Escape

It was way too hot in Pasadena last week. High nineties and we are trying to save $ on our electric bills by using the air conditioning as little as possible. Nathaniel has wanted to go camping for awhile, so I did a search and found a beach campground with hot showers and flush toilets that had a couple nights available (usually you have to book beach campgrounds 6 months in advance for summer camping.) San Simeon State Park sounded great. On the central coast, it has July temperatures in the mid-60's during the day. Sweet! We packed long pants and sweatshirts and headed off. Let me tell you, it wasn't quite what we expected. It was cold - way too cold for our thin blood. Above you see us in the campsite at a rare time when it wasn't socked in with fog and/or when the wind wasn't blowing like crazy. We weren't ready for that. So we went exploring.

We saw the zebras of the central CA coast. (Yeah, W.R. Hearst was rich and if he wanted zebras in his cow pastures then he had zebras in his cow pastures.)

We saw the giant male elephant seals that had come ashore to molt, fight, and lie in the sun.

We saw beautiful vistas on our drive up PCH 1.

We explored beaches surrounded by cliffs that could only be accessed by steep staircases and switchback trails.

We did some of our own molting, fighting, and lounging in the sun.

And true to form, Nathaniel always does a little extra exploring.

One warm spot we found was up a narrow canyon called Salmon Creek. The fog had blown away and the steep rock cliffs of the canyon blocked the wind. So we hiked up with cookies and milk, a couple beach towells and spent some time in a quiet windless spot.

Davis scaled some rocks on our way to find Salmon Creek Waterfall.

And when we found it, we took a chilly dip in the pool before lying on the rocks and snorting like elephant seals while we wolfed down cookies.

It was a great place to explore. Not a relaxing vacation, but the temperature had dropped to the eighties by the time we got home and we had found a new appreciation for July in So. Cal.

You can click on the video below to see the kids bickering in the car... or was that the elephant seal clip?