Southern CA part 1

I could happily have spent another two weeks in the Bay Area hanging out with friends and family. (Apparently a 9-month road trip is not long enough.) But it was time to continue on south, for equally exciting onward plans. I took Hwy 1 through Big Sur, which was as gorgeous as I remember it being the first time I drove down the West Coast, 12 years ago.

My magic, dorky document where I keep lists of places on each continent and in each country that I should be sure to visit had at some point had, in the meantime, acquired a shout-out for the small oceanfront town of Cayucos. Can't remember who recommended it to me or when, but it was definitely worth a stop and a walk on its cozy beach. Wish--as I wish for almost everywhere I've gone on this trip--that I could have stayed a bit longer.

Down in Santa Barbara, I had dinner on the waterfront with family friends who love to go there for clam chowder and salad. Yum. And not a bad view from the restaurant's outdoor seating.

Fishermen unloading a haul of sea urchins:

And then it was on to Los Angeles. I know L.A. gets a bad rap and the traffic and smog suck. But to be honest, I really like L.A. When I visit a big city, I like to be there visiting a friend and to focus on exploring just one or two parts of the city. My friend C just moved here from Chicago, so we focused on her new neighborhood of Santa Monica, plus Koreatown.

In between trips to Santa Monica Yoga, we took a hike in Temescal Park, enjoying the eternal sunshine of the City of Angels (and the resulting view of it)...

...and hung out at C's awesome new place, a rental house attached to her landlord's home, in a veritable secret garden that you would never know is hidden behind the fence facing the sidewalk.

C and her fiancé, J, at Blue Plate Taco!

So, then, the Koreatown part. C and her friend R took me to a Korean day spa (Natura Sports Health Club--I recommend!) that was so fantastic we stayed for FIVE HOURS--soaking in the various hot tubs; lounging in the sauna rooms; getting vigorously scrubbed free of all our dead skin cells by strong, enthusiastic Korean women; sprawling on the heated floor watching Korean soap operas. It was AWESOME. Then, so relaxed we could barely form complete thoughts, much less sentences, the obvious next step was to go to a Korean grocery store to look for dinner.

The content of those jars, picturesque as they may be, wasn't it. But we did find way-too-good treats in the bakery section and take home some red snappers to bake up.

And we topped off what I will always remember as a darn near perfect day with a walk to Treats for frozen yogurt. We were happy.