At bobs house we just sat around and talked for a while, about family and life. He is a zen priest and has a lot of incite and common sense to offer. The next day we went down to the beach near his house and walked along the shore line. At the beach we were at the difference between high and low tide is about 60 yards on the shore. In summer they never get rain by him, so winter is the wet season. This forms lots of small streams that cut through the sand into the ocean. Today a strange tide came in that brought with it a lot of sand dollars, and other things.
After the beach bob wanted take me to Fort Bragg, the closest city to his house. A very small and quite town, we stopped at a coffee shop and walked around the block. All the stores are locally own and ran, with a lot of galleries and woman’s clothing stores. We walked into a photo gallery and talked to the owner for a bit about some of the pictures. Bob dose a lot of photo taking and might be doing a showing soon. One of bobs friends went to have some of bobs pictures framed, and the person framing wanted bob to bring some work in for her to sell.
Next we went to Mendocino no new buildings are allowed in the city so everything is renovated. Here we looked in some stores, and spent some time in a really old hotel. It is a beautiful city that overlooks a bay and the ocean. Bob house sat for someone here, for about a year, then decided to move nearby.
Before I left we, mainly bob, made a great Japanese meal. It was a soy based noodle sauce that you pick and choose how to flavor, then add noodles. It was really good, and filling. Now off to San Fran.
I meet Chris Yanasak after he got off work, at his apartment. We went out to meet his ex girlfriend/ girlfriend?, Cherisse, and one of her friends, Fran, at a bar. One the way chris told me about the area and things I should check out the next day. The bar we went to was on the anthony bourdain show, it was the first bar in the city. We went to another bar where a live jazz band was playing. After that me and Chris went back to his place, he had to leave at 5 am to go up to see his dad in Washington. Chris, Curtis’s older brother, Kerry’s son, is a really good skate boarder, and knows a lot of pro riders. 4 of them were staying at his place the last few weeks to film a video. It was cool to meet them and they actually gave me shirt when I left. The next morning I went to the visitor center downtown, not very helpful, and got a few maps. I drove around for a while not really sure what to do. I drove in on the golden gate bridge and that was the only thing I knew about the city. Luckily Cherisse told me to call her, and I joined her and another friend for lunch. After that they showed me just about every inch of the city. I wasn’t too impressed with the city, lots of homeless people, but the tour was the finest I’ve ever had. The city is kind of split up into different parts. Each one has a different style and feel about it. First, we went to the golden gate park. There is a lot of open area where lots of concerts are held. There are also several lakes and ponds. Another cool thing there is a practice fly fishing pond, where there are hoops set up as targets. And of course, what every park should have, 5 buffalo. After the park we just wondered from area to area, and they pointed out all the sights. We drove down the really curvy road, saw Alcatraz, went to gay area and bought a cookie, hiked up a lookout over the city, and lots more points of interest. Cherisse’s friend had to go to work so we dropped her off, and started back towards Chris’s place. On the way we stopped downtown to go to “the top of the mark” a bar on the top floor of a hotel overlooking the city. On the walk from the car to the hotel me notice a really old church was still open. Walked in and took some pictures there, everything was hand built in this church. Then we went up the hotel, took some pics, and back down. She wanted to show me 2 bars that were on the way. One was a really cool jungle type bar, the whole outside was over grown and there was no sign for the bar anywhere. The second was a bar that had tons of animal mounts on the walls. That was the end of the tour, but not the end of the day. I made some food, packed everything up and headed to Yosemite.
Yosemite is a fascinating place. I went to Yosemite Valley and asked about a few hiking trails I could do in a day. I hiked, Yosemite falls, then to any overlook of the valley, and bridal falls. The park is outstanding; the rocks are a vivid grey with streaks of black runoff. Once again everything is huge and hard to put in perspective. The first falls I hiked to is the most common trail, and in a national park at mean a lot of people. The trail is paved but in winter that means ice. There was a downhill part I was able to slide for about 30 yard. Fun for me, but not the people walking up it. I liked the lookout trail a lot. I saw a large group of birds I never saw before. You hike up switch back a few hundred feet, and skirt along a narrow path around a cliff. Then everything opens up and you can see the entire valley. I always wonder the distance things are when you can see that far. On the way down I got to know nature a little better. In the time between hiking up and starting back down, there was a small rock slide. I wouldn’t have noticed except some bushes were in the way and I didn’t remember walking around them the first time. I also came upon a brown bear about 40 feet away from me. I took a few pictures and hiked on, not wanting to see what it would do first. The 3rd trail was bridal falls. Again an icy trail led the way, I really almost didn’t make it up the trail. I never felt stupider then trying to go up hill on ice. With this water fall, the viewing area is really close to the landing of the water. So you are looking right up at it. It started to rain and getting later in the day. After the hike I was going back into Yosemite village to have something on my camera looked at, but the fine police there thought I should wait awhile. After a misunderstanding about insurance I was on the way. Had my camera looked at then I was on the way back to the coast.
I drove to big sur park, right in the middle of the state on the coast. One I got there I was finding a place to sleep for the night when I saw a man just flipped his car. I helped him out for a while and had to drive him up to his work. Apparently a deer wanted to play a game of chicken with his car, deer’s fine. He was just lucky he swerved into the hill and not off the cliff side. The next morning I headed down to the shore to go jade hunting. I walked along for a few hours and picked up everything I thought was jade, and then moved to a different beach. Here I asked some people what they found and how to look for it and what to look for. I spent a few more hours looking along the beach and climbing over rocks. Around a cove I saw a huge elephant seal. I made my way over to it and started taking pictures. It stayed in the water and never really went very far. I never knew how big they really were. I would guess it was 15 feet long with a head the size of a garbage can lid. It really didn’t want me around either; they make a very low pitch cluck you can hear very far away. After a while I left it along and went back on the hunt. I found a few ok size pieces and went back to the car. There I started looking through everything I picked up from the morning. I grabbed about 25 rocks, and 1 piece of jade. I had to laugh at that and I was just happy I found out the right ones before it was too late. After that I started driving south, but It wasn’t to late and I wanted to get something else in before I leave. The whole drive along the coast is usually a hundred or so feet above the water with another hundred or so feet up on the other side. I really wanted to try and climb down to the water, so I went for it. I found a place I didn’t think was too steep and made my way down. The ground is all loose rock with some parts the rocks are held in loose dirt. At the bottom you could tell no one comes here. At one point a car must have wanted a better view; I found an old set of axels and drive shaft. I hiked for bit then started back up. This turned out to be a little over my head. It took about 45 minutes to make it to the top and most of it was fighting the loose rock for a foot hold. But there were enough growing plant I could grab onto and slowly climb out. Somewhat risky but a lot of fun.On the drive i stopped at an elephant seal beach, where there were over 1000 seals laying around. the females were birthing pups and males would fight for dominance over the newly "ready" females.
Well that’s that for today any im glad I am able to post pics again.
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