Road Trip: Big Sur

Olivia and I drove to Big Sur to go camping with Becky and friends.

We left sunday around 2:30pm and stopped for a cup of coffee with Olivia's uncle Jefferey who lives in the cutest house in Monterey.

Such a sweet guy with an amazing garden...

I got to see some sculptures that my mom did long ago!! I love this little figure.

This one too.

The first thing I say when I come to your home is, "Where are your animals?" I just think that people who don't have pets are freaks, sorry.
This is Mario. He was very handsome and affectionate. Soft like Arwen, but nice. He had huge paws and a little body. You probably can't tell that this is Olivia talking and not Trisha. Trisha don't give a shit about animals.

we also ate these treats--carrot, um, ginger,,,i dunno, weirdest thing i have put in my mouth in a very long time. your ears hear "NOT MEATBALL", your eyes are like, "whatever, it's gotta be like a meatball", your mouth is like "what the fuck?" sweet, gooey, chilled, not good enough to not be healthy, is this good for me?...i cant recognize the flavors...too much going on...i quit."

Olivia was hauling ass so we could find our campground before dark.

good satelite rap station the Entire Weekend.!!

We Hustled.

At about 7:30pm we stopped at what we thought might be our site, the ocean was to our right

and the hills to our left...all the campsites we had passed were on the hillside, but this unmarked trail we thought was ours headed straight down to the water, and I thought "no way" we were going to scamper down this trail toward the beach and find our site...100 yards down the small dirt path Olivia let our a howl for " B e c kkkkk yyyyyyy!!????" to see if anyone was down there....we were answered with sweet "HEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYY!!! you guys made it!!!"

and Becky and her man Scott hurried up the hill to help us unload some stuff and set up our tent. Losing light so fast we got the Tent up seconds before the black. Totally forgot a flashlight and lantern...we made our way over to the fire to meet our new camping friends. I was expecting not to know another soul there, but was SO excited to See Margaux and Sully standing near the fire...we had a few beers and Many hours to kill before our 1 AM reservation for the Esalen hot springs:

"Esalen. The word itself summons up tantalizing visions of adventure, of unexplored frontiers, of human possibilities yet to be realized. There is the wonder of the place itself, 120 acres of fertile land carved out between mountain and ocean, blessed by a cascading canyon stream and hot mineral springs gushing out of a seaside cliff. "

....Five hours and five minutes of sleep later Olivia, Becky, Margaux, Sully and I drove to the spot where we were met by a golf cart driving Aussie chick who instructed us to walk down the hill and sign in...We walked in silence to the bath houses where we were given a very brief description of the tubs, showers, rooms, and how to make our baths hotter...the five of us plus about 8 more spread out, ditched our clothes, showered, and got in the water.

This place is absolutely amazing.

The lower deck we were on was maybe about 50 feet above the crashing waves.

Straight above the waves.!! the tub Olivia and I got into was the best spot because we could rest our arms over the edge and look out to watch the white water smashing into the rocks below us, or flip over, rest our heads on the tub's edge and stare into A MILLION stars.

The water was so warm and so bouyant...

just FLOATING.

hearing only waves.

seeing only stars,

your muscles and pores soaking in hot minerals.

So relaxing.

After two hours we totally feel asleep, our host did not come to get us at 3 AM as promised, but we eventually got out, showered, dressed, climbed the big hill back to the car,

i asked Becky what this place was

i think she mentioned

that maybe in the 60's it was a sex commune...awesome..

and

i just read that "Hunter S. Thompson worked as a security guard

and caretaker at Big Sur Hot Springs for eight months in 1961, just before it became the Esalen Institute."

......

so we went back to our tents and had the Best Sleep ever.

Our fucking tents were 6 feet from the edge of the Cliffs. All you can hear is waves. There is no one around but us. our group of ten, in five tents...

wake up late with the softest smoothest skin and the most gentle curls in my hair and start the day...we took a walk to check out a nearby waterfall, drove to a windy beach, layed on the cliffs,

Just such horrible style in this neck of the woods. I went to college in Santa Cruz and it all came flooding back to me. The Yippie utilitarian, yet Wacky style of northern cali beach communities.

Look at that fucking water!!! Big Sur is seriously one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

(this is along the path to our campsite...Holy shit)

The most beautiful camping spot ever.

Look Where our Tent is....Damn.

I was trotting like a happy pony on the best trail I'd ever been on.

Just down from our tents is an outcropping of sharp rock where you can perch and look down the cliffs into the ocean. So gorgeous. I can't believe this camping spot Becky found. Remarkable.

Totally saw a chubby little otter relaxing in the waves belly up. I love the lil ocean cats!!

We went to a beach just north of our spot. When we paid to get in at the park kiosk there was a handwritten sign that said, "The beach is windy!!! NO REFUNDS!" Hilarious. They weren't kidding. It was very windy, but I cannot imagine demanding my money back because of it.

I love the earth and how it bends and cracks under the pressure of being here.

There was a huge M shaped rock that we climbed around in.

The waves would crash through the M. It was exhilarating watching them come in.

Sully & Margaux threw around a football on the beach cuz they're the best.

Lovin Sully's beer can tat. It rivals Hummel's hot dog tat in awesomeness.

He was wearing a Grateful Dead shirt from Vegas 92, and we realized that we had been to a bunch of the same dead shows back then. Hahaaaa. He also showed me his new tat, a scull, no jaw, wearing glasses.

i learned about some internet video socializing that disturbed me, we grabbed a deli sandwich on the way back to camp, split up...

Olivia and I drove further south in search of more trails, Becky and friends went to have a big ol burger at the most scenic spot in the world....

Olivia and I found that the trails nearby were all "closed" after the fires and mudslides but we sneaked back to see for ourselves what was really going on. We pranced along the rushing creek and tiptoed across fallen trees coming to another waterfall...

We found this little house back in the woods. So cute to live here.

Also, some radical orange algae!!

The forest is so magical!! I love looking up into the tall tall trees and feeling the moist earth underfoot.

Ran back down the trail to our car, loaded up my backpack with some more cold beers and walked down the hill to our campfire.

On the way down I slipped and busted my shin up pretty good,

but managed not to break any of the bottles in my bag...

We watched the sunset that night on the cliffs right in front of our tents. Just as the sun was setting we saw DOLPHINS!! So wonderful!!

The next morning we packed up and headed out. We stopped at a couple Big Sur gift shops and such. I bought myself this Amazing Ring! You can't really see here but it is Ocean Jasmin and it is a bunch of little circles, amber ochre in sage green. It looks like my paintings! I had to have it.

I can't wait until we go again next year!!

Thanks, Becky!!!