"We are cool girls. We do fun things!" - Part 1

Recall that I said I would be reliving two past road trip adventures.

Yes, I know that this particular adventure with Davys occurred 3 months ago.

But we all know that I am terrible at remembering the little details of things, and this was an insanely fun and hilarious trip with many adventures, so I would like to document it here for my sake and for your amusement.

Davys came up with the idea that we should both go up to Seattle, WA to visit our friend from college, Stafa, who is doing his medical residency there.

I came up with the idea that we should rent a car and make a camping road trip of it.

The result:  an amazing trip :)

I think Davys summed it up the best when (during a particularly cool part of our trip) she stated that "We are cool girls.  We do fun things!"

Truth.

Three states.  SLO to Seattle.  One car.  One tent.  Two showers.  2,449 miles driven.  In 7 days.

The trip started out in our little rental car, Jenny, with 782 miles on the odometer and a "can-do" adventure attitude!  BRING ON THE FUN!!!!

We drove up the historic Highway 1 along the CA coastline, stopping in Cayucos CA for some brown butter sea salt cookies.  Then northward to Cambria, CA to find the zebras and the elephant seals (but not together)!!

We eased our way through the Big Sur area, stopping for lunch (yay for juice boxes!) at McWay Falls.

For dinner we headed to Monterey, CA and had quite a lovely walk and clam chowder sourdough bread bowl date.

Our goal was to find a new place to camp every night.  We had a tentative (VERY tentative) plan of action, and we flew by the seat of our britches most of the time.  We were hoping to just find a decent state park to crash in for the first night, and we ended up at a WONDERFUL place:  Henry Coe State Park.

This place was amazing!  Beautiful drive high up into the mountains, with time for a lovely sunset hike.  And it was beautiful watching the fog roll in in the morning.  I had to pee circa 3 am and can not put into words how breath-takingly beautiful the sky was that night.  I have never seen so many stars, or the milky way, so clearly.  

Day 2:  Operation San Francisco, CA.  We met up with Davys' D.C. friends who were randomly in San Fran on vacation for some awesome coffee.  We, of course, had to make a famous Dynamo Donut run, before heading to Petalouma, CA for some fabulous beer at Lagunitas Brewery. 

And when I say beer, I mean the whole enchilada of 20 samples.  

We continued northward on the coast following 1 to a place that Davys picked out for us to eat in Samoa, CA.  The old Samoa cookhouse used to be a dining house for loggers back in the day.  It still functions that way, with a one-price-one-menu-freaking-huge-portions-of-food style menu.  Needless to say we were not hungry.

That night we camped at a little random redneck filled ATV-riding-in-the-dunes island.

We did a little exploring, made a little driftwood fire, and got serenaded to sleep by a homeless guy and his guitar (which was much preferred to the wine-drinking-super-excited astronomers at Henry Coe State Park the night before).

 And those are the first two days of adventures, folks!  Stay tuned for more blasts from the past ;)

AP

A Tale of Two Road Trips

Also known as "Yes, I am Alive: The Blog Post."  Thanks for the blogger-slacker shout-out by my Phines over at 2Phines.  So its been 2 months since my last post.  So sue me.  (actually I am really sorry y'all.....sheepish grin....)  But lets be real here.  I'm not exactly winning any blogging awards with this site (do these even exist??  Probably.).

I haven't had too much going on lately.

Just been planning a wedding that involves people from 13 states and 3 time zones.

And packing up my entire house and moving it across country and dumping half of it in Missouri and half of it in NC.

And training a new person for my job at Cal Poly.

And leaving Cal Poly.

And driving across the country to live in Wake Forest, NC until the wedding.

But other than that, things have been chill.

Honestly, only 2 really neat things have happened in the last 2 months.  Davys came out to visit me (AGAIN!!) and we took a really, really awesome road trip from SLO to Seattle, WA and back.  I really want to fill you in on our crazy adventures and document them for myself, so those will be my next postings.  And then my brother Ryan flew out to SLO to help me pack and we had another super awesome road trip across the country.  Hence the title of this post.  Two road trips.  Clever, no?

Prepare yourselves to be ambushed with road trip photos and antics for the next few days.

Lucky Girl

I'm a lucky girl.  A really lucky girl.  Know why?  Because I have this really great friend who lives in NC.  She's been an amazing influence in my life for the past 15-some odd years and is going to be my matron of honor in November.  I also have this really awesome friend who lives in MI (well...she's in KY now, but that's beyond the point).  She's been my partner in many adventures and even though I've only known her a few years, it feels like a lifetime.  So when you are a really lucky girl, both of your friends come visit you at the same time!

Tamara and Sarah came to see me in May (remember, I'm playing catch up!).  Even though they had never met before, they took a leap of faith that the other one wasn't totally crazy and came to see me at the same time :)  We had such a blast and it was so wonderful to get to spend some time with these ladies.

There were zebra sightings.

There were seal sightings.

 There were beautiful Big Sur CA-1 coast sightings (complete with some crazy fog).

There were vineyard and tasting room sightings (which may have gotten a little blurry after the 4th one or so...).

There were Madonna Inn sightings.  Complete with cake, of course.

There were baby Pacific gray whale sightings.

There were Avila Beach sightings, complete with a naked guy at Pirate's Cove (nudie beach say whaaaaat!)

There were sightings of farmers at markets.

There were sightings from horseback.

And sightings that involved cookies.

There were Triple D sightings (Keri Jewell, eat your heart out!) that involved some home-away-from-home Jamaican memories for Tamara (and the best dang chicken in Santa Monica).

And, of course, there were sightings of SoCal sunsets.

And you know what my favorite site was of all?  Maybe the one where I came home from work for lunch to a fully prepared meal and 2 of my favorite girls.  Or the one where Sarah got lots of kisses from Belle (the mule).  Or maybe where I woke up with Tamara and Sydney in my bed, just like old times.  Or the one of two of my favorite people sitting on my couch with me watching a movie.

I am super blessed to have both of these gals in my life.  I couldn't imagine life without either one.  And I'm super excited that I will get to be closer to both of them (geographically) in just a short while!

Let there be blogging again!

Hi there!  Remember me??  That chick that used to pretend to be witty and write about her life on here?

I'm alive.  I promise.

Remember how I was feeling super overwhelmed and decided to go slow for a while?  Apparently that translated into giving up blogging for 3 months.  Whoopsie.  Sorry faithful blog follower(s??).  

I am now back on track.  I took a much needed self-assessment and a break from all of the extras that I was doing and got back to the roots of what makes me tick.  God has been super faithful about giving me new energy, excitement about the wedding and my job, and blessing me with some great adventures in the meantime.  

So, here's what y'all missed over the past 3 months:

I'M NO LONGER ON CRUTCHES/IN A BOOT!  Yay!!!  I am 4 months post-surgery now and feeling wonderful.  My physical therapist and my surgeon have been fantastic.  I'm riding horses, back in the gym, and am allowed to try surfing (all very carefully and slowly, of course). Words cannot express how great it feels to not be in constant pain whenever I try to do something.

Sarah and Tamara came to visit me!!!  We had so, SO much fun.  I'll do a whole post on how wonderful these ladies are, but here is a teaser pic in the meantime.

Once the ladies left, I jetted out to St. Louis, MO to see Landon.  He moved there at the end of April.  We went to our good friend Tim and Bridgett's wedding and spent a teeeeensy bit of time at our new apartment.

Then I headed off Ruidoso, NM for the bi-annual Equine Science Society meeting.  I absolutely love the desert, and Ruidoso was beautiful and didn't disappoint.  I even accidentally drove through the Indian reservation and saw tons of horses, elk, and cattle allllllll over the road.  And per annual tradition, we had a bangin' costume party (cowboys and aliens this year), complete with a bathtub full of goodies.  Which resulted in us getting kicked out of the casino.  Now that's the sign of a good time!

The school year finished up strong.  Students graduate, we had cookouts for many of our classes, and there was a super fun year end celebration where my fellow faculty members honored me with a beautiful custom belt buckle.  It was really touching and wonderful.

I went home to NC for a super brief stint (more on that later).  And then I came home and two days later Davys arrived for a sweet adventure that consisted of a road trip through the Pacific Northwest (also more on that later).  

So as you can see, I've been busy.  But wonderful.  And I'm excited to be talking to y'all again :)