New Year, Ocean, and Hiking

We had a super laid-back New Year's celebration.  We hung out at Paul's cousin Scott's house for a couple of hours in the evening playing Pit (love that game).  I took Rose home around 8:00 (it was amazing that she lasted that long but as long as I held her in my lap while playing Pit she was pretty content) and Clara was home and in bed by 9:00.  Paul and I stayed up watching dumb movies (the 18th Transformers movie or whatever one they are on) and then it was 2015.

 

We went to the Marin Headlands on New Year's Day in the late afternoon to watch the sunset.  We got stuck in some traffic but just made it.  I love that drive because we get to cross both the new Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.  I don't think I could ever tire of going across those bridges.  There were quite a few beautiful cranes in the lagoon when we got there.

 

I would say it was freezing cold, but I keep seeing what the weather is like in other parts of the country and mid-40's isn't really all that bad.  But we didn't last long with the breeze blowing in off the ocean.  Afterwards we drove over to Sausalito to explore and get dinner.

After the sun went down the colors on the water were just unbelievably beautiful.  As each wave rolled in and out the water settled into a glossy surface of electric blues and pinks and purples unlike anything I have seen before.

The next day we decided to go for a hike in the hills just south of us.  Paul had seen a trailhead while out on a drive so we pulled together some snacks and jackets and headed out.  It was another chilly day, especially in the shade, but it felt good to be outside and moving.  We are hoping that this is the year that Clara becomes a hiker.  Right now she whines almost nonstop while we are hiking and complains about wanting to go home, even when she is totally fresh and the hike isn't hard.  So we bribe her with fruit snacks and encourage her to chase after chickadees that were eating seeds along the trail.  She made it most of the way on her locomotion (even if it meant really slow going) and it was only towards the very end that Paul had to put her on his shoulders to carry her.  She looks happy enough in these photos, but trust me, this girl isn't about to become a wilderness explorer anytime soon and it is going to take a lot of enthusiasm and work on our parts to draw out that part of her.  She certainly looked cute in her white jacket and new purple camelback though.

Rose was a very good sport and even fell asleep in the baby carrier for about half an hour.  She didn't fuss once and really seemed to be enjoying herself.  Which was a relief because now that she is walking we weren't sure whether she would consent to being strapped into the baby carrier for such a long period of time.

For a while Clara was distracted from her disdain for hiking by helping Paul chart our course on the map he grabbed from the trailhead.  She carried it for him, explaining to us that it was her treasure map and we were on the lookout for buried treasure.

There was an amazing old oak that had a couple of main limbs that had broken off.  We hiked right between the branches and it looked like arms reaching out to grasp at anyone on the trail.

Other than that we spent the long break enjoying having Paul around at home and going to the park, reading books and watching movies.  It was a good start to 2015.