by the riverside

wow. it has been amazing! let me try to run through each day so i don't leave out anything big.

friday

our busiest day yet: we started at carmel middle school where they have an intense ecological program. they study local animals and habitats and do field work on their school grounds. they have a pond to take water samples from, an organic garden to learn about food and how it gets from dirt to their mouths, an outdoor kitchen complete with a solar heated pizza oven, a native bee garden, and a green house. it was a program unlike any i have seen. the teachers use enivornmental skills to reinforce what they teach in the classrooms, and the kids get comfortable with nature and learn to respect it and treat our resources well. it was really cool. as a side note, in their animal classroom were tons of stuffed animals, including a buck head on the wall. i did not freak out. for those of you that know me well, this is a big step. step 1.

next we went to the stanford new student welcome party for this area. it was fun to meet some new kids and give them my experienced (one year) advice. after that we went to some biological preserve where a guy talked to us about california grasses and different types of oak trees. it was interesting, but by that point we were beginning to get tired and ready to sit still.

after that we stopped by mike's store to grab some refreshments and wait till we could go to the next activity. then we went to heller's organic vineyard. we learned about the processes of making wine completely organicly. no pesticides + no fertilizer = pretty cool stuff. we went wine tasting and tried 5 differnt red wines. the first four were disgusting, and the fifth, a port, was worse. i guess i don't have to worry about becoming an alcoholic. randomly hidden in the thick mist of the barrel room was another buck head. i have no idea why. our tour guides just said nobody ever bothered to take it down. step 2.

we returned to mike's store for dinner and more alcohol. dinner was great and i had a nice conversation with grant, the local wanderer. he has had a very intersting life. he told me all sorts of stories about his travels. he was also full of deep advice. his favorite was a native american saying, "when you listen, you will learn. when you learn, you will know. when you know, you will walk many trails." very nice.

and of course, in the little southern shack that was the cachagua store/bar/restaurant there was a buck head on the wall, complete with a wreath around it's neck. again, i (barely) kept my cool and nobody noticed a thing. step 3. i'm quite proud of myself on this front, but i'm a little nervous because we will be returning to mike's store tomorrow night and the last night for the presentations of our research projects. i love mike - he's very cool, but his store makes me nervous.

today i was very out of my comfort zone. i was in new places doing new things that i wasn't entirely sure about. it was awkward and lonely, especially when everyone else was drunk. then grant came along though. he sang me spanish songs - one about granada - and played the castinets. i look forward to seeing him tomorrow.

saturday

today we went to big creek south of big sur. we stopped at this earthy mountain shop and cafe with an incredible view. we ate lunch by a bridge with an amazing scene of mountains and bay. and all of this was nothing compared to big creek. see the pics on facebook to get some idea of what i mean. it was so beautiful. it's berekely's biological preserve, so no one can access it without permission. other than the friendly director, mark, we were the only ones in the entire park. we set up camp and had a nice dinner of burritos around the campfire.

sunday

we hiked the interpretive loop trail. we went up over one of the ridges of the canyon, hiked around and came back down. our journey took us through lush underbrush, over crystal clear rivers, and on top of golden mountains. it was so beautiful! we ended our hike with a swim in one of the pools along the river. it was freezing! colder than lake tahoe. but still very fun. i didn't bring my swimsuit on the hike, so i was in my underwear. no worries though - the boys had decided to be macho and climb up the steep face of a mountain, then continue with joel on what stuart called "the march of death." we didn't see them again until after dinner, so it was just stuart, big joel, and the ladies in the swimming hole. ally went with the guys, but avoided the march of death and came back in time for dinner. mike let me help him cook - quite fun!

monday

i helped cook breakfast with christine. everyone loved my quesadillas. we drove to the top of a ridge on the canyon and hiked down to a pristine waterfall. it was so beautiful! we swam in the pool halfway down the falls. it was like a fairytale scene. freezing but amazing.

mike let me and chris make dinner since he had to do monday night dinner at the store. i made a delicious homemade pasta sauce with lots of fresh yellow and red tomatoes, purple basil, a bay leaf (which i took out before serving, jen), garlic, onion, and a pinch of something green that smelled like it belonged in pasta sauce. everyone loved it and gobbled it down before everyone was served. i also found a brick of medium tillamok cheese in the fridge and grated it for my pasta. i like mike's gourmet meals, but it was kind of nice to eat normal food for once. apparently everyone else agreed, and i realized what a thankless job cooking is. let me say right now: thank you to everyone who has ever cooked for me: mom, dad, jen, em, kat, grandma and grandpa, aunt sharon and uncle thom, katie, and just about everyone else i know. thank you.

tuesday

we did a solo hike. we hiked as a group over the ridge right by camp to the river on the other side. we sat by the river alone and pondered being in nature for a few hours. it was very nice. then we met up and soaked in a natural hot spring nearby. it smelled like sulphur, but it was still really neat. to think of all the cool things we can do in nature! i am very thankful.

wednesday (today, or possibly yesterday by the time i finish this post)

we packed up and drove out today. thanks to my insistance (and stuart's awesomeness) we stopped at mcway falls! i had never been before, so it was really awesome. we walked the flat, quarter-mile trail through mcway canyon out to mcway cove. there you could see mcway rocks, a set of rocks out in the bay, and mcway falls, the main attraction. according to kevin, it is argurably the most beautiful spot along the california coast. i have to agree. because we can't access the beach itself, it has remained as beautiful and natural as it always was. the water is green like the caribbean and the beach is sandy, not rocky. the waterfall flows to one side over the edge of the cliff that is laced with rich green plants. beyond it is a little rocky cover where waves crash through a hold in the rocks. it's so pretty! good job cristopher macway jr! i can't believe my blood is the same!



well that is all i can say of my adventures for now. i'm exhausted and very happy to be back in a bed with a pillow. it feels wonderful to be clean and have clean laundry. and i cannot believe i don't have poison oak. there was more in big creek than all i have seen in my life combined! the reserve is really neat because they don't do anything to it; they just let nature do it's own thing. what a nice thought.