Absolutely beautiful and relaxing, the Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel is located right over the cliffs from the beach. It is known for its hot tub overlooking the water. The view is amazing. I enjoyed eating dinner and having a few beers with some of the other hostellers. I met lots of interesting people: a lady from the area, coming back after a long time, two guys bicycling the coast and some girls from Europe. Flowers grew all along the cliffs. I heard that many of the flowers are actually non-native and that they were planted there to prevent erosion. It was breathtaking.
Category Archives: Food
Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel
When Yosemite is Your Yard
The roads from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite wind around and around. I’m not used to mountain driving, but it doesn’t really scare me. You just stay on the road. The height doesn’t really worry me too much, because I keep my eyes on the road. Paying attention is probably the most helpful thing one can do in mountain driving where staying on the road becomes even more important than it is on flat land.
I was happy to rest in Angel’s Camp for a while. A cute little town, I loved how they had clothes hanging over the street. It reminded me of shoes that hang above Spectre in Big Fish. Signs were in every window for the upcoming Culaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee. Apparently Angel’s Camp’s claim to fame is that Mark Twain published a story about a frog from there.
Jumping Frog Mural
I didn’t really have a place to stay planned out for Yosemite. I thought I’d find a camping spot either inside the park or somewhere nearby. I had heard rumors about maybe some nearby BLM camping. I was caught off guard though when I found out that all the campgrounds in Yosemite were filled to capacity and that there wasn’t any BLM land nearby. I decided the smart thing to do would to be to stop and rent a bear can at least, so if I did make some last-minute camping arrangements than I wouldn’t have to worry about my car being broken into.
California Dreamin’ – Los Angeles
My Hollywood Look! Hahaha!
I met Hamid at a nearby Starbucks. I wanted to be extra cautious Couchsurfing with someone new to the community. My first impression confirmed all the stereotypes I had of Southern Californians: healthy, attractive, tan, linen pants, sandals, beanie, man jewelry, shades, kinda metro. I go to shake his hand, and he tells me he’s a hugger. He has a really laid back, generous vibe.
I ask if we can go to Target before his place, because I need to pick up, “you know, some bread, some pretzels…. lettuce.” He gives me a smirk, “I have pretzels, I have bread. I have too much of it.”
Later at his place, I realized he was right. He shopped at Cosco and had a giant jar of pretzels. In Woodland Hills, the neighborhood was vivid with spring. Hamid’s yard had a forest of rose blossoms in the front. It’s a beautiful spacious house, a grand piano is the focal point of the granite and light filled living space. Musical instruments and speakers fill the rest of the surface.
My First Pacific View – Long Beach, CA
I pulled into Long Beach, so excited to see the Pacific. I remembered looking out on the Atlantic from the St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse the weekend before I left looking forward to this day. I felt a wave of bliss over my accomplishment. I had managed to traverse across the entire country by myself! I was invited to Couchsurf with Marc and his roommate right on Ocean Ave. It was right in the middle of the action and across the street from the beach. Things were pretty noisy and parking was difficult in this very urban environment. I didn’t realize that I had scheduled my arrival for the weekend of the Toyota Grand Prix. The races greatly affected parking availability.
Do you see a spot?
The Grand Prix area.
Graffiti Rocks
Oil rigs decorated to look hidden.
We hung out together for a while.
My ladybug friend.
Sand Pipers
My first real view of the Pacific!
Yoga in the park.
Mural of the history of Long Beach.
I started the first evening with a walk on the beach. I made several lady bug friends in the sand. I know I’ve been lucky. I picked them up and they crawled all over my arms. They were my lucky little friends, coming to join me on my luck. Read the rest of this entry
Durango, Colorado
I decided to head up to Durango, Colorado to spend my birthday and Easter with my cousin Mary’s family. It was a little out-of-the-way, but I wanted to visit with Mary and I thought I would enjoy spending the holidays with family instead of with strangers. I had the best time. Mary had a very large and comfortable guest bedroom for me to stay in, which was very conducive to working. It was good to be on a family schedule. The next door neighbor’s kid had the same birthday as me. I found out about this as he entered the minivan and yelled, “Who’s the hottie!” over and over again. I’m not really sure if it is cute or creepy to be called a hottie by a six-year-old. Though he was perfectly happy to yell to the entire car load about my physical attractiveness, he turned all shy and wouldn’t say a thing when I addressed him directly and asked him what he was doing for this birthday. On my birthday, I was surprised with a vase of flowers from the family. They had a piano recital to attend mid-day, so I took myself to Mesa Verde National Park. It was so fascinating to see all the ancient cliff dwellings. It was hard to imagine how people got to the side of the cliffs at all and even harder to imagine how they made them into such vibrant and large communities. The scenery was breath-taking. Read the rest of this entry
HI Austin
SXSW
My first week in Austin, I stayed at the Hostel International. It was jammed packed for SXSW. I think I reserved the last spot available 3 months earlier. The place was filled with developers from all over for interactive and Australians for film. The hostel is located right on the Colorado River and you can sit outside on picnic tables and hang out by this dock. The weather was perfect!
My first day in Austin, I offered a ride to this Chinese-American user-interface developer from San Francisco (Robin), who was also staying at the hostel. He needed to stop by the Car-To-Go rental place to get his key and I was having a ridiculous taco craving. We ended up meandering through this very hilly neighborhood with adorable houses and I tried to figure out with all the one-way streets how to get to the car rental store. I ended up just parking on a side street and walking to this place Tacos and Tequila. He wanted to treat me since I drove him and I’m not really one to turn down being treated. The tacos were amazing. They had three different ones offered for happy hour with a toppings bar. The brisket was the best. We sat at the bar sampling tacos and mixed drinks. After the restaurant we
Don’s Depot
decided to catch a bus and check out downtown. For some reason Robin decided to start treating me all girlfriendy, but I didn’t really care. He was a sweet guy to escort me around with his hand on the small of my back and lend me his jacket. When we walked back to my car, we were surprised to find a happening neighborhood bar right next to where I parked. We hung out in Donn’s Depot for a while for a bit of authentic Texas entertainment. Located inside an old train car, it was filled with older people two-stepping to the band… and the band played a mean harmonica. Read the rest of this entry
Steer Shows and Pot Holes
Chuck Wagon Race
The beginning of March, I stayed in Houston with my sorority sister, Amandine. She is a graduate student at a university there. On Thursday night I arrived just in time for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Three other girls were at the apartment waiting on me. A car and then a train later, we were scouting out fair food. Between the four of us there were giant baked potatoes, a foot-long corn dog, a turkey leg, over a dozen fried Oreos and… fancy metal flasks.
I never realized that a rodeo contained so many different events. We played a ridiculous game of telephone in the bleachers as cowboys and a few barrel racing cowgirls roped, wrangled and rode in the dirt far below. The highlight of the night was the Mutton Bustin’ competition, where five year-olds are padded up and sent off riding lambs. A little guy named Brody won. They presented him with a man-sized belt buckle and asked him what was the secret to winning. He responded with a southern twang, “You just gotta keep you’re head down and hold on.” Read the rest of this entry
The Good Kind of Grungy
Last week, I arrived in NOLA. Luckily because of the time change I arrived on time, instead of an hour late. I wandered up and down Frenchman Street, while waiting to catch up with my host. I read in a guide somewhere that the locals have their own style. For what I’ve seen it varies from hipster to turn of the century Carny. A friendly Tarot card reader let me know ahead of time about a fire show in the parking lot behind his table. Until the show I hung around Frenchmen Art Market, which had plenty of interesting wares. I spent most of my time at the booth of an independent filmmaker listening to stories about train hopping and the hobo life-style in the documentary Cure for the Crash. The fire show ended up being pretty amazing too.
Afterwards I walked to the Hi Ho Lounge, where my Couchsurfing host, Brody was planning to attend a XXYYXX concert. The show was sold out and packed out! Luckily, with a mix of buying a ticket off a bystander and knowing the right people we were able to get in. Read the rest of this entry
Where is Whitney? 