Fun with kids in Sea Ranch, CA

[JimW]

My wife and I took our two boys up to Sea Ranch this past weekend to spend three days at a really great house on the ocean. We share the house with friends of ours that have two kids in the same age range as our two kids. This is the second time we've rented this same house at Sea Ranch with our friends.

Since this is the Family Travel forum, I will put up a few pictures from our trip that pertain to activities with the kids.

On our first day in Sea Ranch, we went exploring around the tide pools, which is always a huge hit with the kids, as they get to see all sorts of cool sea critters up close.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5423.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5453.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5460.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5461.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5482.jpg

The next day we went to a different coastal access area called Shell Beach. The interesting thing was that there were no shells on the beach. No worries, though, as the kids quickly found something else to do as kids usually do. They decided to build a dam / land bridge across a stream heading to the ocean...

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5645.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5666.jpg

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5676.jpg


Later that evening we had the kids grab their messages in bottles that we prepared the night before, and took a short walk from the house to the ocean's edge.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5577.jpg

Each of the kids tossed their bottle out as far as they could, and began to dream about someone in a far away land finding their message after years of being tossed around on ocean currents.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5757.jpg

Back at the house, we had the kids devise a "food trap" to lure a night time critter into view. Little did we know that this masked bandit, fondly nicknamed "Stinky," would steal all of the food traps, and try to get into the house to find more...

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5819.jpg

Well, thank goodness we were safe inside for the rest of the night, because the next morning we discovered that "Stinky" was not the only critter that came by to visit. This fresh print was found on the front porch of the house, which is enclosed inside of a small courtyard area with a 6 to 7 foot gate...

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/Sea%20Ranch%20in%20March/IMG_5833.jpg

A quick Google search confirmed that this was indeed a Mountain Lion footprint!

Sea Ranch is only about a 2 hour drive from Marin County where we live, so it is an easy trip that always leaves us wanting to go back again and again.

Here is the map showing some of the points discussed in this post...

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Jim

[RIDE]

Wow Jim! That looks like it was a lot of fun! I am sure the kids had a blast.

Thanks for sharing!

RIDE

[JimW]

My son Kenny just got a call tonight from his buddy Sam, who said he got an email today from someone who found his message bottle in the surf near Point Reyes... a journey of around 45 to 50 miles!
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[JimW]

Well, my son Kenny received an email early this morning from someone who discovered his message in a bottle.

The amazing thing is that it was the same guy that found our friend Sam's bottle. He found Kenny's bottle about 2 miles further down the coast of South Beach at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Now that's a lot of beachcombing!!!!!!

[pirate queen]

We miss the days when our kids were all living at home and almost every week-end was a chance for adventure. We did learn one very valuable lesson though. Kids love to go do things, not ride for hours in a car. So early we on we adopted our best strategy for kid travel. We took our big Chevron Northern Calif map [they used to be free!] and our 4th graders little math Compass and stuck it's pointy end in our town on the map. We figured three hours was our optimum driving allowance for a week-end trip and we could average about 50 miles an hour. So using the map's scale we drew a circle around our town with the compass that was a radius of 150 miles . Inside that circle was a treasure trove of places to go and things to see. What a wonderful place northern California is, we never ran out of things in our circle. I ran across that old map sometime back, it brought a flood of wonderful memories we made with our children.

[stacy waters]

What a fantastic idea for deciding on weekend adventures -- and one i intend to adopt for our little family. It removes that daunting feeling of trying to make a decision when there are no parameters. Do you remember what your favorite places within the "travel circle" were?

[stacy waters]

Jim- I know families love Sea Ranch -but we have never managed to get there. I believe it is mostly houses that you rent there- is that correct? Can you tell me the best way to locate a house - for one small family or perhaps multiple families?

[JimW]

Stacy, each time we've stayed at Sea Ranch, the family that we share the house with has taken care of the rental details.

There is an outfit called Sea Ranch Escape (http://www.888searanch.com/vacation_rentals.html)that has lots of info on thier website about renting the homes at Sea Ranch. You could also try calling the Sea Ranch Lodge (http://www.searanchlodge.com/)to see if they can provide information on renting the homes.

That should get you started.