more beautiful sea

From Charleston, we head north again, up the coast route 101. It's good not to be rushed, as Becs' next appointment is not for a couple of days, up north in Tillamook. We climb dunes above a clear lake. We bide our time to find two of the most amazing camp spots so far. The first - we drive down an unmarked dirt track to find a trail through a pristine wetland whirring with warblers to dunes - and beyond the dunes ten miles of sand fringing a vast expanse of ocean. Freya thinks the tree snags are bones - and they are - the massive bones of long-dead giants. In the morning we all run and swim and run until we are light with space. We take a very interesting day at Newport Aquarium and touch and see huge colourful sea creatures. The next night we come upon Whalen Island, a small sandy island covered in a jungle of lichen-hung trees and electric with copper-coloured hummingbirds. Our camp spot is next to two huge tree snags. We spend a whole afternoon fishing from the tiny bridge with shrimp as bait but catch only some small determined bullheads, over and over again, it seems.

wild west coast

Becs' next research visit is to Charleston on the south-west coast of Oregon - the home of Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. It's great to be by the sea again, and we're in a 'grad cabin' made of bleached wooden shakes, five minutes from the busy docks and the beach. While Becs goes out visiting schools with the grad students of OIMB, who are creating a generation of marine biology experts in the primary school kids, Tom, Freya and Kai visit the docks and make friends with some fishermen. So while Becs, Freya and Kai find a beautiful tiny beach for a fire, Tom goes out for an amazing day on a crab fishing boat with Mike Lane - far out into the Pacific, in wild wind, with many others chosing to stay snug at home. Dungeness crab are pretty much sustainably fished here by creel, and there are plans for marine protected areas. Another fisherman gives the kids a lovely trout rod and tackle box, which is borne home with great excitement! The kids love the OIMB Open House, where hundreds of primary school kids and their families come to see some of the creatures the grad students are researching. Foot-long gumboot chitons are an attraction. And we have a lovely meal with the directors of OIMB and their families - Kai in his kilt of course.

north

The journey north is epic three days with camps. Imagine indigo storm clouds, thundering grey Pacific rollers, the sound of the wind in dark trees towering over tiny tents, with Tom playing his fiddle, 'Bonaparte's retreat' by the light of the fire. Only sadness is getting money and camera stolen from the car - but learning to be more careful.

Portland envelopes us - we have a cosy haven at Kent and Jeanie's - old friends of Tom's parents. From there Becs embarks on Churchill Fellowship research - visiting a series of amazing schools and people shaping an approach to learning which is - wait for it - lots of time outdoors, builds strong links into the environment, culture and community, is inspiring and, most importantly, FUN! Sunnyside Environmental School is the most vibrant school Becs has ever seen - with confident wonderful kids.

Meanwhile Tom, Freya and Kai check out the parks and forest trails of Portland and watch our first baseball game. It's a green and very friendly city

San Francisco

26th April we arrived in San Francisco. We found a great family to stay with on couchsurfer.com - Brook, Roger, Daniella (5) and Viola (1) near Berkeley for a few days while Tom found a car. It's an ancient Toyota corolla - done 210,000 miles (!) but as they say here 'Toyotas are good for a quarter of a million'... So we all jammed our rucsacs and ourselves in and the journey northwards began - along the beautiful California coast towards Portland.