Pismo Beach and Tahoe March 2021

In this weird "COVID is not quite over" time, it's still not a great idea to go on a plane, especially if you're still not vaccinated. So we stuck around California. A friend once remarked to me at a party how great it is that in California we can ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon; a disagreeable interlocutor demanded a show of hands of people who had actually done this, and nobody had. That said, last week I neither surfed nor skied, but it's true that within 36 hours I went from playing on the beach to throwing a snowball. It was kind of cool, spending a few days in Pismo, then home one night, then a few more days in Tahoe. Activities including sitting on one's ass, running, sitting on one's ass in a hot tub, eating Mexican food, and eating pizza. I had 3 alcoholic beverages during the week although I tried to drink more, I really did, I promise, I just couldn't do it. Here is the evidence.


PISMO AND SLO COUNTY

Somehow I'd been to Pismo many times without realizing it is (or was) known for its clams. I've never before found a live clam with literally every handful of sand I pulled up, but I did here. Of course there are the dunes, complete with native shellmounds (consistent with the clams) - and brand new (to me) trails through a vegetated part of the dunes which were really neat. I'd always just run along the beach before and never knew about these. It's pretty cool when you can run the 3 miles back to the hotel without shoes. Fire can even make it to the dunes it turns out. It was interesting being there literally two days after they decided to eventually close the beach to cars.





































The "architecture graveyard" in Poly Canyon, San Luis Obispo is the place where students apply what they're learning. A visit is highly recommended. Some of them look like college projects. Some of them look like professional buildings. All are interesting.










Above: there were occasional graffiti contributions from an individual or individuals I like to call "the Shakespeare of the Central Coast."















The highlight of the trip for me was Montana de Oro. There's a new (to me) trail open which was Hawaii-like, between the greenery and sheerness of the hills.









































Looks like Shakespeare made it up to Oats Peak too.



























I'd also never actually gone into the town of Morro Bay, nor gone out to the Morro. Lots of otters in the bay though I didn't include the video here since they don't look like much.







TAHOE

You know what Tahoe looks like in winter dammit. Note: the many crawfish in it are edible, and non-native. Catch them. Eat them. Wipe them out. Awl of them.







But it's good to be back for spring in old Sonoma County. Below: Taylor Mountain, then Bodega Bay, then a loathesome mindless land-jellyfish mental brain genius desperate to prevent his humans from escaping again, with the galaxy-brain move of laying on top of me at all hours.