Whoops. It's not Thurdsay or Friday of last week. Because Thursday I ended up not going into the office, but running around doing site visits. And on Friday, I got busy again. And today was busy too, but I feel bad about not having written, so I'm writing at home before going to dinner. And maybe finishing after. We'll see how long this is.
I think it should be a pretty ok one, though. Just gotta finish up America. I left off very drunk in Sonoma. And then I left Sonoma and spent the next 3 days driving south. Mathias wanted to do the famous drive down Higway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH because it runs like the entire length of the west coast along the Pacific Ocean. It was like top of the list of things for him to do if he came. I actually think it may have been a bucket list thing for him. So we got onto PCH as soon as possible, which meant instead of heading down the highway for an hour back to San Francisco and starting from there, we wound through the mountains for like 3 hours, going from dry brush and scrub up into forests that stretched all the way to the coast, dropping us off at a place called Stewarts Point. As it turns out, Stewarts Point is not a town. Which was not good for us because we had no gas. Like, I was sure we were going to get stranded. There is a little shop, and this woman with a crazy laugh told us which way to go for gas, and said we only had to drive like 15 minutes. Which was not true and led to more freaking out that we had maybe missed it and wouldn't find gas for another 50 miles or something. But that was not the case. We found it, and we were safe. But yeah, really nice mountains and woods and even some lakes and deer. So many trees, in fact, that as you come down the mountains and to the ocean you actually can't even see the ocean until you are on PCH.
Our first day driving took us from Stewarts Point down to Santa Cruz. Actually we stayed in Aptos, like a 10 minute drive past Santa Cruz. I don't remember the first day's drive being very exciting, actually. There are none of the big famous sites or anything. I mean, it was really nice on the coast, but this is not the famous part of the drive. We still enjoyed it, though, and stopped for a fish and chips in Bodega Bay on the way down. Felt appropriate. So yeah, nice drive, great coastline, with lots of those big, random rocks out in the water that I feel you see in the stereotypical PCH pictures, so it definitely felt like we were on PCH. And we stopped and saw a lighthouse, just to stretch our legs really. But mostly it was just a straight drive to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was pretty nice, though. It's a college town, so it's not very big but it seems like there's a lot going on. We went down to the Boardwalk to give Mathias a taste of stereotypical America. Sadly we did not go on any rides cause those lines were ridiculously long. It was kind of surprising, actually. Maybe there isn't as much to do in Santa Cruz as I imagined, so everyone just comes to the boardwalk every day. I don't know. But the boardwalk is also famous. And super stereotypically American. It's like a permanent county fair. They even have a food booth that just sells all kinds of crazy deep-fried things, like peanut butter and jelly or twinkies. We'd just had a massive dinner, though, so I couldn't convince Mathias to eat any. Then we walked over to look at some seals, and on the way got to see a topless (and also I think homeless) man, who was probably on drugs, holding on to the open passenger side door of a van that was driving down the road, then let go and yell "that's how you bail out! Fuck you!". It was pretty entertaining. So day 1 was pretty, but mostly uneventful until the evening.
Many more stops were made on day 2, though, which got us down to Moro Bay. Our first stop was Monterey, where we went to the Aquarium. Mathias really wanted to go, so we did, but holy shit that place is expensive. It's $50 for an adult! That's half the price of a day at Disneyland! We seriously considered not going, but it is world famous so we gave in and went. It was very nice, I will admit (I mean, I expected it to be, especially for that price), but it was still just an aquarium. And we were only able to spend like 2 hours there because we were on a time crunch. We had a little wander around Cannery Row and saw all the old buildings and stuff, then made a very necessary stop at In n Out. We hadn't been in like a week, and Mathias had been asking for it for days. So it was pretty necessary. Our next stop was just down the road, in Carmel, to see the Carmel Mission. California is dotted with these old church complexes that were set up by priests who were sent to the New World to convert Native Americans. We have to go to them in elementary school, but I think I probably haven't been to a Mission since like 5th grade. And it's a big party of California history, so we figured we'd stop. It was nice. Just an old church and the surrounding buildings really, but it was pretty cool. And there was this guy playing the organ in the church just as we were visiting, so that made also set the mood pretty well. Mathias's big things to see on the drive down were Big Sur, which is unavoidable, and also Redwoods. Most of the Redwoods are actually much further up north, but there is one little cluster at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, right in the middle of Big Sur. So we got out there and hiked around for a bit to check them out. They are definitely smaller than the ones way up north, and less numerous, but they're still pretty massive and awesome, so I think Mathias was probably satisfied. Right on the way out of the park there's a restaurant called Nepenthe that my dad told us about. He used to do a lot of road trips back in high school and college, and apparently stopped here a lot. Well now you have to wait forever if you want to stop here. And with good reason, because it's a nice restaurant with an absolutely stunning view. Luckily you don't have to wait to sit at the outdoor bar, which probably has the best view, so we just grabbed a snack and some beers and hung out for a bit. On the way out of Big Sur we made one more stop at McWay Falls. Don't let the name fool you, it's just a tiny waterfall. But it comes right out of the mountains and literally onto the beach. So it is actually pretty cool, but it's tiny. So don't expect too much if you go. Not only was Big Sur the place where we did the most, it was probably also the nicest part of the entire drive. Which I think is what everyone says, and now I agree. From there down to Moro Bay, it was one more quick (unplanned) stop, because we passed an elephant seal rookery, which is basically a beach literally covered in hundreds of elephant seals that you can see from really close up. So we watched them for a while, and then went to check in at our hotel.
Our last day got us all the way home. We were originally planning on 4 days for the drive, but agreed that depending on how far we made it on day 2 we would decide. And considering everything we did, I'm surprised we made it as far as we did. Our first stop on day 3 actually took us off of PCH for a bit. We went to Solvang, the weird Dutch town in the middle of nowhere. Apparently a bunch of Dutch families lived there and so they built all these Dutch style houses, and then they made it really touristy and put in a bunch of windmills and bakeries and other kitschy Dutch things, and now people love it. So we walked around for a bit and went to a bakery. That was it. People love this place. It was fine, I guess. More funny than anything else. And from there our next stop was Santa Barbara. We didn't plan too much, especially not in the cities we visited. We'd basically just go on Wikitravel on the way. Which is how we learned that apparently the courthouse is one of the things you're supposed to stop and see in Santa Barbara. And let me tell you. It is pretty spectacular. It's Mission style architecture, this beautiful structure with the entire interior made out of wood and covered in tiles. I was so surprised. It was a seriously amazing building. With some great views, since they also have a free lookout tower. We also went to the beach, because Mathias really wanted to go in the water. Then it was back in the car and driving down PCH until we hit Venice Beach, at which point we decided it was ok to get off of PCH and take normal freeways back to my parents' house. The great thing about this drive was that it took us straight through Malibu and the Pacific Palisades, a place I rarely venture, but I saw so many places and things that I've heard of a million times and basically never actually seen or been to. So that was great.
Oh man I wrote a lot more about these three days than I expected. I was also planning to finish up the week in California, but maybe I'll just combine that with London in my next blog. Which will hopefully come this week, unlike last week's absence.
But we do still need music. We'll get started with another one of the artists I love that I introduced Mathias to: James Blake. Mathias liked James Blake, not as much as Lord Huron, and not as much as I love James Blake (which is a lot. Like a lot a lot), but he did enjoy it. But I do still need to write about him because he has a new (now newish) album out called The Colour in Everything. Pretty solid album, and less of a grower than the last one, Overgrown (not that this won't grow on me as much, just that I more immediately liked this one than the last one). Although neither of these two albums lives up to his debut. That was still his best, I think. But there are some great tracks on there, like Choose Me.
And then, there's a song with Bon Iver! This is not the first time they've worked together, but it is still very exciting. And it is probably the best song on the album. And also the newest single. It's called I Need A Forest Fire.
And I also want to share new music, cause there's a lot of that, too. So I'm also sharing a song called Iona, by a band called Jarbird. For some reason I always pronounce it like Yarbird, but I think I must be wrong. They seem to be British and have one EP called Such Is The House. Some tracks are sung by the guy who sings Iona, and some are sung by this lady. So no idea who all is in the band or what their roles are. But Iona is a very pretty song, and the EP is pretty good overall.
I think it should be a pretty ok one, though. Just gotta finish up America. I left off very drunk in Sonoma. And then I left Sonoma and spent the next 3 days driving south. Mathias wanted to do the famous drive down Higway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH because it runs like the entire length of the west coast along the Pacific Ocean. It was like top of the list of things for him to do if he came. I actually think it may have been a bucket list thing for him. So we got onto PCH as soon as possible, which meant instead of heading down the highway for an hour back to San Francisco and starting from there, we wound through the mountains for like 3 hours, going from dry brush and scrub up into forests that stretched all the way to the coast, dropping us off at a place called Stewarts Point. As it turns out, Stewarts Point is not a town. Which was not good for us because we had no gas. Like, I was sure we were going to get stranded. There is a little shop, and this woman with a crazy laugh told us which way to go for gas, and said we only had to drive like 15 minutes. Which was not true and led to more freaking out that we had maybe missed it and wouldn't find gas for another 50 miles or something. But that was not the case. We found it, and we were safe. But yeah, really nice mountains and woods and even some lakes and deer. So many trees, in fact, that as you come down the mountains and to the ocean you actually can't even see the ocean until you are on PCH.
Our first day driving took us from Stewarts Point down to Santa Cruz. Actually we stayed in Aptos, like a 10 minute drive past Santa Cruz. I don't remember the first day's drive being very exciting, actually. There are none of the big famous sites or anything. I mean, it was really nice on the coast, but this is not the famous part of the drive. We still enjoyed it, though, and stopped for a fish and chips in Bodega Bay on the way down. Felt appropriate. So yeah, nice drive, great coastline, with lots of those big, random rocks out in the water that I feel you see in the stereotypical PCH pictures, so it definitely felt like we were on PCH. And we stopped and saw a lighthouse, just to stretch our legs really. But mostly it was just a straight drive to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz was pretty nice, though. It's a college town, so it's not very big but it seems like there's a lot going on. We went down to the Boardwalk to give Mathias a taste of stereotypical America. Sadly we did not go on any rides cause those lines were ridiculously long. It was kind of surprising, actually. Maybe there isn't as much to do in Santa Cruz as I imagined, so everyone just comes to the boardwalk every day. I don't know. But the boardwalk is also famous. And super stereotypically American. It's like a permanent county fair. They even have a food booth that just sells all kinds of crazy deep-fried things, like peanut butter and jelly or twinkies. We'd just had a massive dinner, though, so I couldn't convince Mathias to eat any. Then we walked over to look at some seals, and on the way got to see a topless (and also I think homeless) man, who was probably on drugs, holding on to the open passenger side door of a van that was driving down the road, then let go and yell "that's how you bail out! Fuck you!". It was pretty entertaining. So day 1 was pretty, but mostly uneventful until the evening.
Many more stops were made on day 2, though, which got us down to Moro Bay. Our first stop was Monterey, where we went to the Aquarium. Mathias really wanted to go, so we did, but holy shit that place is expensive. It's $50 for an adult! That's half the price of a day at Disneyland! We seriously considered not going, but it is world famous so we gave in and went. It was very nice, I will admit (I mean, I expected it to be, especially for that price), but it was still just an aquarium. And we were only able to spend like 2 hours there because we were on a time crunch. We had a little wander around Cannery Row and saw all the old buildings and stuff, then made a very necessary stop at In n Out. We hadn't been in like a week, and Mathias had been asking for it for days. So it was pretty necessary. Our next stop was just down the road, in Carmel, to see the Carmel Mission. California is dotted with these old church complexes that were set up by priests who were sent to the New World to convert Native Americans. We have to go to them in elementary school, but I think I probably haven't been to a Mission since like 5th grade. And it's a big party of California history, so we figured we'd stop. It was nice. Just an old church and the surrounding buildings really, but it was pretty cool. And there was this guy playing the organ in the church just as we were visiting, so that made also set the mood pretty well. Mathias's big things to see on the drive down were Big Sur, which is unavoidable, and also Redwoods. Most of the Redwoods are actually much further up north, but there is one little cluster at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, right in the middle of Big Sur. So we got out there and hiked around for a bit to check them out. They are definitely smaller than the ones way up north, and less numerous, but they're still pretty massive and awesome, so I think Mathias was probably satisfied. Right on the way out of the park there's a restaurant called Nepenthe that my dad told us about. He used to do a lot of road trips back in high school and college, and apparently stopped here a lot. Well now you have to wait forever if you want to stop here. And with good reason, because it's a nice restaurant with an absolutely stunning view. Luckily you don't have to wait to sit at the outdoor bar, which probably has the best view, so we just grabbed a snack and some beers and hung out for a bit. On the way out of Big Sur we made one more stop at McWay Falls. Don't let the name fool you, it's just a tiny waterfall. But it comes right out of the mountains and literally onto the beach. So it is actually pretty cool, but it's tiny. So don't expect too much if you go. Not only was Big Sur the place where we did the most, it was probably also the nicest part of the entire drive. Which I think is what everyone says, and now I agree. From there down to Moro Bay, it was one more quick (unplanned) stop, because we passed an elephant seal rookery, which is basically a beach literally covered in hundreds of elephant seals that you can see from really close up. So we watched them for a while, and then went to check in at our hotel.
Our last day got us all the way home. We were originally planning on 4 days for the drive, but agreed that depending on how far we made it on day 2 we would decide. And considering everything we did, I'm surprised we made it as far as we did. Our first stop on day 3 actually took us off of PCH for a bit. We went to Solvang, the weird Dutch town in the middle of nowhere. Apparently a bunch of Dutch families lived there and so they built all these Dutch style houses, and then they made it really touristy and put in a bunch of windmills and bakeries and other kitschy Dutch things, and now people love it. So we walked around for a bit and went to a bakery. That was it. People love this place. It was fine, I guess. More funny than anything else. And from there our next stop was Santa Barbara. We didn't plan too much, especially not in the cities we visited. We'd basically just go on Wikitravel on the way. Which is how we learned that apparently the courthouse is one of the things you're supposed to stop and see in Santa Barbara. And let me tell you. It is pretty spectacular. It's Mission style architecture, this beautiful structure with the entire interior made out of wood and covered in tiles. I was so surprised. It was a seriously amazing building. With some great views, since they also have a free lookout tower. We also went to the beach, because Mathias really wanted to go in the water. Then it was back in the car and driving down PCH until we hit Venice Beach, at which point we decided it was ok to get off of PCH and take normal freeways back to my parents' house. The great thing about this drive was that it took us straight through Malibu and the Pacific Palisades, a place I rarely venture, but I saw so many places and things that I've heard of a million times and basically never actually seen or been to. So that was great.
Oh man I wrote a lot more about these three days than I expected. I was also planning to finish up the week in California, but maybe I'll just combine that with London in my next blog. Which will hopefully come this week, unlike last week's absence.
But we do still need music. We'll get started with another one of the artists I love that I introduced Mathias to: James Blake. Mathias liked James Blake, not as much as Lord Huron, and not as much as I love James Blake (which is a lot. Like a lot a lot), but he did enjoy it. But I do still need to write about him because he has a new (now newish) album out called The Colour in Everything. Pretty solid album, and less of a grower than the last one, Overgrown (not that this won't grow on me as much, just that I more immediately liked this one than the last one). Although neither of these two albums lives up to his debut. That was still his best, I think. But there are some great tracks on there, like Choose Me.
And then, there's a song with Bon Iver! This is not the first time they've worked together, but it is still very exciting. And it is probably the best song on the album. And also the newest single. It's called I Need A Forest Fire.
And I also want to share new music, cause there's a lot of that, too. So I'm also sharing a song called Iona, by a band called Jarbird. For some reason I always pronounce it like Yarbird, but I think I must be wrong. They seem to be British and have one EP called Such Is The House. Some tracks are sung by the guy who sings Iona, and some are sung by this lady. So no idea who all is in the band or what their roles are. But Iona is a very pretty song, and the EP is pretty good overall.
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