Viva Heckasac

 Trump's blog is dead and mine is alive, which inspired me to post.

I was out of town the last 3 weekends in a row, which is definitely something that hasn't happened since 2019 and is a sign of me getting back to normal: overscheduled and loving it.

Weekend one: Pinnacles National Park. This was on a Sunday/Monday since those camping spots are hard to book for weekends. Pinnacles is interesting, I definitely recommend it for a visit, but maybe not a revisit. There is pretty much just hiking (which is spectacular) but other than that the campsites are stark. The kids in the group loved the pool, and I have never before experienced a dip in a pool after a hot 15 mile hike which really can't be beat. Oh yeah, Pinnacles has pretty extreme temps, so you either have to prepare for that or only visit within a few months.

Weekend 2: Burner-style campground "Raven's Landing". On the road to Clearlake, again, pretty stark and hot. But unique and worth a visit. It has it all (imagine this in Stephon voice): snakes, tame deer, dusty communal kitchens, silent discos, and thanks to Elon Musk, a launch of a 100 satellites that had all of us (who had no cellphone reception) convinced we were seeing the end of the world. Luckily their were youngs wearing fur bikinis (see also: silent disco) to slur "Elon Musk" at us as we freaked out.

Weekend 3: Memorial day at Crabber's Cottage in Trinidad. The more expensive of the 3 options, but also the coolest, weather-wise and prettiest. I visited the beach in Trinidad during the pandemic so I had never seen the actual "town" of Trinidad (pop 350) and the harbor is so cute. The crabber's cottage is two blocks from it, which was a treat. The local market had anything we needed to make meals in the makeshift kitchen, which was too makeshift for much. I had anticipated we would eat out more, but the restaurants were too slammed. I did not want to wait in line for mediocre fish and chips. I don't know if these lines are typical for that holiday weekend of if this was a post-pandemic rush.