The house by the bay

We've never been on a trip with anyone before (except, I guess, staying at my brother's house in California lots of times) so we were excited to see what it was like staying in this house with Sam's parents. And it was great! It was fun to go places together. It was fun to split up and then come back later and report on our different adventures. And it was fun in the down time, to just be sitting there reading near each other and talking if we wanted to. The kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa to talk to and play games with whenever they wanted! And we loved having a date night with them one night while Abe and Seb babysat at the rental house. 

It really was a great house. The stairs up to it were formidable, but that's part of what made the house so great: it was up so high that the views from the windows were amazing! And I LOVED (as I mentioned here) watching the tide go in and out of the bay! I was kind of sad every time I had to step away from the window to do something else besides watch the ocean. And I loved the balcony. Like every other woman on the planet, I don't sleep well when I'm pregnant, but I loved getting up in the midnight hours and going out into the dark cool air and listening to the ocean waves, and catching glimpses of moonlight reflected in the water. It was so calming! I kept telling myself to remember how lovely it was, because soon it would be just a memory. (And now it is!)

You can see the row of houses of which ours was one—we were in the tallest one you can make out in this picture, up against the trees.

View from the balcony, down the street

We loved this big long table, with room for all eleven of us!

Looking down from the loft. The boys were so happy Grandpa would play card games with them! And there's Grandma faithfully peeling potatoes for dinner. And me taking pictures of her instead of helping! :( Sorry, Mom!

Loft. So light and airy!

And that beautiful view.

These guys are a little odd.

Goldie helps Grandma

Junie out on the balcony—post-bath

Sam working. Daisy watching. Teddy snuggling with his bunny.

Always something pretty to look at. Beach with tide coming in.

Tide fully in. See how small the beach is?

These old pier posts were a good measuring point. Here they are exposed by the low tide…

and getting covered by the high tide.

The green section (in the left picture) was rocky and had crabs and clams in tide pools, at low tide. 

More tide comparisons. (Please forgive me if this doesn't enthrall you as it does me.) You can see the sandbar, exposed in the left picture and covered in the right one.

Sunset

Sunset, with pajama-clad boy

Here is a view of the whole bay area from above our house. It was a lot easier to see the crescent shape of the…island? peninsula? sandbar? from up there.