Drinking up Life

We look forward to our spring break trip all year.

It starts the minute the previous one ends.

Reservations go in on the 1st of September.

And this year's reservations caused much angst and gnashing of teeth...and yelling of indelicate words.

Within three minutes all oceanfront campsites but one were gone...poof.

After my intitial tantrum, I took a site that was a ways down our list but still right off the surf break that the guys call Turtles.

I have no idea why they call it that.

There were a few things that pushed this site down our list.

It was right next to the stairs.

The rinse shower is in this site.

The bathrooms are close.

In short, a lot more traffic than we normally like to have, but we went with it.

The drive down is about 17 hours total, but since Collin is in Sacramento, we stopped there both ways and enjoyed a meal with him.

Which also meant we could break up the travel time which our hineys appreciated.

The central valley gets an amazing share of bugs on the I-5 this time of year and we had to make frequent stops to increase the visibility.

Check out the coating on the side mirror there.

"Don't worry ma'am, you're in good hands. The bug goo creates extra friction and keeps us under the speed limit. You just relax back there while we crank up the tunes."

Here is why we keep coming back.


This is the view north standing in our campsite.

And the view to the south.

Amazing I tell ya.

We inhale, exhale, perch on our cliff, and check the surf 85,434,6970,985 times per day.

Somebody's gotta do it.




My cousin Clyde and his wife Debbie loaned us thier awesome motorhome since Collin has custody of our trailer for a few more months.

All I can say is Dylan is ruined forever.

It was waaaay cushy and wonderful.




My brother Mike and my sister-in-law Sheila also had a spot for three or four days.

More on that in an upcoming post.

One of the nephews stopped by our site one morning.  Dylan and Brock noticed he was heading toward a sidesaddle kinda thing and got him straightened out right quick.

Ya this is the dining area. Not a bad view.

We were so happy that lots of people could stop by.

My Mom & Dad came for dinner.

My cousin Brent and his wife, Grace, came one night and stayed for dinner too.

They saved us from a potentially ruinous situation when we discoved that we were lacking a corkscrew for the wine.

The two of them sprinted across 101 to the Seaside Market (my favorite market EVER) and procured the necessary tool.

We will be forever grateful.

I used to babysit Brent.

Ya you do the math...Dylan's right...I'm old.

Brent came back the next morning to give the surf a try.

Oh and there are 130 some stairs here....not that I counted.

There are about six sets of these stairs along the campground and people run from stairway to stairway on the sand and go up and down them.

I had sore calf muscles after the first day.

Let's just say these people are very fit and not dwell too much on what that might mean about me.





The guys all surfed at least twice a day.

And in between they talked about surf.

And went to surf shops.

And ate a bunch so they could go out surfing again.

And so it went.

Day after day.


Dylan on a nice little section:

There were camp pies and smores.

And there was this weirdness when I had every single setting on my camera wrong and we all thought it was somehow kinda cool.

None of us could really say why we liked it.

Coulda been the moment.

Coulda been that we all ate too much at the annual maki roll fest and were dillusional.





It was really fun to have Brock along to save Dylan from the horrible fate of a week with no friends.

He's a great sport and game for anything.

A regular energizer bunny I tell ya.

Perfect for the way out trips usually go.

Rich was one happy camper.

It's just so great to be able to just be.

Some more friends stopped by later in the week.

It was Pam Day.

My college roomie Pam, stopped and sat in the sun with me for a bit.  She came bearing avocados from their orchard which is always a welcome treat but the true gift is just hangin out with friends.

We caught up a bit on families and work and life.

I got to hear about her oldest daughter's upcoming wedding.

She's the girlfriend who taught me how to pay bills, and balance a checkbook.

She's the one who made sure we called each other when we were leaving to come home.

We lived in the 'hood....downtown....where SWAT teams trained to go.

She's the one who gave me the thumbs up when Rich came over.

The only thing we fought about was music....we had stereo wars.

She liked Country.  I was a Punk and Ska girl...it occaisionally got very loud.

Later in the after noon my other good friend Pam and her husband Gary came for more sun sittin' and we talked them into staying for dinner.

Gary surfed this break back in the day.

He knew why it was called Turtles.

Only apparently I didn't pay attention very well...

I've known Pam since 3rd grade.

She sang at our wedding.

We go waaay back....as in we had matching shoes in the fourth grade.

That kind of friendship never goes away.

I love that she still makes time for me in her life.


I got really sunburned from all the Pamness and sitting in the sun.

I'm shedding skin like a reptile right now.

I don't regret a second of it.



It's the real stuff.

Drinking up life.

Ya know what?  We loved this campsite too.

I don't thing there is such a thing as a bad oceanfront campsite.

And you can bet we'll be back.

Just as soon as we can.

Cath

P.S. A little update on the Shrek toes from this post

Rich says they are still a little strange (he's usually right about these things) but he can see how they can be entertaining as little leaves with these shoes. Hmmmm