Tomiko's Blog

LOL

As you can see, I am behind on my blogging.   I just got back from Detroit and Hershey, PA, but I have to wait to blog about that trip.  The camping trip was right before that and I have some fun pics to share from that.  I don’t want you guys to miss out!    I appreciate your patience.  I have been nonstop busy…go go go…so it has been challenging to keep up with anything!  You should see the work piling on my desk.

I guess when I take time for myself or anytime I leave town, the work always seems to pile up and I have to play catch up when I get home.

Anyway…focus, Tomiko…I am supposed to be talking about my camping trip. lol

I brought the video camera with me and will be sharing some footage on my acting reel section under “Adventures of Tomiko” which is located at the bottom of the page.  Don’t go yet!  I haven’t updated with that footage.  I am also going to add the indoor skydiving that I did as well.  Yes, I am truly with Japanese blood.  I try to document with cameras all the time.  I figure, you have to capture the memories somehow so you have something to look at when you get old.

My camping trip to Utah was a much needed break.  Working nonstop, I was feeling a bit stressed about leaving all of it behind and taking off on my 3 1/2 hour drive with friends to the Navajo Lake Campsite in Utah.  There was no cell signal and no internet so it forced me to relax and that is exactly what I did. It usually takes me a day to wind down and get to that point so after feeling stressed for the first day, I started to calm down.

The sunsets, campsite, and lake was beautiful. I had never been there, so I didn’t know what to expect.  I thought I would be dealing with mosquitoes, but it was actually the several species of biting flies that I had to deal with.  I am talking about just a few…I am talking about “scary movie” as in “The Birds” amount of flies.  It was so bad, I had to cook my food super fast in the morning and then eat at lightening speed before accidently eating a fly with my food.  lol  In fact, no joke, I had to run into my truck and eat at times just to be able to eat at a normal speed.  In all the camping I have ever done, I have never had that experience.  Luckily at night, they disappeared.

The first day there was all about just setting up the tent and just checking out the lake and the rustic little store by the lake.  There was the cutest little log cabins that were available for rent and were really reasonable averaging around 85 bucks!  You still have to bring a cooler (no fridge), but you have a shower and a bed so there is no set up you have to do.  I believe there was even a grill out on the porch.

I saw that they rented those little motor boats, so I had to do that for the second day.  I love to fish so I had bought worms and trout bait, although I have always just used the live worms as my bait.  I thought I would be creative this time and try another bait as well.

I was super impressed with the fish in this lake.  They were smart little suckers.  They would eat my bait and take off before I could get them, but I was onto their game and soon I was catching them.  I found out later that the limit is 4.  Luckily I only had that amount on me.  I had caught more but threw them back because they were too small.

While on the lake, it was nice sunny skies so I decided to fish in my bikini.  The fellas in the other boats didn’t seem to mind, and I noticed there weren’t really a whole lot of women out there.  It was kind of funny because actually, I have never fished in a bikini before!

It was so nice and sunny, but then the rain clouds started to come in…

so I had to put on more clothes.  It started out with a t-shirt.  A big special thanks to Timothy!  He sent me the happy camper t-shirt.

…before you knew it, I was adding more layers.  It did rain, but just for a short time and the sun came back out.  I never quite made it back to the bikini though.  It was a little chilly, but that was a nice break from the 115 degree Las Vegas weather.

As you can see, I am fully clothed at this point.  After I caught all my fish, I took the little boat on a little joy ride around the lake.  It was a blast even though the boat didn’t have crazy speed…more of a putt putt kind of thing.  lol

I got back to camp with my fish…

…and I cleaned them.  I ate the one that ate all my bait, too!  When I cleaned, I could see all of it in it’s belly.

The fish was delicious.  I took some home with me and froze it and plan on giving my mom a couple.  One thing that I can share with you.  When I was a little girl into my young teens, I used to go fishing and camping with my mom, brother, and some of her friends.  It was a blast and my mom was quite the little fisher!  I guess I am the chip of the old block, eh?  yuk yuk yuk!

The next day, I went on a 11.5 mile hike around the entire lake.  There was a pretty cool trail that had all these different flowers and plant life as well as these lava rocks.  This area used to have an active volcano.  It was a really great hike, but feet were barking by the end of it.

I decided to dip my feet in the very cold lake water off the little pier and oh was that nice!  I got there in time to watch the sunset.

After that, I went on a drive to try and catch some deer coming out in the field.  Saw nothing but a couple of little deer who took off like a bat out of hell as soon as I stopped the car and tried to take a picture.  I guess they are fine if you are doing a drive by, but as soon as you stop, they are like, “I am outta here.”

I saw some more rain clouds..

It started to rain by the time I got back to camp, but I had to get this beautiful shot.

Got back to camp and it was freezing….then the rain started to fall and I had to run into the tent.  At least I managed to eat some grill cheese sandwiches and have some beer before the downpour. 

In the AM, I packed up the tent and let the air out of the air mattress.   That is what is cool about car camping.  You can bring more stuff for your campsite out of your truck instead of a backpack.

On the way home, I decided to go through Zion National Park.  I thought it was going to be ugly desert stuff and for the $25 fee to go into the park I was almost going to skip it, but I am glad I didn’t.

Overall, it was a really fun trip.   I have another camping trip at another lake in Utah in August, so I will be sure to take pics from that trip and share.

My next blog will be about Detroit and Hershey, PA.  Sorry I am behind.

I am pooped and jetlagged and have to hit the sheets, but I wanted to share these pics with you.

I am already getting pics from the shoots in Detroit and Ohio, and I took some shots in Hershey that I will share with you as well.   Lots of fun things to talk about.

Looking forward to sharing more with you.

Once again, thanks so much for stopping by and reading my blog and thanks for your support!

xoxo

Tomiko

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