Prelude to a Storm

Outside, the rain is softly falling, the last drops of a storm from earlier this evening.  A spur of the moment walk to the park gave witness to ominous clouds rolling in and low growls of thunder trembling the earth beneath our feet.  A shift in the wind and you could feel the sky preparing to lose control - air thick as molasses, scents of damp soil, underbrush and wildflowers.  Even though we were far into the open fields, the clouds hung low, heavy and cumbersome.  With each step the darkness followed closely at our heels, the wind picking up speed, our pace hastening, making our way back home before the storm.

 

 

Adventure Before Noon

We hit the road at 6 AM.  Destination, Enchanted Rock.  Watching the sun rise over the Texas Hill Country is pretty spectacular to witness.  My polo film wasn't in its best form on this trip - the gusts of wind while hiking on "the rock" probably didn't help... oh and my neglect to check the exposure setting... I was kind of distracted.  Blue skies for miles, crisp cool air, wildflowers, the hubs, dog and myself on a family adventure.  Hello weekend, oh how I love you. 

Salt & Sea

A perfect day hiking a stretch of the Northern California coastline through  Little River and Mendocino.  The day before had been rainy & cold without a peep of sun.  This particular morning we were greeted with brilliant blue skies dotted with puffy clouds and crisp ocean breezes.  We set out mid - morning, after another ridiculously indulgent breakfast.  It was about a mile to reach the headlands trail from the Inn, through cypress trees and tall grasses - and me anxiously looking around every curve in fear of a mountain lion sighting.  The risk was worth the reward - through the thick brushy trail, a wide expanse of ocean and crashing waves greeted us - as far as the eye could see.  We stood there for a while, just admiring and taking in the beauty of it all.  Then Josh started exploring, walking further out towards the ocean on the rocky Cliffside - I started saying my prayers, please don't let the Ocean eat Josh, please.... (you'd think I would just enjoy the beauty around me instead of worrying so much... ).  Thankfully, he made his way back safely and we continued along the trail.  At one point I was lingering behind, trying to snap the perfect shot when I heard Josh yelling - my first thought was he was being attacked by that mountain lion...  more prayers and obscenities and prayers for saying obscenities after a prayer... and I found him safely standing on the cliff pointing towards the ocean.  Whales!  We got to see the whales migrating.  A whole pod of them - spouts of water shooting through the air and you could see them surfacing - we really couldn't believe it.  Everyone had been saying to be on the look out for whales since this is the time of year they are migrating, but we just dismissed it because what was the chance we would even see them... people spend hours, if not days searching the seas in hopes of a sighting.  And hear we were, just walking along, me afraid of mountain lions and then all of a sudden, there they were.  I didn't think I would be as excited as I was - it was such an experience to witness them!

From there we decided we needed to take a picnic out by the sea.  One of the inn keepers suggested we go out to Point Cabrillo Lighthouse for the ocean views and picnic tables.  So we packed up our lunch from the local grocery store and I grabbed a few goodies from the Inn and we made our way to the Lighthouse.  We took the long way to get out there... probably about a mile hike, and we were pretty hungry at this point, but the views really were incredible.  Our lunch consisted of chicken salad with freshly baked French bread, seaweed salad and a couple of no bake cookies from the Inn.  We had a front row picnic table view of the ocean - you really couldn't have asked for a better way to dine.  I'm not really sure how long we sat there, but it was hard to leave. 

It's hard to leave this blog post now.  Going through the polaroids, taken just over a month ago - time really does fly.  So today I'm saying a little prayer of thanks - thankful for those perfect days that make all your worries go away.    xoxo