18 People living in Harmony

I'm now back from my vacation and finally getting around to writing about it. What a great way to spend time at work, eh? Initially I thought I'd try to turn it into a funny story, but I couldn't put it together as such, so I'm just going to report about what happened. Hopefully it isn't too boring for the 3 or 4 of you that read my blog.

Quinn and his son Quintin joined Rece and myself on our annual camping trip to San Simeon. It's a beautiful area and the campgrounds are for easy-style camping (bathrooms and showers are available, as is a water spicket at the site). We could hear the surf and lay back and enjoy the stars while sippin a couple beers next to the campfire.

We got off to an early early start, around 6:00 am, on Monday morning. Traffic wasn't bad and we made it through L.A. before the morning rush - well, the worst of it, at least. I got a chance to introduce Quinn to a fairly new radio station that he really enjoyed until we started to lose reception. This was fine, as we were now driving along the coast, which gave us some nice views - even with the marine layer rolling in.

After stopping for breakfast, gas, and potty breaks, we arrived at San Simeon State Park, just before noon. To my delight, they had plenty of open campgrounds, so they allowed us to grab one of the better sites that usually require reservations to get. This meant being closer to the restrooms/showers and having some trees around for shade. We set up camp and realized that I had forgotten to grab a couple of things before heading out the door: the hamburger patties I made for dinner and the frozen O'Brien potatoes for breakfast. I decided to make up for it by taking us all out to Mexican food in Morro Bay.

After setting up camp we went for a walk, not only to check out the local scenery, but to make bake my arms a nice shade of red. "You're not burnt," Quinn kept trying to tell me, but I knew better. Bug repellant with SPF15 doesn't do much good against the sun, let me assure you. Upon our return and thinking of our next step, Quinn came to the conclusion that he wanted his own tent. He was planning on buying one anyhow, so we decided to use our extra time to go buy another tent (he bought 2, and I bought another - great deal). We stopped off for dinner along the way (Mexican as promised), though it wasn't anything spectacular. We finished off that evening with S'mores and hot chocolate, much to the delight of the boys.

Day 2 was nice, though a little warmer than expected. The usual morning marine layer was nowhere to be found, so the sun started heating things up earlier than usual. We enjoyed some slow (and I mean SLOW) cooked bacon with eggs, toast, fruit and some juice. It turned out that I was to serve as the camp chef for the trip, which meant that everything was cooked to my liking! YUMMY! After breakfast we went to check out the elephant seals up the coast. There were a lot more of them basking on the beach in the sun than last year when Rece and I had last visited.

It was now time for me to reveal the best part of the trip: walking along the coastal cliffs to Point San Simeon and checking out the tide pools. As I mentioned earlier, it was warmer than usual, but it wasn't too bad. A gentle ocean breeze, when combined with the shade from the pine and eucalyptus trees, kept us cool. We scrambled down the coastal cliffs when we reached the point, which provided access to the tide pools. The clean ocean air, the mist from waves crashing on the rocks, and the complete absence of anybody but our group allowed us to take it all in. Quintin was excited to see the crabs and starfish - one even managed to surprise him enough to make him yelp out loud at the sight of it. We had a good laugh at that one. Quinn seemed to really like it there. We helped clean up the place by packing out a couple of beer bottles found in the tide pools, thus inventing the beer tree. We came back to camp for lunch - BLT's from the bacon cooked up for breakfast (YUM!) - then we decided it was a good time to nap.

After the nap, we decided to take a walk on one of the trails in the park. Rece and I had walked part way along this trail in the dark last year, but since it was mainly to find a geocache and we found it (not to mention it being hella creepy), we didn't go any further. In the daytime this was a beautiful walk. There was a lot of poison oak near the trail, but not to such an extent as to not be able to walk by it with ease. We encountered a lone deer, which we spent a good amount of time admiring from only 20-30 feet away. After Quinn took a few pictures of it, we continued along our way. The trail was a lot longer than we had anticipated, yet we weren't sore or tired from the walking. Our minds were just in tune with nature and the beauty of the forest.

Upon our return and after the eating of hot dogs, we decided to cut the trip a day short (which was always an option) and head back home the next day. Quinn and I stayed up late, discussing many things of life, the stars, religion, relativism, etc. It was a good night.

Our last morning of camping started off with eggs and sausage, orange juice, and fresh brewed coffee (YUM!), followed by a leisurely time packing up of our gear. Quinn and I were very proud of how we packed the gear in the back of his truck. On the way here, the tarp wanted to bubble up from the wind, but on the way home, it barely budged. Manly men, are we.

Camping is always a fun pasttime and it is something I recommend for every family. Quinn says that he'll be returning to camp at San Simeon with the rest of his family someday. Above all else, I believe the most memorable part of the trip was when we were walking back to the truck after checking out the tide pools: A cool breeze picked up, cooling us as we hiked amongst the eucalyptus trees. A view of the beach could be seen below us. I could not help but breathe deeply as I drank in the moment of peace. Quinn, also caught up in the moment, said it all as he took in a deep breath of the salty sea air and said, "Ah, I want to take off my pants."

This entry brought to you by the manly men of
yore who know how to stand like men!