June 19-20-21, 2013
As the final bags were packed away
for the summer in San Diego, Part Two (the far superior half) was just
beginning. Far superior of course, because I joined up with the rest of the
crew and filled up the Suburban with my own unique ability to call everybody
out on literally everything (thanks a lot, Jackson). This is my maiden post on
our journey, with plenty more posts and photos to follow over the next three
weeks.
The rest of the guys finally
arrived at my door on Wednesday morning, knocking on the door for a half hour
at 7am before I finally woke up and let them in. All of us equally groggy, the
path to sleep was met with little resistance. That afternoon, after a little
packing and an attempt to finish fixing the car, we hopped into the Suburban
and went off to see a bit of SD. A San Diego favorite, I simply had to take
them to get California burritos (for those of you who have never tasted the
delicious symphony that is a California burrito, it is generally a carne asada
burrito with guacamole and french fries). They wanted to see downtown, so I
took them to Lucha Libre (as seen on Man vs. Food and a popular luchador-themed
taco shop) and we got our dinner. We headed downtown and saw some of the local
nightlife before heading back to hang out with some of my UCSD friends before
we went north.
The next day we drove up to Los
Angeles, where we planned to stay the night in Burbank with a friend of mine
from school. On our way north, we stopped in San Clemente for lunch to get
burritos at Olamendi’s- quickly usurping the spot of “Jackson’s Best Burrito”
from Lucha Libre the night before. Agree to disagree, I suppose. We made a
short stop in Hermosa Beach to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals and also meet up
with one of Alex’s friends who was having a birthday before continuing on to
Burbank for the night. (Special thanks to the Escobar house for their generous
hospitality!) Friday morning we left Burbank and, after a short detour through
LA to see Warner Brothers Studio and the Hollywood sign, we began looking for
PCH and headed north. We caught the coast around Morro Bay and drove along
Highway 1 for 120 miles of awesome splendor. Jagged rocks cut up from the sea
to our left and ragged hills rose to our right, the late-afternoon sun catching
it all perfectly. Rolling hills covered in golden grasses and dotted with the
occasional tree or herd of cattle, majestic vistas at every turn. Leighton and
I were in control of the radio, so the music was undeniably Phishy and served
as the perfect soundtrack to such a beautiful landscape. We spent the night in
Monterey, crammed into a small motel room and under the watchful eye of the
woman manning the front desk. Monterey as a town was quiet, perhaps we missed
the excitement or perhaps it is simply a sleepy town. We stopped into Sly McFly’s
for a drink, and the “World Famous Jazz & Blues” venue was full of
middle-aged energy led by a pretty talented cover band. Too tired to stay until
last call, we headed back to the motel and turned in for the night. -N
California is the best, and raised the best of us! That's where Jack inherited his coolness from, ha ha.
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