Rain

And there I go jinxing it again; no sooner than I bragged about our beautiful and beach-worthy sunny weather, in blew the biggest storm the central coast of California has seen in at least the past four years. These videos of the aftermath absolutely BLEW.MY.MIND.

Daisy is unsure about the downpour and the creeks that used to be trails // before I was soaked to the bone

And of course, we decided to "suit up" as best as we could and go hiking in the middle of it. Because naturally, hiking in the mountains of our mudslide-prone area during the biggest storm we've ever seen is just what you do.

It was absolutely beautiful, don't get me wrong! I mean, lately, we've gotten used to seeing landscapes that look brown and parched, like this and this and this. So some greenery was a welcome change. But when the creeks swell up so much that they can be classified as rivers, and when large sections of the trail get washed away when parts of the upper mountain come sliding down, it gets interesting.

a large missing section of the trail, when a boulder washed away down a ravine

our hydro-phobic dog was less than thrilled about crossing flooded parts of the trail.

Also, although Tim was suited up in totally waterproofed snow gear, I was sporting Tim's old snow pants (like, from when he was 10, and hasn't been scotch-guarded since) and a nice and toasty fleece-lined raincoat--with a tear in it. Said hole wasn't discovered until halfway through our hike, when I couldn't figure out why I was wringing buckets of water out of the fleece lining as I walked. 

Still, the trails were lovely, and the occasional (like, three second) breaks in the downpour revealed stunning views. I do love these mountains of ours.

We tried to get a photo of the three of us, but our little camera, though waterproof, was less than ideal in rainy conditions. Foggy lens and focusing on raindrops for the win! Also, by this point I was soaked to the bone and didn't much care to keep trying to document our little adventure.

We called it quits less than a mile up the trail from our car ;).

Thrilled that we stopped hiking in the rain!

Of course, now it's sunny and 75* again, and aside from some soggy grass in front of the beachfront hotels and a few sailboats washed up on the beach, you'd never know anything happened ;). 

Did it storm this weekend where you are?  What's your favorite thing to do when it rains?