Lake Zaca

This is really a continuation of the posts, part 1 and part 2, that I did in March before the A to Z Blogging Challenge.

https://athursdayschild.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/serious-trouble-will-bypass-you-part-1/

https://athursdayschild.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/serious-trouble-will-bypass-you-part-2/

Lake Zaca in California was our destination point, where we would meet with other volunteers of our group for a retreat type meeting.  Lake Zaca is located in Los Olivos, California.  It is a beautiful San Rafael mountain top retreat with a rich history:  http://www.zacalakeretreat.com/

Apart from being pristinely natural and a serene departure from the hustle and bustle of normal everyday life, its claim to fame is also for location shoots for some quite famous movies such as “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and “Friday the Thirteenth, Part 3.”

The Chumash Native American Tribe consider the lake a sacred place, and according to their legends, it is bottomless, with a passageway existing through the lake to Santa Cruz Island where the Chumash lived before coming to the mainland, with underwater caves containing oxygen and home to a civilization of “little people.” The lake does possess a strong energy current.

On our opening night get together we were told that we would be experiencing some after effects of the recent Japanese tsunami.  Considering it was a nice sunshiny day I kind of shrugged off that warning.  My husband and I hiked our next day there – a mild hike.  On the next day we were planning a more strenuous hike, but the rains came and came.  By the following day the rain became much stronger with gusting winds.

Let me interject here that the cabins were rustic to say the least, especially the one I was assigned to.  I took the top bunk partly out of kindness, but mostly because I was the last one to check in.  There were five women to a cabin in our case.  Upon seeing some of the other cabins we were rather disappointed in ours, but we were assured that we had the best cabin.  Ours was up on a hill, and had older plumbing.  Others closest to the lake had been updated with large bathrooms and walk in whirlpool showers.

Okay, at first I had shrugged off the tsunami aftermath warning and was now dubious about our accommodations.  You could put me in the category of “Oh, ye of little faith.”

The next morning we awoke to no electricity.  The temperatures had dropped, and being very cold natured I was freezing.  Due to our older plumbing we had enough hot water in our water heater for all five of us to have hot showers.  In the wee hours of the morning we drove in our rented van to pick up others for breakfast and found a tree limb had fell on someone else’s rental car.  No one was hurt.  We found that others were not so fortunate.  Many had stepped out of their bed onto wet carpet where water had seeped in the cabins, and there were no hot showers to be had due to the newer water on demand water heaters.

The wind got stronger.  Creeks rose, and new ones were created.  Two vehicles drifted away with luckily the drivers and passengers swimming out safely.  By the next day heavy equipment came to get everyone out, and everyone was able to make his or her planes on time.

I’m thankful that serious trouble was averted.  On the way to the airport, my husband and I stopped to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant, and we both opened our fortune cookies to find the same fortune:  Serious trouble will bypass you.