Escape from L.A.! - Day One, Departure and Lake Cachuma

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April 17th

And so on this day in 2010 my father and I packed the car up to the brim with camping gear and his pooch, Rosa. We were ready to go explore the coast of California, from LA we were to drive north on Highway 101 until we reached Highway 1, and from there along the coastline until we reached Big Sur. We ended up camping one night at Lake Cachuma on the way up to Big Sur, after not being able to find a cool beach camping site that we liked and wasn't full.

But first things first, we couldn't leave LA on empty stomachs, so we went to the only logical place to eat on the way out of town, an In-N-Out. Let me just say that having tasted pretty much all the fast food burger joints in the USA, In-N-Out is the best I've ever had! The food is real quality and is completely fresh, the french fries are made with real potatoes and the even the cheese is real, not processed! Anyways I'll stop talking about the place but seriously, it's really good, get the animal fries!

So after feasting we were on our way, and along the coast we went. Like I said before, we couldn't find a good camping site on the coast so we settled for our original plan and headed for Lake Cachuma. It's actually a reservoir lake, meaning that there is no swimming allowed. They do allow fishing though, and strangely enough motor boats, sooo figure that one out??

We setup camp and Dad got to work with his heater, after fixing it, (I thought he was gonna blow his hand off at any moment). There were a lot of people at the lake because earlier in the day there had been a Trout Derby, right near us were some college grad students that were partying pretty hard all night. They were a bit loud and there lights were shining so bright it was kinda hard to get to sleep. I couldn't really bitch too much though because I've been there done that, (haven't we all??). I ended up taking some pictures of the party from a distance, mostly playing with the camera and different shots, not trying to be a creep really! At one point I did get to sleep for a bit but then woke up and gave in to temptation and went and had a beer with them. That helped me get some shut eye a little bit later.

I tried taking some night shots before going to sleep, and I was really impressed with the ones of the moon. In some of the pics you can even see stars. I'm really digging my camera and really getting a bit into photography, it'd be nice to get paid for such a fun hobby at some point!

Anyways, hope you all like the pics, until next time, Pura Vida...

-Brendan

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