The girl you wish you were on Spotify

We've all have that friend: the one that somehow due to her semi-abusive or blessed upbringing has the ability to find brand new music that nobody else can possibly dredge up from the depths of our poor, unartistic souls. Or maybe she just had parents that smoked a bunch of weed with Jimi Hendrix.

Enter Spotify. Hey, thanks social media-based-program-that-exemplifies-my-inability-to-garner-frikin-awesome-playlists-and-instead-listen-to-Alanis-Morsett-on-repeat.

Let's face it. Spotify has taken over my life, and not in an entirely bad way. I live on a baby music island. An island where only popular country music strives and spreads. All else dies from lack of intelligent hosts. Stealing playlists from friends in Chicago and L.A. equals lifeblood. Sweet sweet nectar of the gods.

It's gotten to that point. I feel particularly guilty for just stealing, not providing my own well-groomed playlists from my best friends from the next up-and-coming band, but lets face it, I steal. Like, steel steal. Hard. At one point I tried to spend half a day at work finding new bands that were 'hip', but want to know what happened? Every song was a brother of "Banana Pancakes." Laugh. Sure. But you know how this goes. Don't pretend you've never fallen into the "oh, I really felt connected to my upper Gluteus Maximus during my Vinyasa yoga class, and I'm pretty sure Alexi Murdoch's "Orange Sky" really brought out my emotions, and I just felt so... whole. You know?"

So we download it. And then play the song over and over. And over.

We are sick of the song, so we use a search engine to find similar songs. What we really find? Frikin' "Banana Pancakes." I'm sorry, but Jack, it's just not the same. When I'm really getting into my hip flexers, you just DON'T DO THE JOB. I'm on a glutard diet, and I can't really think about banana pancakes while stretching. What I should be thinking about is why the hell I'm stretching instead of running 18 miles. After all, it's almost winter. Screw banana pancakes. If I'm breaking the pledge, I'm putting chocolate chips in my pancakes.

With that, I have nothing more to say about Spotify except that you shouldn't join it unless you have a group of 3+ friends that are tragically involved in the music industry. Otherwise, let Pandora be your sad sad consolation prize.

Peace, love, rock and roll.

 P.S. Atmosphere has something to say about pancakes too. Enjoy. (and yes, I stole this song from a friend)

 

Tioga Pass closed September 21, and we had SNOW!

My apologies for interrupting your regularly scheduled program, but THIS just happened:

That's right. The first snow of the winter. On the last day of summer. Woke up to this view.

Those are some excited-to-fish fishermen. Fishin' in the dark steam.

MAX PHOTO BOMB!

Steamin. Cold. Summer.

Big Sur and Aretha Franklin. Just because.

California is crowded. A lot of people like a warm climate, an ocean next to mountains, that kind of shit. I get it. I am really more of a plain mountain person, but I willingly gave the vastest (word? not sure) body of water a shot this week. It wasn't half bad. 

And then we got to Big Sur. Where there were Big Trees. And you couldn't see or hear the ocean. So I felt more at home, and the cabin certainly helped make everything cozier. 

We stayed at the Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins, which provided a welcome reprieve from... well... people, really. I don't think I particularly like people on my vacation. And sometimes ever. That's for another post, however (yey for the shelter of a computer screen and public forum that is the "blog", eh?). 

Clif and I unpacked slightly, leaving some things in our car for the hell of it, because they don't have bears on the coast (shot those bitches, took care of 'em all!), and leaving things in our car in novel, Watson. 

We walked along the creek, looking at rocks, and itty bitty pinecones from giant redwoods. Nature, winning YET again. Gosh. 

The night culminated in some seriously unserious chatting on the cute front porch while drinking 'native' wine and eating cheese from France or something. And olives from the Safeway olive bar. 

Delish. I went to sleep a happy woman. 

Hi. Let's talk about the fact that the Redwood next to our cabin is THE SIZE of our cabin. That is all.

Married one year, and I still think he is adorable. Mainly because of his hotness (hint: he reads this blog sometimes). 

The creek/river by our campground was low, it being September and all. But peaceful nonetheless.
AND I had two glasses of wine by the time we got here.
DOUBLE AND I really like nature.
TRIPLE AND nature likes me back (shhhh, it's a secret).

Couldn't you just eat this little guy right up? Not my husband, silly. The cone. The small small cone that makes
A HUGE FRIKIN' TREE.
Aretha Franklin said it best.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
(bitches)*


*implies implied content



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We turned left (South) on Highway 1, and found things.

So... we left Davenport in no grand hurry, and slowly made our way south. 

The most memorable (for me, at least) was our Moss Landing stop. Moss Landing, you ask? Yes, it is amazing. Clif literally screeched to a stop when I yelled out at him about Phalaropes and a fluttering of other shorebirds on the side of the highway. Turns out, I was right to scream. 

Right, I mean RIGHT, next to the dirt road was the most adorable Sea Otter, working his way through the shell of a muscle (or oyster, or something), so loud we could hear it from our car. I braved the traffic (there was none) and heroically ran across the road to get the first shot you see below. Because ... I'm a tourist. And, because I thought this was the only Sea Otter I was going to see on this trip. Of course, WRONG AGAIN JESS.

We come around the next corner, and *KAPLOOEY!*, there are more Sea Otters and some lions of the sea persuasion to boot. They were stinkin' cute, and I almost died, but Clif kept me hydrated, and caught my binoculars when I lost track of them grabbing for my camera with a high-powered lens. Whoa. It was so intense.

Clif saw the opportunity to walk toward humans as opposed to more cute fuzzy and feathery things, and we tried to spend 5 minutes watching surfers. That didn't last long, because surfers are like rock climbers, but on water, with less muscles. So I reached again for my faithful 2012 Eagle Optics 8x24 Rangers, and scoped out the shoreline past the surfers, and whoa and behold!!!! WHALES! Yep. I spotted whales. Jess-1, nature-1 million. Okay, nature always wins. But still, I felt like for a moment I was on top of it. Like, really, on top of seeing things. As a good naturalist should be.

Then, Clif dragged me away, for good reason of course. We ended up slurping down oysters and drinking white wine down the street at a working fish market. And heaven creeped up on us, and stayed a whole 30 minutes.

Then, we were off again.

We tried lunch at a false fisherman's warf, where a cruise ship had just dumped (think pooped) a million people on 8 restaurants and about 3 candy shops per cruise ship patron. SO MANY CANDY SHOPS. That is why America is fat. Cruise ships and candy shops. 

Anyway, we decided that cities were not for us, and booked it to Big Sur, where we pulled up as the sun was setting to the Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins. OMG. WHAT ENSUED IS FOR TOMORROW. We basically just drank wine and ate cheese, but still, there are more photos for tomorrow. For now, enjoy water photos.

Or else.

The little guy. All by himself. I contemplated taking him home to make a hat out of him (AH! PETA I WAS KIDDING!)

Seals have really thin skin on their flippers and have to warm themselves in the sun all day.
News flash: My feet get cold, but nobody lets me lounge by the seashore.

Surfer, surfer, wave, no more surfer.

OH! There are  more of them!

Long-billed Curlew, that sent me into a tizzy. I mean, look at the little cutie!!

You can't see the cruise ship in the background. Because it sank with all the fatties and their candy (kidding!).

Coastline. Life is so hard.

Clif. And our cabin, and my new car. What? We stayed here. All night. Cutest thing ever?
Yes, is the answer.

Davenport - the one in California

Continuing on our adventure down Highway 1, Clif surprised me with "Captain Davenport's Retreat" - which turned out to be the corner suite at the Davenport Roadhouse hotel and restaurant. Fairly swanky for such a small town. The suite was awesome, with floor to ceiling windows on two whole walls, perfect for beach viewing.

The town itself consists of the hotel where we stayed, a really adorable and no-nonsense bakery (see photo below of Whale City Bakery), and the sketchiest general store I've entered in quite some time. I'm fairly certain the bookkeeper was in the back room chain smoking cigarettes, and had been for the past 20 years. Anyway, we bought a bottle of wine there for $11.99, which is reasonable in that area.

We headed last-minute to the Beauregard Vineyard's tasting room, where Clif and I were educated more by our fellow wine-taster than the mostly-toasted gentleman pouring our wines. It took a bit longer than normal to do the tasting because drunky kept getting distracted by pretty much anything that moved, or didn't move for that matter. "ooh! a fly! Ohh, a glass of wine! Oh! I told a stupid joke!" You get the idea. Eventually we bought a bottle of wine because they waved the wine tasting fee.

Turns out, the Davenport Roadhouse closes for Monday dinner, which was THE ONE NIGHT we were there. And, as I mentioned before, the town is small. Clif and I found a pretty severely hipster joint in Santa Cruz, called 515 Kitchen. The place vomited hipsters all over my overly-prepared basil and homemade chartreuse-orange-monk-inspired bitters, but I drank it and loved it. Actually, despite the hipsterness, this place had excellent customer service and top-notch food. On top of that, we had called to make reservations and mentioned it was our 1 year anniversary. When we arrived, the hostess informed us that they had a staff meeting about where to seat us in the restaurant, couldn't decide, so they had reserved TWO tables for us to pick from. Okay. Kinda weird but really cute. And we got to sit on a couch for dinner, which I liked a lot. 

The best part of Davenport was the short walk to the beach. Once we arrived home from Santa Cruz, we grabbed a bottle of wine and a blanket, walked 3 minutes across the street to a beach, which we shared with 2 other groups, but for all intents and purposes were alone. 

It was a perfect evening; romantic, peaceful, full-mooned and only slightly colder. AMAZING.

The next morning, we grabbed quick breakfast sandwiches from the Whale City Bakery, and had great service and yummy breakfast. 

Then.... we turned left. On Highway 1. Which doubles as south. That's the way we went.

More tomorrow.

Look! They make hydrants in yellow!
Oh, and our room was on the top floor in the corner.

The restaurant had pretty decent food for lunch. I had pizza, because I'm
dairy and gluten free. Duh.

The Roadhouse and hwy 1. The beach is just right of that car. Small-town lookin'.

The Bakery! For the only place to eat in town that was open, it was GREAT.

Half Moon Bay to Davenport

Day two of our anniversary vacation began with a sunny wake-up at the San Benito House in Half Moon Bay. We loved staying here for its quirkiness - small, older rooms above a great bar space made for a relaxed feel. 

We grabbed a cup of coffee and walked around the back garden area this morning, watching hummingbirds flit around to the plentiful flowers. 

We got on the road after enjoying my favorite, lox and bagels, at another quirky place: a downtown coffee shop that was the only place open at 9 am on a Monday in Half Moon. 

Then, we took four hours to drive to Davenport, stopping at pretty much every beach and overlook to enjoy the views of eroding cliffs and crashing waves. Clif knows I love to randomly stop at state parks (especially in California) and made a point of doing so, I think because he loves me or something. So below you get photos of a few parks where we stopped, but nowhere near all of the ones we visited.

We are driving into Santa Cruz tonight for dinner, and the off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Big Sur tomorrow. We may just stay here forever. Yup. 

A crisp morning nook for a cup of coffee.

The back patio of the San Benito House would be a great event spot.

One portion of a GIANT mural while walking around town. Remarkable.

One foot to my right was a sheer drop-off. That's love.

My favorite beach along the way. We saw two Oyster Catchers (birds), which was new for me!

Rim Fire aftermath

Clif and I drove through Yosemite via Tioga Pass this morning, the day after it opened post-Rim Fire. It didn't look like a moon-scape until we were nearing the exit of the park on highway 120 toward Groveland. 

Everything appears a bit blurry because we weren't allowed out of our car due to dangers of falling trees etc. So... all photos are taken while on the move. Yey.

These photos are in no particular order (I'm sorry, but we are on a 1-year-anniversary vacay and I am happily failing to spend too much time on the blog posting portion of my life at the moment). 

Enjoy? Natural disasters are pretty amazing in a scary way.

California coastal wanderings (as far as we can get in 4 days)

Finishing a whirlwind day of work in which the Tioga Pass finally opened after the Rim Fire caused its closure for weeks, I have done absolutely NO packing for our trip tomorrow and haven't sleep solidly in four days.

Why? Because cute little Maxdog's month-long miserable rash caused need for puppy steroids, which, turns out, makes dogs thirsty (humans too, I guess), leading to urination. A LOT of urination. Morning and nighttime urination. Carpet, blanket, sidewalk, dirt mounds, pretty much everywhere there is pee. Buckets of it.

Anyway... my point is that we are going to Half Moon Bay tomorrow and I'm going to sleep. I will keep everyone updated with LOTS OF EXCITING FOOD PHOTOS (jk only slightly), scenery and pretty much everything else.

Until tomorrow!

Check it out! A photo that I certainly didn't take, of a place I've yet to go. But I hope it looks like Mono Lake, I mean, this. Yey! Photo courtesy of Josh Cripps

Inspiration

Don't put off your happy life. 

Conundrum

You have one blueberry out of the carton that cost $4.50, intending to savor juuussst one. But it's a really good "just one" so you have another. 

This one tastes too tart. Must have a pallet cleanser. Oooo. That one was too sweet and mushy. Gaack! Another perfect one and lovin' these!

And then you eat the whole carton. Realize post-consumption that you didn't even wash them. 

Story of my morning.