Final Night

This is the last post until I return from the trail.

Today I drove back to San Francisco from Santa Cruz.  Nice drive, saw a lot of hawks.  Specifically a Red-Shouldered Hawk, probably a Red-Tailed Hawk, maybe a Condor, and definitely some Turkey Vultures.  Booked into the hotel, picked up Dad from the airport, went to Ghiradelli Square and got some dinner in the Wharf area.  I also cut my hair, super short for the trail.  

So the bear canisters are jam-packed with food, and my gear is all set.  Tomorrow we will wake up early to drive to Merced and catch a bus to Yosemite National Park.  Finally on Wednesday we begin hiking.  

So that's it! Thanks everyone for reading, and I'll be sure to update and recap as soon as I return from the wilderness.  Look forward to some pictures!

until then,

- paul

Elephant Seals

Woke up early today and hit the ground running.

I watched an Elephant Seal colony for fifteen minutes.  That was really incredible.  Got some great shots, and took a short video of two juvenile males playing.  I should clarify that when juvenile male elephant seals "play" it means that they bite at each others neck and slam their massive upper bodies into each other.  The play fighting is a sort of instinctual training, for when adult male elephant seals compete for the favor a female, their fighting is exactly the same as their playing.  They were also noisy, grunting and squeaking and making all kinds of strange blubbery noises.  I also saw a lot of pelican flocks that were flying very close to surface of the ocean.  

After the elephant seal watching I drove back up to Big Sur and got some food at a cafe with a great view of the mountains.  After I finished eating I saw a hummingbird.  I also saw some of the same dark blue birds that were at Nepenthe.  They must be some kind of jay, because they have a similar crown of feathers, and pretty much look like really big blue jays.

So tomorrow it's back to San Francisco to pick up Dad from the airport, and then a night on the town.  Tuesday will be camping day number one, although we will not be doing any hiking on the trail because the majority of the day will be spent traveling to the trail-head.  Tomorrow will be my last post until I return from the wilderness.

- paul

Late Night

Another quick one.

After the stop at the cafe with wi-fi, I continued on down the road until I hit San Simeon.  Unfortunately I did not realize that San Simeon and it's adjacent town are both huge tourist hot spots.  Therefore, I drove around for almost two hours trying to find a hotel with vacancy.  I made phone calls, and went through the list in my GPS, which by the way I could not have survived without.  Thank you GPS!  At one point, I was ready to drive another twenty miles south to look for hotels in another town.  Thankfully, before I committed myself to that decision, I turned around on the road, went back to San Simeon and decided to drive down one tiny street that I had yet to explore.  The first hotel on the road was full and I almost resigned to the fact that I would have to spend the night in my car or search for a campground in the dark, but the second was open!!  I thanked my guiding Spirit and proceeded to check in and crash and watch some TV.  It is worth noting that I had slightly anticipated searching for a place to spend the night, and had made sure to procure my meal before my hotel hunt.  

So tomorrow I am up early to drive back to Big Sur to eat breakfast.  Afer my meal I will driver further north to Santa Cruz to spend the afternoon and night.  Finally on Monday I will return to San Francisco to pick up my father from the airport and then Tuesday we hit 

THE TRAIL...

goodnight

- paul

Down The Coast

Quick post:

Drove through Big Sur and even further.  No cell service in the mountains.  Few stops along the way, ate late lunch at a restaurant called Nepenthe right off of Highway 1.  There were a lot of hungry crows, or maybe they were ravens.  Not sure which.  Driving further south, found a lodge with a wi-fi cafe.  So quick post because I only paid for an hour.  Patchy clouds, occasionally the sun peaks through and spills light on top of the mountains to my left.  They are covered with small shrubs, lichen, moss, and sometimes small coniferous trees.  Going to drive even further and look for a hotel, motel, holiday inn etc.  More words from the road.

- paul

Santa Cruz

At the moment I'm sitting in a cafe in the downtown area of Santa Cruz while a man with a large gray beard sings Beatles' songs.  He's doing alright.  Today I plan to drive further down the coast, possibly to Big Sur.  I got a tip from someone that it's safe to go there now, in other words, it is no longer on fire.  So that's what today holds, so maybe I'll add more later.

Yesterday was really bright and sunny.  I woke up and walked about a mile and a half into the downtown area, hit up a cafe for breakfast, and then walked to the beach.  The beach was really busy, and part of the boardwalk is an amusement park so there were a bunch of roller coasters and rides.  At one of the shops along the boardwalk I hastily purchased some sun tan lotion and a really cheap sand-mat.  I found a spot on the super hot sand, and layed out for fifteen minutes.  After baking I jumped into the water.  First time in the Pacific!  The water was very cold and the sand that swirled in the surf was dark with small gold flecks.  After my beach stint I walked back downtown and caught an afternoon showing of The Dark Knight.  It was awesome.  For dinner I had some great falafel.  I am happy to report that San Francisco is the only place I have ever been served cold falafel, and that Santa Cruz is not afflicted by the same bizarre compulsion that lingered at that cafe in Haight Ashbury.  

Today it is cold in Santa Cruz.  Alas, for the cloud cover that I thought I had escaped from once I left San Francisco has somehow found me.  Therefore I must venture further south to escape this cloud cover once more.

Time to hit the road.

- paul

Further South

I finally made a decision to leave San Francisco and venture further into the surrounding areas, in other words, the unknown.  Remarkably, this morning I found myself resistant to leaving San Francisco.  Certainly despite my own efforts I had become comfortable in the city.  It's actually not that surprising, especially because I had made a few personal connections and had found some awesome places to eat.  Either way, I knew that today I would travel outside of the Bay Area, and so I did.  I haven't travelled that far, definitely not as far as I had thought I might even a few days ago.  My original plan was to travel north up along the coast into Oregon, possibly as far as Eugene, which is eight hours drive from San Francisco.  No thanks!  Instead I ventured south to Santa Cruz, which is where I am now.  I believe I shall go even further south tomorrow, incrementally working along the coast.  

The drive down was beautiful.  I saw several hawks along the way, one was definitely a Turkey Vulture, which are easy to identify because of their prevalence in Westchester.  The others I was unfamiliar with, but I bought a field guide for California so perhaps I will be able to identify them later on.  The first one I saw was flying over the freeway with kill in its mouth, that was really cool, and the other one that I got a really good look at was hanging out on a power-line.  It had speckled wings and a red breast, maybe a juvenile?  Either way, to me they were signs that I was headed in the right direction.

I stopped a few times along the highway and took pictures of the coast, and eventually broke free of the cursed cloud cover that blankets San Francisco.  Here it is warm and sunny and the sky is blue!  Sweeeet.  So now it is time to find lodging for the night, and find a meal, and then look for a dive shop.  It has long been a dream of mine to dive in the giant kelp forests that litter the coast of Santa Cruz.  They are unique marine habitats that are home to sea otters, sharks and lots of tiny fishs.  Now to explore.

- paul

The Beach

Today I went south.

After eating a poorly toasted blueberry bagel and reading some more Dracula, I broke out my California map.  I checked out the areas immediately south of San Francisco and "Half-Moon Bay" immediately caught my eye.  I just have to make a quick note here - there may be a pattern emerging - cold falafel and a poorly toasted bagel, not sure if it's relevant but I thought I would just force a possible connection.  Anyway, I drove south.  Thanks to my GPS I found my way on Highway 1 heading south, and soaked in the beautiful Pacific coastline.  The best part about driving on these coastal highways is that I know it is a truly unique and new experience.  This kind of coastline does not exist in New York.  Plus it's a trip to let it sink in that I am literally on the West Coast.  As I was taking in the sights I saw a beach in the distance and pretty much randomly chose to stop there.  I would love to put some pictures in here to give you an idea of how the beach was secluded in a small bay and surrounded by cliffs, and how the hills rose directly beyond the highway.  Unfortunately I do not have my transfer cable, so the pictures will have to wait until I get back to NY.  

So, the beach.  The first thing I noticed on the beach was that there were blobs of clear goo strewn across the whole of the beach, right in the middle of the high water mark and where the tide was currently falling.  As I moved closer to examine the gooey blobs I noticed that they were in fact jellyfish that had been washed ashore, perhaps during high-tide.  Most of them were about the size of a baseball, but some were really really big, about 1.5 feet in diameter.  If anyone reading this has seen The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, these are the same jellyfish that they talk about in that film.  

So it was pretty incredible to see all of those jellyfish and I took a lot of pictures.  I made my way up the beach, and passed a group of teenagers sunbathing and drinking, saw a photo shoot in action which looked promising but the photographer said it wasn't anyone famous.  Walking further, I encountered two naked guys.  At first it was really shocking, I was definitely not expecting to see naked people on the beach, and it was even more surprising when one of the guys started heckling me for having a camera.  However, he proved to be a nice guy and much to my surprise we ended up having a decent conversation.  I told him that I was visiting from NY and was photographing the beach (not him).  He then related to me stories of how the beach used to be completely nude back in the 60's and that in the last few years, hooligans had been causing mischief by wearing clothes and bringing cameras.  He further related how I had to be careful because some of the biker nudists were not as gracious as himself and had beat the shit out of other guys with cameras in the past.  We parted ways, and I watched the sunset in peace.  It was a good time on the beach.

Tomorrow is unwritten (as usual) yet holds great promise.  I am either spending my last day in San Francisco or heading up to Oregon.  The decision mostly hangs on whether or not I can get another night at this hotel.  That's all for tonight.

- paul

Movement

Today I moved hotels.  Unfortunately the Marriott that I have been staying at since Wednesday is at 105% capacity, (I'm not even sure how that is possible, how can you be over 100% full?).

Anywho, I had to move hotels.  I drove to the marina in hopes of staying at the Marriott near Fisherman's Wharf, alas it was full, so was the hotel across the street, and so was the one down the block.  Eventually I found a hotel that had a room available for ONE night.  Which means of course that tomorrow I have to find another place to stay, but the task seems less daunting because the street I am has about five hotels in a three block stretch.  Phew!

So after ensuring my residence for the evening, I decided to drive to Twin Peaks, which I think is the highest point in San Francisco.  It was kind of a let down because the visibility was terrible today.  (I'm still getting used to San Francisco's unique and isolated weather patterns)  Afterwards I ventured to Haight Ashbury, the hippie cradle of the west coast, after eating a dank breakfast/lunch I wandered around the numerous tibetan buddhist shops and independent bookstores.  I even resisted the urge to get another tattoo.  A particular highlight of the area was ordering a chai latte from a woman who barely spoke english.  

A note on my experience with food in San Francisco thus far:  For all my fellow New Yorkers - everything you've heard about how pizza is terrible in California is pretty much accurate - barely any sauce, way overcooked, and furthermore not a pinch of oregano was to be found in the pizza shop I ate at tonight.  Plus when I ordered a chicken parmigiana from the same restaurant a few days before, again little sauce, and when I asked for extra marinara sauce, it was cold!  So that's pizza.  Second - I ordered a falafel pita this afternoon and it was also cold.  Who serves cold falafel!?!? It was gross.  That's enough ranting on food.

Overall a good day, another adventure awaits tomorrow.

- paul

Late Night

Double post:

Yesterday was great, a nice warm day, I spent a good amount of time at the SFMoMA.  Right now the Frida Kahlo exhibit is going on, and that was really great to see.  Especially some of the paintings she made later in life, really esoteric and psychedelic.  I also caught Hellboy 2.  I also found some awesome little restaurants, especially one place called 'Wichcraft.  All about sandwiches.

But today was really the best day so far.  I woke up a little late, ate down by the Marina and decided to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.  I journeyed along the Panoramic Highway, a highway that winds constantly and is situated right on a cliff.  I checked out Muir Woods, and walked around the Redwoods for an hour or so, I saw some deer, and some small birds.  The smell of the woods was overwhelming, lots of fragrant grasses and shrubs that looked like Honeysuckle.  Then I drove further north to Stinson Beach and put my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  It was really cold!  After checking out the beach for a short while, I drove south on Highway 1, another twisty and windy road, and this time the dropoff on the right went straight into the ocean.  It was really great driving on these windy highways, it was definitely an experience that I have never had in New York.  

After my brief wilderness excursion, (which was really just a taste of what I will be immersed in as I hike the John Muir Trail in just about a week) I caught a great concert. 

Here I must inform the evening with some information.

When I was a freshman at SUNY Fredonia, (hour west of Buffalo) I saw a psychedelic-jazz-fusion band called The Slip.  They were the first band I ever saw in college.  Tonight I had the opportunity to see them again, although instead of northwestern New York, it was in downtown San Francisco.  The band has since collaborated with songwriter Nathan Moore and for the moment plays under the name Surprise Me Mr. Davis.  Two bands opened, Rainmaker, an awesome jam-southernish rock band, and Big Light a band that I can't really confine to a genre because they had so many variations throughout their set.  Anyway, Surprise Me Mr. Davis was incredible, great stage presence, humor, talent, just all around awesome!  Plus they played at a really tiny venue called 'Cafe du Nord' a really tiny venue, (akin to NYC's Knitting Factory).  So after a great day, I'm exhausted, tomorrow is open-ended, no plans except eating well, and seeing new sights.

- paul

Getting Lost

I'm still getting a grip on the city, especially the deceptive temperature and the fashion.

One thing about New York: when the sun shines (in summer) it's hot.  I cannot yet say that with confidence for San Francisco.  

This morning I ate breakfast in a Starbucks around the corner from my hotel and began reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Not a cheerful read, but perhaps slightly appropriate, for similar to the main character, I am venturing forward into a foreign land, although I am not about to become guest and servant to an ancient vampire.  After breakfast (blueberry scones and tea) I decided to walk around.  I'm not sure if I planned to get lost, but lost is what I got.  It was actually a lot of fun though.  I walked up a really, REALLY steep street, hung out inside a cathedral, snapping photos along the way, ate lunch at an Indian buffet restaurant and continued on.  I walked to City Hall, and then backtracked a bit and found my way to the hotel.  

This evening is not really planned, probably dinner and I might see a movie.  

However, I am happy to report that tomorrow will be dreadfully exciting.  My one San Francisco contact, who recently moved back to New York, gave me some awesome tips on spots to check out.  Therefore, tomorrow will be spent at the SFMoMA, purchasing chicken burritos, eating ice cream and perhaps getting lost again.

The best is yet to come.

- paul

First Step

I left JFK this morning with my usual pre-flight jitters, but they were quickly swept away as I flew over the Rockies and parts of the Grand Canyon.  I had a short layover at Los Angeles and then hopped on a short flight to San Francisco.  So here I am, in a HUGE freaking hotel room.  Seriously this room is really big, the hotel clerk told me I was "upgraded" when I checked in and now I am in one of the "Junior Suites"...pretty snazzy.  The time here is 7:30.  That's going to take some getting used to, but thankfully my sleep cycle has been such that I am already accustomed to a West Coast time zone. 

So there were a few potential hiccups along the way, my luggage was ALMOST lost, but I broke my chain of bad luck with luggage and found it shortly after I got off my flight.  Next, the rental car agency wanted to give me a mini-van...not such a big deal, but not exactly what I wanted to drive around California and Oregon for the next eleven days.

So, the room is awesome, San Francisco is awesome, and I managed to find free wi-fi in my room.  Now off to find some dinner.

- Paul