Big Sur and Beyond

This is a picture of the little concrete area, but the mini-ramp
is not pictured.

We were anxious to get to Big Sur, but Kyle wanted to stop at a small town called Cayucos, because he'd been there before and there was an awesome mini-ramp. Coming from San Diego and Los Angeles, I was glad to be in this quaint seaside town. It was so quiet, it almost seemed abandoned. We had the mini-ramp all to ourselves for the two days we stayed there and skated. The mini-ramp is in prime location, right near the beach and the Cayucos pier, which unfortunately was under construction so we couldn't walk on it. They are probably gearing up for the Sea Glass Festival that is coming up soon. We only missed it by like two weeks. I love sea glass, that would have been neat to check out. At night we slept on San Jancinto Street, which turned out to be a super chill street to sleep on because you aren't parked in front of someone's house, instead you are positioned at the side of peoples' houses next to a fence. Since this street is on the beach, there are also public bathrooms not far away. In the mornings, we'd cook breakfast in the parking lot next to the mini-ramp and do the dishes in the bathrooms near the pier. We went and browsed the antique shops and got some cookies at a gourmet cookie shop called Brown Butter Cookie Company (you can order there cookies online here). We watched the sunset at Morro Rock, which is a pretty cool spot in the adjacent town of Morro Bay. It's a GIANT rock on the shore of the beach. It's a pretty popular surf spot too. The day that we left we took care of some laundry and got my guitar restrung at a shop called Central Coast Music in Morro Bay. Kyle didn't know how to do it because it's a classical guitar and strung differently. After we had all of that out of the way, we got back on U.S. 1 en route to Big Sur!!

These are seals not rocks!

There is tons to see on this stretch of road heading north. We stopped at a beach called Moonstone Beach, where apparently you can find moonstones. We looked for a bit and collected some stones that could possibly be some but I don't know enough about rocks to be sure. We passed an estate called Hearst Castle, which is now a state historical monument. It's on 250,000 acres and has 165 rooms!! It's probably similar to the Biltmore in Asheville. We didn't stop because I don't think they were giving tours at this point in the afternoon and I'm not sure we really cared to pay, but it did look rather magnificent up there on the hills overlooking the California coast. The next thing to stop and see along this road is the elephant seals! There is a great viewing area right off the highway, you can't miss it because they'll be like 30 tourists gawking over the edge of a cliff. Definitely go be one of those tourists... it's like seeing seals at a zoo but they are in their natural habitat. There are soooo many, laying like fatties on the beach. The sun was going down when we got to Big Sur (too many distractions along the way) so we stopped at a picnic area and beach called Sand Dollar Beach to collect wood for the night. Our plan was to camp at this site Avery and Liv told us about, but in the dark we had trouble finding it. Instead, we stumbled upon a road called Nacimiento-Fergusson, which suited us just fine for the night except we couldn't have a fire. This road is super easy to find and also right off U.S. 1. It winds up the mountains and there are plenty of places to pull off and park. Nobody messed with us and we saw a couple vans and RVs doing the same thing. We ended up being right next to the entrance of a trail called the Mill Creek Trail, so we decided to hike it in the morning. This hike made me realize just how special Big Sur is. The coastline is spectacular and all, with it's rocky cliffs, but it doesn't have anything on the lush forest that lies only a few miles from the ocean's edge. It's crazy how quickly the environment changes: from the dry exposed cliffs where scrubby bushes grow to the forests where giant redwoods stand tall surrounded by patches of three leaf clovers and crystal clear brooks. It literally looked like a place where fairies and leprechauns should live. We had lunch on a tree that had fallen in the stream's path where eventually a waterfall had formed by water cutting through the log. It was so beautiful and perfect and serene it almost looked fake. By the time we walked back, it was low enough tide to go hunt for jade at Jade Beach. We found the pull-off, which is right off U.S. 1, but we must have never found the right path. We went down this SUPER steep trail that led to a rocky cove. After reading this article, which says that it is a "simple, flat path," I know we weren't in the right place. With no jade in our pockets, we decided to head towards the campground we were planning to stay at tonight, which is near the trailhead we wanted to get on early the next morning.

You can just baaaarely see the McWay Waterfall in this picture.

On the way there, we stopped to check out the McWay Waterfall Trail. Kyle's mom, Gussie, had given us a tip to stop and check this out. She's visiting soon for her birthday, so she's been researching spots. This trail is easy to find, it's right off U.S. 1 and across the street from a state park called Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. You can't miss it because there will be tons of cars parked along the highway. This is the shortest trail in Big Sur, but it leads to a rewarding view of the McWay Waterfall, which falls right over the edge of the land to the beach beneath and into the ocean. Apparently, the waterfall used to fall directly into the ocean, but after highway construction and other land-altering circumstances produced enough sediment to form a beach. The beach is small and there is no way to get on the beach/you aren't allowed. The state park we were heading to to camp at is called Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, so it can be confusing since there are two parks with the name Pfieffer. This park was kind of pricey, $35/night or $50/night for waterfront. The Big Sur River runs right through the park. The main reason we wanted to camp here was to shower, because it had been awhile and we wanted to start out on our backpacking trip tomorrow fresh. You have to get shower tokens and the machine only took dollars and we had none, so paying to camp here turned out to be completely fruitless. Kyle said last time he was in Big Sur, they rolled into this campground late and left early so they didn't have to pay. Definitely what we should have done...

This picture doesn't even slightly capture how magical the hikes in Big Sur were!

B-A-N-A-N-A Slug!

We got up in the morning early so we could cook a hearty breakfast before our 10 mile hike today along the Pine Ridge Trail, which leads to the hot springs at Syke's Camp. The trailhead is located at the Big Sur Station, where you can pay $5/night for parking. We donned our gear, which I must point out was not very high tech. I was carrying a JanSport backpack and Kyle had a NorthFace backpack with our GIANT 2-person sleeping bag bungee corded to the top. I also had on running shoes that turned out to be a bad idea for this rugged 10-miler. The hike was challenging, very steep with lots of switchbacks. The scenery was constantly changing. The sides of the mountain that were exposed to the sun were arid, with rocky trails. The air smelled like herbs. Before we got too deep into the mountains, there were spectacular views of the ocean. The sides of the mountain that were shaded were lush and green. The trail became moist and slightly muddy in some areas without the sun beating down on it. We saw a giant banana slug, which are very common here. We didn't know what it was until we saw someone later wearing a University of California mascot shirt--- the banana slugs. The trees that grow along this part of the trail are HUGE--- sequoias, redwoods, or both. I tried Googling what the differences were in the two or which were in Big Sur, but I never found a clear answer. The two trees look similar. There are a few campgrounds before you get to Skye's Camp. There is one at the 5-mile point surrounding a river, which is a perfect time to stop for lunch. It was good to get our amateur backpacks off and let our shoulders relax. My feet started cramping about 7 miles into the hike and I was so relieved when we finally got there. The other campgrounds along the trail are clearly marked but Syke's is a little tricky. You'll come to a river and see a sign on the other side that says China Camp is so and so more miles down the trail. Don't go any farther!! There are some campsites immediately along the river, but if you go to the left and hug the shore of the river there are even better spots closer to the springs. I have to say we got the best spot there! Each site is a little different: logs arranged for sitting, fire rings, and a few even had grills! Our spot had a couple logs to sit on, one had mancala carved into it, but we couldn't remember how to play. It was riverfront and complete with a fire ring, a grill, and a clothesline for hanging our bathing suits after we took dips in the springs. The best part is it was the closest campsite to the springs. The water comes naturally from underground, but the pools themselves have been manmade in order to contain the water. There are 3 springs and I named them. There's the Party Pool, which is the largest and holds 5-6 people. There's the Friend Spring, which is the medium one and holds 3-4 people. Then there's the Lover's Tub, which holds one person comfortable or two if they are snuggling. That's why I call it the Lover's Tub. Kyle and I liked this one the best. We think it was the hottest because it was so small.

Lover's Tub!!

On the first night, we drank a bottle wine (yes, we did carry a bottle of wine 10 miles into the forrest) and rested our aching bodies in the Lover's Tub. We were dozing off in the hot sulfur water under the starry night sky. It was lovely. It was soooo hard to tear ourselves out of the tub and run through the chilly air back to the safety of our tent and sleeping bag, but this became the routine every time we went to the springs. We were tired from the hike so we spent the next day reading, collecting wood, and taking multiple dips in the springs. We had to rest our bodies for the trek back in the morning. Before we hiked back, we took one more trip to the Lover's Tub. My feet hurt every step back. It was so weird... I wasn't winded, my calves weren't tired, my back didn't hurt, but my freaking feet!! I think it was from the tennis shoes not being supportive enough, definitely investing in a solid pair of hiking boots before my next long hike. We were both relieved when we got back to the parking lot. Poor Kyle's backpack rig was so ghetto and I know it couldn't have been easy to carry and my feet hurt for days, haha. We decided to treat ourselves to a hotel room that night in a random town called Salinas. It was a pretty shitty Motel 6, but I guess I should have looked at the 2-star review it got on Trip Advisor. The motel had been recently renovated, so it wasn't too sketchy. We didn't care anyways, because we had a BED and a SHOWER, which we certainly needed. What luxuries!

I spy GodWeenSatan and Maggot Brain!

We spent the next night in Santa Cruz. We got there in the afternoon and checked out the surf at Steamer Lane... there weren't any waves really but of course there were still people out in the water at this famous surf spot. There's this tiny rocky island not far off the shore with like 100 seals on it. It just looks so weird because they are all crammed up there. We walked to the downtown area, which I really liked. There was an awesome mix of stores from local joints to more corporate stores, lots of different cuisine, some movie theaters, cool bars/venues... so much to do! We got some socks from a store called Sockshop and Shoe Company. The socks are made locally in Santa Cruz. Mine were tall watermelon socks and Kyle got sloths wearing bling--- yes, there were very creative design options. We wandering into a record shop called Streetlight Records, that made my face melt! First off, they had two of my favorite records in their window display (GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, by Ween and Maggot Brain, by Funkadelic). Secondly, I was so sad that I couldn't buy some of the records I found. They had a Moistboyz record (a Dean Ween project) on sale for like $10. I buy used records for like $10!! It was brand new! They also had a Blowfly record: he's this old rapper that is super vulgar. He was playing at this bar in St. Augustine called Nobby's the night me and Kyle fell in love. :) But atlas... we left empty-handed. We just happened to be in Santa Cruz on the 2nd Sunday when an antique market is held on Lincoln Street. They block off the street for browsing. We got lost in the shelves at a bookstore called Logos, that also sold records. They had new and used books, so something in everyone's price range. We had a lot of laundry to do after the hike, so we camped out in a laundromat for what felt like forever. I was asleep by the time we got to the street we slept on, because I rode in the back in the bed so I can't remember what it was called. In the morning, we went to this small skatepark called Derby. The entrance to the skatepark is a little weird, it's kind of a gravel path to a park in a neighborhood. Definitely a random place for a skatepark, but it was like a smooth ditch that led to a small bowl. Then off to the city!!

Derby Skatepark

Half Moon Bay Mini-Ramp featuring a Hot Sauce Sandwich sticker on the left-hand side.

We stopped at Half Moon Bay before we got to San Francisco to skate a mini-ramp that is right off U.S. 1. On the way, we went to this town called Castroville. We didn't even stop, but I thought this little town was funny because it is the "artichoke capital of the world." Literally, whizzing by your windows are just 1,000s and 1,000s of artichokes. If you want to see it yourself they even have an Artichoke Festival. Kyle's friend, John, who we are staying with in San Francisco, came to meet us at the mini-ramp. It turns out that Liv, the girl we stayed with in San Diego, was in San Francisco because her friends from back East flew into visit her, so she met up with us too on her way back south. There was a Hot Sauce Sandwich sticker on the mini-ramp, which is our friends' band from Ocean City... yet, the sticker ended up all the way out here on U.S. 1. We grabbed some food at Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, which turned out to be a pretty cool place. They had a super sick Grateful Dead mosaic in the dining area, but we ate outside because it was such a nice day! We were lucky that John met up with us because Kyle's shift connector broke right there in the parking lot of the restaurant. We rode back to SF with him and got the car towed to Half Moon Bay Auto Repair, who fixed our car in a couple days and were really nice.

San Francisco is an incredibly steep city. The houses are built side by side in a staircase fashion--- the only way to build them on all these hills! You know what hills are good for? Bombing, especially according to Kyle. I learned to skate in Florida where there are no hills so this is a whole new element for me. Most of the hills here are way too big for me, but I'm starting small. You know what hills aren't good for? Walking up... it's a freaking workout to go any where around here. The good news is is that there is an awesome transit system here. Kyle has spent time in San Francisco in the past, so he knows his way around on the MUNI, which is the public transportation. We've gone everywhere on that thing: to Market Street, to a skatepark, to the Haight-Ashbury district, to Chinatown, and back again. I had a mission to get new glasses when I came to San Francisco, because my favorite glasses company, SEE Eyewear, has a store here. I discovered SEE when I was vacationing in Charleston. Since then, I have gotten my glasses from that store ever since because I go to Charleston every now and then, but it's been too long since my last trip to Charleston and I need a new prescription. My first order of business was to get my eyes checked. I found a place that took my insurance and that I could walk to and got that over with. Then Kyle and I took the bus to Market Street, where SEE is. We had so much fun trying on all the glasses and sunglasses. Sometimes I wish SEE would sell their glasses online, but that would take away the whole experience. You don't get to try them on and see what you look like in them. I probably wouldn't have even considered the pair I got if I hadn't gotten to try them on! Kyle left the shop with a pair of funky new sunglasses, but I had to wait for my lenses to be made.

I had dropped some film off at a camera shop called Photoworks, so we were going to pick it up on the way home. To my dismay, the film didn't catch and my whole roll was blank. I was super bummed because it was a ton of pictures from the last few weeks, but the guy at the camera store showed me how to load the film so it won't happen again at least. This was a cool shop though and I highly recommend supporting shops like this because they are a dying breed. It's hard to find somewhere to get pictures developed these days and especially buy specialty film (black and white, polaroid, different speeds). They had framing options and tons of paper choices (glossy, matte, canvas, etc.). Another day was spent on Haight Street, perusing the psychedelic shops. We went into a super sick record store called Amoeba. The outside looks kind of like a 50s diner. They had some stuff I've been looking for like Tom Tom Club, but once again we couldn't get anything 'cause we on the road and a car is not a good place for a record and mailing them would be sketchy. The other stores were pretty much all head shops or vintage clothing stores. I impulsively got a new bowl that is a clear water filled pipe that has pink glitter swirling around inside of it, it's like a snow globe. I've seen them online before and considered ordering one. I'm super glad I didn't because finding one on Haight Street is pretty cool. I would tell you the name of the shop so you can get one too, but there are so many head shops that I don't know what the name of it is. We got some ice cream at the Ben and Jerry's shop and walked up to see the Grateful Dead's house on Ashbury Street. The Grateful Dead... some of the pioneers of the whole scene. I remember reading about the "Haight-Ashbury District" and thinking it sounded so magical. We heard some old spun bums on the bus talking about how it was back in the day "Seeing Hendrix in this joint, Jagger in the next--- all free." They'd shut the street down to let the Dead play. It's not exactly like that anymore. All the old heads who were there are now old bums and there are tons of spun out kids who have flocked there in hopes of finding what once was. Now it's mostly just a bunch of heady shops. It's cool, but not exactly what I expected. We did Chinatown too for a little bit, but we didn't stay long... just a bunch of Asians trying to get you to buy cats with swinging arms and chopsticks, although Kyle got a new jade monkey necklace ('cause he loses necklaces right and left). We spent (mostly Kyle) a lot of time skating: bombing hills when we could (walking down the killers), at a skate spot by the beach, at a park called Balboa. There are so many fun hills right around John's house.

I love mosaics so much. 

One leads to these intricate mosaic stairs that I saw on Pinterest awhile ago and put on my "Before I Die" board. I showed Kyle them and told him I wanted to find them and turned out he'd already been! There's 163 stairs and the bottom of the stairs is the bottom of the sea, then it goes up from there into a landscape, then the sun and moon at the top. From the base of the stairs, you get the full picture, perfectly fitting together like a puzzle--- a work of art. Then at the top, you get an amazing view of San Francisco. The cool thing about this spot is the stairs was a community project/idea: the neighborhood sponsored it, a local artist did the mosaics, and a tiling company helped. All because they wanted to make something beautiful. :) The skate spot was down by the beach where Lincoln Street ends at the ocean. Kyle and I skated there from the house once. We tried to do Quintara Street, which is a famous hill to bomb, but some of it was too intense (even for Kyle). We skated what we could and were at the skate spot and the beach in no time because it's downhill the whole time. The skate spot was a bank up to a curb that someone made with concrete. Kyle met a guy there who makes skateboards and he just happened to break his board at that very spot so he got one off the guy for $20.

Balboa Skatepark

We spontaneously stopped at Balboa Skatepark when we were on the MUNI with our boards, but I didn't skate much because I didn't have my helmet and I'm just not sure about that yet. Kyle said he was in San Francisco when the park first opened and already there's a bunch of wear-and-tear. The park is pretty cool in the aspect that the whole thing is covered with skatelite. They had a small bowl that looked fun. One day, we took a walk at this park called Land's End, which is actually a national recreation area. It was a beautiful spot to walk, literally at "land's end." There were some awesome views of the Golden Gate from the path. John took us down to Fisherman's Wharf, to see the touristy side of San Francisco. There were the classic t-shirt shops, selling magnets and mugs. There were street performers: a creepily good Michael Jackson and a one man band we watched for a bit called The Lone Sound Ranger. The Lone Sound Ranger was pretty cool--- he literally had a full band all by himself (no looping), but using rigs and all sorts of gizmos. We ate at a famous bread company called Boudin Bakery. They bake their bread fresh and the whole street smelled delicious. Bread bowls and soup it was! The time we weren't out and about was spent at John's giant mansion, where he has a jam set up. I played bass for the first time and I am so stoked on it. I want to take lessons now and get good!! Oh, the jam sessions that await...

SLAPPIN' DA BASS. 

Since we spent so much time in San Francisco, it's going to work out that we'll see Kyle's mom, Gussie, and his step-dad, Tommy!! She is coming to explore California (great minds think alike) for her birthday, so we are meeting up with her in Yosemite. First, we're spending a few days in Tahoe visiting friends and scoping out a potential spot to live in the fall. I can't believe it's already April! We've still got to go up the rest of the California coast and into Oregon to hopefully meet up with our friend Dom from St. Augustine. Then hit it to Colorado, I believe. Cut through most of the midwest and end up with our friends and family again in Ocean City. Down the east coast and home safely in St. Augustine by April 20th-ish... lots to do!! More than 3,000 miles to go and we've already put at least that on the odometer.

SoCal Brah

My wipeout boo-boos.

San Diego is the only place I have ever been to in California, so it's ironic that this is the first place we stopped at in this great state. Last time I was here, we were visiting my mom's friend, Judy, from nursing school and that was 12 years ago... it's good to be back!! In fact, we stayed with our friends, Avery and Olivia, whose apartment was just minutes away from Judy's. Small world! Our first night was spent playing Spanish and Cards Against Humanity. We skated down to a bar called Tiny's and proceeded to get way too drunk. On the way there, I took the worst spill of my entire life after cruising down a hill, drunk, and hitting a patch of gravel. I had road rash over the ENTIRE right side of my body... Ouch. Needless to say, it wasn't that great of a night for me. I will say that the beer at this bar was pretty decently priced and they had pool tables, so it turned out to be a nice little spot.

Robb Field Skatepark

I spy Avery and Kyle up on those cliffs!

Even though the next morning, I wasn't feeling too hot we still had a full day. We got burritos at this place called Roberto's, which is definitely good hangover food. The one Kyle got was called a California Burrito, which had fries in it! Apparently, it's a thing out here, hence the name "California Burrito," because I saw it at a few other places. We spent some time at the Robb Field Skatepark. Robb Field is a really nice park with not only a skatepark, but also picnic tables, tons of tennis courts, and fields large enough to play soccer in or just sunbathe. Olivia and I read while the boys skated. I will say there aren't a lot of trees good for slack lining, unless you have a really LONG slack line. We hooked it up to a concrete picnic table and a tree, but it started moving the table. It worked for the time being. After we hung out there for a bit, we met up with another friend, JV, and went to this amazing beach called Black's Beach. We parked in some residential area and hiked down an amazing trail, which I believe is called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This is probably by far the coolest beach I have ever been on. I've never seen cliffs surrounding the ocean quite like that before. The hike down was equally as incredible where we followed worn footsteps through the hills, which appeared to be made of tightly packed sand. There were times on the trail where you felt like you were going to fall into the small canyon dividing the trail that was formed by a stream of some sort. There were places on the trail that were like sand slot canyons where you'd have to raise your arms and twist your body to fit between the tall, sandy walls. There was a little gorge where someone had placed a plank to balance-beam across to the other side. On the last part, there was a rope, attached probably years ago, to help get down a steep section. It made me feel like I was in Hawaii or someplace like that! The boys surfed until almost sunset and then we headed back to OB to try and catch the sunset at the cliffs, but we were a little too late thanks to the traffic. We decided to go check out this Grateful Dead cover band, Electric Waistband, at a bar called Winston's.

This is the really narrow part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Jumping off Sunset Cliffs.

Memorial Skatepark

At Avery's apartment every morning, we had a natural alarm clock--- screeching parrots. Parrots are not native to San Diego but there is a rumor that a pet shop had a bunch escape and now they have taken over! The parrots got us up in time to go jump off Sunset Cliffs, by the time we skated over there we thought we missed high tide, but the water was plenty high, so we all jumped in. I found some sea glass near the cliffs, more green than I usually find on the East coast. Afterwards, Kyle and I went to the Robb Field Skatepark again and then to Memorial Skatepark. I liked this park because it had a bowl with an easy roll in and smaller drop-ins. We went to this awesome grocery store that's in California called the Grocery Outlet. Everything was so cheap... I'm talking $1.20 almond milk and $.99 cent bags of granola. Definitely a road trip staple store. On Wednesday, there's a farmer's market in OB in the evening. They shut down the street and the farmer's market gets hoppin'. There was live music, food vendors, fresh produce, homemade hummus, lotions, jewelry... you name it and with plenty of samples! We got some Indian food from one of the vendor's who boasted it was "the best food in San Diego." It was pretty damn good Indian food and huge portions. Kyle and I split one. There are a ton of thrift stores in Ocean Beach that we explored. My favorite shop we went into was called The Black, which sold oddity items, but the best part was their book selection. It was as if they had personally gathered all the books I wanted to read into about 4 or 5 shelves. Books by Jack Kerouac, Chuck Palahniuk, Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson. Books about drugs, musicians, autobiographies, novels. It took everything I had not to buy 'em all, but I copied down a hefty list of books I will buy off Amazon for much cheaper. :) Not far from The Black, is a hostel that rivals the one we stayed at in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica in terms of its aesthetic value. The whole place was painted psychedelic. I'm putting this in here 'cause if you don't have anybody to stay with in OB, you should definitely look this place up. It's called Ocean Beach International Hostel. 

Love the art on this hostel. :)

We spent a couple days catching up with some friends and family. We went to Coronado Island to get lunch with Kyle's cousin Quinn, who he hadn't seen in 6+ years! Coronado is a super nice community, with everything you could possibly need available without you having to leave the island (even though it is a little pricer). We took a bike/skate shesh around the island to check it all out and then stopped for lunch at a take-out burrito shop called Clayton's, which was so good we ended up eating there again the next day. They load it up on the sauces and also have the "California Burrito" option, but I chose shrimp instead and was very pleased. The next friends we reunited with were my parent's friends, Judy and Brad. We went to their beautiful home in Point Loma that had an incredible view of Sunset Cliffs. I didn't recognize anything, considering it had been 12 years! Their house had an attachment built on and everything was very modern. The things that looked the most different were their daughters, Bridgette and Nicole, who are both very close to graduating high school. The way I remember them was like the pictures they had on their walls!! I'm sure they didn't recognize me either though. Judy and Brad cooked us a delicious dinner complete with tri-tip steak, roasted veggies, potatoes, a side salad, and some good wine. It was good catching up with them and we stayed pretty late before we headed back to Coronado. We ended up getting to visit with Kyle's Uncle Bernie for a little bit, as he had just flown home from Texas. We were happy our schedules crossed just so...

This a pretty famous skate spot called the "Piano Keys" at
Washington Street Skatepark.

Our next stop was Joshua Tree National Park, where we were we excited to see those odd trees. On our way out of San Diego, Kyle had to skate one more skate park so we went looking for Washington Street Skatepark. This is by far the coolest park we have been to so far in my opinion. It looked like something out of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. The features are very steep and way too advanced for me, so I just took it all in. It was clearly built by a bunch of skateboarders, all underneath a freeway bridge--- there are mosaics, cool designs welded into the fence, a few planters with succulents, and even a grill! And it was pretty much just built by a bunch of skateboarders. In 1999, the amount of fines skateboarders were accumulating in San Diego was becoming unbearable, so some locals banded together and started laying some concrete. Of course, the city was outraged and tried to shut it down immediately. However, this generated publicity and support for the underdogs. The skateboarders won and by 2002 (after they had gotten all the permits, paperwork, and designs drawn up) they began adding to Washington Street Skatepark and shreddin' some more. I was glad we stopped to check it out. When you get to Joshua's Tree, there is pretty much one main road with many campgrounds branching off. We stayed at the Hidden Valley Campground, for $10 a night, which we thought looked the most appealing out of the ones we had passed. It had picnic tables, fire rings, and a compostable toilet (no running water). Two deserts come together in Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave and the Colorado, which make for a very interesting landscape, then throw in the Joshua Trees and you might as well be on another planet. There are just these GIANT boulders randomly scattered about the desert. The Joshua Trees are such an odd plant. They have these spiky green balls at the end of their branches, which twist and grow in random directions. They were given their name by Mormon pioneers in the 19th century because their limbs reminded them of the outstretched arms of Joshua. We climbed to the top of the boulder mountains and took in the view right before sunset (we didn't want to climb down in the dark).

Funny little trees, aren't they? 

I liked how the Stoner Skatepark was red and black, very sleek.

We left in the morning to head to visit my friend Sadie who lives in Los Angeles--- on Stoner Street, of course. Stoner Street is right off Santa Monica Boulevard, which had me singing the Cheryl Crow song for the rest of the day. When we got to her apartment, we discovered there is a skatepark on Stoner Street, which Kyle visited quite a few times while we were visiting. We tried to get to Venice Beach for sunset, but that damn LA traffic made us miss it. We still enjoyed a doobie on the beach with a back drop of graffitied walls and pink skies. There are these random concrete walls on the beach that serve no purpose as far as I can see, but have been covered in layers and layers of spray paint. It's tradition and allowed by the city to spray paint these walls. We followed the routine of getting impossibly drunk on the first night of our arrival and recuperating for most of the next day... We went to Venice Beach a few times while we were visiting. We went with Sadie once to check out all the vendors. All up and down the boardwalk are all sorts of sights: wackos, art, wood sculptures, t-shirt shops, and more. There is also a skatepark on the beach, Venice Beach Skatepark. Unfortunately, it's pretty much always crowded with a sea of tourist gawking by the railings. The park did look really fun though and it's got an awesome view to enjoy. Another time when Sadie was working, we skated to the Santa Monica Pier and had a little picnic. Then we skated down to Venice again, where we passed Muscle Beach. It looked like something straight out of Spongebob. There were tons of beef head Larry the Lobsters out there pumping iron. Another thing that I thought was funny was the rollerbladers. I feel like for some odd reason, Venice Beach has become a famous place to rollerblade. They even have places where you can rent some! For most of the time, we used the public transportation here, which is pretty awesome--- it just takes super long to get anywhere with all the stopping (but hey, that's public transit for you). We took a bus around the city called the Big Blue Bus. It was cheap and easy to find because there were stops on almost every corner. We tried taking the metro system to this place called The Echo, which has a funky dance party on Saturdays. Sounded like my kind of party... BUT we got really turned around on the metro and ended up just going home after spending too much time trying to get there that we would have had to pay the cover (it was free until 10:30pm). So a word to the wise, maybe plan your route before and include plenty of travel time to get where you're trying to go. Good luck!!! The funky dance party would definitely be something to check out. One night, we walked to this place near Sadie's apartment called Touch Vinyl. They had a band playing, which I do not remember the name of because it wasn't my bag, baby. I think if they got rid of the chick singer and the drummer who laid down that same beat for every song, the bassist and guitar player might have something. Dunno though, because the other two were drowning it out. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. We would have liked to have browsed through the shop, but it was kind of dark in there for the show. If you're interested in looking at vinyl, my advice is to go during regular store hours.

Venice Beach Skatepark

It feels good to be in California. Southern California did not disappoint and I can't believe there's still Central and Northern Cali to explore! This state is so huge and foreign to me I might as well be in another country. I love how many of the city and street names are Spanish--- La Jolla, San Diego, Los Angeles, Coronado... makes me feel at home because many of the places in St. Augustine are also Spanish. Now we're off to take the magical US 1, can't wait to see what lies ahead! 

Sweeping Through the Southwest

Our next stop was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We drove the majority of the day in order to get there from Austin. We camped at a place for the night that we found on Free Campsites. Be careful when choosing a camp site off this website... make sure to read the reviews of other people who have been there. We were originally heading to one called Carlsbad Caverns Desert Boondocking on the site, but after reading people's comments I learned that this land is not owned by the Bureau of Land Management, but by an oil company so there can be dangerous gases in the air. We decided we didn't want to stay there and found another place on the site called Dark Canyon. We used the coordinates from the website on our GPS, but in the dark it wasn't so easy to find. There are no clearly marked signs and this truly is just a bit of desert that you are allowed to park on... no facilities, no picnic tables, no fire rings. We eventually found it because there was another van out there and we figured that must be it. We made grilled cheeses and tomato soup for dinner while moths swarmed about. There were SO many moths--- get a red light headlamp if you are coming to this place, haha.

Descending into the caverns! It's pretty hard to get good pictures
inside because of the dim lighting.

The next morning we set out early for Carlsbad Caverns National Park, because we were also planning on making it to White Sands National Monument that day. When we got to the park, we decided to buy an annual pass, which cost $80 and is good for a year. Two people put their signatures on the card, but it is good for your entire carload of people unless you are going to a place that charges per person (then you have up to 4 free). It really is a good value, we've already used about half the cost of the card and we still have so many parks we plan on visiting! Carlsbad Caverns were insanely immense. I had no idea the extent of this cave system. The largest area in the cave is called "The Big Room," and is the largest known limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated to be 600,000 sq. feet, which is as big as 14 football fields!! We were walking about the caverns for a good two hours and you could spend way longer in there. The formations are incredible--- stalagmites (growing from the ground), stalactites (growing from the ceilings), soda straws (very thin formations hanging from the ceilings), draperies, popcorns (when the water drips into cave pools and splashes on the rocks it forms popcorn like formations), and columns (where stalagmites and stalactites meet). In the olden days, you'd have to walk up the path you took descending into the cave, but they thankfully have installed an elevator. That would have been a workout! After our time in the caverns, we ate lunch at some picnic tables on a pull-off inside the park. There were trails that you could walk on, but we headed for our next destination, which turned out to be a little farther than we thought. It was about 4 hours from Carlsbad, but we still got to White Sands National Monument with about an hour till sunset.

White Sands National Monument 

There isn't TOO much to see here--- don't get me wrong it was still incredible, but you definitely probably couldn't kill a whole day here and if you did you'd probably get lost in the rolling sand hills. I've never really been to a desert, one with sands and the typical dunes that you picture only in some place like Saudi Arabia, but there's one out here smack dab in the middle of Alamogondo, New Mexico. One thing that is cool about this desert is that the sand is pure white, unlike many deserts with yellowish sands. There are primitive camping spots for a fee, but you have to get there well before sunset because they are worried about you getting lost in the desert, I suppose. We would have loved to camp there, because I'm sure the stars are incredible, but we got there a little too late. Trails can't really be made in sand because it is constantly blowing, moving, covering, and uncovering. There was one permanent trail that is more of a boardwalk with signs explaining things about the animal and plant life in the area. Another cool thing you can do here is bring a sled and sled down the sandy banks! It looked so fun, but we didn't have a sled. Later we found out that they had them at the gift shop either to buy or rent, so it'd be worth looking into! After we watched the sun dip behind the Sacramento Mountains, casting a yellow glow on the white sand and making the plateaus in the west look pink, we headed to our campsite not far away. We got to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park after dark and were planning on paying in the morning but the office wasn't open when we were leaving so we got the place free for the night! This is an awesome little campsite and it's a bummer we didn't stay longer. There were two trails that started in the campground, the Riparian Nature Trail or a more challenging hike on the Dog Canyon Trail. Each site has a covered picnic table and fire pit. There are sites with electricity and water, but they are extra. There is a bath house with hot showers and toilets. When we woke up in the morning, we saw our site was right next to some beautiful rocky plateaus. It was a nice backdrop.

The Saguaro's were HUGE!!

It's not the best picture, but it's The Growlers!! You can
kind of see the romantic vibe that I was talking about.

We left early because we had to be in Tucson, Arizona tonight to see The Growlers! The plan was to check them out and then to meet up with our friends, Lindsay and Steve, who have been living in Tucson for a minute now. Lindsay is a glass blower and teaches workshops at the Sonoran Glass School. On our way to Tucson, we stopped at Saguaro National Park. The park is literally divided by the city of Tucson and there is an East section and a West section. We went to the East section, but we were told the West section is more spectacular in terms of the density of the cactus. This was hard for me to believe because it seems like there were plenty here! Saguaro cactus are probably the type of cactus you picture when you think of cactus--- tall with arms growing from the sides, but did you know they only occur naturally in a very small region of Arizona, California, and Mexico? They have come to represent the cactus as a species because they have such personality and often take on human-like shapes as their arms grow. In addition to the Saguaros, there are 49 other species of cactus growing in the cactus garden that is Saguaro National Park. It is one of the largest and most diverse cactus gardens in the world. We took an ecology trail where we learned that a Saguaro has to be 50-100 years old before it begins growing its "arms." We also saw a dead Saguaro and were surprised when we realized that underneath the green, spiky, fleshy layer is a wooden skeleton much like any regular old tree. It was fascinating. We did a couple other short trails before our tummies started rumbling. Lindsay recommended a restaurant called La Cocina so we grabbed a quick bite there before we headed to the concert. Our meals were great, I got lemon caper penne with salmon and Kyle got a lemon grass coconut curry quinoa bowl. The place was also super cute--- it had a courtyard lit with bulb lights and heat lamps to stay warm underneath. They had a live band playing, Ms. Lana Rebel and Kevin Michael Mayfield, which had a twangy folk sound that was nice to eat dinner to. We had parked in a garage near the venue and skated to dinner, so we skated back, chugged some beers and went to stand in the line forming outside Club Congress. The venue was romantic and intimate, connected to an old hotel called Hotel Congress. It is apparently haunted and is where the gangster John Dillinger was caught! Interesting little bits of history... Inside the venue, the booths were red brocade vinyl and the stage had iron filigree around it set by heavy red velvet curtains. It was a perfect place to see The Growlers, who describe their music as beach goth. I think that is a pretty accurate depiction. Their music is great to bob and sway to, carefree like you were catching a wave, but their lyrics are personal and oftentimes poignant. I fell in love with their album, Hung at Heart, but haven't gotten into any of their other stuff. They played one song off that album and it made me extremely happy. After the show, we met up with Lindsay across the street at a restaurant called the Hub. We didn't order anything, but it looked pretty swanky and even had a homemade ice cream bar, which I thought added a unique spin. Lindsay was having dinner with Andrew, one of the owners of Outback Kate's (the food vendor we will be working for at festivals this summer). He was there because he just worked a festival called Gem & Jam, which happened this weekend as part of the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, one of the largest showcasing of this type in the world!! It was good to see everybody and talking about the upcoming festival season just got me all amped up! We slept in the truck outside Lindsay and Steve's house. In the morning, we went and checked out one of the locations that was part of the gem show. Some of the crystals here were unreal: quartz the size of six year olds, huge slab of malachite, the biggest geodes I have ever seen... We got a geode and a amethyst cluster for super cheap. The prices were amazing!

The amethyst cluster I got at the gem show for a friend
for a steal of a price!!

We found out this morning that The String Cheese Incident is playing 3 shows in Las Vegas over Valentine's weekend at the Brooklyn Bowl--- a Sin City Incident. We decided this would be the perfect Valentine's Day present. :) Our original plan was to spend another day or so in Tucson checking out some hikes Lindsay and Steve told us about, but we decided to head out after the gem show so we could still hit up the Grand Canyon. By the time we got close to the Grand Canyon, it was dark so we stayed in the Kaibab National Forest for free. We wanted to get an early start on some hikes in the morning. At night, the pull-offs for the forest were kind of hard to find, but in the daylight they were much clearer. Along AZ-64, there are many areas within the Kaibab National Forest that you can stop and camp so just look for the signs! In the morning, we headed to the Grand Canyon National Park. This park is by far the biggest we have been to so far, within the grounds there is a general store with anything you'd need grocery wise, camping, lodging, and miles of trails. It cost $25 per vehicle, so we were especially glad we had our pass. The hike down into the Grand Canyon would've taken too long, considering our time constraints, so we did part of a trail that leads down to a view of the Colorado River: The Bright Angel Trail. We stopped at the 3-mile rest house to eat lunch and then head back up. So in total, we hiked 6 miles totaling about 4 hours. Going down it is fairly step, but there are a bunch of switchbacks so it makes the going down easy... the coming up, not so much. The views are incredible the whole way down and the whole way up. The trail hugs the sides of the Grand Canyon. It's breathtaking. Our plan after the Grand Canyon was to go up to Escalante in Utah, but there was no good route and we thought we'd be too pooped to rage a String Cheese show on Sunday after all that, so we decided to catch the Valentine's Day show. So it was off to Vegas!! After finding out that there is no camping in the city, not even at a KOA, we stayed about two hours outside the city at a KOA in Kingman, AZ. We got a steal considering we payed $27 for a campsite in San Antonio... we paid $27 for a cottage!! The cottage was precious with icicle lights on the porch with a swing, a mini-fridge and microwave, a full bed AND bunk beds (so you could cram this little place if you needed/wanted), wifi, a picnic table, a grill, and a water spigot out back. There was a shower house with bathrooms and hot showers nearby. There was a pool and a hot tub here, but the pool was closed for the winter... the hot tub was so nice!! It was an awesome Valentine's Eve.

Our little Valentine's Cottage. <3

Chillin' with a cardboard cutout of Rick at
the Pawn Stars Shop!!

Before we set out for the city that never sleeps, we were due for an oil change. We have driven 2,000+ miles so far, probably much more than that because we haven't taken the most direct routes. We went to a cute lil oil change shop called Oil Can Henry's. It's worth mentioning because they had amazing service, so if you're looking to get an oil change in Idaho, California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, or Washington, find one of these! It's super old school: they give you a newspaper when you pull up and their uniform is caps and bow ties. Plus, they were honest. When we got an oil change in St. Augustine they told us they recommended we change our air filter, but here 2,000+ miles later they said that the air filter looked fine but could probably be replaced NEXT oil change. When we got to Vegas, we had quite a bit of time to kill before we needed to go to the venue to try and score tickets (the show was sold out). We decided to go to Pawn Stars, because we love that show. There was a line out the door, but it didn't take long at all to get inside. It really wasn't as cool as we were expecting, but hell we were in Vegas, so why not?! We parked in the Caesar's Palace FREE parking garage! We just followed the address on Google and it took us straight to the garage. You are allowed to park here all night for free and since we had curtains in the back of our truck bed, we knew we'd be fine sleeping there for the night. I will say that the clearance is VERY low... we have a storage box on top of the truck and were barely making it, even scraping in some places. You definitely could not bring an RV or a truck with a big camper top in here. They also keep the place lighted obnoxiously throughout the night and play equally obnoxious music throughout the night, probably to discourage people from sleeping there and for safety purposes (the lights at least). It wasn't that bad, especially with our curtains and you can find a spot where there isn't a speaker so it's not too loud everywhere. The best part was that it was free and most of the hotels cost way over $100 around here, so we wouldn't have been able to make this night a reality if it wasn't for that. We had a ton of quarters accruing, so we decided to use these on the quarter machines. Note: none of the slot machines take change, which is a total scam to get you to spend at least $1. So we ran around Las Vegas trying to find a Coinstar to no avail. If you need to cash out some coins before you hit the slots, all the Coinstars are not within walking distance from the heart of Vegas, so take care of that before you get there. We ended up just using $10 we had on us. This was my first time gambling and boy, it was the stupidest thing ever. At least the slots are... I could see how the tables might be more fun because with the card games at least it's a combination of strategy and luck, but on the slots you just hit a button and wait to lose or win. Not my cup of tea and a waste of money. There were caricature artists who were doing free couples for Valentine's Day so we got one and it looked JUST like us--- we tipped the guy $5 and were very happy with the outcome.

Can you spy the Boognish?!

We went and found the Brooklyn Bowl around 5:00pm, because the doors opened at 7:00pm and we wanted to give ourselves plenty of chances to score a ticket. The Brooklyn Bowl is on a little walking street that is part of a complex called The Linq. Do not follow your phone GPS, it will put you in circles. It's literally right across the street from Caesar's Palace. Outside the venue, it seemed as if everyone was holding their finger up for a ticket. We were getting a little antsy, especially after it was getting closer and closer to 7:00pm without even seeing one person selling a ticket. It was odd to see a hoard of String Cheese fans, with their dreads, heady pendants, tie dye attire, and patchouli fragrances, mixed about the rich vacationers there in suits, body con dresses, and heels that could stab someone. SO many people were coming up to us asking why we had our fingers up... what squares. We had to explain that this is what you do to make it known to ticket sellers that you are in search of a ticket. People were walking by us looking up at the sky trying to see what we were pointing at. Sometimes when they asked what we were pointing at, instead of what we were doing, we just replied with "we're pointing at space." It gave us a chuckle. We finally got some tickets for about $30 about face value, but I wasn't going to turn 'em down. It looked like everyone was trying to get tickets and this was our Valentine's present to each other. They had already let people in, so we went straight into the venue once we got our tickets. They still hadn't opened the stage area. We inquired about bowling, because we had never been to a Brooklyn Bowl (at these venues you can bowl during the concert, it's a pretty neat idea). But all the lanes had been reserved, so if you want to bowl at one of these venues you should call in advance to figure out how it works. On their rental chalk board, with prices for games and shoes, someone had drawn a boognish which is the logo for my favorite band, Ween. It follows me everywhere!! We were sitting in line to get into the stage area with another couple we saw holding their fingers up outside and they gave us a beautiful crocheted rose. Valentine's kindness right there! When they finally allowed us to go into the stage area, we got probably a row or two back from the stage... it was a sick spot UNTIL someone puked before the show even started. He ruined our dance spot and threw up on some body's back. I hate people who get that messed up at shows. First off, I would never get on that level, but if I did I would puke in my own shirt before I puked on the dance floor or somebody else. The place was already packed so it was too late to relocate, so we all dance this weird tribal style dance around the pile of vomit for the whole first set of the show. Thankfully, someone stepped up during the break between sets and got a towel form the bar. The setlist was amazing! Since it was Valentine's Day they did some special covers, like It's Not Unusual and Could You Be Loved. They also played Colorado Bluebird Sky and Let's Go Outside from their new album, Song In My Head, which I really like. I don't really like the chorus for Let's Go Outside, but it has a funky beat and cool rap versus. They had DJ Logic come out to build of the beat for Let's Go Outside and it was sick. I love String Cheese, because even during their slower, more intimate moments you can still shake it. They were getting galactic. You can see the whole setlist and download the show here. It was an incredible performance. Afterwards, Lotus was playing in the same venue for no extra cost, so it was like a double whammy. Our bodies felt like Jell-O, so we sat on some leather upholstered wrap-around couches and watched the show from a live feed they were streaming on about 10 TVs in the lounge area. We watched about half the shows before our bellies started rumbling, so we left the venue in search of food. It was about 3:00am at this point and nothing was open, which I found odd since all the casinos were still charging full steam ahead. We settled for White Castle and were satisfied enough to go pass out in the truck until the morning heat woke us up. It was an amazing Valentine's Day. :)

String Cheese SLAYIN' it. :)

Don't Mess with Texas

We shot straight for Texas when we left Alabama, but we didn't want to drive through the night, so we stopped at a free campsite in Louisiana. It's a little bit off the beaten path off I-20, but not too far out of the way. It was called Cloud Crossing Campground in Goldanna, LA. The campground is in an awesome location, right next to the Saline Bayou National Wild and Scenic River. It has picnic tables and fire rings at your disposal, but not bathroom facilities or running water. You will see some typical Louisiana topography around this campground. We got there when it was dark and cooked up some chili on our camping stove. We were excited to spend our first night in our little bedroom. We christened it by hot boxing it with our multicolored battery powered lights on. We noticed it looked like a space ship, so we decided to name it The Constellation or "Connie" for short. We chose this name because we learned at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center that many of the space shuttles were named after U.S. boats, such at The Challenger, The Discovery, and The Explorer. The Constellation was the boat Kyle's grandfather was an admiral on so we thought it was a nice homage to him, as well as honoring the space theme. Our first night was so cozy... We love our little home!! In the daylight, we finally got to see our surroundings and realized there was a small swampy area right behind our campsite. There were some trails within walking distance, but we still had about 8 hours to get to our next campsite in Texas, so we skipped them and hit the road.

We were heading to another free campsite called Camp Creek, in Marble Falls, Texas, which is about an hour west of Austin. This campground was in a perfect location because it was only an hour away from all the spots we wanted to check out (The Narrows, Jacob's Well, Hamilton Pool, and Austin). We rolled up after dark again. The campsites were enclosed by a fence, so we couldn't pull the truck up, but all of them have picnic tables and grills. There is a composting toilet on site, but no running water. We heated up some leftover chili and then went to sleep. In the morning light, we saw some better spots were you could pull your car up to the sites, so we decided we'd switch to one of those after we went on our day's adventure. We also realized that this campsite was on the North Shore of Lake Travis, and there was a nice river running through the grounds. We talked to a local Texan, who pointed out where the waterline used to be. Apparently, Texas has been suffering through an extreme drought for the last 7 years.

Hamilton Pool Preserve 

The Narrows Recreation Area 

We went on a wild goose chase our first morning, trying to find this place called "The Narrows" that I saw on Pinterest. The directions on Pinterest led us to The Narrows Recreation Area in Spicewood, TX... this was NOT the same place as in the pictures. After digging a little deeper, I found out that the picture I saw on Pinterest was actually located in Hill County, TX on private property since 2000. Even though it wasn't what we were expecting, The Narrows Recreation Area was still pretty cool... Especially because the drought is so bad the water was SUPER low, allowing us to walk on all these rocky cliffs and find caves that otherwise would have been submerged. We still had some light left in our day, so we decided to check out Hamilton Pool Preserve in Dripping Springs, TX. This place is seriously indescribable. It formed because a cave collapsed, but it really looks like a U.F.O rammed into the side of a rock wall and left a perfectly spherical indentation. The preserve is open from 9:00am-6:00pm daily, but you can't get in past 5:30pm. It cost $15 to drive in or $8 if you are on foot or a bike. October through April there are free guided tours (included in your entrance cost) on Saturdays at 10:00am. It is limited to the first 20 people, so if you are interested in that plan accordingly! Keep in mind if you come here in the summer, they have a capacity, so you might get turned away. On those hot summer days, it's a good idea to get there a little before it opens. In the winter, you don't have to worry about this because the water is 50 degrees and nobody's swimming at this time of the year... except us!! We brought our wetsuits and swam around anyways. The trail has lots of wildlife, particularly birds. We saw tons of cardinals and a road runner!!! There was another trail that is about a mile long that leads to the Pedernales River, but it was closed for safety purposes...

Jacob's Well

The next day, we got a little caught up in Starbucks while Kyle was trying to do his taxes. Our next stop was Jacob's Well in Wimberly, TX. This is an artesian spring, so the water is constantly supplied by an aquifer 140 ft. below the surface. This water was so much warmer than at Hamilton Pool and even though there were signs that said no swimming till Spring 2015, we donned our wetsuits and jumped into the giant hole that is Jacob's Well. There is no cost to come to Jacob's Well and there are also guided tours on Saturdays at 10:00am. After our quick dip, we headed to San Antonio to check out some skate parks and see The Alamo. It was a little late in the afternoon when we arrived to check out The Alamo (it closes at 5:30pm), so we went to a skatepark called Martinez Skatepark. This park is in the ghetto and doesn't really have any impressive features... we didn't stay long. Since we still had stuff we wanted to do in San Antonio, we decided to pay $27 to spend the night at The Alamo KOA, which was in an ideal location for our plans (instead of driving an hour away to a free or cheaper campsite). You can't really call this camping though, the fenced in grounds are in the middle of the city, there are showers and toilets, and even WiFi. We hadn't taken showers in a few days, so we were thankful for these facilities. The campsites have running water, electric, picnic tables, and fire rings.

Martinez Skatepark

Remember the Alamo!!!

In the morning, we headed to The Alamo. It is smack dab in the middle of downtown San Antonio, TX, which surprised us because I guess you just picture it surrounded by dessert. That may have been the case at one point in time, but certainly not anymore. There isn't really anything special about The Alamo, but I guess since it's free there's no since in not checking it out. Usually, it's just an empty building you walk through, but we went during a gun exhibit. There were display cases with guns showing the evolution of that weaponry. After our riveting visit to The Alamo, we were hungry so we walked along The Riverwalk to find something good to eat. Our bellies got the best of us, because we ate at pretty much the first place we saw, Charlie Wants a Burger (that's their website, here's a link to their Facebook page). We got a few TexMex inspired breakfast options. I think it's worth mentioning that they have a 2 pounder burger challenge, if you eat the whole thing (including sweet potato fries and onion rings), it's on the house and you get a t-shirt. They also have this crazy $18 Bloody Mary that comes with a hotdog, a chicken wing, a bacon rim, and a whole bunch of other crazy Bloody Mary fixins'. It's literally a meal in a drink. We still had some time to kill before we headed to Austin to my cousin, Drake's house, so we decided to check out the San Antonio Museum of Art. They had a student discount, so we got in for $5. It is well worth the money. The place is HUGE!! We spent a good two hours in there and still didn't see everything. I'm sure the exhibits change, but when we went each floor showed different civilizations art, including Roman, Egyptian, Japenese, Chinese, Indo-Pacific, and Indian, among others. I really enjoyed these exhibits because I love world history. There was everything from tools to household items to scrolls to blown glass to statues to early currency to jewelry to weapons. The dates ranging from more modern items as late as the 19th century to artifacts dating back to 3,000 B.C. It is truly an incredible collection.

Can you believe this is made out of SAND?!?!

One of my favorite pieces they had on display was a sand mandala. Sand mandalas are intricate mandalas made from different colors of sand. They are made by Tibetan Buddhists only to be destroyed after the hours of tedious work. It represents the impermanence of life. The San Antonio Museum of Art had to get the Dalai Lama's blessing to preserve this sand mandala. There are only a few on display throughout the world. This is a pretty cool PDF that I found on the museum's website that gives a brief overview of The Art of Asia exhibit. After a few hours in there, we were ready to skate, so we headed to L.B. Johnson Skatepark, in hopes that this would be a little less ghetto than the last park we visited. I liked this park because it had a bowl with a roll in area that was very mellow like a walk in beach area on a pool, however some of the concrete was a little rough in the bowl. We skated for about an hour and then headed to Austin, TX!

Here's the easy roll-in on the bowl at L.B. Johnson Skatepark.

Food trucks everywhere!

Playing the ring game at Bar 96. 

We timed it perfectly, because Drake had just gotten off work for the weekend when we got to his apartment. We were hungry for dinner and Austin is known for it's food truck scene so we decided to go check that out. This grouping of food trucks we visited was at E 6th and Waller St., but they are all over the city so just drive around... see what you like! There were probably about 7 trucks parked in this area, the food ranging from Creole to pizza to Thai to Philly Cheesesteaks... something for everybody! Kyle got a cheesesteak from a place called Way South Philly and I got some Thai food from a place called Coat and Thai. Everyone was happy with their food and the diversity of the options! After dinner, we decided to grab a couple drinks on this super hip bar street, Rainey Street. This apparently used to be the ghetto, but slowly all the houses have been converted into upscale, classy bars. Our first stop was Lucille Patio Lounge, where we drank moscow mules out of--- of course--- copper mugs. We changed locations to Bar 96, because they have the ring game and we wanted to play. There we drank some local brews. Drake and I ordered a pilsner called Pearl Snap and Kyle got an IPA called 512, which is the area code here in Austin, TX. We didn't stay out too late tonight, because we planned to go all out on Saturday to 6th Street, otherwise known as the Dirty 6 where all the crazy clubs and live music can be found.

My cousin, Drake, and I

Kyle bridging this cool feature at House Park.

Barton Creek along the Greenbelt trails. 

We went and checked out a SICK skatepark, which is known as House Park, but also called Austin BMX & Skate Park. There is a huge bowl with a steeper roll-in, awesome mini-ramps with 3ft. and 5ft. sections, stair sets... literally everything for every style of skating and skill level. It was pretty crowded, although we did go Saturday around lunchtime. We spent a hour or two here and then headed back to the apartment to see what was up. One of Drake's friends from college came up for the night. We went on a hike at the Barton Creek Greenbelt. This is a really nice area right off the highway in Austin. There are trails along Barton Creek and some great swimming spots.

Giant meat shrine at The Salt Lick. 

We worked up an appetite and decided to go get some world renowned BBQ at the Salt Lick, a restaurant that has been featured on The Food Network, The Travel Channel, and The Today Show. Saturday for dinner is not the best time to come to this place... we had to wait 2 hours. Honestly, I think this place is usually pretty busy, but the cool part is it is B.Y.O.B, so you can chill in the parking lot/waiting area and drink until your table is ready. Unfortunately, we didn't bring any booze, so it was long, hungry wait, but well worth it. Once we sat down, our food came within ten minutes, which were huge, heaping plates of meat. I got a brisket sandwich and it was delicious. The menu said the sandwich was "bigger than Texas" and that was no exaggeration. I only finished half of it and was stuffed. We decided to go back to Drake's apartment to rest, pre-party, and wash the BBQ smell off our bodies before we went down to 6th Street. I passed out and almost didn't go out, but I got it together at the last minute and shook off the grumpy, groggy, stuffed state I was in. 6th Street shuts down around 9:00pm and no cars can drive on the roads. At night, it's a lot like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. We went bar hopping from Barcelona to Maggie Mae's to Coyote Ugly and then ended our night at Shakespeare's. I'm not really into the whole bar hopping thing and most of theses clubs/bars had DJs playing terrible old rap. I didn't really see how Austin earned the title of music capital of the world... Maggie Mae's was the only place with live music that we went to and it was those typical old rocker dudes who wore bandanas and leather pants and played covers like "Rollin' on a River" and "Black Dog." I still had a ton of fun though and even when the bars closed at 2:00am, we still weren't done yet. We went to a house party for a little and then did a classic Texan thing: an early morning Whataburger run. We got a chocolate milkshake that tasted oddly like marsh mellows. We're not really into fast food either so we didn't order anything, but I had a few bites of one of our friend's sandwiches and it was pretty good... or maybe I was just drunk. We finally ended up back at Drake's apartment around 5:00am. Austin sure knows how to party!

Dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly... had to do it!

Clearly, today was spent recuperating and I mean ALL day. I slept for most of the day since we didn't get to bed till the sun was almost coming up. We only left the house to get dinner, which was well worth it. We went to this place called Torchy's Tacos, which I would say is comparable to Moe's or Chipotle. Each month they have a taco of the month. This month's was called The Scallywag: coconut battered shrimp, bacon, with homemade habanero peach jam. We all got that plus something on their permanent menu called the Mr. Pink: seared ahi tuna, cabbage, cilantro, and white queso. They also had some cool drink options on their soda machine called Maine Root. Maine Root drinks are fair trade certified and organically sweetened. I had one called Drink Pink Drink, which was Texas wild harvested prickly pear cactus juice. It was delicious and certainly a drink you don't see everywhere. You've also gotta try their queso... it has guacamole mixed IN it. That's right in it. So delicious.

Overall, I'd say my favorite thing about Austin was the amazing diversity of food!! The music scene didn't quite reveal itself to me, but I know it's there. Maybe we just came on a bad weekend. Tomorrow we're gunna hit up the skatepark in the morning, so hopefully it won't be too crowded. Then we're hittin' it through New Mexico and Arizona to check out some national parks... Won't be too long till we're in California.