This is a tale of introductions. It’s a tale of adventure, daring, and intense connections. This is a tale of love at first sight.
In early February of 2009, i flew across the country and landed in central California. I liked it instantly and spent the first month taking a walking tour of the area to get better acquainted with what was one of the best towns i’ve called home.
Seriously, one of the best ever.
Shortly after settling in, i agreed to go on a camping trip to a place only half an hour’s drive away. I didn’t have a car (in fact, i didn’t have much at the time and i’d pretty much been living out of a pack for the past few months), so i carpooled with other people in the group. On the afternoon before a four-day weekend, we piled into a couple of cars and drove down to Big Sur.
Looking back on it, it’s a fortunate thing i wasn’t driving. As soon as those dramatic cliffs and crashing waves came into view, i forgot all about our driver’s horrific lack of driving skills. If i’d been behind the wheel, i probably would’ve driven us off of the cliff and into the gaping maw of a humpback whale.
You eat only krill and small fish? Yeah right… I heard what you did to Jonah!
Seriously though, i’m not convinced words can describe how i felt during that drive. All i know is that it was love at first sight, and that love grew more intense with each passing day. I’ve been on many trips to Big Sur since then and it never fails to stun and impress. But this isn’t the story about those times. I’m still talking about that first trip and the hilarity that ensued…
First of all, i’m a little ashamed to admit that we weren’t exactly prepared for this trip. I checked the weather beforehand and packed my back expecting the forecasted low of 58 degrees to be easily handled. It wasn’t until we actually got there that i found out our campsite was actually in a valley. Oh yeah, and we were camped out near the Big Sur river. And it just happened to be a notably windy weekend.
We were so damn cold.
The first night there, i actually shivered so much that i woke up the guy sleeping next to me. By our second night, we had come to the conclusion that the only way to get a full night’s rest was to make one big bed and share body heat. And that’s how i ended up being the smallest spoon in a stack with three men behind me.
Anyway, to make a long story short, it was awesome, i fell in love with Big Sur, and i went back many, many times. I think that weekend was probably when i first realized that living in California was going to be one of the best places i’d ever lived (empirical evidence from subsequent adventures proved this to be totally true).
And since i’m sleepy and don’t feel like writing any more, here are some pictures i took on that trip:
