We have been married over four years, traveled many miles together, gone on a dozen or so camping trips with friends but have never gone just the two of us. We decided it was time. We headed out Friday morning to Big Sur. It's just south of Pebble Beach but not quite to San Fransisco.
Kate needed a snack. Great place to stop looking over the ocean.
Redwoods on the way to our campsite.
We stopped at Big Sur Bakery for a small treat and a possible dinner reservation for Saturday night.
We ate at Redwood Grille. It's supposed to be good but it wasn't all that impressive.
A hike short enough for Katie to carry her coffee.
We took this two mile road down to the beach from camp.
This is the creek that ran right behind our campsite. Katie found this awesome site and it was perfect cause it kept out all the sound of the other campsites. The screaming psycho child across the road was the only one that kept us up on Friday night.
Breakfast Saturday morning: Eggs, turkey bacon, and cooked vegetables over the fire in Kate's cast iron skillet.
Take the picture already i'm starving!!!
Our hike up to Pheiffer Falls.
Pheiffer Falls.
The fog was thick until late morning. Visibility was poor but it was hard to be frustrated cause it was still beautiful.
A view from the Valley View hike.
These squirrels knew it was lunch time and were scouting out their next meal. They were not shy and quite pushy. Matter of fact, I was awakened by Katie's scream as she rolled over during our afternoon nap to find a squirrel in our tent sipping on a Hansen's soda next to her head. We left a 6 inch gap in the door and Mr. Squirrel thought he was invited. Kate's scream was enough to scare him off.
Kate's chocolate chip cookies some fresh peaches, tomato and avocado were part of lunch.
Me navigating a map before our Buzzards Run hike. It was straight up hill and the smile didn't last long. The top brought views of the ocean and the Lucian Mountain Range to the east.
Lucian Mountains.
Almost back to camp.
My favorite yoga pose. I call it the "Minx".
Dinner Saturday at the Big Sur Lodge. Kate holding the door for me.
I grabbed some hot chocolate and Kate, a coffee, and we played cards until dinner at 7pm. All local organic ingredients: I had Fish 'n Chips and Katie had a mixed greens salad with beets, avocado, and pickled cucumbers.
We packed up and left camp early before most. After a quick stop back to Big Sur Bakery we headed south with a couple stops planned.
Mailboxes on the side of the road.
View heading South back toward L.A. That is fog not smog.
15 miles or so our first stop was McWay Falls. When the tide is up this falls drops right into the ocean. We caught it at low tide.
We stopped about 50 miles north of San Luis Obispo and spotted (with all of Europe) these large elephant seals. The sound they made was indescribable!
I'm sure before all is said and done we will have candied figs, frozen figs, baked figs, fig sauce, fig jelly, fig fights and of course our own homemade version of the Newtons themselves. I mean, we gotta try right?!
First we dried them. I got a laugh out of this "love note" Kate left me one afternoon when I got home. She asked me to turn on the food dehydrator. She used one of my scratch pieces of paper from the hospital I am currently doing a rotation at. I had written "Enima" on the side of it. Haha. How many of you guys have gotten a love note from your wife/girlfriend that said that on it?!
While scrub shopping I managed to find this table for 5 bucks. Kate threw a coat of paint on it and I sanded it down a bit to give it that old look. Now I need to just build drawers for it. That's for another year.
Today Katie "Pickled" cucumbers.
Kate's pickle jars.
The pickles won't be ready for about a day and should get better over time I guess as they soak up the dill and other flavors.
Next week Katie goes to Spokane and I will be left here in the 100+ temperatures. I'll update soon about my hospital rotation and i'm sure Kate will fill you in about her trip.
