Time-out: Camping trip!

The Man and I decided to take a time-out from our house and all the work to the house, and take a little weekend camping trip in Malibu. Leo Carrillo State Beach/Park is our to-go to camp site. If we need to unplug and get away, it's close enough that we can drive to and far away enough from the city that we feel like we're in nature. It's about 40 miles from our house, in the Malibu canyons. Right next to a beautiful ocean filled with lots of tide pools and caves. Really cool and really quiet.


The first night we got there, Friday, was really, really windy. Like 60-70 miles/hour winds. It was really hard to get the tent setup, the fire going, cook, and also sleeping. Plus it was SO dry. Like crackling my skin dry. Wind + dry = not that pleasant of a first night. But hey, you roll with it at camp......

Sidenote, not to mention my OCD with cleanliness but during camp, all those OCDs are thrown out the door. I have an OCD to keep everything clean and tidy. Nope, not gonna happen at camp. Dirt and grime everywhere, sand, dust, shoes in the tent (we don't wear shoes in our house), more dirt and sand, even in our fingernails....omg).

(Ah my Eagle Scout, making a fire with kindling)

(Yay, we have fire!!)

(Our good ol' tent....Actually, this is the tent our family used for camping when I was growing up!
So it's really vintage. Reminds me of our family camp trips to Sequoia and other places!)

(Wind breaker thingy....on top of the tent. Setting up the tent is not hard at all, but
you do need 2 people to set up)

The next day we walked down to the beach....and unfortunately it was still very windy. Lots of sand flying around into your eyes and hitting you in the face. We spent a few hours here staring at the ocean, watching surfers catch a wave, exploring rock formation, and mostly reminiscing about our youth and how we used to come here much more often. How did we get so old?!

(The next day, what a glorious looking ocean!! So gorgeous, and windy too! Weather in January in CA, sunny
but windy, we are so blessed!)

(More caves and tide pools, water was of course freezing that day. But I couldn't help dipping my toes in
there. It felt so nice to feel the ocean again)

We headed back a little early and I took a nap in the car (because it was way too windy in the tent). Before sunset, we started dinner prep! Mexican night! Fajitas with grilled veggies and flour tortillas, spanish rice, roasted corn, baked potatoes, guacamole salad with tomatoes, and for dessert, traditional s'mores. What a tasty meal it was!! Camp cooking is always a bit of a pain, but it's fun eating outside and making food on a camp fire!

(Prep time for dinner!)

(Roasting corn in foil and making spanish rice for dinner....and the Man poking the embers)

(Fire is slowing giving away to embers. Beautiful. I love looking at camp fire)

(Now that we have embers, we're cooking up our veggies for the fajitas. Yum!!
Love grilled/charred veggies, they were tasty!)

(Kind of a dark image but we eventually got our skirt steak to cook as well and heated up some tortillas too.
Here's our makeshift taco stand! Cooking is so much harder at camp....and it's even harder in the
dark with winds blowing like crazy)

(Mmmmm, spanish rice, tacos with veggies and guac! Perfect camp food!)

(Corn took a long time, it even caught on fire!)

(Dessert, s'mores. And of course, a BLAZING fire!! So much fun!! Fire! Fire! Fire!)

Love unplugging and enjoying nature,
The Camping Lady