City and Nature Sandwich

Ooh three day weekends. Somehow they are just so much better when 1) you work full time during the week and 2) you have great friends to chill with. This past weekend started off in San Francisco to celebrate Casey's birthday and progressed into a two day backpacking trip with . . . well lets just say that if we were a bus, I would have been the spare (buts that ok) Follow me, won't you, on this photo blog/documentary of my weekend . . .




We rode the BART into the city and got there around din din time. This was just a cool perspective that I thought would be useful as a reference. Turns out the lighting was pretty nice.


I think this fellow's name was Pizza . .either that for Casey's sister was craving some pie. Anyway, this cat was pretty mellow/lazy. I walked in on it drinking from the toilet and I scolded it. It gave me the "WTF?" look and I gave it the "OH you know WTF cat!" and he left.


After some dinner and games the clock chimed "Casey's 21st Birthday Woooo Hooooo" and we all went out for some drinks. We thought we were going to a cool, hip British Rock bar but instead we got a punk/metal bar which made me nostalgic of high school. It turned out to be pretty fun. This is a shot of the hip . .pies? sters? pos?

Aw sisters. This was Casey's first legal drink. More power to you lady. It tasted like a peach.

And theres the next, next one. Hahaha, Lindsay look is priceless in the background. I think both of these expressions cancels each other out into a complacent smile.

Things got nuts, someone came over a spun Casey's head and she died. Not really, I just started playing with my camera. There are pictures like this of each of us, but I just dont have the effort/internet to post them all.

Here's Richie and his glorious hair . . which will soon be scalped by yours truly.

Here is one of Richmond giving Casey her birthday punches. 20 more to go! I think many-a-brain-cells were lost with all the booze and head shaking.

We ended the night with some early morning gift opening. Lindsay got Casey the most perfectest perfect presents in the whole entire world. I think her expression says it better though. Then we all passed out . . sorta.

We woke up SUPER early. Being the dork that I am and seeing the photo opt, I got this picture. Lindsay has some pretty cool stuff in her apartment. I thought this captured the stillness of early morning SF. After packing up we headed out.

I call this one, Urban Backpacking Leads to Unexpected Obstacles. Yes, I bumped into a garbage can and good 'ol Richmond got the perfect snapshot of it. After a BART ride to Daily City and a car ride through Half Moon Bay we got to Big Basin.

It was quite a foggy morning. By the time Basha and Miranda (we'll call them couple #3 since they were last) arrived the sun started poking through and warming us up.

Here are couples #1 and #2 on the way up this grueling 1.5 mile hike to our camp site.

When we finally got set up, Richie and Kristen decided to live in the trees. Not really, but they chilled up there for a while and long enough for me to get this neat picture of them. Lets ponder . . .



Colin had this sweet hammock. I took full advantage of it while everyone lay in their afternoon siestas. Of course I had to take a Jon Ching foot-slipper photo. I probably have like 5 versions of this easy.



Later I took a walk. On my way I made friends with a couple of butterflies and they let me take their portraits. Their names were Eli and Shandy and the were one week old. Happy one week guys!



As I was walking along the road, the trees made this pattern and I thought it was the visual version of Postal Service's Such Great Heights (Britt I know you can relate to this one) You can almost hear the song when you look at it.





We went on a hike to the beach later. When we got back we made some pasta. Colin is seriously one of the funniest kids. He took a shot of pepper vodka and chased it with the bland pasta. Here's is that in one picture. Anyway, after some star gazing we got some shut eye.


Good morning! Heres a morning shot of the group. Theres a lot going on in this one . .almost like a dysfunctional family. Miranda's face is the best.



After a few miles of hiking we found this waterfall. Being the sweat stink butts that we are, we decided to take a shower in the semi-freezing water. Sorry no pictures of that, although some perverts on the trail probably have some.

Aw love . . I think this picture pretty much sums up couple #3.
So, after the waterfall we decided to hike up to a ridge to watch the sunset. Little did we know (or at least me), that the trail taking us there would be pretty brutal.

Seriously, some of these inclines were ridiculous. Im surprised we all don't have bubble butts. I don't even think this was the worst one.


Here's Colin trying to scale the sandy side of the hill. He actually made it pretty high on his second attempt.

Well, after 14 miles we didn't make it up the ridge. BUT, we did manage to see some part of the sunset from the trail. The colors in the sky were so warm and smooth. After the hike we all ate some delicious burritos and then hit the sack like a red neck in Alabama.

The next morning we woke up, ate some oatmeal and apparently wrestled. I guess the story goes . . Hailey said something upsetting to Colin, so he tried to push her off the log. She grabbed on to him and they both fell. Fun for all, even bystanders!

We packed up camp and headed back for civilization.


Basha made me take a picture next to this sign because my knee got all messed up on the hike . . Jerk.

Anyway, it was a super fun weekend and I'm excited to go backpacking again. I think I should probably get my knees checked out first though because that was a whole lot of unnecessary pain on my end. But all in all it was still way cool.

Check back in a couple days from now for a new JOpinion (I act as if I have an audience) Peace.