The beginning of the trip started off great. Coral skipped out of her house, with her backpack on her back, as soon as Hope and Stacie arrived for the early 8 am start. Then we were thrown for a loop when Stacie locked her keys in the truck. No worries, 20 minutes later after a cup of Hilder coffee and AAA road service, we were back on track. Heading off to Point Reyes without reservations was filled with anticipation as we planned our destination keeping in mind the 5 stars needed for a successful trip; beach time, campfire, cards, day hiking and cocktails. We thought camping at Wildcat would be the best choice if we could get in, as Coral had been told all sites were filled. We were lucky and scored 2 nights at Wildcat, however it entailed moving from one campsite to another. We hiked the 6+ miles, with Coral leading the way. After setting up our encampment, we went for water and found it to look like tea. It got better depending on what time of day it was... While down at the beach for a little sunning, we found out that Hope doesn't like sand between her toes, (or pretty much at all) but she sun bathed with us like a champ. We gathered firewood off the beach and piled it high near the fire pit. We tagged it as ours with our campsite number hoping to keep the continuation school juvenile delinquents from stealing our campfire out from under us. Oh yea, 30 teenagers from a continuation school, boys and girls, with their 3 chaperones took over the campground... After dinner, we headed down to the beach with cocktails in hand to enjoy the sunset and start our required fire. After a little mishap with Coral's wine emptying itself into the sand, we enjoyed a great fire and headed off to bed. We awoke to a nice day and decided to hike the lakes trail and have lunch at the top of the bluff on the bench overlooking the ocean. We packed lunched and trekked up the trail. About a half mile up the trail, Coral stopped to take a picture. With her back to the uphill side of the trail, Stacie yelled "look out" as a vulture swooped in with talons outstretched, almost hitting Coral. The darn thing was holding the trail hostage, and would not fly away, even as we all tried shooing it away by yelling and waving our arms. Finally, Stacie and Hope bravely used their walking poles to herd the vulture to the side of the trail so Coral (and the rest of us) could pass. Bizarre interaction with nature. We continued up the trail about a quarter of a mile when all of a sudden here was Mr. Vulture (yes, he now has a name) again attacking Coral and blocking the trail. Is this really happening, we asked ourselves? It was like something out of a horror movie. Mr. Vulture look even more pissed and menacing this time, but we used the walking stick tactic to shield ourselves and move him to the side of the trail. We continued on to the top of the trail and sat and had lunch on the bench. After an hour of hiking we descended down towards camp and just as we were approaching the bridge into camp, POOF! there was Mr. Vulture once again standing in the middle of the trail, daring us to come any closer. Freaky! Later on in the afternoon, Stacie watched from camp as Mr. Vulture attacked a couple packing in. Something truly wrong about that bird. We moved campsites and due to the wind, sat in Stacie's tent to play cards (Stacie humped in her old, heavy 2 man tent especially for shelter to play cards). Worked out very well as the game was continued after dinner once it was dark. Coral was the comeback kid, and won the game. Everyone returned to their respective tents for a night of sound sleep. That was until the coyote melee at 12:30 am woke everyone up...Coral thought for sure they were surrounding her tent! Thursday morning we packed up and trudged up the hill for the trip home. We finally stopped at the cheese factory for lunch, which was very good but a little expensive. Enjoyed deli sandwiches outside in the picnic area. All agreed that this was a 5 star trip for sure!