Samoa, but without the Samoans....

Laura took a walk with the boys from our Samoa California campsite. They went to the Pacific coast, and made the children walk barefoot the burrs and brambles to toughen them up, accomplishing much the same goals as outward bound without the spendy fee!!

I'll let her tell her tale on this one!

We awoke our first morning in Samoa, just outside of Eureka, CA to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains of Eureka. The boys and I had heard a rumour that there may be whale sighting or stingrays at the Pacific in the early mornings. So we headed out for the "short" walk to the Ocean... We were on a spit of land that was bordered by the Bay on the East, and the Pacific Ocean on the West. The first event in this comedy of errors story, is that although the Ocean sounded like it was just over the next Dune, sounds can be deceiving :-) We ended up walking for about a mile and a half, over many dunes and through tic infested grasses. (much to Blayde's chagrin) We got to the ocean a little tired, hungry and cold, but the boys still proceded to play in the surf of the ocean. The first lesson at the beach was that you never, ever turn your back on the Ocean (or you will get completely drenched). The second was that when you are tired, hungry, cold and wet, you should probally NOT put your socks and shoes on over sand covered feet.... After much discussion, it was decided that they would walk barefoot for a while, until they dried off a bit, and we found a "grassy" area for them to regroup.

Drake, proving to all of us, that the situation could be dealt with, and even with a smile and positive attitude!!

The infamous "grassy" area... You can see a glimpse of dunes in the background of the kids.. As we were approaching this lovely grassy area, the boys started complaining that the grass was hurting their feet, and my response was to tell them to buck up, and maybe they should not have gotten their feet so cold and wet, blah... blah... blah... I ended up telling them to please just clean themselves up, get their shoes on and sit on their jackets. So, while Valin was cleaning up, he kept telling me that there were burrs poking him through his jacket, and I of course told him to, ya know, buck up ect. ect. .....



Hmmm...... See the "made-up" burrs...... This is after we had already started brushing them off. What you cannot see, is me behind the camera, eating humble pie :-)