I'm with the band....

We arrived in Arroyo Grande and spent 4 days with our old Alaskan friends, Kit Roberts & John Pope who have recently left Anchorage for warmer climes. It’s a beautiful community where life is a beach! They have just begun eating “raw”, which is all uncooked whole foods, which I must say, even for the short time that Kent & I participated, was absolutely delicious. We are committed to adding more fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet and bought a juicer, which we had been thinking about for a long time prior. This was the little nudge we needed. We drove up the California coast to a beach and watched wind and rain pound waves into the rocks as we combed the beach for jade stone. Lunch: vegetable cakes and carob brownies. Yum. Breakfast: Mango banana smoothies. Yum. Turns out Kit plays ukele and sings so we jammed old Hawaiian tunes, some upbeat and fun, while others were gorgeous as a Hawaiian waterfall. I love traditional music and the Hawaiian language is purely magical. I accompanied Kit to a “jam night” with other ukele players in town and we rocked the house, so to speak. I was the only guitar player, but no matter......"I'm with the band" (I've always wanted to say that) Dinner: zucchini fetticini and lemon-date parfait. Yum. Departure: Up the coast we went again, slowly and sure footed. Camper packed to the gills, with enchanting music Kit prepared for us that matched the breathtaking landscape of the Pacific’s steep cliffs and pounding sea. Camped at Plaskett State Park, right across Hwy. 1 from Jade Cove, where Kent spent the morning rock-hounding the precious stones. That evening, whilst starting a fire with damp wood, Kent was eating his sandwich, with his back turned to the picnic table. It was a dark night. He picked up his sandwich & noticed the top bread was missing. He asked me..."did you eat part of my sandwich?" Suddenly, I turned and saw a huge coon sitting on the table, munching on Kent's bread. I could have sworn it had a grin on its face...stealthily he carried out his task, right under our noses! The bandit stuck around. We felt like we were being keenly watched. He came back 3 more times, but now we were vigilant, and he, unsuccessful. Are we not easily entertained?? To top that off, the next morning hiking back from the beach, we followed a bobcat mozying down the road. Bingo. Off again. Whoa, the farther north we go, the steeper the cliffs, and the more beautiful it gets. Spent an evening at Esalen, getting massages and soaking in the mineral baths 300 feet above the ocean at sunset. Livin'.

Soaking in the Santa Barbara sun

The green sea folds and crashes to shore here on Jalama Beach. A kite surfer flies across the waves with enormous speed in expertly carved motorless motion. Amazing. Looks like tons of fun…the guy never falls and starts over, like in surfing, coz the wind keeps him clipping across the waves for as long as he wishes. Wow! The next best thing to flying. That reminds me…I recently read that the newest craze in the snowboard world (Chris says he sometimes dreams about snowboarding, now that he lives in California) is called No-boarding. This is a snow board with NO bindings; just a traction plate for your feet and an attached cord. 40 degree drops off clean air cornices. Wish we were 20 again! So here’s our update: the last couple weeks in beautiful Santa Barbara watching basketball games, hiking the beaches, collecting more rocks and reading in the sun. This is such a gorgeous, peaceful, small-town feeling, conscious place, with the Santa Inez Mountains on one side and the blue Pacific on the other. Great nightlife, whether you’re young or old, wonderful art galleries, stimulating lectures on all sorts of subjects, and superb restaurants. Went shopping downtown and parused the Farmer's Market where we scored fresh fruit and vegetables for the trip down the road. Paul and Jo (UCSB basketball boosters) invited us to housesit for 4 days at their home in Hope Ranch. We took care of their dogs, Sitka and Juneau (yes…named after Alaskan towns!) and their 2 cats. After that we hung out with Zach and Jenna before heading down the road to Jalama Beach. Life is good.

Mojave Desert Camp

Yesterday we camped atop Mt. Palomar and drove through San Bernadino National Forest, and through back road pastoral towns where we saw miles and miles of old fire damage; even the air smelled charred. Soaked at Desert Hot Springs (where we had interesting conversations with a group of traveling peace pilgrims), encountered a sand storm that nearly blew us off the highway, and finally settled down Old Woman Springs Rd. and into the sweet smell of pinon trees. Today: “Ain’t nobody here but us chickens...” We’re off-road about 30 miles into the Mojave Desert, and I kiss the ground with thanks that I’m married to an adventurous man (who doesn’t mind loud music). Open your heart and “Say what you need to say…” (that would be John Mayer at about 120 decibels; also a theme song for Bucket List) as we creep through barren desert sands and burnt out tumbleweed. There is actually a plan: find Opal Mountain on land owned by the BLM (the locals have labeled the Bureau of Land Management “bastard lowlife morons” with very impressive professional looking signs I might add). I don’t think they like those guys very much. We have found our rock hounding site, and with a rock pick, collecting bag and chisel, Kent (after parking us atop a mountain to catch menyana’s (spelling… “tomorrow” in Spanish) desert morning sun, immediately boogied in search of the common opal and agate (stones carried to increase one’s self-esteem, which makes me want to barf;) I was hoping for something lofty like enlightenment! No matter. Common opal comes in orange, red, green, yellow and white. Although it doesn’t have the fire attributed to precious opal, it does seem to be “fired” with an inner glow (good enough for me). It occurs in seams in the mountain rock and is easily fractured. After a full day of rock hounding, we came back with lots of specimens. We climbed to the top of Opal Mountain and I remembered this quote: “I wouldn’t trade one hour of this marvelous air for all the cultural riches of New York. It’s as real as a glass of cold white wine.” Fine scene indeed. On the mountain top a single raven came circling above my head; he was cawing and riding the wind currents up and down (no wings flapping)…pretty amazing. I turned to see a pile of rocks and went to investigate; there I found a glass jar with paper and pencil and entries of others as far back as 1998. I added our words of wisdom and started on back down the mountain. We agreed there was no day greater than this one…so far!

Southern California

The days are sunny and bright. We love San Deigo! "Virginia", our GPS, is invaluable in the city; takes us exactly where we want to go, without having to mess with maps and switching lanes in a pinch. Her lovely voice gives us plenty of lead time. Toured Balboa Park and the San Diego Natural History museum and Photographic museum. Art, like nature, is so uplifting and inspirational! Can't live without it... Drove the bridge over to Coronado Island and met up with my cousin Ian at the Hotel Del Coronado. Visited cousins (the Marzonie's, my Dad's side) in La Jolla, which is a gorgeous seaside town. Staying in Mission Park, and today are headed for the Himalaya mine to dig for tourmalene, and a hotsprings to soak in afterwardes. We saw the movie Bucket List last night. We challenge everyone to make a list of all the things you want to do in this life time, and start doing them...NOW!