I'm a road trip and picnic lover. Are you? I definitely don't have the opportunities to take part in them as much as I'd like. But we did the other day and it was wonderful. We explored, relaxed and generally did what we don't normally let ourselves do- which is to not work. Baby steps. This was a kind of bigger and much welcomed baby step. Here are my top five things (in no particular order) about this adventure...
* We live along the coast of California and are used to seeing the ocean. We are also pretty lucky to have the mountains, as well. But we traveled inland and really got to delve into the awesomeness of the valleys and nooks within these mountain ranges. We saw everything from lush wildflower mountainsides to rugged rock formations. I've seen these before, but I'm never desensitized to the beauty. Stunning. I had my mouth gaping open the entire ride and way too many of this: "Oh my gosh!" and "Oh my goodness!" and ," Look! LOOK!!!!!"
* Mars the Dog had a blast. This dog just likes to run but, like his mom and dad, only short distances. He's a dopey runner. His hind legs and butt appear to be completely separate from his front half of his body. So that the back just bounces up and down, always off the ground. And his front half is just his huge square head and slobbering mouth, gargantuan tongue hyper focused on the possibility of extreme fun before him. He mostly loves running between his peeps- like monkey in the middle, but less cruel/more blissed out.
Here he's running up the hill to Sebastian:
and then down the hill back toward me (check out his ears!):
* We set up our picnic on a field along a hillside and enjoyed the pure goodness of it all (Mars assumed all the food was for him. He came at it from every angle. See him here trying to figure out how to attack. He thinks he's a ninja, of course, but he really is just a -well loved-clumsy goofball):
* The hubs and the dog went off exploring...
and returned with this sweet wildflower (which I put in a little blue vase. Also note the flask- filled with port. I was ambitious and thought, for sure, I'd kick back with it, but really just ended up taking a sip and drank water instead. All those cheese and crackers make a person thirsty.)
* Sunshine on my toes!
It also totally made my day when the few cars that did pass, along the tiny road in the distance, waved to us... just further proof that picnics make everyone happy.
p.s. The hillside we were on kept reminding me of Little House on the Prairie- especially that scene in the beginning song where Carrie eats it after running down the hill and stumbling. So great.
