Big Sur: photo highlights

Arrival/Trip's Conclusion

(Route 101 heading north)
(New hats in Palm Springs)


(Palm Springs at different times of day)
(Welcome to California: A Prius and a Palm Tree)
(Joshua Tree National Park area in California)

(Interstate 17, one of the most scenic interstate roads I've ever seen)
(Sedona rocks in the rain)
(Lunch stop, Route 66, Northern Arizona)
(Get your kicks...!)
(an Arizona Mesa)
(into a snowy part of Arizona)

(The open road leaving New Mexico)

The last day in Portland

Closing up shop today...
heading on the road tomorrow.

Am continuing to enjoy being in this city and soaking up the west coast spirit. Though it will be a new adventure to begin the journey east, and see what the heart of America is all about.

Portland time

It's been gratifying to take a few days and just be low-key especially after the intensity of this past week. I have appreciated the art of being a local in this city and not being a tourist. Spending time with friends here has also been enjoyable throughout. I also have already had one reunion with some Buddhist friends from the past, with another possibly coming up later this week, and it's always nice to be able to draw on those connections wherever I am.
I saw Portland's notorious rain for the first time this evening; it's been mostly sunny with some clouds thus far since arriving Monday night. This neighborhood of the city (Belmont) is also particularly bohemian and liveable.

Scenes from the Road - in reverse chronological order

Dusk on the southern Puget Sound
Seattle skyline and glimpse of waterfront
was this Thik Nhat Hanh on the Space Needle???
Seattle skyline from the Space Needle
Arrival in Seattle
Portland area from the air
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
Hairpin Turns in Marin County
Point Reyes National Seashore
A midnight snack in SF
Dusk falls on the city by the bay
Interstate 280 near San Francisco was one of the most beautiful highways I have ever been on
Central Californian Coast
Playing in the surf

Santa Monica State of Mind

Beverly Hills Scene and Mind-Set

A Journey from the Glitz to the Bay

I left Los Angeles at 7:30am this morning on an early train from Union Station in downtown LA. Was originally planning to leave at 9, but got there earlier than expected and Amtrak was flexible about letting me take an earlier ticket. It turned out to be a really special gift; the earlier train took the train route all the way to San Luis Obispo, CA instead of just to Santa Barbara and then along the freeways.
The scenery, at first, was irritatingly metropolitan. The commuters on the train were gradually weeded out through towns like Glendale, Burbank and Moorpark. After Moorpark, the train went through a short tunnel and seemed to emerge in a different world. Suddenly I was in a mini Mediterranean area going towards Santa Barbara, with wine fields extending from the tracks and then incredibly spectacular Pacific blue ocean on the other side. After Santa Barbara we had to wait a whole hour for the next stop on the train, appropriately called "Surf" (yes, it's really a town called Surf, and it is right by the ocean.) The weather seemed to not know what to do with itself as the train sped north by west. First it was sunny, and then there was thick omnious fog coming off the sea.
But then, the fog suddenly lifted and revealed an unparalleled seascape with bold cliffs and wide sandy beaches like a mini version of Big Sur farther north along the coast. At the exact same time, I was listening to Daft Punk on my IPod. A song came on that I had not heard before (called "Voyager") and the title, funky beat and adventurous electronics perfectly matched the feeling of the moment: adventure and spontaneous exploration on the absolute edge of the American coastline in the sunshine. So I kept playing the song on repeat for at least ten minutes as the scenery continued to be spectactularly dramatic. I even filmed some of it on my new video camera (and will definitely use the Daft Punk song to underscore it...!).
The woman sitting in front of me pointed out the alternate-launch site for the NASA space shuttles in a place called Lompoc, CA, located right next to the train tracks and in the middle of a working air force base. Of course there were no official signs pointing that out!
The coastal scenery shifted to inland wine country and mountains again by the time we reached San Luis Obispo. I found the transition to an Amtrak bus to be easy, and significantly nicer than its Greyhound counterpart, as I continued another six hours up the coast to SF.
It's wonderful to be back in the city by the bay that has captured my imagination since the first visit here six months ago. At the time I would have never anticipated that I'd have the chance to come back so soon, but am very grateful for the experience of being here again and plan to make the most of it, in the sun and in the city with a cool breeze on my back.

from the LA High Scene to the coast

So, this morning at 7:30am I arrived in Beverly Hills, seeking early morning substance through a latte and coffee cake at a Starbucks on Beverly Drive. Immediately after sitting down i felt the "high scrutiny" style over substance moods of the city start to seep in ... people walked in the door looking at everyone else, seeing how they were dressed, what they were doing, if they were with someone or not, etc, etc. I stayed there for an hour until I had enough of the shop, although interestingly, the coffee cake was half the price that it is in Boston. Continued to wander around the Beverly Hills shopping area, passing very chic stores that specalized in somewhat ridiculous things, such as a store devoted to bags ranging from purses to ornate knapsacks, and then other stores that had different types of rings. It does have a certain market...but it's obviously not for me. I was more amused by knowing that I'd been in Beverly MA just two days ago (Beverly Hills namesake) and that I was probably the only person in BH today who had been in Beverly for the past month, at least.

It was staggering to see the amount of flashy cars and how that reflected people's wealth...from ferraris to lamborginis to BMWs to rolls royces and everything else under the sun, but mostly things with high price tags.

Eventually I found a Jamba Juice and a small park on Rodeo Drive to do exercises in the sun. Was able to meet up with an old friend for lunch and I enjoyed the reunion. I went off to visit the Museum of Television and Radio afterwords, which offered a staggering range of television programs, radio advertisements, commercials and historical television to pick out of an old Macintosh computer and then watch on a video station in an adjacent room. Eventually I decided to watch:
taped footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing (novelty)
and then three retro-fabulous tv shows:
You Can't Do That On Television
Square One TV (finally seeing Mathnet in LA!!!)
and the "Star Wars" guest episode of the Muppet Show
all very silly, but nostalgic and fun ... until I suddenly wanted to get out in the sun again and out of Beverly Hills.

So that meant it was time to take the bus to Santa Monica! The beach, sun and sand were intoxicating in a very holistic way and very welcome after the smoggy start to the day. The ocean seems endless on the other side of the continent :) and backed by the mountains, it is simply majestical.
Spectacular. Amazing.
Unforgettable.

California Love

Have arrived in LA, after one of the best airplane flights I've ever taken. Something about the combination of perfect weather, having a window seat, being on a cheap flight and getting to chat with the rest of the passengers in my row (one of whom was a professional stage manager in NorCal!) made it memorable and fun for me. Saw a ton of landmarks across the country including a bird's eye view of my neighborhood as we left Boston, Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, a bird's eye view of Interstate 80 in Nebraska that Russ and I will be driving through in about two weeks, the Continnental Divide, the Utah desert, the northern reaches of the Grand Canyon, the southern area of the Hoover Dam, and metropolitan LA's mountainous borders.

Now am here in LA-Land for a day and a half, seeing friends and doing my best to get around the city without a car. We'll see if that's successful or not. It is off to a chilled out and good transitional start hanging around Whittier College with my cousin before shifting gears to Pasadena tonight and the gliteratti of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica tomorrow.