Jared's request for his 40th birthday celebration was to camp together, just the two of us, in Catalina! This was my first time making the crossing over there in his fishing boat, so it was quite the accomplishment for me. I found that it wasn't scary in any way, just a little exhausting after a couple of hours of nonstop driving. We lucked out with an amazingly warm, sunny weekend--it felt like we were in a tropical paradise. Although Catalina isn't too far away, it feels like a different world--the water is so blue, and was so incredibly clear--it felt just like staring into an aquarium. We lounged around in our blow up raft, went for early evening walks, played games by the campfire, and tooled around all of the nearby coves in the fishing boat the next morning. We had an easy crossing back to Dana Point, and I'm pretty sure Jared is already planning our next trip back :) Happy Birthday!!!
Leaving Dana Point, 6am Saturday morning.
The view from our campsite at Two Harbors (you can see part of our inflatable raft on the left--the boys are going to have so much fun playing in it this summer!).
Hiking very carefully among the cacti on the hillside.
I may be wrong, but I think this was our first vacation together since Parker was born!
Sunset view of the cove at Two Harbors. So quaint.
Tropical island paradise!
Buffalo roaming through the campground--we opted to walk back up the hill and take the long way around to our campsite! About an hour later, once it was pitch dark, we heard a man shouting and yelling--seems like he was walking along the trail in the dark carrying a load of fish he had caught while diving, and walked right into the buffalo! Scared him to death, and he dropped all of his fish...which the buffalo proceeded to sit on. We had lots of laughs that night.
Waking up in the morning...funnily enough, the small waves washing up on the beach and the seals barking all night were almost too loud for sleeping! And I thought the sounds were going to be so charming...
Jared's traditional blueberry pancake camping breakfast.
The water was SO CLEAR. We sucked it up and put our bathing suits on and jumped in before we left--it was definitely very cold! I think I swam as fast as I could to climb back on the boat! Luckily the weather was nice and warm so we recovered quickly.
Fancy lunch: plastic plates! cloth napkins! peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! good beer!
A dolphin send-off before we headed home.
Passing big ships at sea on our way home.
We also passed GIANT kelp paddies--Jared said these would have been incredible fishing opportunities if it was summer and the water was warm.
