Christmas Surf Session 2012

As in last year and the year before, we did our ONE tradition and that was to surf on Christmas day. My brother, PJ, came along with us again this year and Sean showed up with his wife and daughter. In the years past, we haven't had to have to worry about if there was going to be surf. This year, we had to worry a bit. The forecast was calling for ankle to knee high surf... in non-surfer talk, that's barely a wave. However, we pulled up to Long Sands and it looked like it was going to be one of those days that we could push off the bottom and catch a wave. However, it ended up being really fun. 

The teeny tiny waves that we were about to surf in the 20 something degree weather.. 

Group photo pre-surf

PJ with his mad straight-arm balance style: 

PJ squatting it out.... 

Nate cross-stepping: 

Nate's small wave style: 

awwwwwwwwwww

Who knows... superman, Jenny? 

PJ trying to head left... 

Jenny with her super woman arms and Sean trying to catch the wave: 

me and PJ riding opposite directions... 

We enjoyed our small waves on Christmas day. Thank you, mother nature for at least giving us some fun little waves. Hope that everyone had a great Christmas! 

Hiking North Moat Mountain with Good Friends

It feels like I'm always playing catch-up on this blog... I guess that's what happens when you are doing stuff...

In the beginning of December, there was still no snow in New Hampshire so I convinced my friends to go on a hike. I figured out what hike I wanted to do and studied the maps to know how I wanted to do the hike... but in typical Jenny fashion, left the maps at home... Not home as rental place in North Conway where we would be starting the hike, but home as in Rollinsford, 2 hours away from North Conway... Thankfully, my friend, Anna, the muse for this blog, knows us well enough and brought a map with her!

Here is the map from the day...

Notice that little blip pointed out with the purple arrow... 

Here is the blown up section of that little blip... 

Yes, that was about 4 tenths of a mile but during that 4 tenths we got to witness this! 

But besides walking off the trail and going in a circle for a bit, it was a really fun hike. It was a 10 mile hike that took us 7 hours. It was cold enough out that there was ice on the trail in the higher elevations so it wasn't a really boring hike at all. The views on the way up and way down were really pretty too. Here are pictures from the rest of the hike:

The boys being gentleman and helping Molly and Anna cross Diana's baths

Anna's pure concentration as she walks across a tree over Diana's baths... 

And Nate barely awake as he stands on a tree... 

Using a compass and a map and Nate's silly faces and we still got lost... :) 

Scout doing what Scout does... Scouting out the land... 

On the way up, looking back at North Conway and Cranmore

In our fancy camera, we have a magic filter called soft focus. I thought this part of the trail looked like a fairy tale with the moss and the ice... So I used the soft focus filter and I tried to make it look more fairly tale-ish. 

Climbing above the clouds. One of my favorite parts of hiking in not so awesome weather

Happy campers hiking! 

Buddies on the summit!!! 

Heading down still above the clouds

Once we started heading down, all of us were pretty much ready to be done. It was so nice to see Diana's baths again. 

Thank you Anna, Mark and Molly for going on an adventure with Nate and me. I hope that we didn't scar you again!

I'm not setting a goal of elevation gain this year because last year was such a bust and I think I burned Nater Potater out a bit. I will keep track of our elevation gain though. We did 2,879ft on this trip. It was December so it gets counted! :)

And to the Hosts.. THANK YOU!!!!

Lastly, I want to say a HUGE thank you to our very generous hosts in California!!

Unfortunately, this is the only picture that I have of all three of you, but thank you for opening up your home to Nate and I while we were in California. We both appreciate your hospitality so very much!! 

Thank you for sharing your fascination with black widow spiders. I don't appreciate this as much, but Nate did!!! 

Thank you for allowing Nate to climb on your roof and catch a black widow spider. He loved it!! :) 

Thank you, Rick, for casually opening the jar to the black widow spider and standing a foot from me without me knowing you were standing that close... :) 

Thank you, Dessa, for playing with Nate. He always loves a little companion to toss around and scare a bit. 

Thank you, Helga, for being my kayak buddy!! This picture will forever crack me up!! :) 

Helga, Rick and Dessa please let us know when you'll be back in NH so that we could return the favor! We do really appreciate letting us stay with you!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Kayaking in Monterey Bay

The last day of our adventure in California was definitely one of my favorite days. We were sitting around Rick and Helga's house trying to think of things to do for the last day. I was looking at things and saw whale watching in Monterey Bay. Helga and Nate discussed it and decided it was definitely an idea. We kept thinking and decided that was exactly what we were going to do. The next morning, we packed up the car with kayaks and we headed south to Monterey Bay. The weather forecast said it was going to be brilliantly sunny all day... unfortunately when we got there, it was overcast and cold... but we still got to see tons and tons of stuff. 

When we put the kayaks into the water, we noticed that there were some jelly fish in the water. We all decided that at no time would we be entering the water, besides the cold water and cold air temps. I stuck the underwater camera in the water to see what I could take a picture of without getting stung and I was able to come up with this one:

Not only do the sea lions bask on the rocks, but the monstrous sea stars too!! They were HUGE!!! 

As we were paddling around, you would see birds fly around and land in a few places. From my many whale watching boat tours that I have been on and seen ONE whale, I knew that where birds are means that the wildlife is around too. Where ever we saw pod of birds, we would paddle towards them to see what was out there. You can see the seal's head sticking up as he just threw a fish out of the water and all the birds trying to gobble up all the parts that flew as the fish was tossed out the water. It was pretty cool. 

We paddled through a kelp forest. The underwater camera was pretty awesome to have!! 

If you look really closely, you can see a momma otter holding her baby otter and paddling backwards!! SO CUTE!!!! 

Mr. Seal was fascinated with Nate's rutter. Nate was not impressed with the seal chasing him. It was the second time on the trip to California that I saw Nate somewhat uncomfortable. 

Then Mr. seal thought it would be a great idea to try and climb up on our kayak. Helga and I had made a pact not to go into the water so we started paddling like mad to get away from the curious seal. 

All smiles once we got away from the curious seal. 

The adorable sea lions basking on the rocks!!! And yes, once we got out of the kayaks, the sun started to come out and it was a nice day. 

Just a little 6 hour ride around San Francisco on Mountain bikes

On Sunday, after we found out that the waves were JUNK, we decided to borrow Rick and Helga's mountain bikes and drive back to San Francisco so that we could ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. As stated in the post before, the fog had finally rolled in so unfortunately, it was probably going to be a foggy ride across the bridge but oh well... 

When we were in San Francisco on Friday, Nate kept mentioning that he wanted to see what Haight and Ashbury was all about. So, first stop on the bike adventure was to find Haight and Ashbury. We rode through the streets of western San Fracisco until we finally found the panhandle of Golden Gate park. Then we found Ashbury street so we took that and then we found Haight and then we rode up and down the street looking at all the shops. What I didn't expect was a Ben and Jerry's ON the corner of Haight and Ashbury... but it was 10am on Sunday so there was no Ben and Jerry's for me!! :(

 We then rode through Golden Gate park and worked our way to the Golden Gate Bridge.

We climbed some crazy hills and Nate took his shirt off.... 

Then we looked over some crazy cliffs.. 

And we kept riding until we got to the bridge... And it was AWESOME!!!! 

After we rode across the bridge, we rode up another killer hill and got to see the bridge from a different angle. Also very cool... 

Then we rode down the hill and went off on a pier and got to see the bridge from yet another angle. 

After the bridge, we decided to have lunch in Sausalito. We found bike locks when we were leaving the house, but we didn't know the combination so we decided we would stay with the bikes and eat outside. It was a really yummy cute restaurant so it worked perfectly. 

After lunch, we decided to head back towards the city as we needed to get back to San Jose to pick up Dessa. Here is the bridge on the way back into San Francisco. 

Nater Potater in an awesome cheese pose off the bridge!!! 

The bridge from the last and final angle as we rode away... 

With only knowing where we parked the car and not knowing anything about the elevation. Nate decided that we would ride Fillmore street back to the car. We pedaled up to it and I looked up and said, "Oh no"... 

Nate is the yellow shirt with the orange back riding up the hill above the silver car... notice the steps on the side of the road. 

This is me as I'm pushing my bike up the hill... I didn't ride much at all and I am ok with it! 

The last of the trip to the city included an unexpected stop at Stanford University. We messed up Helga's GPS system in the car and it was giving us directions back to San Jose via the shortest distance, not necessarily the shortest route. So we got off on some exit and then started driving down some road. I looked at the phone and was like, 'ooh, Stanford is just down the road. Can we see it?'. So, we did... 

The brand new track with the tower in the back ground. 

Nate skating through campus... 

The pool... must be rough... 

I did take a picture of the football team during practice and I did get yelled at and because I'm a rule follower, I won't post it on the blog.