Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanksgiving and Camping in Lake Cachuma

We spent a couple more days at Camp Figueroa enjoying the sunshine, reading, tossing the ol' pigskin and hanging out with Royce. It was strange and wonderful to be in such gorgeous weather at the end of November.
On Thanksgiving morning we woke up around 7am and drove to Goleta to volunteer at the community center. Our first task was to de-shell and stuff about 300 deviled eggs. Next, I was assigned to tear apart a dozen turkeys with my bare hands. I had a great turkey-tearing partner named Kurt Monahan. Our biggest obstacle would have to be the extremely hot turkeys straight-out-of-the-oven burning our fingers red. After the first two, it wasn't so bad. Chris mashed 100+ pounds of potatoes that were incidentally only half-cooked. Overall, it was a very productive and pleasant day. We cooked and dined with wonderful people. We also were able to take home some leftovers for ourselves and a plate for Royce too.
A dining room scene towards the end of dinner. Around 300 people showed!
Great people, great food!
Some of the kitchen staff after dinner was served.
The back entrance to Michael Jackson's magical Neverland. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us in.

On Friday we met up with Amanda and eight of her friends at Lake Cachuma campground. We set up camp and headed to a Danish town called Solvang. We bopped around, checked out the little shops and snapped some photos of windmills and other Danish crap.

Me, Stacie, Andrea and Amanda under the windmill in Solvang.
Amanda and Chris danced a Danish jig in the middle of town. An artist painted a rendition of it.

After Solvang we drove to Los Olivos for some more bopping around and wine tasting.
Moooo...
Group photo at a Los Olivos winery.

At $12 a pop most of the wine tastings were pretty pricey so Amanda, Chris, Toshi, Mike and I made an executive decision to slam a couple 40s of domestic beer and munch on some fire cheetos instead.
The classiest broad in wine country right here.
Throwin' up our gang symbol "dod".
Toshi and Amanda drinking a forty.
Flamin' hot Cheetos, a bag of peanuts, and two forties. Living the good life.

After the wine and bud light tastings, we headed back to camp. We tried a new drink Chris and I heard about called Siete y Tres which is seven parts red wine and three parts Coca Cola. Not bad! I recommend Franzia for the red wine portion.
Besties reunited at the "bomb" fire. :) Oh Amanda...
Toshi serenaded us with his guitar. He really tore it up on the guitar. The Mario theme song was probably my favorite.
Andrea and Amanda snuggled up by the fire. It was a chilly night!
Chris also serenaded us on his guitar. We all joined in for some of the favorites like "The Joker" and "Brown Eyed Girl" (or green eyed girl in Amanda's case.)
Everyone bundled up chilling by he campfire.

Group photo the windy morning of departure.

We are currently in beautiful San Diego staying with Amanda and her great roomies Brian and Steve. Also, we will be heading home to Michigan for three weeks starting December 16. Looking forward to some quality time with family! xo

1 comment:

  1. Well, I have to admit, when I read your posts it makes me melt! You two are just totally having a great trip! Say Hello to beautiful Green Eyed Amanda for me!
    See you in December! Yippie Yahoo!!!
    I can't wait to see your beautiful faces!
    xoxo Love ya bunches!
    Aunt, Kiki
    P.S. I love the M.J. Neverland picture! Well, I really love all the photo's! They say a picture tells a story and all of your pictures ROCK! Stay safe, have fun and see you soon! xoxoxo MEOW, MEOW!!!

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