California Southern Coastline

Imprinted in my mind was an evening drive way back in 1992 from Christina's house in Costa Mesa to Laguna Beach for a pint of gelato. Melvin, Bong and I together with Alfred, would take an odd spin in the hood on most nights - rollerblade in the nearby park, hunting CDs, and driving about. There was a full moon that night, Pacific Coast was deserted, and right where the road dipped and the ocean horizon seemed to loom higher, we turned off the lights and coasted along with the moon as night light. It was beautiful. Happiness was as simple as licking spoons of Nociola gelato and going home to sleep.

It will take more than a decade before I would go back to Laguna beach again but that memory lives, together with other memorable moonlit nights in various places. The coastline is just as beautiful today. It is truly remarkable and a blessing that I would live so close to the coastline that requires a trip as short as 5 minutes and as much as an hour, before you hit pay dirt. South Bay weather is pretty much like the Mediterranean coast. There is no need to hit the South of France.

Roughing It Out

Here I am, deep in the Cobb Mountain elevation 2000 feet, probably traipsing on private property. I finally turned off my iPod and the seeming silence is saturated with forest noise that is so subtle and yet so distinct. Birds chirping, insects making a distinct and constant creaking sound, even the wind creating a whooshing sound that moves and rustles the blades of grass. A family of five emerge from the clump of trees making a ruckus. I say Hi. Have you seen the lake yet? I ask. Oh there's a lake? When you reach the end of this road and you turn back, take the other fork - it leads right to the small lake. Sometimes you see deer coming down for a drink. Earlier, I snag some bird feather by the roadside and kept them, thinking I wanted to experiment on using it as a pen with ink I have at home that has been forgotten since I abandoned calligraphy as a hobby. Boy those crickets are incessant. They get louder everytime a breeze comes up. This is actually bliss, being able to experience silence as nature has designed it. A symphony of sounds. I feel blessed to get such an opportunity. Though going with the girls would have been fun, this is rare and I have already been to San Diego. The family is back. So there is indeed another way around from the closed gates. I would definitely go with Medic again for next year's camping.