Sunday Closing The Loop

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

We got up a minute before the alarm at 5:59. An exchange of telling each other that we love each other, a hug, and a moment of recognition about how wonderful a vacation we’ve been having. Things were mostly packed last night; I just needed to get on my shoes, stop this quick bit of writing, leave Seferina, the housekeeper, a little something of gratitude, and head out the door. Hopefully, it will still be before 6:30 as we take our last walk of this journey along the sea, and then we’ll turn our car east for the long drive home.

Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

Out before the sun peaked over the mountains to the east, we were able to watch its first rays illuminate the world around us in golden sunlight. The flowers return to their vibrant colors, birds become more active, and humans emerge from their lodgings to join us on the boardwalk.

Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

And here comes the sun, oh glorious sun that illuminates our way and breathes life into all.

Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

Just met a fellow Canon camera enthusiast who was down on the Central Coast from the Oakland area. Her name was Tabitha, should she stumble on this entry and read a bit. She seemed most interested in the wildlife but also the catharsis that comes with being on the seashore. Tragically, I also learned that where she lives has become a trap because high rents and low-paying jobs have limited her options to escape the crushing despair of a bleak existence. But here at the ocean, she finds her better self and is able to celebrate the win of being away from home, if even for a short while. I wished her the best and rejoined Caroline on an overlook where she was patiently waiting for me.

Snail on Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

Minutes become hours, become days, and still, we reach for another moment where the secrets of what draws our fascination to the coast might be made known.

Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

Maybe the great mysteries should remain just that so we can continue to return again and again as we search for the elusive in places that strike magic into the depths of who we are.

Snail on Moonstone Beach Boardwalk in Cambria, California

Only an hour was carved out for our time along the Pacific before we dropped the key off and moved onto Main Street for breakfast at the Creekside Gardens Cafe. After we leave there, the challenge will be moving without distraction to arrive home before midnight.

While Google suggests that the way we came via Santa Barbara and Los Angeles to the south is the fastest route, it is also the one that takes us by a dozen or more beaches that will tug at our inner Schweineschnecke that would defeat us from getting home while we are still able to keep our eyes open. We both know that we’ve seen a fair share of the abundance of beauty that lies out here along the western edge of the United States, and still, we want just one more photo, one more walk along the crashing surf, another chance to listen to the birds, or clean sand out of our shoes. We will try to do our best to just drive, I swear.

On Highway 1 near Harmony, California

That intention lasted maybe 10 minutes before we pulled over to snap a photo of the green rolling hills that we missed on the way up. This is certainly the end of giving in to temptation…

Harmony Headlands State Park in San Luis Obispo County, California

…That lasted for almost 5 minutes before we were making a U-turn to check out what Harmony Beach State Park might have to offer. It appeared that we might be able to walk to an overlook about a mile down the trail, but unfortunately, the information didn’t offer any real indication of exactly how long the trail would be. But we easily convinced ourselves that 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back was manageable.

Harmony Headlands State Park in San Luis Obispo County, California

Wouldn’t you just know that the ocean view wasn’t to materialize until we were right upon it at about the 2-mile mark?

Harmony Headlands State Park in San Luis Obispo County, California

The trail extends up the coast, but now we have a 40-minute walk back to the car, so we’ll have to be content that we visited yet another destination on this trip that we would have driven by on previous visits.

When we pulled into the very small parking area here at Harmony Beach, there was one other car parked. On our way back, we passed a family of about a dozen members and maybe ten other small groups that were hiking in. So lucky we were that our time out here was in quiet isolation.

Arizona Rest Stop on Interstate 10 at Sunset

Prior to leaving ten days ago, we already knew where today’s lunch was going to be: Shakey’s Pizza and that’s exactly where we went. Traffic out of L.A. was at times heavy but the traffic returning to the Southern California area here on Mother’s Day was crazy. All the same, here we were already in Arizona before sunset and managed to arrive home at 8:30 p.m. instead of the midnight return I was worried about.

Travel Habits

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise and John Wise in Phoenix, Arizona

Leaving Phoenix, Arizona, before noon is a luxury. Heck, leaving anywhere at any time is a luxury. A sure sign of aging is that I no longer really feel comfortable taking selfies when I’m driving, so we took this one in the parking lot as we were about to depart. At times over the years, this was a habit that preceded almost every trip, but we’ve gotten lax about it in recent years.

Most preparations for this vacation were finished by yesterday; all that was left today was picking up a bag of ice for the ice chest, some raspberries, and cashews. With all of that out of the way, I tried planting myself at King Coffee to get some writing done, but all I could think about was departing the valley. Then, about 4 hours before I thought we’d leave, Caroline told me she was ready to go. After a stop at In-N-Out on the far west of Phoenix, we were ready to embark on the long haul over the desert.

California Stateline

As we left, the plan had been to drive into California on Interstate 10 and make our way to either Tehachapi or Bakersfield, but having this extra time available, we detoured in the direction of Santa Barbara. Stopping to take pictures at state lines was also an old habit that fell out of favor; again, we’re fixing these omissions.

Kia Niro dashboard in the desert of California

We were supposed to have our first 100-degree day (38c) in Phoenix tomorrow, May 1st. So, how the hell is it 110 (43 Celsius) here in the California desert on April 30th?

Traveling Interstate 10 in Southern California

Why would anyone get off the freeway to take a photo at an empty offramp that seemingly leads nowhere? I’ll give you one guess. Note that there are no bushes or anything to hide behind out here, so you know it wasn’t Caroline who demanded we take this exit.

Pad Kee Mow at Mix Bowl in Pomona, California

Once in the Los Angeles area, or Pomona, to be more precise, we stopped at Mix Bowl on Indian Hill Blvd. Being early afforded us the time to sit down for dinner at an old favorite place of ours. We’d not been here in countless years, but we did recognize one of the guys working there. I looked up an old photo here on my blog and showed him a picture of the place we had taken back in January 2001 on our very first visit when it was still called Big Bowl before they were sued to change the name. While the fried morning glory is no longer on the menu, we were able to start with steamed koo chai and grilled pork before sharing one of the best pad kee mow with fried tofu that we know of. Some habits are worth the effort of maintaining.

Los Angeles, California

Dozens of offramps beg us to get off the freeway and go explore, snap some photos, and bask in nostalgia but with our destination up the road, we had to keep on driving. This was right at sunset when we were passing downtown Los Angeles on the 101. We finally pulled into Carpenteria shortly after 21:30 and snagged a room at Motel 6 for the relatively inexpensive price of only $110 minus tax with a veterans’ discount. Tomorrow, we head up the coast from here as we are right next to it, which gives us an extra 137 miles of the coastal region before reaching Cambria, where we were originally supposed to meet the ocean.

Speaking of Cleaning

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JR Watkins Dish Soap

This is about as mundane a blog entry as it gets: a report on our usage of dish soap during the pandemic. Last night I opened our 19th bottle of J.R. Watkins Dish Soap since the pandemic began. No, this isn’t an ad for J.R. Watkins although we are in love with their grapefruit-scented soap, this is a reminder to ourselves about the year when we used 18 bottles of dish soap. In all likelihood, we didn’t use that many bottles of soap during the previous 20 years. In part because we weren’t doing the dishes all that often because we ate out a lot, and then there were those years we’d use our dishwasher, but as time has gone by we never really got along with that infernal machine running for an hour and then having dishes come out not absolutely spotless. So, we wash all of our dishes by hand and have done so for years now. Still, it’s been more common for a bottle of soap to last so long that as we approach the bottom of a bottle that it’s a thickened goo from all of the moisture that evaporated. For all I know, a bottle of dish soap previously might have lasted for years. I mean, who tracks this type of consumption?

Well that’s a contradiction, John, as you are reporting here the opening of the 19th bottle, so you obviously are tracking it. Not really, it’s about the convenience of Amazon, their order history, and my realization that we appear to use a lot of this stuff.

Have I ever shared with my readers that I recently calculated how much toothpaste I’ve used in my lifetime? I think I missed that, so here it is. Over the previous 21,170 days using 0.5 grams of toothpaste per day, I estimate that I’ve used more than 23 pounds or 10 kilos of the minty stuff.

Cleaning Out

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Navajo Loom in Phoenix, Arizona

What is it about springtime that kicks in the need to deep clean our nest? So it was once more as Caroline and I dug into the deepest recesses of our place and went to work in the closet. Consolidation and donation were this year’s theme as we organized Caroline’s extensive yarn and fiber stash and brought about 25 pounds of clothing and a bunch of other things to Goodwill. As for the loom above, it will be offered to the lady who taught us the techniques of Navajo weaving for her to sell or donate to someone who might benefit from it. The rug that still sits on the loom was one of my efforts from maybe ten years ago. Since I abandoned it, it has gathered dust.

The imperative to reorganize from time to time is essential as we are in a relatively small space. We have an outdoor storage space that is a small 40″ x 40″ in size, while our closet is probably about 6′ x 7′. So, within those confines are the things that might need to be accessed only a few times a year, such as empty suitcases, camping gear, and Caroline’s yarn supply, along with some dumb things like VHS tapes, cassettes, and CDs we are not ready to part with. Some of the yarn and fiber are stashed in our bookshelves that were bought with the intention of them acting exactly in that capacity, hence why some sections have doors for yarn storage while others don’t, allowing direct and immediate access to our on-paper artifacts.

We do not have a rented storage space or a garage; I’m pointing this out because we know people who have all of the above and a couple who are renting two garages. For the life of us, we cannot fathom what might be stored in a garage that’s worth $1200 a year in rental fees, while nearby storage units seem to cost about the same or more. Then, on our morning walks, we always pass garages stuffed to the rafters with a narrow path cut through the hoarded junk. The funny thing is that Caroline and I feel like we’ve fallen victim to excess consumption, and yet we are in a small apartment of a mere 874 square feet or 81 square meters. Should we ever move back to Europe, there’s a good chance we’ll be in something closer to 650 square feet, which means we’ll have to shrink our footprint even more.

Maybe spring cleaning should be a twice-yearly event in which “consolidate and donate” is always the theme.

Welcome Back, Vibrancy

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Springtime colors in Phoenix

I’m confused whether we are still in the midst of springtime or if we’ve jumped right into summer. The burst of color says spring, but the thermometer says something else. Approaching 100 degrees in early April and requiring us to turn on the air-conditioning is disheartening and portends a potentially super hot season on our horizon. Then again, I’m renowned for being incredibly wrong with my predictions of what the future holds.

This splash of vibrancy wasn’t meant to provide a place to vent about some minor atmospheric discomforts though. It is here to celebrate a side of life moving back to ecstasy. The birds are singing wildly, darting about looking to attract mates, while the mockingbirds return to leaping off their perches before fluttering back into place. Lizards are scurrying between shaded spots, bunnies dart across open spaces, and pollinating insects are checking in with the first saguaro blooms. Our skies are still a vibrant blue awaiting summer to officially arrive and wash them into faded shades of their former selves.

Then, just when you think the heat is here to stay, a break in the weather lets the midday temps drop back into the upper 70s. Mornings feel chilly at 60 degrees. With this potential last opportunity to feel the brisk fresh air, Caroline and I headed to a nearby frog pond for our morning walk. While there wasn’t any croaking going on out there, we did see a turtle and plenty of tadpoles plucking insects from the surface of the murky waters. It’s beautiful on this trail and surprisingly quiet. Maybe there could be a few more of these precious days before Phoenix turns into a blast furnace.

Vaccinated

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Vaccinated in Phoenix, Arizona

Wow, just a little more than a year later and Caroline and I are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. While masks around us are quickly disappearing due to an idiot governor more interested in political expediency than science and public health, we are willing to continue masking up until herd immunity is reached or the CDC signals that things are safe enough to do so. Now we need to hope that Europe hits the accelerator on getting its citizens vaccinated so the international travel market can reopen. Even if it does open this year and we’re cleared to not use masks, I’d venture that we’ll do that 11-hour haul across the United States and the Atlantic while covered up. I’ve already looked for an app where I could store copies of our vaccination records that might transition to an official vaccine passport but those are not easy to find, yet.

So how does life change? I’m not as worried about contracting a death sentence. Yes, it is my fault that I am obese which helped cause my diabetes and high blood pressure, but that still doesn’t mean that I should want to give up and sacrifice my life due to prior poor decision making. If that was a thing, many of us should have been thrown to the Soylent Green machine when we were teenagers or young adults. If we are lucky and enough fellow citizens follow suit or we get to vaccine passports quick enough, I’d like to get back to museums and concerts without worrying about the people around me. Hopefully, we’ll continue seeing millions of people vaccinated every day and can start to emerge safely from this ugly virus.