This is becoming a good habit!
K and I went on another three-day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore. This time we were at Coast Camp right next to the water, and were joined by our friends D and M. We had originally planned to hike over Mount Wittenberg to the camp (we've done this before and it's a nice way to burn some calories plus the scenery is a great Pt. Reyes sampler) on Friday, but K's company ended up having a team-building day so we went there first instead.
Team building for a game company means: paintball! K's sordid past includes some hard-core paintballer years, so he had the gear and the attitude to have some fun playing. I watched some of it, but wandered off for a part of the time. His colleagues were very nice about inviting me to join, but I was happy to pass on the bruises and bonus sweat. We were headed camping, after all.
We managed to get into camp before dark, but there was no sign of D and M. Unfortunately, between the heat, paintball, and hiking, K had triggered himself a migraine. Our stove was nearly out of gas, so it took forever to cook dinner, plus we waited a good while for D and M to show up (enjoying some primo star-gazing in the process, at least until the unbelievably bright moon showed up). In the end, K went to bed with barely any food (but a lot of Excedrin) in him, and D & M made the hike in glorious full moonlight and found the camp just fine. M cheerily said, "I think I've pitched more tents in the dark than in daylight!" as she did exactly that.
A note about the moonlight: a recent New Yorker article talked about how cities are _over_lit. Planners (and people) tend to favor more light, with the assumption that that means more visibility and more safety. However, it turns out that humans are really well adapted for low-light seeing, and studies have shown that _less_ light often results in lower crime and vandalism. Plus, there's the environmental effect whereby some animals navigate via the brightness of the stars (newborn sea turtles, for example), and since cities are now brighter than the ocean reflecting the sky, they're getting misdirected and dying in great numbers. My personal test of wandering around camp without my headlamp on and, later, under just the moonlight confirmed that I could see just fine. Not particularly detailed, but fine enough to find my way, not get hurt, and notice other moving objects on the trail. The article prompted me to downsize our porch light, and I'm glad I did. Now, how can we get more cities to work on decreasing their light pollution? (Yeah yeah, I've seen the Simpsons episode.)
When we woke up in the morning, there was a deer in our camp.
Saturday we opted for the Coast Trail, which somehow ended up being a round-trip hike of about 9 miles, including side trips to Sculptured Beach and Arch Rock. The tides weren't with us, so we couldn't do any really cool exploring, but the hike was beautiful and we saw lots of birds (mostly pelicans) and a few seals. M is a very entertaining energizer bunny. She gets these weird urges to run, and apparently D has a collection of photos of M running away from him. (So far, she always comes back.) She definitely helped the miles go faster. I think.
We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to camp. D was darn near zombified ("Braaaains...") and we managed to summon enough energy to make dinner (yummy pasta) and plop into bed. We'd planned a moonlit trip to the beach, but we were all fast asleep by then.
The next morning we packed up the camp, walked down to the beach, and proceeded to sit there for a few hours. It was great. Peaceful, relaxing, sunny...D was man enough to go swimming (nutbar), and after the initial I-can't-breathe-it's-so-cold shock, seemed to have a good time splashing around. Thankfully the undertow wasn't acting up that day. We saw seals, horses, dogs, and even some more albino sheep. (Yes, SHEEP.) We were there long enough to watch the tide come in, and eventually peeled ourselves away and headed back to our cars.
That night we managed to tidy ourselves up enough to head into the city for dinner with my Dad (mmm...chicken), and slept well in our own beds. The next day: chores and Teh Haloz. Ah, vacation!
What with being sick last weekend, there wasn't much time to throw together a costume. (We were planning to attend a friend's costume-required party on Halloween night.) I briely fantasized about making a Lt. Uhura (original Star Trek) dress, but since I didn't leave the house all weekend, no luck there. Instead, my colleagues at work decided to get dressed up as witches, went to the Halloween superstore for some strategic accessories, and much fun was had by all. 
M helped me style my hair in a gravity-defying pseudo-mohawk, spray it orange, and bought me some enormous orange eyelashes that convinced me I need to wear fake eyelashes more often. And I find the black nail polish to be appealing somehow. Perhaps it's time for a brief goth period for me? Ha ha, okay just kidding.
