July 6 2022

I just woke up at the zesty motel 6 in SLO (San Luis Obisbo). Abbie and Nicky sleep on as I slip out to see the underwhelming scene. We left Los Angeles yesterday, cruising on the winding PCH through Malibu up to Santa Barbara. 

Butterfly beach was a notable stop for a sandy snooze. Seconds into our nap, there was an attack. Loud popping, smacking and splashes of water terrorized about. Water balloons. Dozens of them. The culprits were adolescents with floppy hair and floppy shorts. Brilliant. 

Santa Barbara is beautiful, but not quite funky enough. After driving through the paradise beach mecca that is UCSB, we made our way to Motel 6 in SLO. That is how I find myself stretching outside my motel room, watching multiple old men walking their dogs in circles around the concrete parking lot.

Next was Big Sur. Elephant seals are legendary creatures. Their migration patterns are out of control. The males and females go completely different routes from each other, but all the same route as their own gender. No two seals ever travel together, but somehow they follow suit. The females go out west and the males up north along the coast. The seals always know how to make it back to the beach they were born on too, no matter how far away they go. It is this mind blowing innate navigational skill that they have. Gail taught us a ton about elephant seals. We watched them bathing in the sun and getting feisty in the water for hours. After enough seal gazing, we made our way to Santa Cruz.

July 7

Santa Cruz had the funk that Santa Barbara was missing. The day began with a glorious plunge in the water. After the swim, we blindly zig zagged through the maze of suburban Santa Cruz, trying to navigate back to the car. We had to make it to our wine tours. 

Napa. They call it a tasting, but it instead feels like a binge. I discovered how much I detest  excessive amounts of wine. After a few wineries where we saw goats frolicking and were served by a man who called himself “a 1988 soviet”, we drove windows down in search of snacks. The day ended with a Trader Joe’zs picnic at a campground that overlooked all of Napa. The sun was going down right in front of us and the views of various grape infested hillsides were almost as glorious as the morning swim. 

July 8

I wake up at Napa Discovery Inn, we are horses in little motel stalls over here. There are little cottage rooms connected in unnecessary ways by roofing and hollow open hallways. There is an old couple that runs the place. The man told me not to hang my towel over the rails because it wasn’t a pleasant sight for the other guests. I looked at the bleak parking lot and depressingly muddy colored shacks that made up this Inn and gave him a look. The woman gave me a smile and wave each time I hit the free breakfast, once for coffee, once for oatmeal, once for seconds….etc. I met two Austrians on the same pilgrimage as us. They started in Vegas like I had suggested we do. As I headed back from my second helping of oatmeal I ran into the man again. He told me to get a move on. We packed up the car, as we did each day, and continued north. 

July 9

So many bongs and cats surrounded me this morning. It is somewhere between comforting and chaos with lots of bothersome sneezing and coughing chiming in. It’s chilly here in San Francisco. “The coldest winter you will ever have is summer in SF". One of the cats has leopard fur and was apparently quite expensive. I don’t know what that means and I have never thought much about cat pricing. I am really fascinated by animals these days, I think those seals inspired me. The migration patterns feel like magic; I know that sounds stupid, but they all have these insane innate abilities based on the different contexts of their various evolutions. This is an exciting unknown to think about, because I haven't given it much thought before. The cheaper cat just got locked outside, that wasn’t supposed to happen. I bet even if he ran miles away, he could make it home though.

San Francisco seems to have mediocre nightlife. A small old man beckoned me to dance on stage with him last night and so I did.

Berkeley was great to explore, it has a similar Utopian feeling to Cornell. I think it is less beautiful though.

San Francisco is too windy. I could not enjoy my bike ride today and it was extremely frustrating. It is also foggy, which makes me feel like I’m supposed to feel gloomy. I am fighting San Francisco’s force of despair and ready to get back into nature.

July 10

One of the best sunsets I have ever seen- Lands End Park. Three perfect shots.

First there is the huge pink sun disappearing behind clouds over the horizon line. It is moving downwards quite quickly bopping in and out of view among the clouds. This view alone, with birds passing by and the sky making you look and feel golden, was exciting. But there is more. 

Turn yourself around and a vibrant moon is alive against the still blue skies. There are tree branches weaving their way up the view and getting blacker and blacker with each moment. A prominent contrast to the sinking sun. 

The third perfect shot was the mystical and foggy golden gate in all its glory in the distance. You could truly see the bridge in its entirety. We watched in awe as the birds glided from one shot to the next, until we were spinning about. I didn’t want to miss any of it.

July 11

Bayview Inn. There are free in room jacuzzis available here. We are in Crescent city, the top of California and the end of the California coast. This inn is of the kind where you strip the sheets just to check to critters or lingering undies. Bayview is a clean inn, but the kind where you know just a little too much about who stayed there before you. Like that they have long black hair or didn’t feel like finishing the coke can or jug of 1% cow’s milk in the mini fridge. We made it to Bayview without any phone directions. A great challenge. We just drove north until the huge “Bayview Inn next right” billboard aggressively came into view. How satisfying. We arrived at 10:43pm to a deserted Bayview. A girl emerged from a room and offered me her family’s leftover watermelon, cubed in tupperware, her fingers dripping in juice. I declined and she disappeared into the darkness. There was nobody at the front desk despite our knocking and buzzing and calling. We did a lap around the back, and through the window, I peeped a woman watching a horror movie. Our distracted concierge. 

Our room had no jacuzzi and I shivered all night. I listened fearfully to the shouts of people bustling about outside in the earliest hours of the morning. There were kids crying, drunk old guys yelling, and beds shaking violently. My companion Nicky slept soundly, cozy and warm. Meanwhile every noise I heard turned into a horror in my head..

Before Bayview, the day was marvelous. We set off from San Francisco. We lost our third road tripper today. First we drove through an overpriced and underwhelming red wood tree with a frightening Waldo character looking in at us. The real trees were on the avenue of giants, a long stretch through the redwoods. It was silent and empty and endless. 

After the redwoods, before Bayview we happened upon a lagoon. The sun was setting over a ferocious Yellow Sea. Huge waves were crashing violently against a very steep black pebble beach. A static lagoon lurked on the opposite side with a huge moon above- perfect lines of pines, and purple skies. It was similar to Lands End Park’s all encompassing view. The movement and stillness, the peace and chaos… so balanced. It was almost like you could see each view with each eye. One of the happiest places I have ever been. But I did almost get railed by a skunk. And now to Oregon….