Christmas 2008

These pictures are a little late. Here are some Christmas morning pictures.

Then we spent some time in SF when Paul and Becca visited. We took the ferry from Jack London square in Oakland to Pier 41. We'd never taken a ferry to SF before, so that was new and different.





One thing we did over Christmas that we did not take pictures of (which I totally regret) was our kayaking trip. We were afraid of taking our camaras on the water, since during windy conditions, it is not uncommon to come back very wet. Turns out the weather was great, and we stayed dry. While my parents watched the kids, Jerin, Wami, Aaron and I rented two double kayaks in the Elkhorn Slough at Moss Landing. (A slough is an estuary). We'd never even heard of the place, but I really wanted to take them kayaking, since Aaron is obsessed with kayaks. Elkhorn Slough was amazing. It's inbetween Santa Cruz and Monterey. There were not just a few animals, but huge groups, dozens and dozens of all kinds. We usually seen one lone snowy egret, not 10 on one bank. Or one or two sea otters at Monterey - not two dozen swimming around, swimming BY us, cracking open large (larger than I've ever eaten! Double my fist size) clams right next to our kayak! So it was animal sanctuary. Sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, birds of so many kinds - shorebirds and ducks, such as the newly discovered marbled godwit and red breasted merganser, as well as the usually terns, gulls, cormorants, egrets, etc. The otters were the most fun, they were the most curious about us. The seals were a little curious too. It was impossible to follow the "stay 100 feet from wildlife" rule when they were swimming around us.