the air was mild, but the wind made everything a tad chillier, and by dark we needed something to warm us up. the fire was proving difficult to maintain, so we headed into town for some hot cocoa. we took our chocolately goodness to a hotel down the road that provides beach fireplaces. we sat in front of the fire, right on the sand, and drank til we were warm again. then we headed back to camp and got ready for bed.
i was awoken in the middle of the night by a fierce, pounding, downpour of rain. i like to sleep with some rain sound fx, but this was just incredible. i probably could have slept through the rain, but it was the wind that stole my slumber. the wind gusts were so intense that the tent kept hitting me in the head. after finally falling asleep after what felt like hours, i awoke to the tent poles bending in so far that i thought the tent had collapsed. needless to say, my midnight pee was an adventure. who knows where that pee was blown to.
we woke up in a puddle, but relatively dry, thanks to our fancy new sleeping pads. kids need a tarp under the tent next time they're expecting rain..
we were lucky, though, in that the rain only came at night, which left us with two rain-free days to explore the coast. we made oatmeal, packed up camp, and headed over to see the elephant seals.
we arrived to elephant seals as far as the eye could see. there were so many of them - young, old, male, female. we were lucky enough to have arrived during the small window [a few days, at most] of MATING SEASON! have you ever seen two elephant seals fuck? you don't want to. it is seal rape to the maximum. it is horrible. it is painful. it is impossible to look away. i'm sorry to say the good part of our morning was spent watching this natural, but oh so cruel, practice.
at least there's foreplay.
after the seals, we drove out to ragged point and checked out the view. on the way back we pulled off on the side of the road, pulled out the camp stove, and made some more hot dogs and beans. mmm. then matt peed off a cliff and the wind sprayed it back in his face.
haha.
for the rest of the afternoon we explored the area by car. we found a back road through the valley that went past the private ranches in the area. we turned around when we came to a flooded stream crossing.
we then stopped into town so that i could check out the cat shelter. matt had been there before and knew i'd love it. it was basically a house that had been transformed into a shelter. there were multiple rooms with 87 cats roaming free. it was AMAZING. all shelters should be like that.
we found one more scenic road to explore before we headed home. we found a nice overlook and stayed for at least an hour. we napped in the car - it was hard to tear ourselves away from this place.
one of the most beautiful places i'd ever seen. and it's just a few hours north! california really is amazing. beach, mountains, desert, countryside..all within a few hours of one another.
after googling 'good santa barbara restaurants' on matt's phone, we found a pub in the area to stop at for dinner. deLISH burgers. MMMM. then we stopped at matt's uncle's house to pay a visit to the fam. i really like them a lot, so it was nice to be able to pop in.
we jumped back in the car and were home before midnight.
nice weekend if you ask me.
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