Big Sur Weekend // Where them girls at (girls at)?

I had the lovely fortune of spending last weekend in the Big Sur/Monterey area on a much-needed getaway.

The women I went with are several of my favorite California friends -- these ones I got to know most specifically via book club. BOOK CLUB. How often do we actually talk about the books? Debatable. But I can say that these monthly meetings (and increasingly frequent social interactions in between) have been my sanity saver this past year. It is my safe place in so many ways.

I've always been lucky in the girlfriends department, but I didn't always gravitate toward an overabundance of girl time earlier in my life. Frankly, it's because, clearly, there are no boys at girl time. And how am I supposed to meet fellas and woo them into loving me if I'm spending all my time hanging with the ladies? But I feel like the older I get, the more I'm starting to value the female relationships in my life. They've always been important to me, but I can feel my appreciation for this aspect of life growing more and more with time. It's a balance.

This weekend, we grabbed ourselves an Airbnb reservation at the most adorable house stuffed full of plants, colorful decor, inspirational quotes galore and a piano (!). We filled our time with a gorgeous oceanside hike, eating our weight in sour gummy worms (was that just me?), and life chats about everything from work to religion to men to feminism to angsty 90s music to racial tensions in America. I love conversations both rambly and deep and both. It fills the soul.

To be fair, I've also been lucky to have several menfolk friends over the years that are near and dear to my heart, but the presence of female friendships is an irreplaceable facet of my life. And the great thing about female friends is that I can generally avoid the complications of dating that sometimes tangle up my cross-gender friendships. And since I tend to get closest with undramatic women (see: no mean girls allowed), I find that my female friend circles are wildly drama free in comparison to some of the angst I've seen go down in other people's lives. Why complicate a thing like friendship? It's nice when we all play nice.

Anyway. Here's to my girls....both the ones from this weekend, the rest of the ones in California, the ones back in Arizona, the ones I've met via blogging, the ones from college and before and beyond.....here's to all of you. Five stars, two thumbs up, 200 points to Gryffindor....you get the picture. Hashtag all the prizes.

Now on to the pictures from last weekend so we can all be aware that the nasty rent prices in the Bay Area come with some really great perks. Please note that a good number of the photos have no filter on them, because sometimes the earth really is just that amazeballs all on its own.

^^^ yes, that would be toasted marshmallow topping on my ice cream, blowtorched before my very eyes at this place in Santa Cruz. AMEN