F to the B

Near the end of August (who can remember such things) we headed down to Fort Bragg. One last summer trip. This time we left late. I picked up Mitch from work at 8 and we headed out. We figured it would be easier to make it a straight shot and let the kids sleep through the night. It is effective, but pretty rough.

We started the party out rave style. (plus some movies)

I'm not so much a morning person, but dang if sun rises aren't lovely.

Breakfast of champions.

 We seriously only stopped at a few gas stations. Oh, and once at Fosters for ice cream...because it's a tradition. So we have to.

Mitch pumped to be setting up the Hooligan.

Lottie checking out the sand.

With a mask on.

Dragging that sucker across the sand was less fun.

A word about the ocean. You'll hear it again later, but it was SO calm! And the waves were tiny to what they normally are there. It was crazy, but Mitch and Dad LOVED it. And the kids too.

There they go.

 

Ooooooh, sea creatures, where arrrrre you?!?

The weather was amazing and warm but cool enough in the morning for hot chocolate

and a fire in the stove.

We walked to 'Cowlicks' for some ice cream. The boys kept saying "lets go to 'Homemade' ice cream because that part of the sign is the biggest and they thought that was the name. Kinda funny.

A happy husband.

 So, my Dad and Mitch would go out in the morning early and Mitch would spear fish or dive for abalone and my Dad would stay in the boat up top. Thanks to such a flat ocean every day and a healthy dose of Zophran, Dad didn't get seasick at all and was in heaven!

Cleaning time. Gross.

The big boys put the boat in at the dock and met us at Casper Beach. Pretty sweet. Lottie and I got in for the next ride and just got soaked from trying to get past the surf!

So she got wrapped up to get warm.

 

Crabby.

Dad told them to stand on their heads.

Dancing. He had his Paul Bunyan Days beard going on.

Pudding Creek.

Crab prison.

Mitch found this little guy in the belly of one of the fish he caught. Oh, and the first day Mitch took Sam and Ben out fishing on one of those charter boats and Sam caught a fish with 2 little abalone shells in it's stomach. And they are so pretty and shiny from the acid. Kinda cool.

We tried the new (to us) hot dog place on main street. It was pretty disappointing, but they did have  a pinball machine.

I just kept documenting how small the waves were! Basically like Cayman waves.

On the way home we were going to stop at a hotel over the night, but they closed the freeway we were on due to a flipped semi and we had to backtrack and re-route which put us about 5 hours behind schedule. So, we wanted to stop at the Portland IKEA for some furniture and we got there 7 min. before they closed. But we got our stuff and strapped it to our poor car Clampet style! It looked ridiculous. Anyway, by then it was so late we figured we might as well just keep going so we drove thru the night again. Oh, well, it was a great trip!