Exploring Muir Woods

This morning, after eating our first breakfast together and cleaning up, we finished packing the van and drove away from the campsite in San Francisco. We stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge to take our first pictures together as a group. It was AMAZING! We then drove over the awesome bridge. It was cool to drive over it with the bay on one side and the Pacific on the other. After crossing the bridge we headed north for our hike in Muir Woods.  It was peaceful, pretty, fun and a good work out. After the hike, we drove to a lunch area near the beach and we had a great lunch of PB&J, chips, and fresh fruit. Soon after, we went to a farm like area with a forest and we played games and went for a hike in Point Reyes National Seashore. It was a nice hike and we got to see lots of animals in the California countryside. Lastly, we drove to our new campsite right along the Redwoods.  We grilled cheeseburgers for dinner and went to bed under a blanket of stars after an evening circle around our first campfire.

--Will 

Rafting the Trinity River

As I sit here and jot in this journal, we are sitting next to the rushing Trinity River. This morning everyone ate a quick breakfast, because we were so excited about our exhilarating day of whitewater rafting. When we arrived we got in our raft and floated lazily down the river, learning about the area and how to read the river. We finally arrived at our first rapid and we freaked out; it was such an adrenaline rush! We spent the other half of the day rafting class III rapids like Pinball and Sailors Bar, which were AMAZING!! Afterwards we made our way back to our campsite, ate a spectacular meal and did a talent show. What an awesome whitewater day!

Monterey Bay Exploration

Today was our day to explore Monterey Bay.  In the morning we went to the Aquarium and got to see sharks, bat rays, penguins, flamingos, turtles, sunfish, tuna, sea otters and tons of other marine life.  After a lunch on the pier, we went to get our wetsuits for kayaking.  During our afternoon on the water we saw lots of kelp and cute sea otters! It was so much fun learning about the bay and trying to spot the animals we were learning about.

Hanging Ten in Half Moon Bay

Today was our first day of learning how to surf in Half Moon Bay.  We drove up from our campsite in Monterey and picked up our wetsuits. After meeting our guides we talked and went over the basics of surfing. Finally we hit the boards. Most people toppled over on their first try, except for Alex and Jack who have surfed for four years. Most of us finally got the hang of it and are excited to catch even more waves tomorrow! Afterward we all got hot chocolate and ran into another WV trip. After dinner our leaders surprised us with s'mores around the campfire at our ocean side campsite. What an awesome day!