Forgotten Oregon II – Day 6

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Disclaimer: This post is one of those that ended up being written years after the experience was had. Sadly, there were no notes taken so whatever is shared here must be extracted from the images and what memories they may have lent us. Fortunately, there was an itinerary still in my directory of travel plans, so that will help with some details. As to why this wasn’t noted or blogged about, I was in the throes of writing/editing my book Stay In The Magic and felt that any other deep writing would derail that fragile effort.

If you can dream of a better way to start the day than looking out on a molten sea with a fishing boat heading out past a lighthouse, please share that experience with me.

Okay, this would definitely enhance the experience. Linda’s Seabreeze Cafe and their oat corn waffle topped with tropical fruits and toasted coconut. Yep, now all is perfect in the world, except that we have another 12-hour drive ahead of us.

Make that 14 hours: how could we pass through Pacific Grove while the monarch butterflies are wintering over?

Not just a butterfly, mind you, but millions of orange and black fluttery little butterflies.

While we’re here, we should have one last look at the ocean, as from now on, we’ll have to get serious and drive like hell.

But first, we must linger and take in the Monterey Bay because we are here.

Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove, we’ll be back.

Oops, forgot that in San Luis Obispo, we’d be stopping at Yarn at the Adobe, but we’ll be quick.

Until we pulled into the Ventura area for a stop at Mussel Shoals.

No, Caroline, we don’t have time for you to take off your shoes and walk one more time in the surf. I swear, if those shoes come off your feet and you dare touch that water, we’ll be stopping at the North Woods Inn for dinner. I triple dare you to attempt such foolery. Fine, we’ll just get home at midnight, and it will be all your fault, like everything else. 🙂

Forgotten Oregon II – Day 2

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Disclaimer: This post is one of those that ended up being written years after the experience was had. Sadly, there were no notes taken so whatever is shared here must be extracted from the images and what memories they may have lent us. Fortunately, there was an itinerary still in my directory of travel plans, so that will help with some details. As to why this wasn’t noted or blogged about, I was in the throes of writing/editing my book Stay In The Magic and felt that any other deep writing would derail that fragile effort.

There are times when we take photos so late in the day that they end up in the next day’s image folder because of their date stamps. That is at least what I thought about the photo above, but sure enough, it was taken early in the morning of our trip north. The sign should be the giveaway of why we drove to this particular city.

I just lost 30 minutes of writing because I felt the need to track down the location where this photo was taken, and it turns out that it is “Area 101” in Laytonville, California. Other than the obvious that it is a roadside attraction, it also has been part of a Marijuana grow and was the location of 2010’s Emerald Cup, a cannabis-related music festival. It seems as if they are now called Healing Harvest Farms. I can tell you that we’ve stopped here many a time to appreciate the psychedelic nature of it all (and the clean facilities nearby – Caroline).

Twenty years of passing through the Redwoods and we’ve yet to go into Confusion Hill, but someday we will.

It’s hard to stop at the cheesy tourist attractions that dot the road through here, even though many of them are from a bygone era and won’t be here forever. The draw of the road to see the trees, the lighting, and our excitement at getting up to the coast are usually so overwhelming that we just keep on driving with the idea that “next time,” we’ll stop. Hey, we did eventually visit the Trees of Mystery with its 49-foot statue of Paul Bunyan and a 35-foot statue of Babe the Blue Ox. And just last year (I’m writing this in 2021, remember?), we visited the Prehistoric Gardens near Port Orford, Oregon.

I’d like to say I didn’t want to go there, but the longer I looked at this image, trying to figure out what to write, the more I saw my wife standing in the vagina of the tree. Sadly, I apparently cut off the clitoris up at the top, and while the nub in front of Caroline’s right knee could easily be seen as the butthole, I can’t explain the tear adjacent to it unless I start exploring the idea of trees fisting other trees. [John clearly doesn’t understand female anatomy – Caroline]

Caroline was probably thinking of cutting that last line, but I hope to reassure her that nobody will ever see these old blog posts that are buried a thousand posts deep. Maybe the reader is incredulous that I would vulgarize a beautiful image of nature with my wife wearing her alien pink snail penis hat penetrating the interior of the tree vulva; well, blame the internet, as I’m sure I found something along these lines on some porn site. By the way, don’t even ask where I go for my porn. At this point, I should also come clean that whenever we pass the Trees of Mystery site we always marvel at Babe’s really big blue balls.

Nope, nothing phallic or carnal here, just big trees and a view I find appealing.

What’s up with these prisons in beautiful settings? Like San Quentin Prison on the San Francisco Bay, here’s the High Rock Conservation Camp in the Redwoods, where inmates who help with things like fire suppression are housed. I don’t know why I find it wrong that prisoners should live in places unaffordable to average mortals instead of being housed in places like the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison off the 10 Freeway on our way home near Blythe, California.

Trees in the fog like gorillas in the mist, something I could look at all day, not that I’ve ever personally watched gorillas in the mist, but I would like to.

While we were just at the coast yesterday, there’s something about arriving at the northern coast that feels like we finally reached the ocean.

Late fall, early winter days at the ocean when the beach can be all yours.

Close-up of the alien pink snail penis hat, or should that be an alien snail-penis hat in pink? [Clearly a pussy hat way before its time – Caroline]

Considering that there were probably less than 50 people on this isolated beach over the intervening seven years, it’s pretty dangerous out here.

You can tell we’ve reached Oregon; the sun is gone, the beach is replaced with rocks, and there are no smiling people in the photo.

A sign you will NEVER see at Newport Beach in Southern California.

We are staying at Carl G. Washburne State Park in a yurt this evening with wishes for good weather tomorrow as we are planning a really long hike.

Forgotten Oregon II – Day 1

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Disclaimer: This post is one of those that ended up being written years after the experience was had. Sadly, there were no notes taken so whatever is shared here must be extracted from the images and what memories they may have lent us. Fortunately, there was an itinerary still in my directory of travel plans, so that will help with some details. As to why this wasn’t noted or blogged about, I was in the throes of writing/editing my book Stay In The Magic and felt that any other deep writing would derail that fragile effort.

If you’ve read the previous two travel posts that were titled “Forgotten…” you might have noticed that there was a Day Zero entry that this one is missing. Well, there wasn’t a single photo of our drive from Phoenix, Arizona, to Goleta, California, where we had booked a room at the Motel 6 on Calle Real.

The reason that I’m pointing out that we stayed on Calle Real is that right across the street was where we wanted to take the person traveling with us for breakfast, Backyard Bowls. We fell in love with their acai bowls and hot porridges on previous visits to our great aunt and uncle Burns, who lived right up the street.

We have 485 miles scheduled for today’s drive, but since most of it will be on Highway 1 and knowing how slow we will be, had we not staged ourselves on the north side of Los Angeles, we’d never get to Oregon. Not that we are going to arrive in Oregon at the end of this day but it is the main destination of this vacation.

With us is Caroline R. I’m leaving her relatively anonymous as she represents another friendship we wrecked. We were out here to share coastal Highway 1 with her since, if my memory serves me, she’d never been out on this stretch of scenic beauty. So, it was obligatory that we’d stop at a few key locations for her to visit the more iconic places, according to John and Caroline anyway.

The elephant seals are from a colony hanging out in the shadow of the closed Piedras Blancas Motel.

Maybe you are wondering now that I’ve baited you, how did we dash another friendship upon the rocks?  It was during this, our first trip with Caroline R., that we learned that we really weren’t compatible traveling with her, but a larger can of worms was looming on the horizon. We’d already invited her to join us on a whitewater trip into the Yukon and Alaska to raft the Alsek River the following summer, and it was at the end of that rafting trip that everything unraveled. After the Oregon trip, we tried, again and again, to let her know that it was okay if she felt like backing out of Alaska, but she never picked up on the clues, and we were too chickenshit to tell her that, while we loved meeting with her and her husband in Phoenix, we felt that traveling with her was unbearable to us. But why, John? For some people, it seems they are more comfortable sharing what they don’t like than what they do like. We, on the other hand, don’t need others to constantly point out where things could be better. Who cares about those details when you are where you are in the circumstances as they are?

That’s Caroline R. behind my Caroline W. One wants to have fun while the other has none.

Like all things, that too will pass; the clouds will clear, and we’ll take what we need from this trip. After all, our travels are about seeing the cup overflowing, as it’s never half full.

In the multi-verse of John, like two mirrors in a roadside bathroom, you can choose to see the version of your choice. If I’m just the simple reflection of surface John, I might have been wearing my Dumas persona (French spelling of Dumbass), but when you catch me about four layers deeper, there’s a different version, maybe the one Caroline fell in love with. That’s not an invitation for anyone else to fall in love with me, just me acknowledging that nobody ever really knows which version of a person they are looking at.

This version of Caroline is the anti-window one. You see (well, actually, you don’t), the Big Creek Bridge of Big Sur is right behind her. Most people want to capture the bridge; we’ve done that plenty of times, but I never can have enough of that smiling face.

You could ask Caroline at any time if she’s had enough of gazing out on a silvery ocean, and I can assure you she’d tell you, “Never!”

These sweets on display are not even my favorites from the Big Sur Bakery. I suppose a favorite hardly matters as the truth of it is I don’t care what I have from here because when we stop for a pastry and coffee, whatever we’re having is an instant favorite. Is it really all that special? Of course not, but the setting and the location make everything here absolutely amazing.

The trail to Garrapata Beach because we will “never” travel the Big Sur coast and not stop here unless the weather is so bad that we can’t be inconvenienced.

This is building up to be a perfect day.

These are the kind of bird photos I typically only get to shoot when in an aviary, my lucky day.

It might be difficult to see accurately in this photo, but the crest of the wave is well over my head as I stand on the beach. Due to the nature of the shore break, waves come in big here and just as quickly go right back out, but as they crash, they create the roar of a freight train. Each one I look at that towers over me has me thinking that this is the sneaker wave I should fear.

We spent just enough time at Garrapata to see all things big and small, but will have to get to driving as we still have 265 miles ahead of us.

With the sun setting before 5:00 p.m. at this time of year, it might not be all that late, but at this point, we were still two and a half hours from Willits, California.

Leaving L.A.

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

The sun is still low on the horizon this early holiday Monday morning on Wilshire Blvd. The streets are empty.

It’s Memorial Day. Monday morning, and the streets are still empty. The first sun rays are making their way to ground level as we are about to start our ride home. These quiet desolate occasions in a city that is almost always abuzz sure is a peculiar sight. This is a part of Los Angeles few have the opportunity to see. By 9:00 a.m., the roads will be full, shops will be open, and the frenzy that is found in this metropolis will be back in full swing.

Looking south on Wilshire Blvd toward Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean just about 4 miles away on an early holiday morning in May

The Wilshire Motel is on the right. About four miles straight ahead is the furthest west we can travel without requiring a boat. Just down the street is Santa Monica, and beyond that, the Pacific Ocean. If time allowed, we would head that way for one more walk in the sand, but we were expecting heavy traffic on the return to Phoenix as we were not alone in heading to southern California. San Diego, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles are probably the three most popular weekend destinations for those of us who need to get away from Phoenix for a break. As I look at this empty thoroughfare, I can easily imagine a no-car day in L.A. where, on that occasion, only bicycles would be allowed. All across the southland (as it is known locally), people could explore the various interconnecting cities in the luxury of quiet that we are able to experience on these rare holiday mornings when most people opt to sleep in.

The Original Pantry Cafe has been open for business since 1924 - it is a landmark in downtown Los Angeles.

Well, we weren’t going to leave L.A. without at least a little bit of fanfare. The first stop before getting on Interstate 10 eastward was at The Original Pantry Cafe. I’ve probably told the story on my blog before, but here it is again. This place has been open 24/7 since 1924 – it has never closed. I have been coming here since 1981, and Caroline made her first visit somewhere in the late 1990s. Besides some furniture repairs and equipment replacements, I don’t believe much has changed about this place in the past 87 years. The breakfasts are huge and very inexpensive. The nostalgic feelings from a time lost are still alive and kicking at this landmark. With bellies, our minds, and experiences full for one long weekend, we leave for the 388-mile (628 km) drive home.

Another Perfect L.A. Day

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise enjoying breakfast at Zabies Cafe in Santa Monica, California

Los Angeles is one of those places where you can feel like you have a purposeful life as a part of the city, that your existence is intertwined with the culture that surrounds you – as opposed to a city where you simply exist as an element within the hive. This was our first visit to Zabie’s Neighborhood Cafe in Santa Monica, and the owners welcomed us as though we were familiar regulars coming in as we would on any other Sunday; you won’t find that in Phoenix very often.

Zabies Cafe in Santa Monica, California

Caroline and I both ordered the Whole Grain Pancakes but couldn’t choose if we wanted blueberry, strawberry, or banana, so we asked for all three, and that is what we got. Breakfast at Zabie’s was perfect, starting us off on the right track to enjoy our Sunday.

On the south side of the pier at Santa Monica beach

It was still too early to do much in L.A. – even in go-go Los Angeles. So there was but one thing to do, head on over to the beach for an early morning walk in the sand and surf. In a few hours, as the day warms up, this beach, like most others along the southern California coast, will fill up with worshippers of the sun. My preference is for a quiet walk on an uncongested strand where, for a moment, the beach is an idyllic island setting, and it is all mine to enjoy.

A stop sign with a sticker attached below the word stop, it reads, "Eating Animals"

Free parking is not always easy to find in L.A.; as a matter of fact, just around the corner from this stop sign that asks us to “Stop Eating Animals,” we saw our first parking meter that allows the use of a debit or credit card in addition to coins. We kept on driving into the neighborhood and found an empty parking spot free of charge. Approaching this stop sign, we saw a placard outside a small duplex advertising a two-bedroom unit for rent. I called the number to see what they were asking for, $2,400 a month; I choked. We pay less than a third of that in Phoenix – one of the main reasons we put up with our desert town.

Inside the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, California to see an exhibit by Jennifer Angus titled: All Creatures Great and Small

Years, it took years for Caroline and me to finally make the time to visit the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Wilshire Blvd across the street from the La Brea Tarpits. Every time we drove past this small museum, one or the other of us would sound off the reminder that one of these days, we need to stop in. Today was that day. On the second floor is where the exhibits begin, the museum typically hosts two artists or themes. For three and a half months, the second floor would be dedicated to a bug art exhibit by Jennifer Angus, titled: All Creatures Great and Small.

Inside the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, California to see an exhibit by Jennifer Angus titled: All Creatures Great and Small

When you walk into the main space, you don’t immediately recognize what you are looking at; it doesn’t even look all that striking from a distance. Then, as you approach and start to see the details of what makes up the exhibit, you are struck. You are looking at insects. Brightly colored and arranged in patterns or made up in scenes within the cases, filling in for what might normally be figures in a dollhouse. Extraordinary and fun.

The artist occupying the third floor was Ann Weber; her exhibit was titled Love and Other Audacities. Ann weaves together large sculptures created from found cardboard. We should have started up here as her work is really nice, but being overwhelmed by the exhibit a floor below, it was hard to change channels from shock and amazement to interest and subtlety.

On Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, California

From the museum, we needed to make our way over to the downtown area of L.A.

Wurstkuche in downtown Los Angeles, California - a hot place for an exotic sausage

Time for lunch on our unfolding perfect day. I read about Wurstküche on a blog some time ago. They have become somewhat famous and very busy. The line was longer before I snapped the photo, but then once in the lobby, it snakes through there before you arrive at the cash register and place your order. We split three sausages, the Mango Jalapeno with chicken and turkey and the Rattlesnake & Rabbit with jalapeno – this is one of their signature sausages, and it was yummy. The one sausage we didn’t really enjoy was the Vegetarian Mexican Chipotle. It was too spicy, and we love spicy, but there have to be other outstanding characteristic flavors besides just hot – this sausage didn’t cut the mustard. We also split an order of Belgian fries glazed in white truffle oil with two dipping sauces, the first was Bleu Cheese Walnut and Bacon, and the other was Chipotle Aioli. Caroline topped off her lunch with a rare find, a bottle of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier from Bamberg, Germany – a smoked beer.

The 2nd Street Tunnel in downtown Los Angeles, California - made famous by a scene in Blade Runner

Over to 2nd Street for a drive through one of our favorite landmarks in L.A. – the 2nd Street Tunnel. If you don’t remember this sight, think Blade Runner, Terminator, and recently the movie Transformers. We have, on previous visits taken a moment to go over to Union Station, another location used in Blade Runner. One of these days, we’ll visit the Bradbury Building, where many of Blade Runner’s interior shots featuring J.F. Sebastian’s apartment were filmed.

A Royal Paulownia in bloom street side in Los Angeles, California

When you live in a desert, splashes of unexpected colors can be startling. We were meandering through the downtown area as we were not in a hurry to get to our next location. Along the way, we came across a bunch of Royal Paulownia trees in bloom – WOW. Our destination was Mitsuwa Marketplace at the corners of Centinela Ave and Venice Blvd. There is a Japanese grocery that also features four or five small restaurants around an open court, and a Japanese bookstore is near the entrance. We stopped here Saturday night with the hope of eating at Santouka Ramen, a highly rated and super popular ramen shop, but we arrived shortly before they closed. As we just had lunch and weren’t hungry, we wouldn’t be eating at Santouka today either; we were going back for Caroline to check the bookstore for their collection of Japanese craft books.

We had come back out towards Santa Monica and West L.A. because we had reservations for the eighth-row center at 4:00 p.m. at The Landmark Theatre on Pico Blvd for a showing of The Tree of Life. This and the Burmese food were the main reasons for our weekend trip to southern California. I was nearly certain that The Tree of Life would not play in Phoenix, or if it did, it might play in near-empty theatres for a week and be gone. As it turned out, the movie ended up playing in Phoenix for almost two months – who knew? Yes, it was worth it, driving to L.A. for a movie – we loved it.

Green Leaves Vegan Vegetarian Restaurant on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood, California

After the movie, we took a drive through Hollywood. By 8:30 p.m., we were getting hungry again, but with so many choices of small, funky restaurants, it was hard to choose one. We had considered Korean in the Koreatown district but kept on driving, looking for something really different. Then, at 8:58 p.m. on a Sunday night, we spot this place called Green Leaves Vegan Vegetarian Restaurant on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. Drats, it’s 8:58. They’ll never seat us, but we’ll try anyway. Hey, no problem, come on in and have a seat – we are open until 12:00 a.m. Big frowns ensue for the city we live in because nothing is open past 9:00 p.m. on nearly any day of the week in Phoenix. I’ve stated this before on my blog: I am not vegetarian, Caroline is, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying something different, and for most of the country, vegan and vegetarian is as exotic as finding the cuisine of central Africa. This place rocks, we split the Cha Cha Pumpkin – worth coming back for. The other dish is lost to forgotten memories, but it must have been good, too, because we both want to go back.

Now, this was a perfect day.

Off To Los Angeles

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Yoma Myanmar-Thai Restaurant on 713 E. Garvey Ave Monterey Park, California

Up early in Phoenix, Arizona, for a 380-mile drive to Yoma Myanmar-Thai Restaurant in Monterey Park, California. Our first stop in California was just across the street at Shwe Minthamee, where we picked up some desperately needed Burmese ingredients for making salads that we fell in love with back when Little Rangoon was open in Scottsdale. Now well stocked, it was time for lunch. First up, we split a Lahpet Thoke. Laphet is the most famous salad ingredient in Burma (now Myanmar); it is pickled (fermented) green tea leaves. When these tea leaves are mixed with shredded cabbage, tomato, egg, and a mix of crunchy bits – including peanuts, roasted garlic, sesame seeds, and roasted yellow peas, we have the perfect salad – in our book. We had a couple of other items, but it was the salad that made our drive worthwhile.

For dessert, we visited Beard Papa’s, obviously very popular with L.A.’s Asian population. Beard Papa’s serves up “Fresh’N Natural Cream Puffs,” claimed to be the world’s best.

Shopping in Little Tokyo - downtown Los Angeles, California

Next stop was Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. This was our first goofing-off mini-vacation this year, as I had to cancel any pleasure trips in order to focus on writing my book. The first shop, and really the only stop we were interested in, was the bookstore upstairs in this photo. It is called Kinokuniya, and rarely do we leave this place without spending a quick $100.

Shopping in Little Tokyo - downtown Los Angeles, California

Caroline spent a good hour looking through fibercraft books in Japanese – it is a Japanese bookstore, after all. Afterward, we took our time to walk around Little Tokyo.

Looking at the south-eastern edge of Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles, California

Coming out of Phoenix with our drab, conformist, and generic urban areas, it is always nice to visit a vibrant city center. We are looking at one of the corners of Little Tokyo; also in front of us is the L.A. City Hall in the distant background. A mile north is Chinatown, and adjacent to that is the Old Barrio of L.A. – where Los Angeles got its start. A few miles west is Korea Town, Little Saigon is over in Orange County, Little India is in Artesia, and Thai Town is over near Hollywood. Throughout the greater Los Angeles area, funky enclaves of culture thrive and give Caroline and me wonderful choices to choose from for entertainment and food compared to strip malls and drug stores on every corner out in the desert we live in. If you are wondering why I can complain about Phoenix while extolling L.A., we would live here in the City of Angels, except the cost of living would probably keep us as economic slaves to trying to maintain a small apartment.

Inside our tiny room at the Wilshire Motel in Los Angeles, California

Time to head west and check into our motel, one of our favorite motels anywhere – The Wilshire Motel. This tiny spot on Wilshire Boulevard on the way to Santa Monica is a cluster of cozy and clean bungalows just a few miles from the beach. The lady who operates the Wilshire always remembers us, even if it has been a couple of years between visits, although I don’t think we’ve ever gone that long between returns.

Caroline Wise walking on the beach in Marina Del Rey, California

With our lodging taken care of, we raced to the ocean and headed south through Venice to Marina Del Rey for a sunset walk on the beach. It was almost too late when we arrived as the sun had just dipped below the horizon, but we still had a short while to walk in the water and enjoy the late-day golden glow of the setting sun.

Ramenya on W. Olympic Blvd in Los Angeles, CA

Heading back towards our motel and about a mile roughly east is another Los Angeles favorite – Ramenya. Since our first visit when the line was outside the door, this small ramen shop has since gotten some serious competition, but we are still loyal and enjoy the variety of ramen on offer.

A bowl of steaming hot seaweed and tofu ramen from Ramenya on W. Olympic Blvd in Los Angeles, CA

This somewhat unappetizing view (I will not claim to be an exceptional or even mediocre food photographer) is a bowl of seaweed and tofu ramen. I opted for the spicy curry ramen. This ended our perfect day in Los Angeles after waking up at 5:00 in the morning over in Phoenix. It’s amazing what one can do with a little effort to get out and have some fun.