Forestiere

I had a rare, special weekend, with good friends and good weather, out of the city, closer to nature. We drove out to Fresno, and camped at Lake Milerton, one of the Ca. state parks. The reason for the treck was to see the Foresteire Underground Gardens, but I'll get back to that in a minute.
These are Bernie's photos of our lucky campsite, under a monster tree of beauty, before a smooth, glassy lake. We spread out over our big space, and set up tents, laid out in the sun at the water's edge, basked in the twilight, ate bacon wrapped sausage and fire baked potatoes. It was like heaven.



(I have also sampled pics from Christine's Flickr, I took snaps on my film camera, so again, I have to wait to get my shots.) Dinner evolved into campfire dance party, under a full, radiant white moon. In the morning we ate eggs and bacon, and some of us took a nice jog around the campsites, and cooled off in the lake before packing up. I was reborn in the lake, it was so cold and clean, and made my heart want to explode with it's fresh purity. I don't do cold water, but I had to go in. I needed to shock some part of myself into quite calm.
The trip ended with our stop at the Forestiere gardens in Fresno - a true find. It's more amazing than I can explain here, but to summarize, about 10 acres of land were tunneled under and developed into a network of chambers - living quarters and gardens, by one man with a second grade education. He dreamed and created, completely self-taught. Trees grow up through the ceilings of tunnels into the light at ground level. I was truly staggered by this functional work of art.




I can't believe I've lived in California for 28 years and never heard of this. It's really worth the drive to see, and the tour is great.I bought the book they sell, and am looking forward to reading more about him. The book says maybe 1% of people who live in Fresno have visited, and I was appalled. It should be totally famous, I was so inspired about pursuing a dream and not being lazy with my life.