...Just Another Lisa Perez: July 2013

My birthday is July 1, and I am 36 years old this year. I was planning on just going to school and going about my day like it's any other day. Except i was far to sunburned to walk and my poor legs swelled up twice their size. Why you ask? Oh well, my friend Eric thought it would be nice to take me away for the weekend on a Birthday Adventure. You know by now I love adventures, so of course I agreed not knowing what we will be doing until I got there. Silly me, didn't think to bring sunblock and neither did Eric. We drove to Forestville to go canoeing at Burkes. I have never been before and at first said NO WAY! Not that I didn't want to try, but there were a lot of people and I don't do well in big crowds. This was a big crowd in water so naturally I panicked. Once a large portion of the crowd was on their way I felt safe enough to go. We get our canoe and head out for a three hour paddle ride down the Russian River. Wait.. THREE HOURS? Oh nice Eric, you could have told me BEFORE we got in the darn canoe. Like I said before, I had no sunblock, with short shorts on. It has been about ten years since my legs have seen the sun. The scenery was fabulous, the canoe ride was great, and people were super friendly. About half way through the ride I got wet but some local kids who got us with super soakers. I was already getting hot and feeling a little burnt. The water cooled me for a minute until I started to feel the burn. I knew it was going to be too late by the time we were done. So I did the best I could by taking my shirt off to cover my legs. Once we got to the end I swam in the river until the bus came to pick us up. The water was so cool and refreshing. I want to go back and camp at Burkes.

It doesn't look bad, yet.

One the Canoe trip was done we went back to the Hotel and cleaned up. I took a cold bath and somehow with my burned legs was able to get my nylons on. We went to dinner at the Hotel, walked around, and thought about going to the pool. We sat and watched the people from our balcony before we fell asleep. The next morning I stepped out on the balcony to see lots of spider webs, I saw some the night before, I just didn't realize there were so many. There was one spider in particular wrapping his new meal. I snapped a picture of him but didn't like it. I snapped another and thought OH MY GOSH, He has a scary face.

Such an evil grin

Once we were ready to go, I stepped out to say goodbye to Mr. Spider, but he was busy eating. We went to Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve. I had never been there and I was super excited because as you all know I love nature. My sunburn wasn't too bad though my pants rubbed on my knees as i climbed. I took some pictures of random trees and animals. Eric spotted a doe, at first that is all we saw; then she starts walking away from us and we see two babies trotting behind her. They were so cute.

Oh snap! Mama deer's looking right at us.

We ended the day with Goat Rock Beach. I'm not sure why it's called that when nothing looks like a goat. I read that my favorite movie of all time, GOONIES, was filmed here (the last scene). We saw some seals playing in the water. The water was ice cold by the way. It felt good on my burned legs until I was out of the water. The wind made me shiver like I had a fever. BBRRRRRRRRRR

Arched Rock at Goat Rock Beach. Photo by me

On the way home we grabbed some dinner and chatted about the weekend. I complained about my legs and Eric says the dumbest thing ever "You're Mexican, I thought you could handle it". Uh thanks man, cause Mexicans never burn. I guess I'm not mexican enough to handle the sun, ha ha. We get to my house only to find my son outside freaking out because a praying mantis is on the window. I tell him how they are good luck. He doesn't care, to him it's the devil. We move the poor mantis to a nearby rose bush. That my friends is my Birthday Adventure.