We left at 1:30 on the Friday, the last day of school, for Pomo Canyon campground, which is close to the Russian River on the Sonoma Coast. We snagged a good site, built a big fire with the branches of the plums trees I cut down last week, at hot dogs, cooked some steak for the next morning, took a hike through the redwoods (the canyon was logged in the 20s or 30s, which left some gigantic stumps that you can climb up on or walk into the hollow middle space,and they are circled by what are now very large redwoods that grew from the seeds at the base of the tree) hit the tents. The next morning we drove a few miles east to Duncan Mills to get set up with a couple of kayaks. They took us back to Jenner , where the river hits the ocean, where we embarked. We went downstream a ways to the mouth of the river where a lot of sea lions live/summer/lounge about. We beached the canoes on the lee side of the beach there to let the kids swim in the river. I walked over to the beach, where the wind is always blowing pretty hard. Then we headed upstream, but Carlos and Angelica pretty much just zigzagged and went in circles, so we changed our plans and paddled around in that stretch of the river. A few seals were surfacing at times, to check us out, which is always a treat.

On the way home we stopped at Shell Beach , off of Hwy. 1 a couple miles south of Jenner, and took a long walk on a trail above the beach. At one point we walked down into a gully that took us to a little cliff over the beach. We threw little rocks at the big rocks down below as seagulls and a vulture and big black birds cruised overhead. I threw some pecan pieces to the black birds. They circled back and ate them on a little bluff just above us. On the way home we stopped in Bodega. Not Bodega Bay but little Bodega, pop. 100, inland a few miles. We stopped at the school house that was in The Birds. We rented the movie that night, and about 10 minutes after 'lights out' James came into our room looking for a safe place to sleep..