Happy Holidays!!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Summer Road Trip Part 2.....

I know... it's been much longer than just a week or so when I promised to have another post of our trip up, but I have been so busy and time got away from me, well actually mom. :):)

So we left off after being on the island for two days... San Juan Island, WA..... A beautiful area! Map above, Friday Harbor is the little town that we took the Ferry into and that is the island we stayed on. :)

We had some rain which mom took me out for a rain walk. It was fun in my new stroller as it kept me dry. Mom didn't stay dry, but it was a light rain (until we headed back). The rest of the day, we hung out in our cabin watching dvd's and cartoons on my portable tv that I brought. Our cabin is in a remote setting and quite rustic. We love it. No phone, no tv (except for mine :)), and mom's cell phone barely works.

The next day, mom took me on an aerial tour. Yep, up in a small plane. I got my own seat, own headset, got to listen to the pilot, mom and our friend talk. It was beautiful. We saw Orcas, lots of islands in WA and Canada, Vancouver and Victoria, BC. Just beautiful and I loved it! We went right by our cabin. The photo ID's our cabin! :)

That evening, Captain Spencer called and said, "Superpod coming down the westside of the island and will be right out of Snug Harbor by 7pm. Want to go?". Off we went! :):) It was beautiful!

My aunt Patricia came out to the island with her friend to go whale watching. She was late, but we picked them up and made a dash for Snug Harbor.

No resident Orcas were around, but there was a report of Transient Orcas north of us in Canadian waters. So off we went. :):) Captain Spencer let me ride in his seat and guess what, "I am ready for Captains School!". I loved sitting there. I sat nice and tall and looked all around to make sure no one was going to hit us and vice versa. :)

After we returned, we went to the San Juan County Fair. It was a small fair, but fun! Actually, my kind of fair. :):) Then Aunt Patricia and her friend took the "red-eye" ferry back to the mainland.

The next morning we went out again with Captain Spencer in which we didn't see any Orcas, but we did see Harbor Porpoise, Bald Eagle and lots of Harbor Seals. Saw some kind of deer, Turkey Vulchers and Capt. Spencer made a Kelp Doll for the other kids that were with us. He gave us a lesson on kelp!

We spent quite a bit of time with the Orcas from shore and from boat. We did some hiking, which was really fun in my new stroller. I got to go places that I could never go to in my wheelchair. We hung out at the cabin, toured Roche Harbor and other popular sites on the island, and of course, I had mom give me a daily drive on the island. She thought I was crazy for wanting to spend more time in the car after the long trip to the island. Nop! I loved it!

We had some more rain.....

Friday morning we went out one last time with Captain Spencer to

say good-bye. We had a great Orca trip, but unfortunately on the way back, the boat was injured, so we had to take our time getting back in. Saturday was our last day there, so we took a trip out with Captain Jim Maya. It was fabulous! We saw all 3 pods come together forming a superpod on the west side of the island. The 3 pods had a brief, but amazing ceremony when they met up. Amazing animals!

Captain Spencer Domico with Island Dream Wildlife Cruises and Captain Jim Maya with Mayas Westside Charters are both excellent Whale Watch Wildlife Cruise Companies to go out on the water with. They both are out of Snug Harbor, and will make your trip very memorable!

That evening after we said our goodbye, took one last hike down to the lighthouse at Lime Kiln and then we headed out on the ferry to Anacortes (mainland). Sunset was beautiful.

We drove through all the traffic up through Seattle to Federal Way where we stayed the night.

The rest of our journey home is coming soon...:):)

On a different note... I love my new school and teacher. I have so many new friends and am doing great. The only thing I don't care for is that I live just 2 blocks from my school which means I have a VERY SHORT bus ride - what is up with that???? Next year when I go to High School, I hope my bus ride will be longer than just 5 minutes!

Mom and I just moved into another apartment unit in the same complex. We have been waiting for an apartment like this one to come available since we moved here last April. We love it and can now call this home! :):) We have been busy this last week unpacking and settling in. I now have a lovely backyard to put my swing up in and to layout. Cubby loves it too. :)

Mom is almost done with football season. It's been a great season for her and the older kids are graduating, moving onto College after this season. She is going to miss them. They are great kids and two wonderful families she takes photos for. Luckily, most of this season, I have been able to stay home with grandma. Yea!

Halloween....

Me at school on Halloween....

Hope you all are doing good and had a great Thanksgiving!! :):)

Until next time...

Love,

Kayla

My Summer Road Trip Part 1...

This summer sure went by fast, and I am already back in school... Yea!, but I had a great summer vacation with mom.

On August 4th, mom and I finally left the house late that afternoon early evening and headed

to our first overnight destination of Salinas, Ca. I was impatient and couldn't wait to get on

the road that day. I think mom couldn't wait either.

Of course, just a few miles down the road my feeding pump needed to be reset, and then a

few miles further down the road, I needed new batteries in my elmo toy. :):) I sure put mom through the ringer that evening for taking so long that day to get on the road, although it wasn't her fault as she was waiting for pharmacy delivery.

We drove highway 101 north. It was a beautiful, clear early evening that we

could see all 4 islands out of 5 that make up Channel Islands National Park. Mom pulled off at a few viewpoints to take some photos.

San Miguel Island with part of Santa Rosa Island

We drove on San Marcos Pass (Hwy 154) through the mountains passing by the damaged hills from the recent fires. That was definitely a sight to see.

We finally arrived in Salinas, California after dark, but had a beautiful sunset drive with

the full moon rising through the colors.

The next morning, we got a bit of a late start, but that's okay as we were on vacation, but we did have quite a drive that day to get to our next destination point of Fort Bragg, CA.

I was still excited to be on the road again, and it was a lovely day. It just wasn't enough the evening before. So once again, we drove north on Hwy 101 and a few other freeways/high

ways. We then took Pacific Coast Hwy 1 starting at Bodega Bay, a quaint little town, but a beautiful area. The coast was gorgeous with beautiful weather, but crowded. We started the winedy road north along the coastal cliffs.

I was still active and thoroughly enjoying the drive. :):)

We made a few stops along the way checking out the scenery and wildlife. Full of birds, seals,

whales. Yep, we saw at least 11 Blue Whales, 1 Humpback just north of Jenner / south of Fort

Bragg, Ca. Of course, we stayed with the whales for a good hour which made the rest of the drive to Fort Bragg in the beautiful lighting of evening. Since we spent so much time with the whales and wanted to make it to Fort Bragg for a relaxing evening and sunset, which it didn't turn out to

be too relaxing, but was a beautiful sunset. We didn't make as many stops as we were planning to along the coast route to Fort Bragg, Ca.

Goat Rock State Park - Harbor Seals, Pelicans, Western Gulls

Mendocino seem to be a nice little town. We did go through it to get gas, but all but one very expensive gas station were permanently closed. Most of that area along the coast was that way, I guess due to the economy.

We took a quick detour out to Point Arena Lighthouse. It was a beautiful view.

Point Arena Lighthouse

Once we arrived in Fort Bragg, we had just enough time to drive through part of Fort Bragg to find a sunset location. It was neat little town. Mom found a beach that had a nice, wide, semi - smooth trail for me to go down to the beach in my wheelchair so I could easily play my toy while she took photos of the sunset. A perfect warm evening, although I was a tad tired.

Fort Bragg Sunset

So after the sunset, back to the hotel in Fort Bragg to check in and go to sleep. :):) Mom let me watch some cartoons before heading off to bed. I do have to admit, even though I am 13 years old, I still missed my cartoons and teenage programs.

Another semi late morning, mom decided to have a good breakfast at the cafe next to the hotel. I slept while mom had breakfast. I can sleep while I eat my breakfast. :) Life is great! :)

We headed out on the road again and we decided to stop at Mackerricher State Park to walk along the boardwalk out to a few different points on the north end of Fort Bragg, CA.

Mackerricher State Park

It was a beautiful morning. The Harbor Seals that were suppose to be out there weren't. Saw some playful squirrels, birds, kayakers, divers and just some beautiful scenery.

On the road again, driving north on Hwy 1 along the coast to our next destination spot of Crescent City, Ca. And what a drive it was. I think mom and I had enough of the windey road and couldn't wait for "real" road. :) The drive though was still beautiful and we came along

some coastal fog which made the scenery mysterious.

I was still busy playing, listening to Hannah Montana and some other disney music while enjoying my trip with mom. I think I am doing better than mom is with the long days of driving. And people say that long driving trips are not tolerated well by teenagers. :)

We started heading inland through the mountain pass that was very windey. It was so pretty though through the forest, tall trees. The sun was shining again, and it was quite warm. It was so nice to be back on a freeway and driving in a straighter direction. :) Since it was so sunny, mom didn't stop at any of the tree parks to photograph the large redwood trees. Need fog for good photos..

Picky, picky! :)

That evening we arrived in Crescent City, CA. It was foggy, but semi warm. Nice enough that mom and I could go pick up some food to go and walk out to the end of the harbor road to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful evening, which I thoroughly enjoyed. :)

Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City Sunset

Next morning we got up and left quite early. Mom wanted to get a good start on the road since she was hoping for fog to photograph the groves. She got her wish. I slept in my hiking stroller while she photographed. :):) I am not yet a coffee drinker, so I prefer to sleep. :)

Stout Memorial Grove

Off to Portland, Oregon.

Are we in Southern Cali??? The traffic was so bad from Portland to Seattle all the way. Crazy! It was a beautiful day in Seattle, WA. However, both mom and I were beat and just couldn't wait to get to our hotel in Everett. I found out there was "shopping" close to our hotel (guess what, the mall was right behind our hotel, but mom said, no, I will take you to Target instead since we need a few things". I was so excited. I loved shopping at Target and mom strolled me around the

whole store. :):)

The next morning we were off to Anacortes, WA to catch the ferry over to the island. We arrived at the ferry port about 10 minutes before the ferry was due to leave and guess what, they let us

on then even with special parking we needed. We were expecting a two hour layover to take the next one.

The ferry is soooo MUCH FUN!!! I loved it. So did Cubby. :):)

An hour later we arrived in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA. :):)

Not the best photo of us entering into Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA but mom will have a better one on her website when she gets all the photos up. I will let you know. :):)

We couldn't wait to get there. Especially me since I had never been and mom loves the place. We did our grocery shopping and tried to check into our cabin early, but it wasn't ready. We got word that the whales were down at South Beach so we headed down there. No surprise :) We saw a couple of Orcas in the distance from south beach, but looked like they were traveling off the coast at American Camp, so off we went. Mom went in through the South Beach side and parked. I got to try out my hiking stroller for the first time. :) It was so much fun hiking on the trails with mom in my stroller. We hiked quite a way out to the water. We saw two whales pass by and that was about it. Not much. I think we missed most of them. It was kind of confusing as there were so many boats out on the water. Come to find out they were fishing boats.

So a few hours had gone by so it was time for us to go check in to our cabin (photo of our cabin in next post). YEA! :)

When we got there, Mom said, "that's it, very little car time the rest of this week". She had enough driving/being in the car, but NOT me. :)

This is me out at the point at our cabin waiting for the whales to come by or Harbor Seals, Stellar Sea Lions, Racoons, River Otters or???....

Saw some whales off the point at the cabin. They were a way off shore, but it was a beautiful evening.

The next morning came early and there weren't any whales off the point at our cabin, but a lovely deer just outside our backdoor.

We had a boat trip out with Jim Maya out of Snug Harbor at 10am, so we headed on up especially since there were no whales out in front of our cabin. They weren't there because

some of them headed north towards the Fraser River during the night and others were heading south along the west side of the island by off Hannah Heights. Mom, of course stopped and took

some photos. They were so close to shore.The whales weren't there because some of them headed north towards the Fraser River during the night and others were heading south along the west side of the island by off Hannah Heights. Mom, of course stopped and took some photos. They were so close to shore.

Since we had a boat trip out with Capt. Jim that meant car ride... :)

Our boat trip was great. We went and saw K-Pod. They were in and out of the fog, sometimes very thick fog.

We had a nice encounter with them; two of them came really, really close to the boat. That was so cool.

After we went out in the boat, we drove back to the cabin for a few hours. Later on, the whales were headed back in towards the west side of the island, but still quite far off from shore at the cabin so we headed up to Lime Kiln Point. That was a nice walk down to the lighthouse. When we got there, alot of whales had already gone by, some were right there, and others were on their way. Nothing too close to shore, about 1/2 mile off of shore or at least in the area we were watching.

This is me at Lime Kiln Point entertaining everyone. :)

Some of the whales turned around and started heading back down the west side of the island (south) as we were heading back to the parking lot to the car. As we started driving back to the cabin, the whales were there at Hannah Heights, so we got out and hiked down the steep hill to the bottom near the water along with everyone else. It was fun and I actually went down in my wheelchair and not my hiking stroller.

Me at Hannah Heights

Spyhop at Hannah Heights

It was a beautiful evening at Hannah Heights. Lots and lots of whales came by. Most quite a ways off-shore, but had a small group of 3 that surprised everyone surfacing really close to shore. People were sitting just above the water right where they were surfacing. We spent a couple of hours there with the whales and talking to people (lots of tourist). It was fun.

This brings you to the end of our 7th day on our road trip. I will continue this in a couple of days so I don't overwhelm you with too much text and photos at once. We did so much, saw a lot of beautiful things, so hang tight and the journey will continue....

Until next time, take care and have a great week... Oh and mom is photographing the same boys from last year playing football in Tehachapi/Bakersfield areas, so that is where I will be on Friday evenings. YUCK - football... Cubby and I really need to venture out ourselves to find something more "girly" than football. :)

Love

Kayla