Visitors from the North

Living on an isolated island has its social quirks--here you are either spending almost every hour of every day with the same three people, or meeting new folks who only stick around for a day or two, or you are on top of a ridge alone and you know there is not another human in miles. I like it like this. When familiar faces come visit for a few hours or days, it is a beautiful mix of the excitement of sharing this place with them and the relaxed comfort of being in the company of cherished family and treasured friends. My aunt, uncle, and cousin came out for a day trip to visit on the same boat that my friend Lara came out to stay the night. It was fantastic to see them all. Marshall, Jennifer, and Nathaniel got to see a part of my life that many of my family members only get to hear about through the email grapevine and I am very happy they did.

From Inverness to Santa Cruz Island, family on the porch! Nathaniel, Me, Jennifer, and Marshall.

We had lunch at the Cabins, walked through the Field Station plot and then wandered the beach at Prisoner's looking for heart shaped rocks. They got to experience the full "Jurassic Park"-like experience of driving in the Miner, our field Land Cruiser, from the coast to the central valley and back through the only slightly flowing creekbed and past Giant Coreopsis, juicy poison oak, and the island oaks, ceanothus, and lemonadeberry. They met Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton, and Bart Stupak, as well as Castro and Dalia, who were all bickering in the Cabin Oak tree.

Feeding Hillary Clinton a peanut.

After we dropped them off at the harbor, Lara and I headed back to the Cabins to continue the adventures. We wandered above the valley on Islay Canyon, where Lara saw her first Island Fox in the Manzanita. Later we made stir-fry, played Eucre with my crew, played guitar and sang on the heli-pad, and watched the stars. The next day we adventured some more before I drove her to the boat. So wonderful to have such a great friend come out to play!

Love this human.

Jumping over the Red-White Divide

See this old post from 2011 to learn about Island Geology and the Red-White Divide.

See the fox ears? He was following us.

This cutie sat 15 meters from us and even crept closer to inspect us.

Giant Grasshopper!

Coches Beach.

Driving the Kiwi ProHunt truck. It is very weird to drive on the right side (wrong side?) of the car.

Thanks for coming to visit!