The Pacific Ocean!

We were thrilled to realize that while working in Page, AZ, we would be only 8-9 hours from the coast. I know, to some of you that sounds like a very long ways but for us it's just a good days drive. Makayla has been dreaming of going to the ocean for as long as I remember so we wanted to bring that to life for her. While all the children loved it, she was enamored by it. She told us it was much better then she expected and had to shed a few tears when it was time to leave.

We choose a motel in Carlsbad, since we weren't in the mood for CA traffic with the camper. It was a great choice! Our typical cheapest-we-can-find-motel was great. We had a fridge, beds to sleep in, and housekeeping that cleaned the piles of sand up every day!

Staying 1/2 mile from a free beach was cool. Each morning we got up and went walking and hunting for shells. Well, the last morning only Eldon and Makayla went. We even found a sand dollar! By 11 or so we headed back to our room, ate lunch, and had naptime. Then back to the beach it was for more sand, sun and waves :). One night we stayed late enough to see the sunset and that was awesome! 

Lots of people were running on the beach but this adorable little lady was my favorite.

Eldon and Makayla having fun in the big waves!

A spaceship!

 Saturday afternoon ended up being rather chilly and windy so we opted to walk around the Historic Leo Carrillo Ranch. Unfortunately, we got there 45 minutes before they closed so all we had time to do was scamper around a few trails and didn't learn any history at all. But it was fun!

Lots of peacocks wandering around.

Super cool cactus tree thing.

And a real Orange tree :).

It was fantastic. And sandy. So sandy. I think we've gotten it all cleaned up except for in the truck. I'm dreading that so I keep pushing it off :). Of course, the children are already asking when we can go again. We answer that with......someday :).

Skylight Arch

One day last we were searching for a place to go and Skylight Arch came up. There is multiple ways to get there and we couldn't find clear directions. So we put together what we could find and started out in the general direction. I'm not even going to attempt to post directions here.......sorry. You do want a 4x4 to the go the way we did though!

This is the first time we've seen so much green in the rocks. 

 We finally got to a parking lot, after bumping our way to the top of this awesome mesa. There is a very sandy hill and some incredibly rough parts. And then it seems like people just cut across and make new roads so that was confusing. We turned around multiple times but eventually got it figured out.

I'm not sure how high up we were but we could see a long ways!

Just walking along the mesa!

      Most of the trail is perfectly safe and it looks as though ATV's use it regularly. Our children had strict instructions NOT to run, hop, or any other tom-foolery. Occasionally they had to hold our hands when we went through a particularly narrow spot.

This sheer wall was HUGE. Maybe 700 feet high?

Some of the rocks were so weird. It looks like water erosion but the only moisture they see up here is the occasional rain.

More strange rocks.

Lots of pretty plants and some cute children too!

Skylight Arch!

      We found it! Eldon had found the gps coordinates online but we still had to walk around a little before we spotted it. I realize the pictures look super scary but I didn't freak out until I saw them. We kept a hold on each child but when we were on the actual arch it wasn't scary because the top was so wide we couldn't see the drop-off.

This was a huge drop! Don't worry mom, we stayed very far away from the edge. Never know when it's only a thin ledge you're standing on !

Her favorite way to hike, with a snack in hand!

The sun sinking in the west changes all the shadows.

We took this from the road. You can't really see the arch in this picture but we were up there on top!

     This is definitely in our top 10 favorite hikes. Something about having to search hard to find it makes it so much more rewarding!