Camping & The Coast

I know I consider myself a mountain girl having lived in Tahoe since 91 but I'm definitley still a bit of a coastal girl at heart. Just got home a few hours ago from a camping trip to Fort Bragg/ Mendocino with my dad and our friend Lee. Technically I guess it was an abalone diving trip but I have yet to gather up the courage to swim in Great White territory so I just "observed" as they caught our dinner each day. There's nothing like enjoying a gourmet meal of fresh abalone with butter and garlic, fettuccine alfredo, and ceasar salad while sitting in a fold up camping chair. Yum!
That first pic of the pelicans up there is from an unusually sunny day while I was sitting up on the bluffs. When that sun was out it got me thinking about possibly moving back towards the ocean someday but then when the fog rolled in and didn't really go away for the rest of the trip I decided that I like Tahoe just fine. Still... there are certain things I miss about the coast like driving by the old weathered beach houses like this one...


...and picking blackberries (although they weren't quite ready yet this trip)...
... and scenes like this...

... so I guess I'll just have to start making more trips over there and not wait 5 years like the last time. I think I also need to make more camping trips in general, not necessarily just on the coast. I love love love love love living out of a tent for a few days. That's the view from my little home down there and that brownish orange tent would be my dad's Coleman that he's had since I was about 2 years old. I told him he should hang on to it cause it's so vintage :) There's just something so dang therapuetic about abandoning television, cell phones, and everyday responsibilities for a brief period of time.