One down-side of moving across the country from home is the increased likelihood of lonely holidays. With no family making the trek to visit us this Thanksgiving - and I'll be honest, no motivation to get ourselves out to either Minnesota or Florida - we had an awesome realization. We have a FREE 4 day weekend ahead of us. Never was there a better opportunity to take an awesomely long & relaxing camping trip.
With an already prepared turkey and our bikes in tow, we headed out for Big Sur on Thursday morning.
By 4pm we had reached Riverside Campground and set up our camp at Site 12, next to a beautiful portion of the Big Sur River.
We positioned our tent to open up facing the river so that in the cold mornings I could open up the door and admire sweet sweet nature while still snuggled up in my sleeping bag.
After getting our site set up it was time to start on our dirty gourmet Thanksgiving dinner. *Note to self: giant yams take way too long to cook. Just buy two or three small ones instead of one big one.
Lezlie, you will notice the wine bottle that we're using with our candelabra, Three Lab Chard! :). The other bottle on the table was picked up the previous in Napa. A deLICIOUS white.
I could lay here forever.
Friday afternoon we hopped on our bikes for a 4 mile ride to Pfeiffer Beach. Let me tell you, those scenic coastal roads may be beautiful, but the hills are BRUTAL. Once we got on to the back road that takes us to the beach it was 2 miles of crazy downhill. Didn't pedal once. Not a good sign for the return trip, but a fun experience nonetheless. We came upon some horse friends just before we reached the beach.
Pfeiffer Beach is known for its purple sand caused by runoff of some material from the cliffs behind it. Look it up, that's exactly the explanation Wikipedia will give you, I swear ;)
With amazing surroundings and amazing company, things can get a little silly.
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| I caught him mid wind-up. Ha ha ha |
We visited the Big Sur Pub (also called The Maiden, I believe) for dinner on Saturday night, looking for some social interaction and delicious beers. We found both! We were chatted up by an older Spaniard woman and her biker husband. She came from Spain to California 33 years ago and believes California is the best state in the nation. She was also ecstatic when Mick suggested she put jalepenos on her beef philly sandwhich. She swears she will never eat her favorite sandwich again without jalepenos.
All in all, we had an amazing, relaxing, beautiful long weekend in Big Sur. I hope that we get the chance to share this place with our friends and family soon! And you bet we will be celebrating more Thanksgivings this way.
