Last week was my spring break from student teaching. Since I am feeling the grad school financial pinch, I took advantage of having a dad who will hire his kids any time and worked on the boat for four days tending him and his crew. While the 35 miles an hour winds did not make the best conditions for working or traveling across the Santa Barbara Channel, it was still fun to be with my dad for a few days, and humbling and inspiring to be out in a part of God's creation that is so desolate and unreachable, and seen by few humans.We were working off of San Miguel Island, and the highlight of the trip was spending an afternoon hiking around the island. Getting on the island was an adventure in itself! We swam ashore wearing survival suits, which was challenging due to the low mobility of the suits and the wind blowing against us. We finally made it to the beach, were the hundreds of sea lions were most likely wondering who the three lumbering, oddly-shaped, bright orange figures emerging from the surf were. Hiking around the island was amazing, as the coreopsis flowers were in full bloom, lining both sides of the trail and reaching above my head. The park ranger took as all the way to the other side of the island to see the Caliche Forest. It is an unuusal formation on the island where calcium deposits form small stalactites coming out of the sand, looking like something from Middle Earth. I also played "junior ranger" by assisting the ranger monitor her radio for the foxes that are endemic to the island. I spent the rest of the trip huddled up and hanging onto the mast in between throwing out the air hose to the guys and pulling them back in. While I am thankful for the time spent with my dad and the extra cash is provided me, I was even more thankful to make it safely back to the harbor Friday night!
Seals guarding our survival suits
The Caliche Forest
How Harry and my dad kill time between jumps
2 comments:
Hi April! So glad you are back safely!! I've been praying. I loved all the photos and your wonderful description of the trip!! You have quite a knack for words. Thanks so much again for watching the boys last Monday!! God is doing such good work, and we were so thankful to be able to meet with my Patrick's sister and her hubby.
When would you like to hang out again? We could do a clipboard for ya! :)
Thanks for the prayers and the compliments - my writing never sounds good enough to me, but I am glad you enjoyed.
A clipboard making party would be fun - I want to update you in person about my trip. Maybe next week? 6th grade is already way harder than kindergarten, so maybe the end of the week? I will email you this weekend with times.
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