Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Summer means camping..

.. we camp in spring and fall too, but it's nice not to be hanging out in Arctic gear.
Pictures of Shibat and I during our camping trip in April taken by Dennis Ho, 
who is an excellent photographer as you can see. 

There's nothing better than warm summer nights around the campfire singing, making smores, telling ghost stories, star gazing, and discussing the meaning of life.

We took off to La Jolla Indian Campground north from San Diego. The campground is on the La Jolla land of the LuiseƱo Indians. We met a guy a while back in the area who was part of the tribe and said that the La Jolla Res was the only Native American reservation established on land that was already occupied by the tribe. Every other tribe was displaced. Imagine how different the US would be today,  if settlers had worked with the Native Americans, instead of against them. Would the style of governing be much different? Would the continent be more ecologically sound? Certainly the American culture would have a stronger bond to the land.

  Our New Yorker and Parisian had never camped before, 
so we did our best to be ambassadors of the Great Outdoors.

 I only took pictures down by the creek, so here we have some wild flora and fauna:

 I love the little futuristic-space-craft shadows that the water spiders make.
 Walking on water. Impressive little guy, impressive.
What the heck are you? Answer: Damsel Nymph. This is kind of a let down being that you are neither nymph-y or damsel-y. But my wild research definitely uncovered the scope of human hobbies. I found this species name on a professor's blog who studies Central Virginian aquatic insects in his spare time. I really appreciate that. Everyone's got their thing. The weirder the better. I had a professor of illustration in college who was really interested in snail reproduction.

Do you have any unusual hobby or interest? Feel free to share...

5 comments:

Jennifer Chong said...

you guys made it!

Kaylia Payne said...

Oh wow, it all sounds amazing thus far. And you're right, the country would have been so different! It's the same in Australia, all the tribes have been displaced too. Very sad. Hahaha no I don't have any hobbies quite as...interesting...as that!

Missy said...

Yeah! Jen, wish you could have been there, James and June too. It was really fun. Next time!

kimbirdy said...

how fun!! i love to camp {or anything involving the great outdoors actually}. we've been looking for a place to go that's not too far from LA, but not too close either. joshua tree is a little too hot right now for our liking, so we were thinking of heading up by the kern river or going back to big sur. it's good to know there's such a pretty spot just down the coast! and i think things would definitely be a lot better had the settlers been open to learning from the native americans instead of wiping them out and doing things their own way. it's funny how it's becoming trendy to adopt a lifestyle that's so similar to how the native americans lived all along.

h said...

I love those first two photos of the creek. I do a decent amount of camping/hiking myself, too. It's fun to be outdoors!