camping (and getting lost) in bodega dunes

one of my favorite movies that i can watch over and over again is national lampoons vacation. i love the scene when clark w. griswold is wandering the desert searching for help after crashing the family truckster in the middle of nowhere. chevy chase rocks that scene. i, however am NOT chevy chase. in my own lost in the middle of nowhere scene while on a camping trip last week i was not nearly as cool as chevy. after three hours of trying to find my way back from the beach to our camp site in bodega dunes with the sun at it’s hottest and highest point of the day and no water, i too tied shirt around my head. exasperated and with my hair tied back in a makeshift twig ‘rubber band’ i suggested to my beau that we should just call the police or park ranger to send out a helicopter or at least some horses to rescue us.

of course, we weren’t in any real danger. we could see the beach and knew what direction the road that would lead us back to camp was but we just couldn’t get there. all trails seemed to take us in a circuitous route back to the beach. finally we decided to abandon the useless trails and make our way towards the road, stomping through patches of ice plant with vibrant pink flowers while the tall sea grass poked our legs

through our pants.

this was day one of our camping trip. we made it back to camp, rewarded ourselves with a margarita and spent the next three days sticking pretty close to the luxurious trailer complete with queen size bed, stove, fridge, heater, bathroom and tv (which we didn’t watch). we ate really well…lemon, parsley and olive oil seabass cooked on the bbq in a foil parcel, brussel sprouts with pancetta, balsamic glazed turkey kilbasa, eggs with jalapeno and cilantro, pancakes, brisket that my beau smoked slowly over the firepit for six hours and of course lots of smores while sitting around the campfire nightly. we spent the morning laying in bed reading (i’m nearly done with bones, blood and butter by gabrielle hamilton, a can’t put it down read about her life and being a chef) with the wind coming in every so often and jostling the blinds. we went into town and i had a perfect salty dog at a seafood bar and restaurant right on the water. we had long talks about life and traveling and the future with his sister who joined us. i wrote a lot. i’m working on a collection of stories about my life as a maker.

now i’m safe in my little studio, back to sewing and writing and spending long days working on the computer. but, today, when i sat down to sew some make-up bags for a customer who’s gifting them to her bridesmaids, i couldn’t help but pop vacation into the dvd player so i could relive last weeks adventure of getting lost and watch chevy make his way through the desert and eventually back to his family and a much needed glass of water.