B-day weekend adventure-ing

Last weekend we escaped from the dusty bus and headed out on the open dusty road. It was my 25^th birthday (mid-twenties-life crisis!!!!!!!!) on labor day and this was the last weekend for a good long while that we’d be able to steal away….so we went to the redwoods! YAY! I loveeeee giant trees. They make me giddy like a 5 year-old on a huge playground. Which is actually a good analogy, because I do think of the redwoods as a big playground. They just happen to be a playground that is FULL of life. Amazing.

Me loving the giant trees.

But I digress.

I just wanted to report, in my first blog entry, that even when we leave the bus and head out on what is supposed to be a relaxing weekend, jay and I end up sleeping in some bizarre places. The first night on our adventure we drove down to Arcata and couldn’t find any camping spots on the way. Being labor day weekend, all the spots in parks were booked well in advance or snatched up by midday. Soooo we ended up sleeping in the backseat of my ultra-classy Buick Regal on a dimly lit street in town. Lilllllll bit sketchy. It was also not a very big sleeping space. We moved the front seats all the way forward and then filled the backseat’s foot space with things from my trunk until it was the same height as my back seat. Then we put my camping pad on top of that and almost had the width of a twin size bed. Being my birthday weekend, jay was nominated to sleep on this awkward side. He said it actually wasn’t that uncomfortable. What was uncomfortable however was the length of our sleeping space. We’re both around 5’9” to 5’10” and the inside of the buick is not. It’s more like 4’9”. Soooo there was a lot of adjusting through the night and trying to stretch out the legs. But we slept in a surprising amount nevertheless: until 9am!

The teeny sleeping space.

The following day we meandered down to the lost coast, the only isolated, hard to reach, and undeveloped section of california’s coast. It was really beautiful. And really really really windy. There was an option to sleep in a campground a few hundred yards from the beach for $8, or you’re allowed to backpack in and set up camp anywhere for free. Naturally we chose the latter. We didn’t hike in very far (at all). We found a driftwood wall that had been built on the beach facing north (where the wind comes from most of the time) and spent the afternoon running around gathering driftwood and building an extra 2 walls to protect our tent from the elements. The wind never ceased and it was harder to actually sleep there than in my car. But man oh man it was it all worth it when we woke up, unzipped the tent fly, and saw the ocean right beside us first thing in the morning.

Jay on top of the fortress.

We traveled back up to the dusty bus through the redwoods (I can never get sick of them) and then through windy mountainous backroads and forest service land. It was a wonderful weekend with my man, but it’s sooooo good to come back to a comfy bed in our lil bus.