Holy Guacamole!!!

Home Sweet Home

Go get yourself a drink and go to the bathroom – this is going to be a long one. It is Monday night and we are sore, tired, cold (just Amy) but very very happy. Sunday we drove from San Jose to our lovely cabin. Kathryn gave us directions but we relied on Cynthia, Lori’s new GPS unit. She quickly took control of the car and we stayed right as directed for 80 plus miles. As a result, we didn’t follow the scenic route over the mountains, instead we went through the valley. On the bright side, we went through the artichoke capital of the world. We found home for the week but Cynthia had us turn into the cabin just before our cabin. She was so close. We unpacked, made our beds up quickly and explored the area. We designated the upper cabin as the time out cabin and if you are naughty that is where you are spending the night. We then went back to Carmel to purchase food and provisions (aka beer) for the week. We easily found Safeway and filled our cart with wholesome food (wink wink). The highlights of Safeway are that they have Alaskan Amber beer, guava jelly, and these extremely delicious chocolate chewies which are like brownie batter suspended. It’s like magic. Lori also found her favorite Maui onion chips. We did pick up bread, butter, pasta, cheese and more cheese, fruit, diet coke and sierra mist, and a few other items to make our tummies happy. Lori signed up for a super saver card and we saved $23.28. We loaded up the car and headed back to the cabin. Dinner was delicious. Amy prepared her world famous asparagus and three cheese ravioli with a lovely marina sauce. At least that is what I thought we ate under the three pounds of grated parmesan cheese. Note to Mr. & Mrs. Martin – we need to plan a cheese intervention for Amy when we get back. We ate al fresco (outside) enjoying the beauty and the lack of mosquitoes. Can you believe it Mrs. Martin? No mosquitoes!!!! Nightfall soon arrived and we went inside the cabin. What to do? Raised on TV and addicted to the Internet we stood dumbfounded in the middle of the cabin trying to find something to do. Here is a list of our activities; we perused all the books in the library and picked a few to read, we started a fire and actually kept it going, we cursed ourselves for forgetting marshmallows at Safeway and we ate more cookies. Did I mention that they are delicious?
Look Mom - fire!!

Now it’s 8:00 pm (10:00 pm to you Midwesterners). What else can we do? Amy spent an hour in the game cupboard looking at the games and deciding what we would be playing. Our choices are Yahtzee, Time the Game, checkers, chess, scrabble and Jenga. I know, we are quite the party animals. Amy wisely left Twister in the cupboard. As we have said many times, that is how rumors get started. It’s now 8:30 pm. We now understand why the Amish have such large families. Without a quilt to sew or butter to churn, what else is there to do? We then checked out the video collection. Among the many possible choices we found Lori’s favorite movie that she hasn’t seen in over 25 years – Strange Brew. Take off you hosers. Eh! Can you believe that Amy has never seen it! It is timeless though Amy is probably thinking Lori had a really boring time during the 80’s if this was her favorite movie. Time for bed. Lori sleeps comfortably with a down comforter in the master suite while Amy piles on several comforters in the kids room. Oh, forgot to mention it started to rain and we couldn’t figure out what was knocking on the skylights. Amy thought corn was popping and I thought really big leaves were falling from the trees. Slight problem, no popcorn in microwave and we are surrounded by conifers. They don’t drop leaves. On that note, the two Einsteins turn in. End of Sunday!!!!!

Monday, we awake early but neither of us are sure if the noises we hear are the other person so we creep around very quietly for an hour. We finally run into each other in the kitchen and the day can officially begin. Amy starts breakfast by making pancakes. Lori gets the newspaper dressed in her Spongebob pajama pants and lovely moose socks. Standard uniform when staying at a cabin. The pancakes were delicious with the guava jelly purchased on sale at Safeway. Dishes washed, plans are made. We decided to head south to Big Sur. We then realize we need to shower and dress. 45 minutes later we pack up our car, exit our little private road, and turn left on Highway 1 (we normally turn right). The drive is actually not that many miles, however, we stop at every vista possible.
Holy Guacamole - this place is beautiful!

After several hours of ohhhing and ahhhing and Holy Guacamoling we make it to our first stop Andrew Molera State Park. Now we are not sure how to pronounce it, I prefer to make it rhyme with cholera. It took us several attempts but we finally got on the trail. First Lori forgot her diet coke which necessitated an immediate return to the vehicle. We then tried to unlock the wrong car. Guess how many white rental cars are in California? Answer – lots. We then took the wrong trail. We finally got under way and had a lovely hike. We found big leaf maples, California ground squirrels, lizards, lizards, lizards, and of course the ever present poison oak. Amy likes to point it out and try to touch it. Naughty Amy! We passed through several eucalyptus groves. This prompted a fierce debate. Amy believes they smell like Vick’s vapor rub. Lori says it smells more like eucalyptus and Amy needs to get a new perfume. (hint for Christmas as long as it doesn’t smell like vick’s or icy hot) . We agreed to disagree. Continuing on, we hiked toward the lookout (officially Molera Point). Again, ohhing and ahhing ensued and we meet our first surfer dude.
"I hate when my wetsuit creeps up on me"

He is about 65 and he can no longer stand up when he surfs, he kneels. However, since Lori can’t get up without help from the ground and Amy is constantly in knots, he kicks our butts. We hike down from the Point and we are faced with a decision. Do we walk back 2 miles and take another trail to the beach or do we wade across the Big Sur River to the beach? Amy decides to be the brave one and tries it first. “No problem Lori come on over!” Amy yells. Lori takes off her boots and socks, rolls up her pants and sticks her feet into the freezing water of the Big Sur River. “Yikes!” replies Lori. Amy says “did I mention I can’t feel my toes”. Lori says “ah, NO”. Lori secretly wonders what all the Vick’s vapor rub fumes have done to her friend but now is not the time. Pressing on, the intrepid duo reach the Pacific Ocean. Look Mom - big kelp ball!

We didn’t find any seashells but lots kelp and purple sand which Lori got stuck on her sunglass clipons when she dropped them in the sand. Time for lunch. We head back to the car because we forgot to bring our lunch with us. We had packed a lovely picnic lunch consisting of grapes, chips, cookies and the main course almond butter and guava jelly sandwiches. We prepare to eat and Lori takes off her sunglass clipons to reveal Groucho Marx eye brows . Apparently, the purple sand has magnetic qualities and it stuck to the clipons and also stuck to her face. Hilarity ensues. We finish lunch and head back on the road South. We stop and take a plethora of pictures and also get a bit queasy on the winding, curvy, up and downs, twisting, turning, etc…..road that is Highway 1 through Big Sur. We stop at another state park looking for the gigantic redwoods.
Look Mom - big tree!!

We want to see the Jurassic trees, the ones that have been around for a very long time. Unfortunately, as we are deciding on our hike, we find out that the trail is closed due to fires and mudslides in 2008. Luckily, we were able to find a few near the parking area and photos were taken. Back on the road for more stomach churning driving to the next state park. Our goal is Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We finally make it and it was worth the drive. The scenery is spectacular and it has a waterfall. Another hundred photos and it is time to return to the cabin. With dreams of mac & cheese, we jump into the car and speed up the coast. The trip back flies. Apparently, if you don’t stop every 5 minutes to take pictures, you can quickly get to where you are going. However, we remember that we didn’t pick up firewood at the Safeway on Sunday. We bypass the cabin and head back into Carmel. While at the Safeway we also picked up more guava jelly. Amy heads off in search of firewood. Asking an employee, we find out that firewood is in Aisle 9 next to the school supplies. We pick up a box of wood (seasoned) and a firestarter. We head back to the cabin where Amy whips up mac & cheese (Mrs. Martin’s recipe thank you very much) and Lori is in charge of ambiance. Englebert Humperdink is on the iPod, beers are quickly opened and Lori reads the instructions on the firestarter and tries to start the fire. The firestarter guarantees it will start a fire. Firestarter my a@@. We tried and tried and tried but no fire. Just glowing logs. Duraflame will hear about this! $%#$#@#$#$%%^#@ The logs are still glowing. We then try to download our pictures and view them. We both need to take a photography class. And we are running out of space on every available medium because we are taking so many pictures. Hard drives, jump drives and memory cards are full. Tomorrow’s plan is to find more memory for more pictures!!! Depending on our pain level in the a.m., we may spend the day in Monterey. Lori is excited because they have a used book store! So, dear readers, we are off to bed, where we should have been over an hour ago. Did I mention that damn firestarter didn’t start? Sorry, gotta let it go. Lewis & Clark signing off.

Finally Made It!

(Amy's footnote: Can you tell Lori was a bit inebriated when she wrote this? And I thought she just talked more when she's drunk - as if that was possible. Now I know this also translates to the blog. No more beers for Lori when she is blogging.)