Okay, and granted, this was not a first ascent of some wicked steep cold mountain in some tedious place where yak butter is the height of the food scene, but an adventure none the less!

Heather and Spencer left Thursday morning, for a few days in Colorado. Heather had a follow up eye appointment for her Lasic surgery, and then friends to visit and what not.

Spencer came along for the ride. Our friend Linda offered to take care of him. She misses him, and Madeline as well.

Friday afternoon there was a message from Heather, saying that there were things she wanted to do, so she might not come home until next Saturday. Oh, the humanity of it all.

If one were to look closely, I believe that everything is running well. The house is fairly clean, the two resident children are well balanced, and all is fine.

Today was our day for Adventure! That was manifest by a relaxing morning as Molly and I read our books (it is dangerous to have a good bookstore four blocks from the house!), and then I took a nice hot bath.

About noon we packed some stuff, and headed out! We tried... There was the farmer's market to go to, and I needed to buy The Amber Spyglass, the third in the series that started with The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, and then gas, and as long as we were close to McDonald's we might as well eat, after all, Maddy likes it, and so we finally hit the open road!

I am accustomed to more 'open' in my open road! Here in Sonoma County the open road is narrow, rather curvy, maybe fog, and the strangest thing is the profusion of vegetation! There are not enough exposed rocks!

The country is gentle. I am used to being able to navigate geologically. "Oh, yeah, there is that Morrison formation, we are close to home." Here you count cows and vinyards.

We drove to Bodega Bay, and around, past the Marine Research center, to Bodega Head, and we hiked about. Maddy is joining the Adventure Girl ranks. She is proud to be Adventure Girl Number Two. Molly is not sure if she should be included, arguing that 'Adventure Girl' is an honorary title, and that Maddy has done nothing to deserve it.

We walked to the light at Bodega Head, and Maddy was cute as a bug. She was scared, 'just a little', at a few spots where the trail was a bit exposed (with a nasty looking drop to the breaking seas), but she persevered. And then she was able to strut proudly. We let her be the leader for a bit, which she considered quite the treat.

Coming back both girls had potty needs, so we stopped at the outhouses. Molly was repelled by the smell, while Maddy was confused "Daddy, how do you flush it?"

When Molly came out we walked a bit to the parking lot and waited. Maddy came out and didn't see us at first. "Hey, where are you guys, I thought you would wait right here!"

It is hard to get her inflection just right. It is a true treat, and a blessing, to have a 3 1/2 year old daughter! She is at a stage where she is assembling a story making sense of self. When she hears something, when Molly says something, Maddy rambles off on an inventive tangent, linking what she just heard with a mixed soup of experiences, memories, and manufactured reality.

We saw an apparant owl pellet. Lots of fur, in a mouse shape, with embedded bones. Maddy thought it was a mouse. I poked it apart and found the left lower jaw of a mouse, or small rodent. "See, this is the jaw, this is this part" and I outlined Maddy's left lower jaw. She looked intently at the fur, and the jaw bone, and then let lose with a beat poet melodic story about bad dogs who ate mice, and how they ran around and the mouse tried to run away, and was caught.

We stopped at the little market and marine supply store, and bought treats and then drove on to Salmon Creek Beach. Maddy got to the beach and was twirling about and jumping and saying "I really like this place, I really like this place."

We wandered 1/2 mile up the beach, into the rocks (we came up onto Hgwy 1 at mile 13.40). Maddy touched a sea star, which brought her back into the adventure girl fold...

Molly and I had a cruel time, trying to convince her to touch an Anemone, and casting dire aspersions on the character (and adventure girl worthiness) of those who would not touch the Anemone. She finally said "That's okay, I like being a baby."

I think that we got back on the good side-but that was a cruel moment! We were on the beach for over two hours, and then hiked back and had fish tacos, clam chowder, fish and chips, root beer, and kit kats at our favorite place, the Boathouse, in Bodega Bay.

And that was our adventure of the day.