Aquarium of the Bay - SF

As promised, some more pictures from the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39. They have a cool tunnel through a big tank with all kinds of native sea creatures.

There is also a really great touch pool area where you can handle all sorts of stuff. Ella was a little squeamish about touching sea life but see did a little bit.

San Francisco

One of the days we rode BART into San Francisco and the Powell Street Station. From there we boarded a cable car for a ride over to the Fisherman's Wharf area.

Ella found this fun little bench with people just her size. That face of her's really cracks me up.

This is a shot I took of the Moon Jellyfish at the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39. I'll add some more pictures from there in a bit.

California Trip Part 1 - Bolinas

We started off our trip to California by travelling to Bolinas on the coast north of San Francisco to stay in the beach house of some friends of Katie and her family. I wanted to run an 18k trail run that took place up on top of the ridgeline behind Katie and Ella in the first picture so it worked out well for us to stay in Bolinas on Friday night.

Bolinas has a very strong hippie vibe to it. If you don't know how to get there you may never be able to find it because the hippies take down any and all road signs that point to Bolinas. Katie and I stayed in this beach house for our honeymoon so I've been there before. Katie has been there many times while growing up. And yet we got very turned around and had great difficulty finding it. We actually had to stop and ask for directions. And no... I'm not ashamed that I did. But thanks for asking.

Here are some pictures of us on the beach at Bolinas. Katie is instructing Ella in the finer points of Beachcombing. She was very enthusiastic but not very discerning. She would pick up every fragment of shell on the beach no matter how small. That an important first step though.

Katie and I have a picture of the two of us from our honeymoon where we wrote our names in the sand and posed next to it so we decided Ella needed one too.

This is the beach house we stayed in. It is a lovely, charming old place with a nice view of the ocean. It was originally owned by the parents of Katie's friends (the current owners). They recently purchased another home just up the road that is closer to the ocean and sports an amazing 180 degree view of the ocean. What a place!