Just Two Blocks from Suburbia

As the year is beginning to wind down, it seems my schedule is ramping up! I can't remember ever having a year like this, where I have absolutely no weekends free until the beginning of November! The only saving grace is that I have nothing boring going on between now and then, its just the sudden rush of activities that have gone up.

I started this month off with a craft beer based camping trip I went on this past weekend called Camp Stout Out. A giant group of people (around 25-30) drove down to Dixon Lake, which is a reservoir/fishing lake, in Escondido, CA to camp out for two nights with a massive growler share the first night and an insane bottle share the second night along with a couple of activities sprinkled throughout the weekend.

The games included a bottle cap guessing game, where a yard long margarita cup (aka Yardarita) was stuffed full of bottle caps and you had to guess how many; a craft beer related quiz that included two rounds of multiple choice questions and a taste test at the end; and a photography contest. There were only a handful of people who participated in the photo contest, so it was a lock for me. Here was my winning picture.

Not as impressive as my other photos, but it still got the job done.

The growler and bottle shares were fairly unique. I figured most people would either bring a stout or an india pale ale, so I went with a mildly sour Clockwiese Berlinnerviesse from Bottle Logic Brewing here in Orange County. If anybody happens to be in the area, I HIGHLY recommend that place.

I had an awesome time other than a few minor issues with ants and the park rangers that kept buzzing us every hour or so. I hope all of you can experience something like this in the future. I have some pictures to share below. Hope you like them.

As much of a shot of the lake as I could get on my iPhone. unfortunately I don't have the panorama app :-(

Found just outside my tent over on the last night. Those raccoons look like they have alien fingers.

Repel the Dwell

I tend to dwell on what I do and don't have in my life. Obviously, I spend more time on the don't. That's one of the few lessons I never seem to learn. But the never learning just seems to be one of my quirks. God..... I hope I don't teach my kid that one.

This weekend I went on a super fun camping expedition to Dixon Lake in Escondido. It was strictly a reconnaissance mission for an upcoming camping trip to the same lake in October. Mainly to iron out all of the wrinkles and to give recommendations and share warnings with the other campers that are attending the same trip. I went with three friends, two of them being the leaders of the group organizing the whole trip.

We checked into our site on Friday afternoon and setup camp. Then we drove down to the lake to get some time clocked in for some fishing. The entire drive down from the campsite, we were discussing the best ways on how we should kill the fish once we caught one. The irony of the situation is that all four of us are pacifists, even more so when it comes to wild animals.

As you can imagine, none of us caught a single fish. So I guess the whole discussion was a bust. I hope in October that will be a different case. My co-worker shared with me some neato tricks on how to get fish to bite the hook, which I'm very eager to try.

Do any of you fish? when was the last time you hit the lake? Mine was with my Snoopy fishing rod back in the early 90's. It's probably still sitting at the bottom of Irvine Lake too!

PS.... If you are a craft beer enthusiast, Stone Brewing is about 5 miles away and worth the visit. Thank you, have a nice day!