Calvin's photography

What do you think? Is he ready for his own camera?

The Elephant Seal Rookery

I guess I answered my own question.  The seals in the last post were elephant seals too.  They were juvenile males playing. Here they are, all clumped together, molting.  Every year they shed all of their fur (and even their skin... I think) and have new skin and fur underneath.

Are these Elephant Seals or Sea Lions?

When we were in Cayucos, CA, we visited the Elephant Seal Rookery just up the road on highway one. We saw what we thought were elephant seals swimming in the water, but then later, we looked further up the beach and saw about a hundred actual elephant seals laying in the sand and molting.

So my question is, what are these animals in the picture? Elephant seals or sea lions? They just seemed livelier and and their fur was darker than the ones on the beach.

Route 66

I'm still a little confused about what Route 66 actually is.  This is probably because the road isn't called that anymore, but HWY 40 roughly follows it, and every now and then there will be a sign that says "Route 66" and when you follow that sign it will lead you to a ridiculously touristy small town, like Spiegleman, AZ, where we ate dinner.

Last Stage West

Last week we drove from the middle of Arizona to the California coast where we had a hotel in Cayucos. We were so close, we could smell the salty air.  But we'd also been driving all day. Calvin was bored, had just finished shredding our map of California and let out a plaintive, "want an ice cream cone?"

It was hard to say no.  Even though Quinn's jaw was set in that can't-stop-till-I'm-there expression that men get when they're behind the wheel, I asked him to pull over at Last Stage West. Not wanting to piss us both off, he agreed.

And it was the perfect place for a pit stop! It's located on Hwy 41 at 15050 Morro Road.  There was a blues guitar player in the bar and a back room with picnic tables and a pool table.  It was only four in the afternoon, so we had the pool table to ourselves, which is good because Calvin is an insane pool player.

We ordered ice cream and a pulled pork sandwich and after playing some pool ate while watching the coy in the pond out back.  It looked like an awesome place for a party.

The Apple Dumplin'

Whoo hoo! It's my 100th post at babyhikes.

We just got back from our vacation in California. As a family, this was our first pure "vacation" where we took time off just for the sake of winding down and having fun (well, we had a honeymoon). Our first stop was at a restaurant that I wanted to write about earlier - when we drive to Arizona and I lost my camera - but I was so discouraged that I lost my pictures that I didn't post about it.

It's the Apple Dumplin' Restaurant! It's located on highway 40.  Going west through Arizona you take exit 333, and take a right. It's on the left.

It has a cowboy theme, the tables are wearing boots on their legs and there are handkerchiefs tied to the backs of the chairs. The first time we came here we got an amazing breakfast of eggs and biscuits and pancakes.  Then we were too full to try the apple dumplings.

So this time we planned better. We ordered a Navajo Sugarfoot and a Chaco Taco. The Chaco Taco was a little dry, so we both fought over the Sugarfoot. It was taco meat, wrapped up in fluffy fry bread and smothered with a green chile gravy that, after we demolished the sugarfoot, was perfect for dipping our french fries in.

It's not very often that you get old fashioned desserts like apple dumpings. These were whole apples wrapped in pie batter and served hot with ice cream.

Calvin loves the Apple Dumplin' too, but it's really hard to get him to sit still and eat. We usually have to take turns chasing him around while he checks everything out.

Camping in the Jemez

Last weekend we camped overnight in the Jemez Mountains.... or at least we meant to. One of Quinn's co-workers invited his group to stay at his place. I was planning on being a good sport about sleeping in the tent.  The night before Quinn made sure that one of our air mattresses actually held air. I just got my sciatica under control.  I was all set.

setting up the tent

But when we got there our hosts were showing us around the cabins and pointing out all the beds, particularly the king sized bed in the loft upstairs. Then it started to rain.  It was almost two o'clock and Calvin was starting to run around in his pre-nap grouchy frenzy, and I was chasing him with a murderous glint in my eyes (which is a sign that we both need a nap immediately). Quinn got the tent up but the air mattress wasn't quite filled.  I said, "Don't worry, I'll just take a nap upstairs."

Quinn said OK and I pretty much had to put Calvin in a headlock to get him to fall asleep. He wanted to see the tent, run out in the rain, look at the lake and "sit in the car and listen to Here Comes Science." (by They Might be Giants). Once asleep we were out for almost four hours! Then Quinn came in and fell asleep too.

   It was a sleepy afternoon.  The other families arrived and the rain let up.  But as soon as the guys got the charcoal ready for burgers, it started to downpour again, and we all had to huddle underneath a little tent.


My wheels were spinning.  I'm not usually an anti-outdoorsy person, really I'm not.  But I knew that that air mattress wasn't blown up and all of our warm clothes for sleeping in the tent were soaking wet - because we were wearing them. All we had left were regular pajamas, which would be the perfect thing to wear if we were cozied up in king-sized bed upstairs.

On top of that, all week Quinn's mom has been telling me stories about the terrible things that happen to curious little boys when they go camping - like disappear forever into the woods, or get found after they've been mostly eaten by a bear. I couldn't help looking around the camp site and wondering what Calvin would do if he managed to let himself out of the tent without waking us up first. It's like the first few pages of a horror novel.

You get the picture.  Eventually I was able to convince Quinn to come upstairs and thwart his camping dreams. Oops. Oh well, I'm pregnant.