We're back from the land of blue dolphins and blue sky, except that both are decided more gray than blue. The fog and cool air carried us through the Bay Area, which is where I left you.
After Chez Panisse, we were happy to get back on the road, where nature made us feel more comfortable than a busy city. The redwoods spoiled us.
We stayed in Rio del Mar, between Santa Cruz and Monterey. On Sunday, we hit a very crowded Montery Bay Aquarium. The animals were great (I even spotted a sea otter in the bay!), but the photography opportunities were even better, especially with the jellyfish. I have a feeling they designed those tanks to look so gorgeous.
After the aquarium, we drove through the Big Sur area I fell in love with through Jack Kerouac's stories. Cambria was our destination, where we stayed at the Bridge Street Inn, an adorable old home that's now a hostel. We had our own cute little room, and I wish we could have spent a few days there exploring the nearby Paso Robles wine region. After the night at the hostel, we made a pit stop at Trader Joe's (please come to Austin!) before enjoying a wine tasting at Pomar Junction winery. We chatted with brothers who run it and sipped deep, glorious wines that reminded me what's the big deal with California winemaking.
That afternoon, in countryside and weather that reminded us of Texas, we meandered down the road to Santa Barbara, where we stayed at my cousin Nick's cabin tucked in the mountains above the city. It's wildfire country up there, but we had only gorgeous weather and fine company (Nick was out of town, but his friends Peter and Collin made us feel welcome).
36 hours of wine tasting, sunning on the beach, eating fresh mussels, shrimp and scallops, relaxing in a redwood hot tub, doing yoga with the birds, watching the sunset from a rock at the highest point on the property. It was one of our favorite stops on the trip.
Next up was L.A., where we hooked back up with Emily. I got the super special Ian tour of L.A., the highlight, of course, his old apartment off Hollywood Blvd., just around the corner from the Michael Jackson sidewalk star that was horded with people on Wednesday.
After a delicious sidecar cocktail at a place on Melrose called 8 oz., we drove up Melrose to the Against the Stream meditation center, where author Noah Levine leads weekly group meditation on Wednesdays. Ian is a fan of Levine's book, Dharma Punx, and had heard about these sessions that opened my mind about people who live in L.A. Like New York, you must follow an attitude and dress code. The codes are many, but they are what makes Los Angeles unique, which in turn makes me never want to live there. But after this session, where we were meditating on treating each other, including our enemies and ourselves, with loving kindness, I saw through the tattoo sleeves, faux hawks and Zooey Deschanel-lookalikes and found eccentric, delightful and -- most importantly -- kind folks. The same qualities I find in people in Austin. Still don't think I'd want to live in L.A., but I have a different perspective on the city because of Mr. Levine's community.
Directly after post-meditation ice cream, we headed to San Diego. An In-and-Out burger fueled us to Clairmont, where Uncle Chris was waiting, bottles of wine already chilled. We stayed up until 3 a.m. catching up on all that's happened in the five years since I was out there last. It was like we hadn't missed a day.
Chris and Betsy lead us on a tour of the city on Thursday, we cooked a lovely meal that night, and hit the zoo in the morning. Another wonderful 36 hours in a city we both adore.
After discovering a copy of The Artist's Way at Nick's, I've been reinspired to write morning pages. They went by the wayside (as did journaling in general) after Julian was born, but I'm going to try to integrate it into our routine. I'll leave the post-vacation reflection there, but suffice it to say that it was a definitive trip for Ian and me. We needed that time together, and the Pacific Ocean was the perfect setting to rejuvenate our creative souls and power us through the intense -- and therefore enriching -- life we lead.
Pictures, pictures everywhere! I only took my Canon Rebel XT digital SLR on this trip. Ian shot with an iFlip and he'll be putting together a video soon. Here are some of the pictures from the last half of the trip, but the
Flickr set contains all the rest.
And one more thing: I'm fascinated with translation. This sign says in Spanish "Don't write names in the nopal [cactus]," a very different message, laden with cultural insights, than the English instruction.
