Pointing a Finger at a Redwood

Babe and Friend

Much of the Redwood Highway hasn’t appeared to change since we traveled this route 35 years ago.  The redwood trees are still spectacular, tie-dye clothes and sand candle shoppes appear along the road. You can still find towns that     advertise trees you can drive through,  road signs warn that trucks may tip over at speeds above 30 mph and you find interesting entrepreneurial combos like the Laundromat/Smoke House we saw in Laytonville.  I could tell that DB was eager to find a roosting spot when he refused to take more than a picture stop at a couple of stupendous roadside attractions.

Buzzards on the Fly to SF

Visiting Kiddos in SF

After breakfast with Tad at Sally's, a super tasty restaurant and deli at the base of Potrero Hill in SF, the Snow Buzzards continued north over the Golden Gate Bridge leaving behind at bit of their hearts and taking with some fresh memories of a pleasant weekend on the bay. We stopped for gas in Hopland, CA, on the Redwood Highway and saw that the old Hopland High School was now a wine bar and tasting room.  Excellent priorities!

Since closing up Casa Verde and departing the land of sun and sand for the land of rain and moss we've been delighted that the sun has decided to accompany us. Our first lodging after Desert Center was a hip little oceanside town north of Santa Barbara on Highway 1.  Morro Bay offers restful beach bungalows, local oysters, and a dog friendly beach.  We tried all three.

Sevi doing the happy run

Sleep tight sleepy town

There was a slide blocking Highway 1 so we cut inland for some greenery and pinkery, fields of artichokes and roadside swaths of ice plants.  This part of SoCal is mighty inviting: lots of surfers and bicylists and a little glassblowing factory in the town of Harmony, pop. 18.  The rueben sandwich we shared was disappointing but the coastal views of cliffs where farmers tilled above massive surf beaches made up for the Whale's Inn lunch.

Tad and Julienne are perfect hosts.  Julienne gave us use of her studio apt, complete with Murphy table and ready to make morning coffee.  Tad organized a pizza dinner in our honor with friends at Goat Hill Pizza with drinks before at Boomers.  Sevi was taken on a Bernal Hill hike and beach play dates with Ziggy.  But even before all this we were treated to Friday night gourmet sausages and beer and Saturday morning breakfast at the Sunrise Café in the mission.  Of course,  Tad and I made a coffee run to Philz where Phil himself greeted me with “You’re just like Santa;  you come once a year and we’re happy to see you.”

Julienne continues to play soccer and her Saturday game was conveniently at the base of Potrero Hill.  It brings back memories watching her play with Joyce Ohgi in the same positions they played together in middle school.   

Distributing oranges at half time

 Sunday brunch was dim sum delight and the evening meal was at Sara’s beautiful home in Oakland.  After DB’s Kauaiian pulled boar sandwiches prepared by Tad we sat around the campfire on Sara’s deck under her 500 year old live oak tree and retold the story of the Dew Claw Man who escaped from Alcatraz. 

Dim Son and Dim Dad

Julienne and Sara 

Happy Feet

Friends we are leaving behind

Feathered

Night Heron

Sandy Crane

A frequent guest for meals

Who else would live three trees away?

Leasing from  Mike and Bebe next door


Notice anything similar about each of the photos?  IT'S SUNNY!!!  Remind me why we are leaving.

Broads on Quads

The INVITATION:  While DB was in Kaua'i I was invited to join a group of women from the Land Yacht Harbour (trailer park) who explore the desert every Wednesday on all terrain vehicles.  Like DB, I didn't have the right equipment- no helmet, googles, boots, firearm, or jacket with a scary name on the back.  The broad who invited me has her own three seater quad and an extra pair of googles so I joined Dit, her sister Sandy, and her dog Erin for a wild Wednesday.  So far, I've been invited back twice.  We've all returned safely but let me tell you, what happens with the broads.....

Broads on Quads

I've learned that quading is a little like skiing:

• You go into the mountains
• You can get really, really cold
• You might go off a cliff
• You can get lost
• Your equipment is important
• Your equipment can break
• You go really, really fast

I've also learned that quading isn't at all like skiing:

Desert Lavender- AHHHHHH

Ghost Flower

• I've never seen a rattlesnake while skiing
• There isn't a Sand Patrol if your equipment breaks
• You bring your own lift
• There aren't any snack bars in the desert
• You use different quads

I love the patches of wildflowers we've found,  the gold mine,  the old settler's grave.

Beavertail Cactus

One aspect of riding out in the desert, over hill and dale, eating someone's dust,  making someone else eat your dust, laughing your head off- partly out of nervousness and partly out of tiredness, with a bunch of broads is that you're constantly reminded of being a kid playing with friends.  When was the last time you sang while going over a washboard road just to hear your voice warble?  Or spun out on a sand dune?  Or shared a brown bag lunch?  Or sat next to someone eating a peanut butter and butter sandwich and traded bites?   

Lunch Stop

Monkey Flowers

It's been too long for me. 

Boaring NOT Boring

DB visits Mikey in Kaua'i

It wasn't easy to see Mike and Michelle leave Carnation.  But the time had come to seek greener pastures and they left for the greenest spot on earth, Kaua'i.  Mike grew up on Kaua'i and still has family and friends living there.  Michelle easily finds friends and makes them family so the transition was smoother than for most.  Despite working three jobs they take time to make others feel welcome and DB took advantage of their standing invitation to experience Kaua'i.  And experience it, he did!

Wild pigs, boar, javalena: they are all the same and wrecking havoc in Arizona, Texas, Florida, Kaua'i, and  numerous other areas.  The problem is that  a sow may give birth twice a year with litters as large as 24.  The other problem is THEY ARE DANGEROUS!  Mikey and his childhood friends are respected boar hunters.  DB was both excited and a little nervous to join them.

Laws are very specific regarding pig eradication; only certain hunters qualify, in designated areas,  and in some cases knives not guns must be used.  DB didn't pack for the hunt- no boots, camo, or weapons.  He didn't kill this little piggy but was with the group that did and was awarded the prize, the boar's jaw.  I was less excited about that than the smoked and frozen pork he brought back with him on the plane.  It is by far the best tasting piggy I've ever eaten.    

This little piggy went to the smoke house.

The prize

Those of you who prefer your meat presented in less graphic detail will be happy to switch gears to  the more advertised island vacation.  Next stop: rainbows and waterfalls.

The treasure is what you see

Michele is one heck of a good cook and works at a restaurant and a Poi factory.  On her off day she treated DB to a river excursion.  Unfortunately, at the end of the trip DB's belief that swimming in warm waters is DANGEROUS was reinforced by a certain sighting.  This 12 foot shark was in less than a foot of water just off the beach.  No more boogie boarding for this tasty boy!

You can take Margaret off Mercer Island but you can't take the Mercer Island...

Casa Verde was Margaret's last stop after visiting an aunt in Los Angeles and son Mark at the University of Redlands.  There really was no way to prepare her for the shocking contrast.

Bearing Very Welcome Gifts

So we immediately threw her into the water with the Lions Club Bar-B-Que Dinner and Variety Show at the Lake Tamarisk Community Hall.

Violin Variety

Second Hand Rose Variety

Margaret didn't sleep well that night.  I'm not certain if it was the chocolates we devoured after the show or the show itself.  But she's a good sport and I convinced her that her stay wouldn't be complete without a drive through Box Canyon, and a stop at The Slabs and, of course, Salvation Mountain.  As Margaret pointed out, Box Canyon was misnamed, so we renamed it "Not a Box but a Drive-through Canyon."  Her reaction to the Salton Sea is best described in these pictures:

Our next stop was the "Ski Inn" in Bombay.  I'd read that a stuffed corvina, a highly prized fish of the Salton Sea, was mounted over the bar and we were ready for a beer.  The corvina was gone but our bartender told how JD had reclaimed the trophey (earned by merely owning the boat in which it was caught) when it looked like the bar would finally sell, but the deal fell through because the buyer was a felon, and were we interested in buying the "Ski Inn" ourselves?!? (Without the stuffed fish, of course.)

I figure that he'd appraised our appraiser friend for a perfect mark when she'd asked if he had any local specialty beers on tap.  Ah, Margaret!  You can remove a lady from Mercer Island but you can't immerse her in desert rat custom in two days. There ain't no specialty breweries at the Salton Sea because the majority of tourists, discounting Nancy and her friends, are destitute hippies, destitute desert rats, and destitute hippie rats, and the locals don't care what they drink as long as they can do it often and out of the heat in a lightless bar.

Fortunately, Margaret felt quite at home when we arrived at The Slabs and Salvation Mountain.  This was folk art at, if not it's finest, most certainly it's most audacious.

I know I have to replace the Saab, but will this give the right impression?

Or this?

Both The Slabs and Salvation Mountain are featured in the Sean Penn directed movie of Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild."  That night we watched the DVD in the Casa Verde theatre.  It left all three of us a bit depressed so we passed the Oh! Chocolates and the mini-keg of Hangar 24 Craft Brew from the Redlands.  Both gifts, several times.  We all slept well that night, even Margaret.  She woke refreshed in the knowledge that she would be back home that evening and I woke refreshed knowing that we hadn't finished off the beer and chocolates.  DB woke looking forward to another sunny day with golf to play. Sevi, well, she always wakes refreshed- several times a day.