Stan and I were looking forward to Spring Break... since Winter Break!

There are just some years where you really need to get out town, even for a few nights and there is nothing better for a tight budget than a camping trip. We both love the feeling of disconnecting, doing nothing all day, reading, sitting by the campfire, and seeing the stars. Since I moved from Moses Lake 12 years ago, I don't get to see a lot of starry skies and when I go camping I am reminded of that very important connection to the big skies we live under. Starry skies and oceans do that for me. Remind me of the true size of my problems and that no matter what, there is a ton of beauty around me, no matter what is going on in my personal world.

The impersonal nature of Nature does wonders for me. I need those close intimate relationships, those people who have known me for years, who know what the tones in my voice mean, how to read every look on my face, how to comfort me with just the right words, or to know the times when nothing can really be said to fix things, the people who make me laugh, the ones who stayed with me though they are miles away, the ones who did not disappear when things got tough or when I got lost in this big and confusing world we live in. There are people who chose to stay through the changes, who did not disengage. There are those who did not judge. I need all these people. But there is something else I need too. That impersonal beauty that is big, unstoppable, and neverending. I need my personal relationships to remind me that I am important and to empower me with love. Yet I need that nonpersonal and infinite backdrop of nature to remind me that my problems are not important and that my power is limited.

For that, I go camping...

We drove a day and a half, to something like 5 different sites hoping to camp on the beach. The beach was beautiful, the campsites, well not so much!

Mustard Blooming!

Would ya look at that geology?

Ended up in Los Padres National Forest. Oak tree country (we could have just camped in our back yard for that, but that would not have been as fun!)

Freemont campsite... Not many campers, good for us! Ceanothus in bloom, we have a lot of blue where we live, but not the white. Very pretty!

We were about 20 minutes North of Santa Barbara so we drove down twice for food runs. Here is the view as you drop down over the pass...

No words needed...