Big Pimpin in Big Sur...

Oh My Gorgeous...we have just spent the past day absolutely breathless---this place is unbelievable. OH WAIT---first, our first camping experience!!! To start, the campground we planned to stay at was full *even though they wouldn't take our reservations ahead of time!!*, but we found another one about 20 minutes from San Luis Obispo (from here on out called SLO)...we will also refer to our campground from here on out as "deliverance". Holy Moly, this place was in the middle of nowhere and it was Africa hot!! We got there around 3:30 and were given a campsite that was about 15cm from our lovely neighbors--"cough-all-night-guy", "camper-full-of-kids-including-screaming-baby-family", and "crazy-mexican-clan-that-blares-spanish-music-at-8am"...a unique learning experience for us. We are very impressed with ourselves, our tent went up in a FLASH and the air mattress eventually got filled, so once we sweat our asses off putting our site together, off we went to SLO to check out the sites! The town is super cute, LOTS of adorable boutiques...we did our best not to spend too much money, the size of our suitcases helped...we treated ourselves to yummy Thai food (the perfect rustic thing for the first night of camping, right???) and hit a bar downtown that had a live band. Another funny night, meeting the locals, our faves being 24 year-olds, Bo and Taylor, who did their best to woo us back to their lair and, as usual, smoke pot...but again, we passed and got ourselves home to deliverance by midnight so that Andrea could spend the night awake and convinced that either we would get eaten by bears or cough-all-night guy would asphixiate in his sleep....but, we did it--we slept in a tent and it wasn't so bad :)

Got up this morning and headed out to Big Sur--a 90 mile strech of the most gorgeous terrain either of us have ever seen....pics GALORE!...and Ang has perfected the art of taking photos thru the windsheild...it took us about 3 hrs to negotiate the windy highway, and Andrea wins the power-thru-the-fatigue-of-driving-on-windy-cliffs award for the day. Side Bar--we found this beach of elephant seals that were awesome, they were barking at each other and fighting and Susie was in heaven b/c they are her favorite animal and they were the coolest things on the beach. Onto our campsite in Big Sur--Once we got here, we set up our campsite--again, a BREEZE! and this time, it's much nicer and shady and by a river....off we went to Big Sur state park to do a little hiking, another park to see this AMAZING beach, and yet another state park to see a cool, just not AS cool as the last one beach....now we're pooped, sitting in the lodge, drinking a cold local brew and utilizing the free WiFi. Soon, we'll go attempt our first campfire and roast some hotdogs and baked beans! We are actually going to break out our mess kits!

In the morning, we're off to see Carmel and San Fran and visit with Susie's friend SilvaK!!! Should be another great day....and hopefully a better night sleep tonight b/c we are both exhausted!!! Early departure tomorrow b/c we've got lotttttttttttts to see!

Love you all!!! Oh--and btw, no cell service here, so sorry if you called in the past couple days, but we've got nothing...

~Susie and Andrea