The Excitement of Adventure

San Bruno Mountain Reserve 2012

This post is part of the Open Book Blog Hop (begun by author P.J. Fiala) where you can learn more about authors and bloggers. The theme this week is fun.

My "fun" is limited. I'm a bit of a workaholic and a stay-at-home parent of an active toddler, which means 99% of my time is spoken for. I have to plan every part of my day and week just to make sure I can shower and brush my teeth. When I do get a spare minute, I am usually so tired, all I can do is watch the latest sci-fi creation out of Canada.

That said, when my husband is off work, we do family or date things. This often involves hiking, short excursions, and or movies. Today we went to the beach, took a long walk, and had a picnic. Afterwards we got frozen yogurt at a DIY yogurt bar. That is a pretty typical example of our family time.

Before Kiddo, however, things were a little different.

Halloween Shiny Toy Guns concert, Bako 2011

I really enjoy dancing - salsa, hip-hop, techno, swing, waltz, whatever. It brings me joy. I also love live music, especially funk and folk (though my interests are pretty varied). Dinner and dancing or a concert would be an ideal time for me. I also really enjoy art openings, festivals, and museums for daytime fun. So if I was childless and wanted to have some staycation-style fun, this would be it.

But more than this, I love adventuring. An adventure for me could be hiking, camping, or just exploring a new town. When I lived in the Bay Area, we would go on a different hiking trail every weekend, and often explore a new section of the Bay. Every weekend was a new adventure, and I absolutely loved it.

We try to do that everywhere we live. When we were in Phoenix, we would take a day in different parts of the city. We went to the mountains. We went to Sedona. We went to Tuscon. When we lived in Bakersfield, we explored Tehachapi. We sussed out all the cool spots. We went to Lake Isabella.

Now that we're in Santa Barbara County, it's hard to feel like there is any adventure left, because we've both lived in the area for significant portions of time. Having our son brings an element of newness to the place, but it's not quite the same. I'm still getting used to the change and embracing it. The next big adventure is scheduled for late September when we'll be camping in Big Sur with Kiddo and going to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. While I've been to both places when childless, I am excited to share them with my son and experience them as a family. It is different. There won't be dancing or concerts. Our pace will be slower, but I will get to experience it all through Kiddo's eyes. To see his joy when watching jellyfish tanks or when feeling the tide pool exhibit will be wonderful.

What do you consider fun? Leave a comment below! 

Tracy

Speaking of fun, check out chick lit and women's fiction author Tracy Krimmer. Her new book, Jay Walking is on pre-order on Amazon. You can read about this, her other novels, and check out her blog at her site here! Also be sure to like her Facebook Author page here.

 
Also, if you're interested in joining our blog hop, link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tent Camping In The Second Trimester

Yes, it might be a little nutty, but it was well worth it.

Christian is a good husband and as such, he made a reservation for a camp site in the redwoods next to a bathroom that had a shower. Literally, when we pulled up to the site, I could see the bathroom without having to search. It was maybe 50 feet away.

First obstacle tackled.

My second concern was one of food. For those of you who have been keeping up with my pregnancy exploits, you know that I need to eat snacks throughout the day and possibly a fourth full meal.  We had bananas, granola bars, and planned to bring protein shakes (which ended up being left unfortunately, but as it was, the food we had sufficed).  Fortunately we had enough on that front.

Second concern dealt with.

Finally I was worried about sleeping. Sleeping on my memory foam topper on my mattress at home has rendered my hips sore and uncomfortable the following day, so what would tent camping do?

Ahem.

There was no good solution to this one, short of bringing one of those huge air mattresses. Considering that our 2 man tent barely held the two of us (it was made expressly for back-packing) there would be no way to fit an air mattress inside unless it was a twin....which wouldn't work if another person was expecting to sleep there as well.

I had originally thought I would bring my Snoogle, but I didn't have a cover for it (and I really didn't want to try to wash mud or whatever off the pillow itself). Also, Snoogles are large. Being in my sleeping bag alone felt confining. With a Snoogle it would have been impossible. Plus the temperature at this time of year north of the Bay does not encourage open sleeping bags. So instead, I used two pillows to lift my upper body a bit, a blanket over my sleeping bag (because I was FROZEN!), and wore wool hiking socks to bed along with two shirts and long pants. This meant I slept some of the night, but of course, I was sore and stiff in the morning.

We also did something else crazy. We went hiking.

Normally I would say hiking is not a crazy endeavor - even for a pregnant lady. There are plenty of hikes that could be finished easily even with a new center of gravity and the propensity to be out of breath after every 20 feet.  We did not go on one of these hikes.

We climbed a mountain.

Alright, we climbed part of a mountain. We traversed approximately 2000 feet in elevation and about 4 miles, round trip. Needless to say it took all of my fortitude to go as far as we did, and by the end, my bladder was full, my water bottle was empty, and I was starving. Looking back I wouldn't have pushed myself as hard as I did. We should have turned around sooner, however I was glad to know that I could do it, even if it ended up taking the majority of the morning instead of the hour or so it would have before being pregnant.

Tent camping wasn't horrible over all while being in my second trimester. I would have been miserable in my first, and I'm sure this would also be true in my third (though for different reasons). That said, I expect the experience is not for everyone. I could see that many women would find the whole thing an exercise in exquisite masochism. For me however, the beauty of the place and the respite it offered from the city was enough to counter any inconvenience I experienced. I found myself depressed as we came closer and closer to Oakland. Being at home was actually distressing.

If anything, my time in the redwoods taught me 2 things:

1. I am now capable of much more than I was during the first 3 months of pregnancy.
2. I need to live in the woods - seriously.

Hopefully I can put these lessons to some use. If only I had more motivation to Zumba...

Nojoqui Falls - Park Adventures in Santa Barbara County

I've been to many of the parks in Santa Barbara city and Goleta, but my parents' home in Buellton has opened up some new and interesting locations to explore.

Most recently I checked out Lompoc Beach, which unfortunately was so windy that sand would have blown into my camera so I didn't take any pictures.  However, I was able to find the first sand-dollar pieces I've ever found on the beach in my life (I know what you're thinking - what a newbie!).  This was incredibly exciting to me.

More exciting, and more unexpected, was Nojoqui Falls.  I had seen the Santa Ynez river bed dry, and even though this year has brought a LOT of rain, I expected the falls to be more of a dry ditch water sometimes runs along than anything resembling falls. Luckily for me, I was pleasantly surprised. 

I say lucky, because even with a little water, the creek, pathway to the falls, and the falls themselves, were absolutely beautiful.  It was the kind of place which lends itself to meditation.  Ironically, the falls themselves reminded me of some of the paintings I have done recently.  If you saw "Bamboo Stand" at The Nature of Texture show in Goleta, then you know what I mean (see right). 

Even though the walk is uphill, it is well tended, and definitely worth the temporary pain the less fit might endure to see it.  In addition, there are great picnic areas and lots of space for kids to play before you start your short walk to the falls themselves. 

The thing about Nojoqui is, if you aren't looking for it, you won't find it.  It's on a tiny side road that you drive right past on the 101.  If you're lucky and have a friend from the area in the car, you can get there by taking a right off of 246.  Still, if you enjoy going off the beaten path, Nojoqui Falls is worth the short adventure required.

Mount Diablo - More East Bay Parks & Fun

One of the first parks to be created was Mount Diablo, which of course, is within a 30 minute drive from Hayward.  In the interest of going to as many parks as possible, we decided to check it out. So we got in our car and drove to Walnut Creek, the closest town to the park.

Once there, we wound our way through the wealthy sprawling houses of the Walnut Creek suburbs until we got to a ranger kiosk marking the entrance to the park.  It was an overcast day, but not raining, so we figured we would make the most of our remaining time.  At that point it was around 1:30, and the park closes at 4pm. However we didn't count on the road. 

If it hadn't been so overcast, or if I had eaten something more recently, the winding road climbing to the summit may not have bothered me.  Unfortunately I became somewhat nauseated.  As we climbed towards the summit, the clouds got lower and lower.  I insisted we take a break so I could get some air and maybe take a picture. Again, unfortunately, there was little to see by that point.  We reached the museum at the summit around 2:15.  It was windy and the cloud was on top of us which caused our hoodies to get completely soaked.  Still, we went into the museum, tried to check out what we could see, and then headed back down the mountain.  We didn't get back down to the ranger kiosk until almost 3.  Needless to say, my body was not happy with me and I was seriously concerned that I would need to stop and hurl on the side of the road because of the slow low visibility winding road. 

Seeing as we had a late breakfast, we decided to see if there was an interesting restaurant in Walnut Creek.  Because of the proximity of St. Patrick's day, and the nature of the weather in a mountainous setting (think: Scotland), I really wanted fish and chips.  We settled on the Pyramid Brewhouse. Well, the food was good, but it's not the best fish and chips I've ever had and it was way too expensive for what I got.  I'm not sure if the prices are the same at the other Pyramid locations (because it is a little chain) but from the notices on the table, their happy hour specials were very reasonable (for both beer and snacks).  The bonus is that you can get their brews on tap, which are pretty tasty if you are a beer person.

The conclusion - we're not going to go back to the Pyramid Brewhouse any time soon because of the location and the food prices, but we will definitely go to Mount Diablo again. The hints of views and the number of trails are just too enticing to keep us away.  I am crossing my fingers for a clear day soon!

Adventures in the Bay - A Ride to the Sea

 After our adventure in Dolores Park, we decided to go to a place we had never gone before - the other side of the peninsula.  Rather than having a specified plan, we left the Mission District and headed west.  We inched our way through the highly fashionable, commercially robust, and techni-colored Castro District. As we wound our way along the hillside, we came upon a sign for Twin Peaks.  Thinking of David Lynch, we turned onto the twisty road to Sutro Tower.  We were lucky to be there on such a clear day. San Francisco is known for its fog, but that day there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  We could see the entire bay and all the way to the ocean. I couldn't believe our luck - it was beautiful.

After being swept away by the wind and taking a multitude of pictures, we got back into the car and continued our journey west.  As we continued west, the buildings transitioned from businesses and townhouses to individual houses with yards and trees.  It wasn't until we were within sight of both the zoo and the ocean that we stopped for dinner.  At the Java Beach Cafe sitting outside, Christian ate a hot sub and I had a spinach feta peasant pie along with a Stella.  I didn't think it was a coincidence that a cafe served beer next door to the Irish Cultural Center. Bellies pleasantly full, we drove into the sunset.  The drive along the ocean to Lincoln Way boasted dunes covered in ice plant and the occasional jogger.  It brought memories of the wharf in Santa Barbara.  The smattering of palms made me long for southern climes where you're able to swim in the ocean without a wet suit.  Still, the Bay Area isn't too shabby.  You can't go wrong with beer, Irish Culture, and a clear view.