Berkeley, Oakland, Steep Ravine

This past weekend we headed up towards the Bay area and had ourselves a heck of an adventure!!! Matt had his annual work meeting up in Oakland on Thursday, so I drive up to meet up with him Friday morning. I got an early start and arrived in Berkeley around 11:30 am after a long six hour drive. My first stop was Shattuck St, which often an array of food options, all of which are vegetarian friendly. There were plenty of places that looked appealing but Chick O Peas won me over with their "fast food to enjoy slowly" sign and their reasonable prices. I settled on getting the veggie burger which was quite delicious and like nothing I had before. The burger consisted of fresh herbs, free range eggs, spices, dried barberries and was served with tarragon aioli on the side. I also got the garlic skinny fries, which were good but nothing to write home about.






Afterward driving around Berkeley and Oakland, I meet up with Matt and we headed up towards our campsite about an hour away. The moment your north of San Francisco you feel as if you were in a different state. Lush greenery everywhere and the windy road gets you psyched for the adventure to come. We had expected bad weather, but luck was on our side! It was quite cold but we experienced nothing but blue skies. It was dark when we arrive at Steep Ravine and we couldn't see much of our surrounding but knew something good was in store. The campsite was only a short hike away from the parking lot and provided water and a compost toilet. It was dark but we could tell the campsite was right along a cliff with the mighty Pacific roaring below. We had some soup for dinner and headed to bed shorty afterward, eager to wake up and take in the scenery.
And boy, it couldn't have been more breathtaking!



Steep Ravine has, by far, been my favorite campsite. Though the weather was cold, our experience couldn't have been better. We got a slow start and enjoyed every bit of the morning. There's nothing like drinking hot cocoa and eating oatmeal on a beautiful cliff along the Pacific. If your staying at Steep Ravine, make note to not leave food in the storage box supplied. We had left some bread overnight and in the morning found that the bag was ripped, the bread munched on, and rat droppings left behind. After walking around a bit, we packed up and headed to Stinson Beach, just a mile away.

perfect

frost on the picnic table

partner in crime

field of calla lilies
cabins at steep ravine

Made some frames and friends

made some frames for mel's new pics. pretty psyched on how they turned out!!

http://www.victorygardenoftomorrow.com/

mel's noticed this guy around alot, but he's the only one. hoping for more!

morning

not sure what natural phenomenon is... that looks like a bunch of trash and stuff, but those are all clams or shells adn whatever lives in them. teh birds were feasting!
the sun finally came up to greet us
the moon stayed out for quite a while
kinda blurry, but i like how the reflection curves up the wave
a bit out of control, but he was hootin and hollerin, so it was fitting
he got a good ride on this one
rolled up at 6:00. ready to rumble!

this past weekend was insane!@ waldo and DB were in town, so we got in some good parks and even surfed! both of em got up first T! didn't get any pics out in the water, but oh well.

this morning i got out to seal beach, and took the bike, which i haven't done in a hot second... it was a pretty awesome ride adn a beautiful morning. psyched i get to wake up and do this.

Friends in town

waldo gets in tonight!

shredders
took this fool out surfing today! he's a natural!
this girl!
got to surf malibu this week, which is always awesome. i have still to get to be there during a really good swell, but this time was pretty good! its crazy here right now-the sun is still rising pretty south, and because of the way malibu is at the top of a long "cove" that is the shoreilne of LA, the sun seems to rise over the water. i think that's pretty unique. below is a picture showing what i'm talking about
so the sun rises kinda behind that peninsula of palos verdes, but it's so far away that you can't see it really, adn it looks like the sun is rising over the ocean, on the west coast. crazy.


Tony came through last weekend for some fun! unfortunately, the only pic we got of him is this, but it's still awesome! got in some killer Queen Mary exploring, an insane curb sesh, awesome billiards, beers, cigars, and food! what more could you ask for?

New Year, New Garden

New compost

That's a baby cauliflower you're looking at.

This guy is still going strong! After lots of rain, this Siberian Red got knocked over so I pruned it extensively and seems to be responding well. Who knew you got have tomatoes in January?

Herbs haves a new home! Hopefully this will work out better than the terracotta pots, which dried out too quickly.

It's a new year and I have new plans for the garden. I learned a lot from last year's garden and will be far more successful in 2011. I now know varieties of tomatoes works best and what plants I won't be planting again (green peppers). This past week the garden got new dirt, compost, and some steer manure. Matt built a new compost which should significantly speed up the composting process. I planted two new crops, broccoli and cauliflower, and hope the current warm weather doesn't affect them negatively. The broccoli seems to be bummed on the heat so it now has a cover to cool down and the cauliflower is unfazed. Also I purchase a small greenhouse from Harbor Freight and will be starting some seeds soon. Feels good to have my hands in dirt again!!!!

weird

went to redlands, ca today for work, and saw this. palm trees and snowcapped mountains. kinda cool.

2011 so far!

not staying up on this, so here's the past week and a half of stuff...





surfed with this remote controlled guy the other day... he was pretty good. actually this thing seriously went fast and looked pretty fun to play with!

we (mel) made this, but didn't take a picture of it... it was alright... soups are in right now
these guys are still around in 2011, that's good.
vegetable pea soup- so flippin good! one of the best soups i've ever had. come here and we'll make it for you!
went to san o'nofre with mike one day and it ended up that the world championships of tandem surfing was going on up the beach that day. pretty insane!
tandem² surfing here

this stuff is insane
these guys were the previous world champs... from france maybe? who cares
the falls were good too
surfing yoga
i caught some little guys out there
san o'nofre
hiked the chantry flats waterfall hike with neil and marylin. the waterfall is loving the recent rains