Vacation photo essay: novelist family on the loose - By N.L. Belardes

I hadn’t taken a week off in I don’t know how long. It had been a few years. So we took off from the heat of Buck City to venture toward the more comfortable climate of the Central and Northern California Coast.

I took The Devil Wears Prada with me and some ideas for novels that I wanted to toss around while hiking, searching for waterfalls and animal life. As usual I had my camera ready—though not nearly enough. I didn’t have the camera when there was a chemical spill near downtown Monterey...

And we were gone only a short time. Long enough it seems for a rupturing of local punk band, Box Jumper.

BIFF is just days away...

And Matildakay is seeing freaky chick flicks about letters.

Here’s a photo essay of some of our journey:


zowietown editor at our mysterious woodland campsite...


He's also known as Dirty Spanglish


Get fresh.


Looking for Loch Ness in Monterey, California...


Somewhere in this photo is a dead jellyfish,
one of our first nature sightings!


Touch my monkey for .25 cents


Seal with a slice out of its back...


Ahh, the campsite playground. Here, Dirty Spanglish
made friends with campsite punks who wouldn't throw
away their soda cans. Later I heard from one of the
alleged hooligans on myspace.com...

Nuthin' but trouble...

We later sabotoged some of the playground toys with
Vasoline and bacon grease. One unlucky kid sat in
some, tasted it and shared with his friend saying,
"This tastes like chocolate!"


Part Irish, for DS, it's all about the clover.


Walkin' the log


More log walkin' from the brother of DS


Mouse? Squirrel? Skunk? Who knows?


Discovering a waterfall and doing some head dunking,
a family tradition.


We took the plunge...


DS brother precariously balanced.


Headed down the 101 toward Bakersfield we found
this little dive that was part grocery store,
part bar. We just wanted to use the bathroom.
We had to drive all over town just to find this
scary joint with bimbos, beer and oil in the window.


Fire in the mountains near Cuyama!


I should have stopped for the big story...

next time...

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Thursday, June 22, 2006. You can leave your response.