Californ-ia, Californ-iaaa....(Or: Sunsets +)

Nate and I went to California.  We drove along the coast. I drove in L.A.--and we're still alive!  We ate sushi in Sunset Beach and partied in Huntington Beach with my old friends Katie and Jen.  We watched sunsets; I took pictures of those sunsets.  We did cartwheels on the beach.  We moonwalked on the beach in the moonlight.  We sang cheesy karaoke songs in Ventura with Nate's brother Bobby and his new gal, Christy.  We ate an incredibly delicious brunch in Santa Barbara at The Tupelo Junction Cafe.  We drove up Painted Cave Road above the Santa Ynez Valley, where we found some wild fennel and I harvested the seeds.  We drove down into the valley and saw beautiful ancient walnut trees wearing gowns of Spanish moss.  Black cows grazed among the trees, ruminating on the brilliantly green grass.  I took pictures of the cows.  (My new camera got a workout on this trip!)  We stopped in Solvang for about ten minutes, where I bought some legwarmers.  Then we left (too many families riding six-wheeler bicycles).  We watched another amazing sunset, and as we did an Amtrak train full of passengers zoomed by.  They were watching it too.  We drove back down the coast and headed west, through the Mojave Desert .  We drove through Indio, Indian Wells, Palm Springs, Thousand Palms, past windmills and snow capped mountains, past date palms and grape vines, on a highway scattered with the carcasses of chihuahuas and coyotes.  We stopped at a gas station/carniceria because we needed air in our tires and I had to pee.  They didn't have a public restroom, but the chica at the checkout counter was nice enough to let me use the one in the kitchen; I threw my used toilet paper in the trash like everyone else.  We drove past the Salton Sea and felt out of place, because everyone else was driving a Ford F-150 and hauling a motor home and forty dirt bikes.  All I could think about was Val Kilmer. We drove past the Algodones sand dunes.  We stopped in Yuma to eat dinner.  We kept driving.  We kept driving.  When we got back to Tucson, our home for now, our kitties were happy to see us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Beachfront property on the Salton Sea.  Get it while it's hot!)