November adventures in Fort Bragg

They weren't kidding when they said the area we live in is so centrally located. Under 2 hour drive to Lake Tahoe and the mountains and a 4 hour drive to the coast, and 2 hours to the big city and wine country. So many options, so little time!

My parents arrived in Penn Valley on Tuesday, the 19th to stay through Thanksgiving. Eric and I had decided beforehand that we should head west to Fort Bragg for another quick weekend ocean getaway. This Montnana girl is loving the coastal experiences and being able to offer adventures by the sea to my boys. I mean, honestly, I had no idea what a sea anemone was, or even how to pronounce it, but my kids certainly do! Jaxon calls them "enemies." 

At Jughandle beach

Papa and Jaxon

Glass beach. See all the pieces of tumbled glass?

Family photo

While hanging out at Glass Beach a diver emerged from the waters. He had caught a sea urchin. This was COOL!

The urchin moved around and the diver told us they are a delicatessen in Japan, very expensive to eat. 

The sun setting at Glass Beach

The next morning we headed to MacKerricher State Park. We didn't go here the first time we visited Fort Bragg. This place was amazing! The calm waters and low tides offered a plethora of sea life to see.

We saw sea anemone (above), starfish, crabs, tons of shells, abalone and fish. We also saw 3 seals playing around right off the shore.

Jaxon found a really cool shell and put it in his pocket to later learn it got broken. He was devastated!

But he found an equally cool bigger shell

Looking for treasures.

It was pretty chilly, but warmed up quickly!

While Jaxon liked finding treasures, Kaleb loved climbing all over the rocks.

And it was certainly fun to have Namo and Papa climb on them with him

Good view of the low tide.

And once again we got lucky when another diver emerged with some Abolone he caught. 

There are minimum size restrictions on the Abalone, as you can see this one is very big.

And slimy and muscle-like. Of course once you remove the muscle for eating, a beautiful pearlesque shell remains. 

Like this - (I had to go buy a small one at a gift shop, of course) :) 

No one wanted to leave this place, but we did manage to get a decent family photo!

One last stop before heading home - there was a whale skeleton at the visitor center. This was right up the boys' alley. They are so enfatuated with whales! 

In the belly

In his mouth :D

More great memories with our family, and it was so fun sharing it with my parents.