My current pocket sketchbook has a long history; it was purchased in 2002, drawn in sporadically until 2004, then lost and only just found again late last year.
Consequently, there are OLD sketches amongst the new, such as these from a trip in 2004, when Bosco, myself and Chris (pictured below) went driving south along highway #1 (along the coast) and wound-up at beautiful Big Sur.
It was a purely spontaneous trip and by the time we got all the way down there it was dark and we didn’t want to drive all the way back to San Franciso along that windy coastal road at night.

Of course, spontaneous travellers without accommodation reservations are often punished by fate when there’s no place to stay the night (the day you travel is the one day in the year when a ball-bearing convention is in town; who knew?!). Given that there are not many hotels down that part of the California coast, we were fully prepared to iether sleep in the car or be charged ridiculous prices for a bed in some crummy dump.
As luck would have it however, we DID manage to find a very decent and affordable place to stay; a lovely inn overlooking the sea, and we stayed there and had a very pleasant evening.
The next morning we had breakfast, did some exploring, had one more quick drawing sesh on the beach, and then head home to SF. All in all, a great little trip. Sometimes, Spontaneity is rewarded.
Glad you found this it's gold
LOVE IT!!!!
Jamie, gosh it brings back memories of that trip I had forgotten. Thanks for sharing this!
We were going crazy with the watercolors and it was very relaxing. BTW I am back in the states now so we can do it again!
it was a fun trip, right? I would love to go down there again someday. So yeah, let's do a REUNION trip!
ok! I am here in Bay now Big Mama!
It's like the lost ark of the Covenant of sketchbooks, Jamie…NICE!