Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Camping and Wine Tasting

As you all know, this past weekend we went camping up at Calaveras Big Trees for Paul's birthday. It's the place we always go to camp. It's basically like a second home. Paul's always been the "mountainy" person in our family as I've always been the "beachy" person. I have grow to love the mountains but my greatest passion belongs to the ocean!






















Sabrina and I on the hammock at our campsite.


The three of us went camping with my sister-in-law, Nancy and brother-in-law, David. We all had a great time! At night we played some poker and during the day some Yahtzee. The big thing that we have been wanting to conquer was a hike each time we come up to camp. This time it was Paul's idea for which trail we would take. His choice was the Lava Bluffs Trails. We hadn't read up on anything about this trail, it was just a trail that we hadn't taken yet. When we grabbed the pamphlet for the trail, Paul checked to see how long it was, 2-3 hours and was about a 3 mile hike, "OK, that's not too bad" we thought cause we knew we could do it in the lesser of the 2 times listed. Our last camping trip we took a 5 mile hike that was to take 2.5-5 hours and we made it in the lesser of the time listed so we were pretty prepared....so we thought.

As we began hiking, there were a lot of sunny spots with no trees cause we were so high up and with the heat, we were sweating a lot. Then the very steep hills we had to hike up, something we were NOT expecting. There were also a lot of loose rocks which made it real slippery and it made me a little uneasy cause we were next to some cliffs with trees down the side but still, we had Sabrina so it made me really nervous anyway. We also started to drink our water faster than the last time because of the heat and began to think we wouldn't have enough before the hike was over. Here are some pictures of the hike....

But after this beautiful, agonizing and treacherous hike.....WE DID IT!!!! Here's a picture of us a soon as we got done. We can now say we've done this trail cause you won't find me on it again!! LOL!!













After our camping trip we headed to Murphy's to do a little wine tasting and shopping, or more like "window shopping". At this one place, Solomon Wine Company, Paul and David did some tasting (I would just take a swig as I was driving) but then the gentleman that was helping us asked if I liked the more "fruity" types and I was like "Well, YES!" so he scooped some "yummi-ness" into a wine glass and gave it to me. "SOLD!!!" He called it the Wine-arita. You can call it what you want but I'll call it "De-lish!" I just wanted to lick the glass clean. My brother-in-law had to try it from the way I acted when I tasted it...lol! He was sold on it too!!

After that, we walked around, hit a few little shops and a candy store. There was also a little stream for the kids to play in so I let Sabrina dip her feet but we then made our way home. We look forward to another trip soon....with my brother this time :O) Here's some pics from Murphy's.































1 comment:

Denise said...

HOW FUN! I want to go! :) And YAY for you for enduring the hike from hell! :)

I also SUPER puffy heart the picture of you by the water! Absolutely beautiful! :)