withoutwhatifs

So two nights at our fist campground, and it’s moving day. Today we moved a little north along the coast to Big Sur Campground. We stopped along the way at the Big Sur Bakery for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of the three egg pizza with bacon. It was pretty incredible. After breakfast we drove to our campground to get set up. Tara had seen signs, and I had actually heard a woman at lunch talking about the Folk Festival at the Henry Miller Museum/Library (I know where that is) so we headed down to check it out. When we got there, we realized that there was a… well, it was probably a reasonable admission cost, but it was a high “road trip admission cost” plus, we didn’t know how long we were going to fee like hanging out with the “artists” (millionaires) of Big Sur so we opted out of the Folk Festival and hung out at Roadside. Roadside is a restaurant/bar that wasn’t very far from our campground. When we got there (2:55pm) we were told they were closing up at 3pm, but they served us a round anyways. When I went back to give our glasses to the bartender, he told me that he would serve us as long and he was there cleaning up, they just wanted to deter new patrons from coming in and wanting to order food, because the kitchen was closed. We had another round… or two. After Roadside, we headed back to our campground to start relaxing and catching up on our blog. We had big plans for that evening, so we needed rest.

Somewhere along the line (Claire) Tara was told about a Spa in Big Sur that has cliffside hot spring baths. The baths are open to the public for “public bathing” on specific nights… from 1am to 3am. Tara had been watching the website diligently for two days, so she was able to book us two spots for that evening. This seemed simply enough, however the more we talked about it, the more bizarre it became. The spa was called Esalen. From the street you can only see a large sign that reads “ESALEN – By Reservation Only”. I’ve been to spas before, but never anything like this. There are specific rules that you are given when you actually secure a spot for the evening. They are: Arrive at 12:30am, Park at the top of the hill – Do not drive down the entrance road, At 12:45am someone will greet you in the parking lot, If possible bring your own towel, If possible bring your own water bottle. So I’m thinking… hmm little bizarre but whatever, they probably just want to seem elite in this area. I’m sure it’s pretty normal. (Nope) Tara and I followed the rules and as promised we found ourselves standing in a parking lot with 18 other lucky (tense) souls. At 12:45am, a guy appeared in a golf cart and began to run through the names of the people on the list. Once called, you were to begin walking down the hill, which was massive… like a “lean back while walking down type hill” to the gate. Once all the names were called, and everyone was at the gate, everyone had to sign a form… they said it was attendance, but who knows. Then we were taken further down the hill, around a corner and across the spa grounds, all in the pitch dark. there are no lights except for the light being held by the golf cart guy. Finally, he leads us to a spot where he begins with a new list of rules, they are: There is no photography allowed, cameras are strictly prohibited, There are to be no glass bottles beyond this point, and If you need a towel, please place it in this bin when you leave. Other than that, please enjoy yourselves and someone will be down to tell you when your time is up. So we proceed down to the changing rooms. Tara and I had heard that there may be the possibility of people going nude in the baths and that clothing was optional. We really didn’t think much of it and figured there would be a few people (I figured mostly woman) who went nude to sit in the baths. We worked our way down the stairs to the changing “Room” not “rooms”, men and women, changing and showering (another rule, you have to shower before entering the baths to clean any natural oils from your body) before heading to the baths. To Tara and my surprise… the nude bathing… was kind of the thing… out of 20 guests, I would say 75% were… Birthday Suited Up. Totally different type experience, but hey… let’s see what these baths are about. Tara and I made our way down to the baths and realized that the entire place was built into the side of a cliff, to the point that there were steel and wire rain gins along the baths to prevent people from falling about 50 feet to their death. Below were just rocks and crashing waves. However, above, was the most incredible star filled sky I have ever seen. I grew up in Western Mass, and felt that on a clear night, there were a million strain the sky. If that was the case, here, there were a Billion. Without a doubt the most stars I’ve ever seen in a night sky. Before the night was done, Tara and I had collectively seen about a dozen shooting stars. And we pointed each one out. We made our way back to the changing area and headed home just short of our allowed two hours, but it was an awesome evening and a very unique experience. I would 100% recommend this to anyone traveling through the Big Sur area… just make sure you’re comfortable with naked dude butts running around. Then, bed. We have more to do here.

Today we planned to head north to Carmel. (Nice area and super dog friendly beach) We got our stuff together for the beach and Tara, Murphy and I all jumped in the truck to head north. After a while of the windy ups and downs, we found ourselves parking at an incredible beach right in front of some pretty elaborate homes. Carmel, not for the faint of bank accounts. We headed down toward the water to set up and I realized (as I looked to my right) we’re standing on the beach, looking up at Pebble Beach golf course. They’re lucky I didn’t have my clubs, because if I’ve felt a course record… that was the day… Anyways, we spent the early part of the day on the beach where Tara actually spotted some dolphins. Two dolphins swimming together just off the coast, but inside the seaweed band that stretched the coastline. Shortly after, Tara also saw sea otters. (She has a real knack for spotting wildlife) After a while of watching the otters, we again saw the dolphins… Listen, I don’t know if dolphins eat sea otters, or seals, or whatever we saw, but I do know this, we saw a sea otter (or seal) then we saw two dolphins swimming in the direction of said sea otter… there was some commotion, then we didn’t see the sea otter any more. After the beach we headed to the main area of Carmel for lunch. We had lunch at The Forge in the Forest. The Forge actually had a dog menu. Not like items that in a section of the menu for dogs, but I mean, we sat down, they gave us a drink menu, a lunch menu, and the dog menu. It was a specific menu created, printer, laminated… I mean this was a thing. Looking around, there were a lot of dogs there so it’s probably great for business. So Tara and I treated Murphy because it was hot and he was being really good while we had lunch… so we got him a “Quarter Hounder” (Quarter pound beef patty cooked to order) After this, Tara, Murphy and I started to walk around Carmel…

We didn’t spend long there, and we headed back to our camp site. Along the way, we headed over the Bixby Bridge. We had a couple great shots along the coast during our drives.

Since Murphy was pooped from his day at he beach, Tara and I left him at home and headed out to Nepenthe for a couple adult cocktails and some appetizers. Nepenthe is a really great restaurant & bar set right on the cliffs of Big Sur. There are incredible views, and great food. Also, we’re told that this is a popular spot for writers and artists of the area. (side note: in my Big Sur book, by Jack Kerouac, he mentions Nepenthe as place he and his friends hangout)

Finally we were heading out of Big Sur and headed south. We stopped at Moro Bay for something to eat. Along the way, we stopped at a beach for Murphy to get out and run around. While Murphy was running around, Tara and I managed to collect roughly 2 dozen sand dollars along the beach. It got to the point that we were putting them back because there were too many. Then back in the car, and then… we made our first turn east. We’re heading for Joshua Tree.