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What to say about today? That it was a long hard eight hours of driving? Well, it was.

We decided, after an early morning look at the map, that even leaving at 7 AM, we’d never make Bandon, Oregon, before dark if we tried to go up on the coast route. So, we changed our plan to one in which we’d blaze up the 5 Interstate and then cut over to the coast on Oregon highway 42.

It all worked like that, with a few coffee and rest stops thrown in. I’ve been up the 5 like this many times over the years but it was all new for Colette. The flat central valley rose into hills and then tree-covered moutains as we went further and further north.

Mt. Shasta hid from us like Mt. Diablo did yesterday. The weather got colder and colder and snow appeared in patches along the highway in the higher zones. And the wind cut like a knife when it blew.

But, the car was cruisy and smooth with the cruise control and the music. At one point, we listened to most of T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”. I swear I hear more in them each time I listen.

About 4 PM, we got to the 42 turn off just a bit south of Roseberg. The road out the the coast was really rural and enjoyable but when we finally pulled into Bandon, it was just 5 PM and a little after sunset.

It was raining hard and getting really dark quick from the big storm and its driving wind and rain. It was so black at times that I was constantly looking to make sure I wasn’t going to run up a curve or down into a ditch that I couldn’t see. Please, Dr. Frankenstien, adjust my tensionizer!

Upon arrival, we discovered that the phone number we had for the rental agents had been cut off by the printer at home and we hadn’t realized it. Bad news.

To make a long and painful story short, after an hour of thrashing, we finally found the place and discovered the key where they’d stashed it for us.

We were both fried at that point. Eight hours of hard driving followed by a major hunt for the rental agents and the rental in a strange town in the midst of a big North Pacific storm.

The place was beautiful but we locked it up again and went out for a meal at the local Thai restaurant to sit and relax a bit and do some creature comfort mindless stuff.

So, we’re back now in our comfy big rental house. Someone in Colette’s family owns it so we’re getting a free night. The storm is still raging outside. I’ve worked out how to heat the house up with the thermostat (Rental agents, you could have done this for us knowing folks were coming!).

So, other than a lot of driving and a small bit of panic at the end, there’s not much to tell about today.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Portland where we have a hotel room (well located in advance!) waiting for us. Though I’m sure we’ll want to have a look around here in the morning in the daylight to see where we’ve washed up.

dennis

We spent our last day with Dave driving around in the eastern bay area.

First, we drove up to the top of Mt. Diablo after coffee in Walnut Creek. I was last up there in, perhaps, 1979.

3800 feet up, the view would have been spectacular except that the peak was buried in cloud. But, the center the State of California runs up there was cool and we had a good look around it.

Then, as we drove down, Colette got interested in the cool fall colors so we stopped several times while she gathered some great shots. Then we stopped a place that I think was called, “The High Tech Burrito”, and we each had a big one. Yum, but stuffed we were (if I might yodatorialize).

Then we set Dave’s GPS to take us to Berkeley. Always a favorite of mine. When I’m in the Bay Area, I usually manage to get by for a walk on the campus. We had coffee in a crowded coffee shop on Shatuck and walked for a few blocks around in the area checking out the shops. We also drove up into the hills above the campus and checked out the houses and architecture.

Another GPS setting took us back to Benicia and a quiet evening in. Dave had a movie for us called “Reversable Errors” Tom Sellick 2004. It was good but long. We got to bed about 1100 PM.

The plan is to get up early and take off in the morning as we have a long drive to get to Bandon, Oregon before dark.

dennis

Big adventure day today. Up early, a breakfast of granola and yogurt, a visit to the local Starbucks and Colette and I took off to Concord to find the BART station so we could ride into downtown San Fransisco (SF) without the car.

BART’s fun. I’ve only been on it once before, as I can recall, and that was in the early 90’s. From Concord it took about 50 minutes to get into the city where we got off at the Powell Station just beside a huge underground shopping center dominated by a Nordstroms.

We had a few things we wanted to accomplish but our plans were pretty loose so we could adjust as opportunities presented themselves.

The first thing we wanted to do was to ride the cable cars but at the boarding point near the Powell street BART station, there was a long queue so we decided to take a pass on it – at least for the moment. We thought we’d walk up the cable car line and see the city along that stretched and then maybe board it at the far end for a ride back.

Well, that all changed because the cable car tracks turned off north in a way that we didn’t expect and because we found ourselves getting into Chinatown which fascinated us. We never did ride the cable cars.

We walked up one street and then down the next just soaking it all up. At one shop, we stopped in and each bought a Chinese water color painting. I wasn’t giong to but when I saw the one I bought, I knew I had to have it.

At another point, we came to a park (not sure which one) where there were many people gathered. Some were doing what I took to be Falong Gong poses. On a wall were photos of people who had been beaten and I assumed these were also Falong Gong related. Women with baby strollers, old men talking and people every where. It was a great place. About 15 groups of men were playing cards on sheets of cardboard laid on park benches and I could see money exchanging hands.

Then we spied Coit Tower on Telegraph hill and decided to go for it. Whew, what a climb. But well worth it when we got to the top and looked around. Lots of photos were shot there.

Next, we walked downhill towards the waterfront and ended up walking out onto Pier 39 which is, I believe, part of what’s called “San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf”. Out on the end was an excellent Japanese Restaurant, “Hana Zen”, that I thought was going to have really high prices given its location. Not so! We were given a beautiful window-side table annd the food was reasonably priced and the service excellent. Recommended.

We had a bit more of a stroll around Pier 39 and then we hailed a cab to take us over to near the entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge because we wanted to walk out onto it.

$18 later, we were there. Colette had a premonition, as we were dropped off, that getting a cab back from this area might not be as easy as getting there was (and she turned out to be right!).

Walking out on the bridge was really nice. I’d walked out to the mid-point from the north side once in the 90’s with Dave. Today, Colette and I walked out to the same mid-point from the south (city) side. There are such huge views.

I’ve walked out now twice, been under it twice on ships (going to and coming from New Zealand) and driven over it somewhere between a half dozen and a dozen time during my life. It’s always a thrill.

Back from the walk, we looked in vain for a cab and started walking thinking we’d be able to see and flag one down. Right! We walked and walked and never saw an opportunity.

One nice side effect, however, was that eventually we walked south along Fillmore and loved the neighborhood. We definitely want to return and spend more time there.

So we continued walking aiming for Japantown which is where we were going to have the cab take us next, if we ever found one. We still couldn’t find a cab and by the time we got into the Japantown neighborhood, it was dusk and we were thinking we might need to save it for our next visit. And, the area we were in wasn’t what we expected and that meant we were probably a block or two off from where we should have been.

More walking and looking for cabs ensued. Finally, about the time we began to get back into areas where cabs might be expected to pick us up, we realized that we’d walked more than 3/4 of the way back to the BART station already so we might as well just finish the treek on foot. So, we did.

Finally, we found the Civic Center BART station and worked out which platform and train to catch and we are, finally, off our feet. I don’t know how far we walked and how many vertical feet we went up and down today, but it was a lot! My feet and left knee were talking to me when we finally sat down in the train.

Another 50 minute ride back to Concord Station and then into the car for the ride back to Dave’s. It started raining as soon as we got in the car and we reflected how lucky we’d been all day that the rain had held off all day for us.

A quick stop at the local market by Dave’s for a packet of Sushi and then home. The sushi gobbled and two nice glasses of Saki downed and I was off to bed after a nice long and relaxing shower.

Great, great day. Very memorable.

dennis

A quiet catching up day of talking, washing clothes and just being mellow. Breakfast at Dave’s and then a ride to downtown Benicia for lunch at “Sailor Jacks”. I had the Calimari – yum! Then to the market where we all picked out stuff for the next few days including tonight’s meal.

In the evening, Colette cooked us fish, rizzotto and green beans and it was good. The halibut was melt-in-your-mouth stuff.

Dave had a copy of the classic Casablanca and we watched it. An excellent movie which I’ve never tiered of though I’ve probably seen it five times.

dennis

It was a nice day getting here to Benicia. Up this morning, we had breakfast at the motel and then we took a walk up Pacific Avenue to see a bit of Santa Cruz’s downtown area. It was OK, but I think some of the other towns we’ve seen outshine it. But, we found a good coffee shop and had a bit of the old Java to get us going.

Then, back at the room, we both spent some time on our computers before we checked out. We left the car at the motel after checkout and walked across the street and rented two cruiser bicycles and went for an hour’s ride along the coastal bike and walking trail that goes west from the wharf area. A coastal fog was around but not too bad and it was a good ride.

Later, on the way out of town, we took a ride out Bay street and up into the Univeristy of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). It was interesting, to say the least. I’ve never seen a campus quite like this one. It was widely and sparsely spread out through a hilly and forested area. All the roads quickly turned onto small twisty turny things that dead ended into unlikly parking lots. It was all quite beautiful. But without a map and some study, I don’t know how anyone would ever find their way around the place.

The ride from Santa Cruz up to San Francisco (SF) on Highway 1 took us through some more isolated and beautiful California coastal scenery. Miles and miles of it. Towards the end, as we approached SF, we stopped into Pacifica where I’d come with Dave on my last visit to the area last April. We had a cuppa there and I sent Dave an E-Mail so he had someidea of our probable arrival time and then we were off again.

SF was only 16 miles up the road but still, to get through the city, over the Golden Gate Bridge and then across the east side and up to Benicia was a business of nearly two hours.

The aproach through SF was fun as always and also a bit nerve wracking as it is not a city I am deeply familiar with. But, the roads towards the Golden Gate Bridge wre well marked so for the most part, I just followed them and enjoyed the ambiance of the citygoing by. I was conscious of reading one of Amy Tan’s books recently, “The Bone Setter’s Daughter”, in which a lot of the story unfolds in SF.

Finally, the bridge appeared and it was up and over. Colette and I are planning to come back into SF on Saturday (I’m describing Thursday’s journey here and writing from Dave’s place on Friday morning). We’re going to see if we can noodle out how to use the BART System which will be anadventure in itself, I think. C’s been on many of the world’s large city transport systems (Paris, London, etc.) so I think she’ll be good at it. So, when we return, we’ll BART in and go to SF’s Fisherman’s Wharf and, if possible, walk over to the Golden Gate Brige and take a walk over it and back which should be fun.

More about my friend, Dave, and his place soon. Today, we’re just laying about, washing clothers and enjoyed some down time and some chat time.

dennis

This blog’s normal content has changed strongly these last two weeks from a long running examination of all the things going on in our world that I group under the ruberic, “The Perfect Storm”, to a blog which is primarily focused on my personal life.

This came about because Colette and I, my New Zealand partner and roommate (I’m living at her house since the earthquakes), have undertaken a two-month trip to the USA to tour the westcoast from bottom to top and back again. This blog then, dear readers, has morphed into my personal record of that trip.

It will, I strongly suspect, revert to its previous focus soon after the trip’s completed. In fact, it will do so and also split into two Blogs where there once was one.

Samadhisoft.com will be giving birth to a progeny blog called, cyber-chaos.com. It exists now but it’s not yet populated with posts. If you were to select the Category, “Cyber-Chaos” from among those in the Categories area of this samadhisoft blog, you’d see that I have collected a lot of stories in the last few months that I’ve tagged with this new “cyber-chaos” category. All of these stories will move to the new cyber-chaos.com blog because I think it is a topic that deserves a blog in its own right.

But, after this long teaser, let’s move into the proported subject of this post. I.e., “Colette”.

A good friend and a reader asked me who this ‘Colette’ person is that has been so prominant in all my posts since this trip began. So I thought I should say a few words about her here.

Colette is a New Zealander of Irish extraction. Her mother was born in Ireland and her father’s grandparents came from there as well. She was born and raised along with three sisters in the southeastern coastal town of Oamaru on NZ’s South Island. She went to University in Dunedin, New Zealand and has an honors degree in English and three post-graduate degrees in teaching, counselling and technical communication. She married after university and had two sons and has lived in Christchurch, New Zealand for the last 34 years. Her boys both graduated from univeristy as well and work now in the legal and banking sectors; one in New Zealand and the other in Australia. All this time, she’s worked for the New Zealand Ministry of Justice; first in probation and more recently in victim services.

She’s seven years younger than I am and very physically fit. She’s slim, tall (5’8″/173cm) and pretty. But, best of all, she’s an intelligent, sensitive and thoughtful person who is easy to get along with. I think a good way to describe her would be to say that she’s a person who deeply understands and lives the ethic that we should give away the very things we would like to receive in life.

dennis

Up this morning in Monterey early for a quick breakfast as provided by the motel and then we walked into town for coffee at Peets.

Then we walked on looking for the Mission in Monterey. After wandering a bit, we found it and had a good look around.

I’m really starting to like looking at these old California missions. Lots of interesting history there from well before Mexico owned California. As always, lots of photographs were taken. Colette’s been a lot better about posting them on Facebook than I have been.

Then we returned to the room and checked out and drove down to see Cannery Row in Monterey. John Steinbeck would not, I’m sure, have recognized it. Shops and restaurants everywhere and, scattered about, a few photos and memorabilia of the days he wrote about. There was a huge aquarium there, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, as well but time was pressing us and these folks wanted $25 each for admission – so we passed. I think I can find it all on the Science Channel or rent the video.

After that, we retraced our steps back to Carmel to see the Mission there. We’d arrived the previous night just as they were closing up so we wanted to return for another look. I was surprised. This might be the nicest of the missions we seen in terms of beauty and preserved artifacts and good explanations. It was a beautiful place.

Nearby was a shopping center where we’d gone into Safeway the day before. We returned there again and bought a little tray of sushi for lunch and then went next door to an area with a collection of small shops called the Crossroads Shopping Center. That place was a sleeper. Very cool and upscale shops. Carmel is a bit higher on the wealth food chain than I’d realized.

While we were sitting having a coffee, a camera crew came by and did a take just in front of us. Depending on which of the three takes they use, we may be on local television in the background. Not that we’ll ever know since we’ll be gone but it’s fun to think about. The shoot had something to do with the shopping center and the things it offers, I believe.

All sorted and caffienated, we started north now up the 101 towards Santa Cruz (SC). Not a lot that was interesting to see along the way. Once into SC we did our normal routine and found a coffee shop with free WiFi, went to booking.com and looked up motels and scanned for the ones with good rates ($59 to $69), with free WiFI and with a complementary breakfast. Bingo! They’ve been easy to find thus far and we’ve been pretty happy with what we’ve found. I’ve even limped around once or twice and gotten us another $10 off for my being an elderly fellow (smile).

So, we found a nice one here only three blocks from the waterfront and the SC pier. We got in quite early since Monterey and SC are so close together so by 3 PM, we were checked in and ready to go adventuring.

We took off walking and went down to the wharf and walked all the way out too the end. It is long! Big Sea Lions out there sleeping on the under-pilings of the pier, diving, and calling out. It was big fun to watch them. Then, we walked back in and took off west along the shoreline on a bike/walking trail.

The view was beautiful. Monterey Bay is quite large but, when it is clear, you can easily see across it to the southern side where Monterey is. Today, it was partially foggy but we could see the hills above the far side quite well.

The coastline where we were walking turns and twists and is mostly a cliff about thirty feet high and fairly steep. At one point, down near the lighthouse. there was a place where stairs went part way down and where you could climb over the big rocks the rest of the way. A dozen of so teenagers were carrying down oversized surfboards which they slipped into the water between waves and then mounted two-by-two until there were four boards and eight kids out there. All laying belly down on the board one in front of the other. They were having a great time while another 10 or 12 folks watched them from above chase around a rock and through the incoming waves. It’s pretty obvious that kids here grow up eating and breathing the surfing life.

I was really tired when we got back. Thinking over it, I realized that we’ve talked long distances day after day now for four days and it’s a bit more that I’ve been used to. One of my knees was talking to me a bit so I’m thinking it’s time to give it a rest. Tomorrow, we’ll rent bicycles and get a different kind of exercise. We’re going to ride out along the long boardwalk that they have here in SC – which we’re looking forward to.

This evening was lucky for us. The restaurant down at the base of the wharf has whole, live, Maine lobsters on special on Wednesday evenings for $11.95. And today is WEDNESDAY!

So, down we went. Big lobsters all in their shell; complete. We had fun breaking them apart – yum! Lot of work though and a messy business.

Now we’re in for the evening and just hanging out. This time tomorrow, we’ll be at my buddy Dave’s place in Benecia in the San Francisco area jusy north of Richmond.

Dennis

In Monterey now at the El Adobe Inn. Just got back from a walk down to the fisherman’s wharf. But, the wharf was not the big attraction tonight. On the way, on Munras Avenue, we encountered a four block stretch blocked off from cars and set up for street vendors and there were many of them there selling everything from jewelery to sushi. It was packed and fun to stroll through looking at everything.

Today’s drive was really nice. The stretch from Morro Bay to Monterey is glorious. Mile after mile of rugged coastline with spots to pull off and take a look;, which we did many times.

We stopped into the visitor center at Hearst’s Castle and looked through it. I think we got thee drift without going up the hill for the big tour.

At a stop not long after, a lot of seagulls, both full grown and fledglings, were just lying about in the parking lot like they were too casual to move – even for a car. We got out and we’d walked a few feet for a better look at the sea and the cliffs when Colette noticed small animal standing up on a rock looking at us. It was a squirel.

We walked over for a better look full expecting it to vanish as soon as it saw us getting closer. Instead, it jumped off the rock and ran right over to her and at that point, she began to back up pretty briskly! She said she was afraid it was just going to keep coming and run right up her leg.

Indeed, it came within 18 inches of her foot. And, everytime she backed up, it would charge again. I was laughing so hard I could hardly speak.

Finally, she got a bagel from the car to appease it and then all the seagulls leaped to life and began to swirl and kaw. It was all great fun. Soon a second squirrel came out and the bagel didn’t last long.

We stopped for lunch at a small place called Gorda at a cafe with a nautical bric-a-brac theme. Food was a bit expensive but the views were nice.

When we got to Carmel, we took a trip through town on the side streets. A pretty but expensive place, I think.

Then onto Monterey and here we are settled in for another evening. Tomorrow, onto Santa Cruz, which we are really looking forward to.

Dennis

We’re in our room here in San Luis Obispo (SLO) after having had a nice walk into town to see the SLO mission and to see some of the downtown streets in the early morning. It’s a pretty univeristy town with a lot to recommend it. I still think Santa Barbara’s at the top of my list, however.

Yesterday, after a great tour of Santa Barbara with our friends, Marcia and PJ, we took off north on 101. All pretty country in a part of California where I have not, previously, spent much time. We took a side trip to Solvang, a Danish enclave out here in the middle of Spanish heritage, California. Interesting and different. Doesn’t seem much different than I remembered it when I last visited in the 1970’s with my first wife, Rose.

From Solvang, we found a market in the next town up the road, Buellton (sp?) and gathered a few things to eat in the car.

The weather along the coast had been bright and clear but the California coastal fog seemed to be waiting for us futher inland though it burned off as the afternoon advanced.

From Solvang, we drove up and through Santa Maria and then back out the the coast again at Pismo Beach. We parked there briefly and had a walk on their pier. Pismo Beach was interesting because of its isolation. Yet, there were many fine houses up on the bluffs with spectacular views and I found myself wondering if all of them were retirement places or if people found a way to make a good living in such a spot. Truly, the long California coast hides many worlds and opportunities and I’ve been privy to seeing many of them through new eyes since we walked in San Clemente and then began our slow trek north.

We’ve already talked a bit about perhaps shortening our time in Utah and Arizona in favor or spending more time in this area when we make the return down this coast from San Francisco back to Los Angeles and Irvine prior to flying back to New Zealand.

Two months seems a long time for a vacation and yet, and yet, I think that every day we have to pass by something we would have liked to spend more time investigating.

Colette continues to be an excellent travelling partner and an excellent partner in general. Calm, thoughtful, reflective, intelligent and interested in everything around her. I am finding the views of my homeland through her eyes to be one of the joys of this trip.

My own memories of all the years I spent in California are also firing as we move from place to place. Sometimes I fear that I’ve been far too self absorbed and too much of a vagabond and a sensualist in this life. But then, as we travel and I remember, I find I am recalling and reliving a life with so much experience and joy in it. I can only hope I haven’t been too hard on some of those who have shared parts of the journey with me. But for me and what I’ve lived and can remember, I have few regrets. Que bellissimo.

So, we pulled into SLO as the twilight was gathering and had to search through the tree laden streets to try to find the heart of the town. Then found, it proved to be full of people and motion. Coffee shops, students, trees, art stores. All such a pleasant mix. It made you just want to get out and stroll in it.

We criused until we found a Starbucks and parked and went in to use their free Internet and located where SLO’s motel row was. A few possibilities were found and off we went to engage a room for the night.

For the first time since we landed, we were in a room alone with some quiet time. Please, this is not a complaint. We have loved everyone’s embrace of us as we’ve come into their homes. But here, we could finally sort our suitcases, write up things on our laptops, Skype a few friends, take long showers and simply sit and relax for a bit in relative silence. It all has its place.

Today, We are going to drive one of the most intense and isolated bits of the California coast. We’ll go from SLO to Morro Bay and then up highway 1 all the way to Monterey Bay. We’ve decided that we going to skip Hurst’s Castle. It was a temptation but we’ve decided that we prefer to the the ‘life’ of cities like SLO and the reality of the raw coastlines over the preserved and lifeless (now) treasures of yester years. We can always rent the video about Hurst but we can only experience the coast we’ll see today in the living now.

Love to all who are reading these words,

dennis

Great drive up the coast yesterday. First we went to Whole Foods in Irvine and grabbed some apples and stuff and then we were off. 405 freeway zoom up to the San Pedro 110 and then south.

Whoops! Bit of a detour as I’d forgotten that I wanted to take Colette over the bridges from Long Beach to San Pedro, so we cut back over to Long Beach at Pacific Coast Highway and then followed the LB freeway south until it promised to take us to the harbor and San Pedro.

Then up and over the bridge to Terminal Island and then up and over the Vincente Thomas Bridge and into San Pedro.

I took her by the early San Pedro home of the Nichols Institue and then we embarked to take the road around Palos Verdes to the beach cities; Hermosa, Redondo and Manhattan and then up past Venice Beach, Santa Monica and out onto the coast up to Santa Barbara.

It was a fun and mellow drive. Lunch at a small Mexican place in Oxnard, then a stop in Carpenteria to shed our shoes and take a walk in the sand.

In Santa Barbara, we had a coffee and a little walk about and then connected with our friends, PJ and Marcia at their house. They are residents of New Zealand as well as U.S. citizens and that’s how I met PJ about four years ago. They’ve lived in Santa Barbara now for 30 years. What a lovely choice for a home town they’ve made. Just beautiful.

A nice evening out for more Mexican food (working hard to catch Colette up on a lifetime on not having it) and then a good catch up back at their place.

Up in the morning and out for coffee and a tour of downtown including the city’s spectacular courthouse. Then some good byes and now C and I are in a Starbucks here on Main Street catching up with our electronic friends before we’re off to San Luis Obispo.

Dennis