Camping With Elephants (seals, that is)

My friend D'Arcy (who was on exchange with me in Finland in 1992-93, and without whom I would not have survived that year) was here visiting for the past couple weeks. We've had a great time... shopping (and constructively criticizing the latest fashions), running around San Francisco (being fabulous), camping, and of course, watching Rocky Horror Picture Show while eating James Beard's brownies. (more on that in a minute)

But first, the camping trip! It was great. We went to Butano State Park down by Pescadero. While on our way to the campground, we stopped in Pescadero (which is adorable) and had lunch at the famed Duarte's. You wouldn't know it by the exterior, but inside is a lovely little restaurant where we had an amazing lunch. I had artichoke soup (delicious) and D'Arcy had a cheeseburger which she said was truly worth having. We also had a plate of fries, against which all other fries will now be measured. They were soooo good.

We also picked up a pastry or two for savoring at the site. Here's D'Arcy with a bear claw the size of her head.

Once our site was set up (we chose the walk-in sites and they were really great, so quiet and pretty)... we headed over to the coast to do some tide-pooling. We lucked out and found a nice little beach with some great tide pools, full of adorable little crabs and other creatures.

Back at the campground, we made a fire (or, more accurately, a "smolder"... our wood was damp or something. We were happy we could have a fire, after all... but would have preferred a little less smoke!), and settled down to talk and read. This is what we did together all year long in Finland. Talked and read. Minus the campground and redwoods, that is. Anyway, this photo should have been of D'Arcy sitting and reading, because that is mostly what we did. You know you're with a fellow book-lover when the moment one of us left the scene for a few minutes (to get something from the car, or go to the bathroom), the other of us whipped out our book. What? Sit and enjoy the scenery, alone with our thoughts? Why would we do that when there are books to be read?!?

I thought this was adorable. We didn't see any newts, slow or otherwise. But sooooo cute that they had their own sign.

We also went down to Ano Nuevo to see the elephant seals. We didn't really know what to expect -- because it's out of the prime viewing season, I wasn't even sure we would see any, and we weren't sure how close we would be to them if they were there. So, after a 1.5 mile hike through meadows and over sand dunes, we got to the viewing platform and saw these guys stretched out in the sun, not 10 feet away from the platform. The photo doesn't really show you how big they were -- they were at least 3000 pounds and I'm guessing about 12 feet long. They can get up to 15 feet long and over 5000 pounds. They were soooo huge. I want to go back in January when the beach is FULL of them, and the really big guys come to find their harems.

It was really funny watching them move along the sand to get to the water.

Anyway. Camping was great, and then yesterday we mostly hung out in D'Arcy's hotel room in Sunnyvale (Santa Clara? I don't know. All those SiliValley towns run together). We have a tradition of watching Rocky Horror Picture Show and eating James Beard's brownies whenever we get together. Why these two particular things together? Well, Finland doesn't celebrate Halloween, but on October 31st when we were there, I noticed in the paper that Rocky Horror was playing at a theater in a nearby city. So D'Arcy and I went. It was her first time, and although there were not the actors on stage, some people did participate with props. It was really fun and D'Arcy (a very, very good girl) was surprised by how much she loved it. So we watch it every time we get together now. Also, the only brownie recipe we had in Finland was my favorite 4-H recipe, called "James Beard's Brownies". We didn't have a conversion table for baking measurements, so we sort of faked it each time, with varying success. But we made (versions of) those brownies all the time in Finland, so they're part of the ritual. The full ritual actually goes like this: make brownies (we have a whole litany of inside jokes for the entire recipe), start movie, sing along with entire movie, eat brownies, laugh incessantly. I had to make the brownies the night before, this time, because, well, no oven in the hotel room.

We also watched Hedwig And The Angry Inch, because I could not believe D'Arcy hadn't seen it yet. She loved that, as well. So now, next time we get together, we can have a "late night, double-feature picture show." Heh.

Anyway. Good times.