Cruzin' the Coast

Last week John (not cool enough to have his own blog) and I (cool) took a road trip up the western coast of California. I picked him up from LAX and we hung with our friends Mike, Jodi, Purdy, and their friends the night before heading north. We hit the road with nothing more than a day planned. Our first stop was Santa Barbara.

We drove into town windows down, elbows out in our minivan rental - fucking brakes. We thoroughly explored the area and our first destination was UCSB. Can someone please inform me as to why the campus is so removed from the town? We were informed that most college kids just hang out near their college, but we saw nothing of interest there. We continued driving and saw some nice scenery, over-priced homes, and pretentious people. We decided to stay and check out the night scene. We enjoyed the Cardinals stomping the Giants over some beers and unimaginative food. Then, we went to the seediest bar we could find and it was everything but. This spurious bar reminded us of Eastside Tavern in Columbia, Missouri. It turned out to be karaoke night and I belted out some CCR. Besides PBR in the can, the place was lame. We did meet a cool couple from Germany and hung out with them the whole night. Is it ironic that the out-of-towners wanted to hang out with one another rather than the locals? We slept in the back of the van and proceeded north the next morning.

The drive up the central coast was truly majestic. If you ever get the chance to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, do it. When mountains meet the ocean the scenery becomes unpredictable. Every turn reveals something new. Cliffs, forests, beaches, mountains, and valleys come together in a splendorous display. The next stop was Santa Cruz.

I absolutely loved this little city. The combination of a college town and a beach community gave it a mellow feel. The UCSC campus was incredible and certainly the prettiest campus I've ever seen. We decided to stay in Santa Cruz for the night. We hit up a few bars after searching for about an hour. The bar we found was actually pretty cool. We would've liked to see more options though. Again, we slept in our spacious minivan. Next stop, Frisco.

Maybe it was the fact that we did not know anybody that could show us the city, but I was expecting San Francisco to blow me away. First, parking was an absolute bitch and we were incredibly lucky when we found a spot directly outside The Adelaide Hostel. If you want a great deal for a great hostel stay here. It was one of the cleanest I've ever stayed in and the staff was pretty cool. The morning coffee could've been better, but for $25/night I wasn't complaining. The night prior we went to Vesuvio, which was also pretty cool except for our waitress who seemed like she was having the worst day of her wretched life. I'm not giving up on Frisco, but my first impression wasn't that great.

The next day we headed back south and were demystified by California's central valley. San Jose was uneventful and sterile and please someone tell me why would anyone live in Bakersfield? The entire city made me cringe. So we ended up back in Santa Monica on Monday night. All in all, it was definitely fun. I was surprised by how much I liked Santa Cruz and how uninteresting San Fran was. Sleeping in the van was better than it sounds, but our collective body odor needed remedy. Another experience I'll value just as I value all experiences as opportunities to learn about life and the world I inhabit. If we don't explore how will we ever know that where we are is where we are supposed to be?