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| the moon through the telescope |
The mister and I first met in August of 2002, right around the same time of the month as when the debris stream otherwise known as The Perseids crosses paths with us...or the Earth does with it and vice versa. Every year on our first date anniversary, aka the rootbeer-float-a-versary, we check to see if the skies will be clear enough to go out and have a looksie. Having moved up to SLO, we are lucky enough to be about n hour away from the Carrizo Plain which is the perfect spot to rest our heads for the night in search of meteors and falling stars and all that happy spacey stuff. This year, we brought along the sister-a-go-go and her fella.
It takes about an hour or so along a very windy road to get there. The air is dry enough that we do not have to worry about mosquitoes and so we do not bother with a tent, just our camping pad and a pile of blankets...it can get chilly over night.
Mister brought his telescope so we could
ooh and
aaah over the moon and other heavenly bodies the mister finds through the viewfinder. I never get tired of how cool the moon looks through the magnification. Snacks are in abundance and us girls have our p-styles handy just in case. Once the sun set, we saw a good meteor every few minutes. By good, I mean one that is large and has a long sparkly tail...the kind that makes everyone shriek as if they were watching a fireworks show.
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| up before the sun |
At some point, our eyelids droop and we snuggle down into our makeshift beds. Throughout the night we wake up to watch the sky and are always rewarded. From shooting stars to the calls of the owls (screech, barn, and burrowing) and meadowlarks, it's all pretty cool...even the kangaroo rats that scurry about looking for crumbs are cool...a little less cool was the realization that the holes in the ground all over the campsite were probably for tarantulas and not squirrels like we thought. How did we know that? We saw one come out...that was actually kinda cool...until I started overthinking it...
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| goofy portraits |
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| the old ranch |
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| greeting the sun on the drive home |
We were up and on our way before the sun was fully out. A makeshift breakfast of fruit and yogurt was gobbled up, pictures were taken, and sights were seen. We'll see you again in 2018...in 2017, we will be in Wyoming for the
solar eclipse!
