Friday, December 20, 2013

Camping Days and Outhouses - Montana de Oro, San Luis Obispo State Park


Photo courtesy of Hilary Walling, who says, "This is my best photo from the Colombia/Ecuador trip.  We happened upon this group of darling little pre-schoolers being taken out for a 'parade' with their instruments, when nature called to this one little guy!"


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Hilary's picture reminds me of the time our family went camping in Montana de Oro, in the Central Coast of California.  This is probably one of the most beautiful spots in the world, with access to the ocean, fantastic views, and hiking trails along fields with wildflowers. There were areas where you could find sea lion colonies as well.  Simply gorgeous.

So our family went and camped in the State park camp grounds, which only had outhouses. Our youngest son, who was around six at the time, rejected the outhouses. We cajoled and reminded him to use the facility, but he refused. I assume he "watered" the wild flowers and trees near our camp site. Then to our surprise, the next morning, we learned he had used the outhouse. With a shrug of his shoulders, he said, "You gotta go, you gotta go."



Here is another bathroom story.

A group of us toured the Philippines, and we drove up to Baguio City, which is in Northern Luzon. Baguio is up in the mountains, cool, with pine trees. The place is a kind of hill station, where people retreated especially in the summertime to escape the heat of Manila.  




So our group of five plus our driver arrived Baguio City, after a long roundabout trip from the colonial town of Vigan.  We needed a pit stop and found a public bathroom with a woman charging a small fee for keeping it clean. That was fine with us. 

Now unknown to us, her fee depended on what you wanted to use her facilities for, and she proceeded to ask our friend Elizabeth if she wanted to do Number 1 or Number 2? Elizabeth did not know what to make of her question.  The woman, assuming, the American, ie Elizabeth, did not understand her, raised her voice. Same question: Number 1, or Number 2?  

The woman was yelling by the time I got to Elizabeth to try and straighten out the matter. By then, the woman had given up and just directed her to a private stall.  

We can still get hysterical laughing over this memory when it comes up.

~~~Read also

pictures courtesy of Hilary Walling and San Luis Obispo State Park, and islandsofthephilippines.com
tags: camping, Montana de Oro, California, Central Coast, San Luis Obispo, holiday, travel, vacation, family, children

All for now,

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