Father's Day Hike

All the Dads & their boys

On Father's Day we headed to Mount Tam for a hike up to the West Point Inn for a pancake breakfast. The Inn is only open for breakfast a handful of days/year and the only way to reach it is to hike in. We did a nice little 1 mile hike & then enjoyed perfect weather, a great view & breakfast with friends.


Breakfast with a view

Lukas having fun with his buddies

The kids were kept busy building this fort while the parents enjoyed more coffee.

Lukas' first baseball game

Rob & Lukas took the train into SF the other week to catch a Giants game. Lukas was REALLY excited, even though he knows squat about baseball. But Rob taught him some of the basics of the game during the 4 innings or so that they actually watched, and Lukas learned the word "creamed" .... as in the Giants got "creamed". Of course, more exciting for him was the concession guy selling hot chocolate from a big tank on his back with a hose, the playground at the back of the park and taking the train into the city. He was all smiles as he bounded off the train telling me stories of hotdogs, ice cream, etc......

Backpacking - sort of..

At the start of the trailhead (with Lukas' new friend Ru)

We've done vanagon camping, we've done car/tent camping so we thought it was time to step it up a notch & really get out into nature with a backpacking trip. Rob found a great hike-in camp site up in Point Reyes. The hike was only 2 miles so we thought it would be doable with Lukas and the site was just meters from the beach so it promised to be beautiful.



We headed out with some friends that also have a 2 1/2 year old little boy. And the boys did great! Lukas hiked the whole way with his backpack which carried his essentials: extra underwear, pajamas, favorite stuffed animals and a water bottle. The boys "helped" set up the tents when we got to our site. And then the "sort of" backpacking part came into play. While the moms & boys headed to the beach for some fun, the dads hiked back out the 2 miles, loaded up 2 bikes with a burley trailer & rode back on a 5 mile fire road with all of our other creature comforts: air mattress, real food (no dehydrated backpacking meals for us!), etc. I think it turned out to be a great compromise - we got a nice secluded campsite, the boys felt like they were truly backpacking & we all got good meals & good sleep. win. win. win.

Setting up camp

Playing monster trucks in the sand while the dads get all the goods!

Definitely beats car camping!

What's camping without a s'more?

After a good dinner & watching the sunset on the beach, the boys crashed hard. But the grownups stayed up sitting around reading old ghost stories by flashlight while bold raccoons edged around our campsite.

We all packed fleece & hats prepared for the often foggy, blustering weather up on the coast. But we couldn't have asked for better weather - sunny & warm (actually hot). The next day we explored the tidepools and played on the beach for awhile.

After all of the sun in the fun the boys were wiped again, so the burley & dads got another workout: 2 trips out by bike - one loaded with gear, the other with 2 sleeping kids. :-)