Paradise

I am insanely jealous. My family, cousins and aunt and uncles are all at Jalama (beach in central Cali) right now. It's Alyssa's last vacation before her station up in Kodiak, Alaska, and they are up there celebrating the fact that this girl graduated from high school last night. She'll be heading off into the big, new, exciting world of UC Riverside...following in my footsteps. Congratulations Inky!!

Ingrid, number 5 in the Williams clan

We have been going to Jalama since I was in elementary school. All the Williams family, along with Tante Bay and her kids, Alyssa and Brad, Oom Jopie, Tante San and her kids ,Willem and Meryl, Oom Tiki, plus whatever friends we wanted to bring along with us would go beach camping here. Our Oregonian cousins have come a couple times too, and we all have so much fun together. It's the best, there is a little general store in the campground, and hot showers and flush toilets and you're at the beach. Not the hard-core roughing-it camping. Every year, we would start getting things together to pack for our camping trip, and we would leave the night of the last day of school. Knowing that we would be leaving for Jalama on the last day of school is what got us through the school year. It's a family tradition. Last night, they left at 2 am so that they can get there this morning to hopefully get a spot. It's been crazy to see Jalama's popularity boom over the years. It is very rare now to get a spot right away, most often we are put on the waiting list for a day and have to camp in town for a night or two (they don't do reservations). In August, someone has to drive up a whole week before the planned trip, to wait and get a spot, and stake a tent to reserve it for the rest of the group. crazy.

Ok, so some photos of said paradise.

A midday photo of the beach. You can literally camp right on the beach, and we've been lucky enough to snag a some of these sites a couple times. They're always first to go!

Same view, later in the day towards sunset. It's fun to watch the clouds creep in over the hills....but it always stays clear right over the campground. When we have the beach sites, we all move our sleeping bags out onto the dunes, and stargaze. We have contests of who can sees the most satellites or shooting stars until we fall asleep.

Just before the sun went down.

Aren't those colors freaking amazing? I don't know how you can beat a California sunset, and forget trying to top a Jalama one.

When we aren't in the water ourselves, another thing we love to do is watch the surfers and dolphins play in the evening waves. The dolphins always come out then, and you see them surfing the same waves as the surfers. It's so fun to watch.

A view of the campground. You can see it is pretty small, and there is only one road leading to the campground and access to this beach, so it is pretty private. You will only see folks who are also camping, or those there for day use (mostly surfers from town).

We ususally take one day to go fishing, which entails a 3 mile hike down the beach towards Point Conception. We always take our time meandering and exploring the beach and checking out the tide pools along the way. We pack up a bunch of backpacks with snacks, and when we finally get to our destination, we make a bonfire and hang out while we take turns fishing. There is also usually more exploring, and eating and sleeping. We usually catch perch, but have also caught halibut and sea bass.

Ryan got to come last summer...it was his first ever seeing the ocean! It's only a four hour drive to the Gulf for us, but I didnt want to waste his first time on the Gulf. You gotta do something like that right. I have not been to the Gulf myself, but I hear it is pretty nasty.

Collecting mussels for bait with Stevie (red, Ash's bf) and Brad. We usually head out right after breakfast, and the tides were at really odd hours this trip. We were catching it late while the tide was coming in. It gets really deep right in front of where Ryan is standing....and the water is pretty chilly!

The best part about Jalama is you don't have to do anything you don't want to. You can sleep, eat, go for a walk/ take the dogs on the beach, sometimes we bring our bikes and go for a bike ride, go surfing and body boarding, cruise the longboards (skateboards) around the campground, lay out, or just do nothing and be with the people you love! Here, Ingrid and I are peppering a volleyball. And we have at least one good tackle football game a year.

Mem and Ash hanging out after a hard day on the beach. =P

I could go on and on about all the fun times I have had with my whole family, not just here but all the time. Tante San lived 4 miles west of us, and Tante Bay 3 miles to the east. Us kids all went to the same school, and did everything together! I can only hope that my generation stays as close as my mom's, so that our kids can have the same great childhood we had...or even better!

I hope you guys have fun up there this next week!

I'm back

Its the Wednesday after my return from a wonderful vacation. Ryan got to come home with me to California and see the ocean for the very first time! We spent the first four days at Jalama beach camping with the family. We took one of those days to drive up the coast. Ashley, Stevie and Chanelle came with us to Monterey and we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you have never been, you have to go! They had all kinds of great exhibits there, including a fantastic Jellies section. They also had this HUMONGOUS tank with hammerheads, huge yellowfin tuna ("Hey Big Tuna"), a sunfish, other sharks, barracuda ("OOOOOooooo, Barracuda!" <--haha, Baba), Manta Rays, and other big things. This tank was seriously enormous. The sea otters were also SO cute and had such great personalities! They also had seahorses (not that many though, there are more at Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach) but they still had them...my favorite! I got this ridiculous seahorse pen...but I couldn't resist. Then after the aquarium we all had lunch at this Italian restaurant on the bay. I had to have the clam chowder in bread bowl, since we can't get that in Texas! That was alot of fun...Stevie played a horribly funny prank involving clam chowder, a straw and water on Bella . good times. Then, we headed back down the coast to camp via Route 1. Wow...what a gorgeous drive! And scary at times... due to high mountains meeting ocean and a scary windy road. Plus, there were really pretty trees (redwoods, pines, oaks, etc) along the highway. TOTALLY scenic. Then on Thursday, after jalama we went down to San Diego to the zoo and after that, to see my cousins. It couldn't have been better timing because Briana got engaged that same night! YAY!! So happy for you Beerwanza and Chids! Friday night Ashley, Stevie, Ryan and I saw Wicked at the Pantages and got to meet up with Ben to eat beforehand. It was good to see my brother for a bit since our time at the beach was short (he had to leave early for work) and the show was amazing...totally worth it! I need to get Ryan to take me to more things like that in Austin. Then on saturday we just kinda hung out with Michelle, ate at the Sub Station (the best) got dessert at Swirl (but due to a lawsuit is soon to be renamed...maybe Droppings N' Toppings if they choose Ryan's suggestion? HAHA!) and then off to the airport. It was a pretty busy trip, but I was still rested and rejuvenated. And I am so glad that Ryan had a good time. He has mentioned that he just might have to come out every summer! (another satisfied customer. =D) So...its been good. And, all the animals and plants were doing well when I got back thanks to Nikki!

Things here have been ok. Just getting back into the swing of things. I have an exam tonight for the class I am taking. blech.

I started a front piece of the cardigan and am almost done with it. Maybe I can finish it tonight when I get home. Then I have to make the other matching side and make the accent pieces like the cuffs and pocket. Can't wait to see what the finished product looks like!


back to work...blech