wildlife

so on friday i formally entered what my friend jo calls "the flirty thirties". i approached this milestone with a bit of reluctance. okay, a lot of reluctance. thirty sounds awfully grown-up, and i don't feel it.

lucky for me, bryan took me on a surprise trip up north where i could gawk and squeal at animals as if i was three, not thirty.

big sur is an absolutely stunning place, where dense forest follows a rocky, mountainous coastline. the five-hour drive felt like two, it was so beautiful.


on the way up we passed a sign for "vista point - elephant seals". a quick u-turn and...






so many harbor and elephant seals - i'm amazed that they're still there, protected - that we haven't driven them all off. and they just lay there happily, burying themselves in the sand and honking at each other.

best. birthday present. ever.

we spent saturday at the point lobos wildlife reserve hiking around their unbelievably gorgeous park.








point lobos is known for their sea lion look-out -


- as well as coves full of sea otters. but they slid and somersaulted around so quickly i couldn't get a good photo! we did have an up-close experience with a lovely dear though -


that's, like, zero zoom on my camera. she was right in front of us.


also, there was knitting! see that hat? sort of? it's the felicity hat by wanett clyde (ravelry link). i wanted a new, slouchy hat and i wanted to use a skein of gorgeous sheepy linsmore sheep farm pure wool that malaraky gifted me last year. close-ups!:




the color is more accurate in that second photo - it's a deep brown with red, purple, and green hues very naturally wound into the yarn. i love it. i added a few rows of broken rib around the band so it wouldn't curl, and otherwise knit per the instructions. a quick knit, and very cute!

it's bryan's birthday today, so send him some b-day wishes!