Hiking on a Monday morning

Hiking on a Monday morning

Going hiking on a Monday morning. Many good things come together: Plenty of time to enjoy the morning coffee, driving in the opposite direction of commuters, empty parking lot, (almost) alone on the trail and silence for 2 hours.
At the preserve entrance good maps were available and I started walking right first and then continued wherever looked best.

El corte de madera creek preserve 

Picture sent to best wife ever before I lost phone signal

Banana slug

From the banana slug I learned about a huge sandstone formation in the northern part of the preserve which I had to see. Oddly enough, arriving there I found another hiker getting hot water for a soup ready.

Getting closer to Kings Mountain I stumbled upon a plaque remembering a 1953 plane crash.

5 minutes from the plaque a vista point opens up a view to the Pacific ocean.

Humboldt Redwood State Park

This was our first trip up North into this area of California and I don't know why it took us so long. It is a beautiful, laid back piece of earth with giant trees :) - just lovely!

We stayed on one of the State Parks campgrounds, which was excellent maintained and I can highly recommend them. We camped for 3 nights and spent the days in the woods :) Enjoy our collection of holiday memories :) 

Me and T and the bear :)

Happy to be in California!

Eel River.

Father like Son!

Giant fallen tree.

Giant standing tree.

Super husband lifting giant tree.

Emerged from the woods.

Root.

Careful, giant splinters.

How to prepare a camp fire.

Having the best time of their life!

And finally the fire is going!

Some of the best camp food ever!

Hanging out at the river.

Pitching stones.

Redwood up close.

One last view up to the crown.

Green, Greener, Ireland - 5

While planning for our Ireland trip there was one thing right on top of our list of places to visit. This place being the Skellig Islands. Even though it was on top of our list we did not read the travel guide carefully enough and realized while calling the numbers provided just the day before we wanted to do the tour that all tours were already booked and that there would be no way for us to get on board. But F did not gave up that easily. He was calling all the numbers in our travel guide, sweet talking with the organizers of the tour and captains. Before heading to bed we still weren't sure whether we could at least get a seat on a tour circling the islands. We decided to drive to Portmagee after breakfast anyhow, just to have a look. On the way we got a text message saying that there would be a boat waiting for us to take us out. Aren't we lucky! 

Fisher boat and view on Portmagee.

Smiles, with the Skelligs behind us.

We saw an amazing amount of sea birds!

Skellig Michael, old steps to the monastery.

Skellig Michael.

Boats waiting for tourists to return.

Skellig Michael, and more steps.

Skellig Michael.

The small Skellig - with thousands of birds!

Skellig Island.

Seals at the Skellig.

View from small Skellig to Skellig Michael.

Falling asleep on the way back.

After the tour we had a snack in town and made our way along the coast to Cork. Obviously not without stopping at another ruin, seems we cannot just easily pass on sights like that.

View along the way.

K infront of Staigue Fort.

Entering the Fort.

Inside the Fort 1.

Inside the Fort 2.

 With that our stay was almost over. We spent the night in Cork and had to return the car the next day at Dublin airport. We decided to stop at least for one other cache and castle before saying good-bye.

Dunamase Castle.

View from Dunamase Castle onto nearby church.

Climbing the ruins.

It was the perfect playground!

Dunamase Castle.

Me and my best travel companion.

We had a fabulous time in Ireland. We got to love the Irish people with their amiable accent and hospitality. We enjoyed the lush green and even the few rain showers we encountered. And there is still so much more to see. So, get ready Ireland - we will be back!