I had trouble sleeping last night. I had some first-world worries, but they were easily dealt with today. I had a bad dream too, but now I can’t even remember what it was about. There was a bright light outside the tent that turned out to be the gibbous moon shinning through the fog and then there were the fog horns, two of them, who purposely never got their siren songs in sync. When the ravens began their predawn cackling, I gave up trying to sleep, got up as quietly as I could and showered.

Anne got up early too and we partially broke camp, leaving just the wet tent to dry. we headed into town, with hopes of snagging a hot breakfast, but we were too early and the best that we could do was a pair of coffees. We drove out to Cape Arago and dined at the Cliff Bar Cafe.

Low tide was at eight and a ranger appeared to lead a group of us tide pooling. I found the purple sea urchins, you just had to know where to look for them. We saw many other sea beasties and were encouraged to gently touch them too. This included sea anemones, which have paralyzing stingers in their tentacles, but these are unable to penetrate the skin of your hands. Never try to kiss an anemone, because your lip’s skin is thin enough to be stung. Two hours came and went too fast and we had to be moving on.

We struck the tent and then ate a much more substantial breakfast at the Cape Cafe. We drove four hours inland. Dodged a huge construction jam and arrived at our rustic Forest Service campground. Dinner was berry pie and ice cream.