered a lot of ground.

He started off in the Nevada side of the Funeral Mountains. He took a trail back into California heading into Echo Canyon. It was shorter than he expected so he found himself in Death Valley early in the afternoon. 

There are too many tourists in Death Valley, even at this time of year, so he headed out of Furnace Creek towards the Panamints when the weather started to turn. We knew that there was a chance of thunderstorms and flash floods this evening so he couldn't camp in any washes. He made it into Owens Valley by the end of the day to find a camping spot at Alabama Hills.

In the morning, he took a trail up the west side of the Inyo Mountains to the Salt Trams. It was one of the roughest trails that he has been on but it had the best views of the High Sierra.

He was expected back the next day, so that morning, I was trying to get a hold of him to see if he would be back in time for dinner. When I got a hold of him, he was already back and heading into our neighborhood. Apparently, he was back in time for lunch!

He made it back okay, but he was complaining about a noise the Jeep was making. We've had this problem  before, but apparently it has gotten much worse on this trip. The vehicle still seemed to run fine, but it made some troubling noises in certain conditions. We originally thought that it might be the brakes since we have had a few problems with it on and off before, but the noise usually comes when it is coasting at a certain speed and not when the brakes are engaged at all.