popnea

Dec 1st, Firestone Walker 805

by
The beer calendar is on! First off was 805, an ale from Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles of the California Central Coast. 4.7% alc/vol.

I was excited about this one and we are going out strong this year. I give this 4 out of 5! Perfect after a long drive!

The label says:
Keep it local!

Going Back Home

by
I put a hot water bottle by the feet in my sleeping bag before going to bed last night and that really did the trick, slept awesome throughout the night and wasn’t cold at all when I woke up. Still semi-bummed though as we had to wrap up this awesome weekend.

We had visitors last night, at first we were wondering who it might have been but then we find an evidence.

No more poking in the fire for this time.

Bye bye Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park!

We stopped by Nepenthe for lunch on the way home. Great views over the Pacific Ocean!

We were debating whether we should take the 5 or the 101/PCH back home. The 5 is longer but straighter, but we thought what the heck, it’s more scenic along the coast, and as long as I get to drive my motion sickness will be manageable.

We stopped by Point Piedras Blancas to check out the Elephant Seals. Apparently they were hunted almost to their extinct in the late 1800’s. Everyone thought they were lost forever, but then a dozen of them showed up in the early 1990’s, they got protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and now there are over 15 000 of them. Yay for nature!

Hiking Buzzards Roost Loop in Big Sur

by
After 12 years of being unhappy with my sleeping bag and 2 years of seriously considering getting a new one, I finally bought a new monster warm one as we stopped by Big 5 on the way up to Big Sur. I was super excited and was so bummed when I woke up in the middle of the night as my feet were still bloody cold! But made some re-arrangements and managed to fall back to sleep. I woke up again around 7am and heard people putting on the fire. Brilliant, I’ll just stay here a little bit longer so they really get the fire going and I don’t have to do the work! At least so I thought. The nature was eventually calling and I had to get up. Once I got up the fire was almost dead, they didn’t get it to light properly… I think I’m gonna have to do a tutorial on how to put on a camp fire. It’s not that difficult people, non of that tepee nonsense,  got to stack them Jenga style, works every time!

It took some time to round up everyone and for all of us to get warm in our cloths, but eventually thought we were ready for a stroll in the wood.

Amazing Redwoods!

Beer and orange break on top of the mountain, we can see the ocean from here!

We made it back to camp about 3 hours later.

Big Sur Camping

by
I woke up bright and early to get ready for Thanksgiving Camping in Big Sur. I had prepared for rain and would probably be a little disappointed if it didn’t rain. We had some light showers in LA in the morning, just enough to make me happy!

Some 6 hours later and we arrived at the camping site. First thing first, let’s chill the beers in the river!

Setting up camp was super smooth, some of us decided to blow up the air mattress outside of the tent.

Oh, you need help getting it to fit though the tent door? Well, I’m just gonna stand here and laugh and take photos…

It was a long drive after a late Thanksgiving dinner night, so it’s easy to fall asleep in front of the fire after a couple of beers. Whoever fall asleep first gets to double as a table!

Thanksgiving

by
We celebrated the official American Turkey day at Fandyland. Good food, good friends, good time!

(I stole this last photo from Mrs Krelle’s Facebook)

7th Annual Beer Calendar

by
Today was the beer exchange for the advent beer calendar. Most of us know how it works by now, but there’s always some newbies each year…
Here’s how the beer calendar works; (works best if you are 6 or more people who are in on it)
Everyone buy 4 six packs or beer each, plus an optional Christmas Day beer for yourself. Holiday Editions, rare beers, beers from a country you’ve never heard of, beers you’ve never seen before, beers you have seen many times but have never had a chance to try, beers you think are the best beer you’ve ever tasted and are pretty certain not a lot of people know about etc are encouraged to buy. 
Once everyone bought their 4 six pack of beers (24 beers) plus your optional bonus beer, you wrap them all in tin foil. Try not to mix your beers, keep the six packs separated. Set a date and time that works for everyone when you can exchange the beers.
We use a deck of cards to determine who got to pick their beer first. Everyone got to pick a card and the lowest card get to pick their beer first. Once everyone have their first beer, we draw a new card from the deck.
When we have collected all 24 beers for our calendar we wait patiently until December 1st when we get to open the first beer, and then one beer a day everyday until Christmas Day! Fun!

Rémy Martin Tasting

by
We went to a Rémy Martin tasting. It was good and informative, but somehow felt as it wasn’t as well organized as the previous tastings we have been to. They also had some weird restrictions, like you couldn’t bring a drink from one room to another (whaaat? I thought this was a tasting!), and no photos.
I managed to sneak some photos in anyway. Still a fun night!

Rémy Martin Tasting

by
We went to a Rémy Martin tasting. It was good and informative, but somehow felt as it wasn’t as well organized as the previous tastings we have been to. They also had some weird restrictions, like you couldn’t bring a drink from one room to another (whaaat? I thought this was a tasting!), and no photos.
I managed to sneak some photos in anyway. Still a fun night!

Whale Watching

by
I was a little hesitant to go whale watching, as I am getting seasick just by seeing a boat. But it was only $15 so I thought it could be worth feeling sick for a day. 

Super excited to see some whales! We went further and further out without seeing anything so people started to get a little impatient. I was just thrilled for as long as I could hold on without feeling sick and did not really care to much about any stupid whales anyway.

Eventually we started to see some splashes in the horizon so they rushed the boat over there and we ran into a bunch of Risso’s Dolphins. Super cool looking dolphins!

Yay, we saw something! Everyone was happy and ready to go back home when a Humpback Whale showed up.

The whales fin is apparently like the human fingerprint, they are all unique, so the professional watchers were thrilled when the whale finally showed the fin, so they could snap photos and document the whale.

I always love coming back into the marina and see the coastline from the water!

Playa Del Rey

The Fisherman’s Warf in Marina Del Rey is so cute!