I have mixed feelings about zoos. I don’t do well in a caged environment myself, so always feel very sorry for the individual animals that live their lives there, but at the same time I can recognize the excellent educational and conservation work that the zoos do. So maybe the good of the many outweighs the good of the few?? In general I rather avoid zoos since I find them depressing, but the San Diego Zoo has an excellent reputation…
I really can’t complain about the weather on this trip. Except for a few days of rain at the beginning, and some fog in San Francisco and Morro Bay, it’s been clear and sunny the whole way, and usually a quite livable temperature. It’s made it possible to get some great pictures too, like this one in Santa Barbara, looking back on the town from Stearns Wharf, where I stopped to have coffee and do some writing. Unfortunately, the cold…
Ever since my experience with the bison in South Dakota, I’ve been wishing that I had a pair of binoculars, so when I stopped in to REI in Santa Rosa to restock on some camping supplies, I decided to check out what they had. I was advised by a very interesting gentleman with knowledge of photography, and incidentally, the most dashing handlebar mustache. Although they didn’t have the ones he recommended in stock, I did end up getting them at another REI…
There’s a place on the Big Sur Coast that I’ve been before, and always love returning to, called the Esalen Institute. They describe themselves as a nonprofit retreat center and intentional community focusing on humanistic alternative education. There are workshops in meditation, art, massage and alternative healing, connecting with nature, yoga, and similar new-agey kinds of things. To me, engineer that I am, some of it seems nice and useful, and some of it seems just a bit weird and airy-fairy. But…
After leaving Monterey, I drove to Pebble Beach to do a circuit of 17 Mile Drive before heading down the coast. I was a cool and misty morning, just perfect for Starbucks latte and Jaffa cakes (breakfast of champions) on the beach to start out, although the day got gradually warmer and clearer. There was hardly anyone at Spanish Bay, where I drank my coffee and watched the surf rolling in to the shore. A little further along the coast is a…