Here's the Redwoods!

Whew! I'm off to the faire in a few minutes, and since Monday is my first day of classes and the significant other returns on Tuesday, I decided I should get a post out while I can before the week starts. I'm still chugging along on my Pomatomus socks (still in the leg of the second one) and the Honeybee stole (just got into the Bee Swarm section on the second half). I took both projects with me on the camping trip, and ended up knitting on the stole much more than the socks. I must have temporarily lost my mind or something, taking a huge lace project like this out into nature.



My favorite thing to do this week was sit with my feet in the Big Sur river, knitting on my stole, and listening to Frankenstein via Craftlit. I could have seriously dropped the whole thing in the water at any point, but I didn't really care. It never got quite hot enough to fully swim in the river, but having your feet in the water while sitting half in the shade, half in the sun was just about perfect. I had a great time getting to see my parents again, hiking around, and just enjoying the woods.



Our campsite was warmish but the beach was chilly. When my dad, sister and I hiked to a lookout point, we could see why:



The marine layer would retreat every morning just over the ridge beyond our campground, but it hung out over the ocean for the entire day. You can just see a little bit of the sea underneath the clouds in that picture, and lots of blue sky above. It wasn't too cold to stop us from poking around on the rocks for a few minutes.





We were all a little worried that the recent wildfires would be a big downer, because the park was closed for awhile this summer and just reopened a few weeks ago. They'd basically closed off all the trails on one side of the Big Sur river in our campground, so we did most of our hiking at Andrew Molera State Park. You could see the burned areas on the side of the hills every time you look off in the distance. The trees were red and the ground an ashy white. We had clear air and could go in the river, so it was still a fun camping trip even though the fires are scary to think about.



On our last morning we had some really fantastic pastries at the Big Sur Bakery before breaking camp. This place was awesome, and I bet they sell out of their croissants, rolls, and quiche every morning. Good coffee, crisp morning air, great scenery. Oh, and a spirit garden next door with people-sized elevated nests. I love it!



In other news, Prudence is moving on. I got her for free, and she doesn't really fulfill any of my spinning needs that aren't taken care of with my Ladybug. I have a good friend who I learned how to spin with, and she will be giving it a good home in the other half of California. Now I just have to figure out how to ship the darn thing!