Steep Ravine Cabins Trip

I spent last weekend at Steep Ravine Cabins in Marin with a group of friends. The cabins are situated on the water at the base of a cliff in the remote area between San Francisco and Stinson beach. Each cabin is equipped with a small wood stove and that's about it, so it's a step up from pitching a tent. The first night we chopped wood for the stoves and sat around talking and enjoying a few drinks in the dark. The next day we split up into small groups to go hiking. I went with Mark, Lisa, Jesse, and Liz on the "hardcore hike", which took us all the way to the top of Mt. Tam. Our elevation gain was about 2500 ft and the hike was over 14 miles round trip. Jesse posted a map on his blog and it was so cool I had to shamelessly copy it below.

It was so much fun catching and eating wild abalone the year before last that I decided to try my hand at harvesting wild mussels on this trip. Jesse and I bought fishing licenses and spent Saturday morning scrambling about the rocks near the water. The animals send down rootlike fibers that allow them to cling to the rocks, so all we had to do was yank them up like tough weeds. After about an hour of work and two rogue waves we returned to camp drenched and bearing at least 10 lbs. of mussels between us. Later that evening we steamed them in some of butter, garlic, and white wine. Yummmmm.

More pictures from the trip can be found here, here, and here.

Lotusians converge on Bodega Bay

This year the Winking Lotus group rented a house in Bodega Bay for a New Year's retreat. Nearly twenty people gathered in two spacious houses with hot tubs and stellar views of the bay. Even the showers had a view! Folks brought lots of decadent food and drink, and we played games late into the evening or hung out listening to tasty tunes spun by Mattpaul and Doug. We spent our last day chasing Sonoma wineries and managed to sample a few yummy wines. I was a bit reluctant to be a designated driver, but once everyone drank up and piled into my car it became a highly entertaining outing. Imagine four drunk adults spooning in the back of your car, arguing over directions and giggling nonstop about some lesbian bread nonsense.

Here is my Flickr photoset from the trip.