Carmel-By-The-Sea or, I've Died and Been Reborn Into a Thomas Kinkade Painting

This is one of the first impressions I got from this hamlet on the Monterey Peninsula. It is an extremely picturesque town with it's Storybook Style, Arts and Crafts and Mission Style cottages. With the ocean as its backyard,

(Carmel's main road, Ocean Ave. ends at Carmel City Beach)

a thick canopy of pines, giant cypresses and live oaks that shelters the buildings, sugary sweet architecture, Clint as your neighbor, and a sturdy foundation of bedrock that will prevent the town from sinking into the Pacific ocean during an earthquake--why would anybody want to live anywhere else? Well, YOU can't live here. Unless you have a spare 1-4 million bucks lying around to purchase an OLD home under 1400 sq ft. 98.6% of the population is white. Only 1.3% is under the age of 5. Of the 4000 population, only 30% are permanent residents. This little town exudes affluence. Carmel today is a far cry from its former bohemian roots. Fortunately, many of the homes of the artists and writers who first colonized the town still remain. The architecture that is most fascinating are those built by Hugh Comstock--Storybook Cottages. But there are also Charles Greene, William Burbeck and a Frank Lloyd Wright.

Here are a sample of the fairytale cottages of Carmel.

Hansel House 1924-1925 built by Hugh Comstock


The seven dwarves must live here.


Where is Rapunzel?


Mushroom House


The Tuck Box


The houses do not have house numbers or mail delivery. You have to go to the post office to pick up your mail. The address on this house is "The fifth house northwest of 13th street" or you can just call it by it's name "The Casanova House".


Houses are built around the trees.


Cottage of Sweets


Lilliput

But with anything that is sickeningly sweet you do get toothaches. Carmel has the most extreme zoning laws. They want to maintain a small town feel--no big box stores and limit souvenir shops, but it is okay to have 70 art galleries. Does downtown Denver have 70 art galleries? The Business district of Carmel is about the size of REI--70?? As mentioned earlier, no house addresses and no mail delivery. No live music in bars. No streetlights, no parking meters and porchlights can only have a max of 25 watts. Roads are narrow and purposely kept poorly maintained. Where are all the tax dollars going? No sidewalks, curbs or gutters. Houses are fenced (no chain link) and gardens are for the most part required. (So that's where all the tax dollars are going--to the secret elves that maintain the gardens and pick up the trash left behind by the tourists.) My favorite is women have to obtain a permit to where high heels if they plan to step on grass or any ground that is not a road!!! Ironically, many of the buildings and actual city design does not meet the current codes of the state. All of this creates a town with subjective individuality and forced peacefulness. Until the tourists arrive and everything descends into madness.


But it is a beautiful place. I would live here, especially if I can train those secret elves to unload the dishwasher.

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Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA

Ten Years Gets You Aluminum

Yesterday marked the 10 year anniversary of mine and Bell's big move from Florida to Colorado. We moved out here on a whim and now have made a life in this beautiful state.

In honor of 10 years, here are 10 things we love about Colorado, in no particular order.

1. Rocky Mountain National Park
2. Phenomenal campgrounds
3. Night skiing
4. The four seasons--but especially autumn
5. 300+ days of sunshine
6. The Colorado Avalanche--I guess the Broncos, too.
7. Wildflower hikes
8. Colorado Blue Spruce, Aspens and Bristlecone Pine
9. Telluride
10. Chaffee County

The traditional ten year anniversary gift is aluminum or tin. So here's a six pack of Heineken in a can and a kiss on the cheek. Happy Anniversary!

Carmel Valley

During our first week in Monterey the weather was behaving very much like Monterey weather in summer. The fog was thick in the morning and if we were lucky the sun was able to burn it away by 1pm. The temperature is always the same: lows in the upper 50's, the highs in the upper 60's.

I'm not complaining. But not waking up to the sun shining through the window has really messed up our sleep schedule. I can't wake up earlier than 9:30am(10:30 am MST) and that is only because that is when Lucy wakes up. Her sleep schedule is thoroughly shot. Lately however, the weather has been truly glorious. It has been sunny every day and the temperature has been getting down right hot--75 degrees hot. It is funny how quickly our bodies acclimate to the environment. One day it actually hit 77 degrees and Lucy and I were complaining how we were melting. We are in trouble when we head back to Colorado.

So when the days are dark, dreary and chilly, we head to a magical land called Carmel Valley. This is a place of sunshine and wine, organic farms, artisans and mid 80's temperature. And it is only 10 miles away from the sea. The people who live in the valley are very similar to the mountain folk who live near Denver. Everyone knows each other and knows all the gossip that a small community comes with. There is definitely some "Desperate Housewives" action going on.


The fog bank barely touching the valley.


Hanging out at the Carmel Valley Pool. Lucy working on that golden tan.


Lucy learning to swim but refusing to get her hair wet.


At the Earthbound Organic Farm. They encourage you to walk through the gardens barefoot.


Guess who I'm going to be for halloween.


Following totoro.


I would always have fresh flowers in my home if I lived here.

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Carmel Valley

Lucy In California

A taste of what Lucy has been doing.


Hiking to waterfalls


Enjoying Big Sur


Watching parades


Trying out the local fare


Playing on a real train


Getting eaten by a lion


Hanging out in Santa Cruz


Riding the ferris wheel


Running the bridge


Chasing waves


Visiting the aquarium


Making new friends


Loving California

Into the Giant Forest

Sequoia National Park, California 2 July 2007

After a long 6+ hours drive through the Mojave Desert with not a sign of life except for other crazy motorists and the ever pious joshua trees, entering the Sierra Nevadas was a much welcomed relief. I was skeptical about this park. Bell kept talking it up but Rocky Mountain National Park is so crazy awesome who could beat it? I also felt the same way when we decided to road trip to the Canadian Rockies. We live in the Rockies how much more different can it be? Oh, if you have never seen the Canadian Rockies they are stunning--check them out. So, before I could erect an opinion I had to see what was all the hype.


When you see the first sequoia you are shocked because they really are that massive. But before you notice their size you see their bark--a surreal red amongst the umbers and sepias of the forest. You roll down your car window and you hear nothing but the stillness that surrounds the trees as if its very being is sucking up all the sound and light around it. They are truly majestic.


The grandaddy of them all, General Sherman. Who stands 275 feet tall, whose trunk weighs an estimated 1385 tons and whose circumference at the ground is nearlys 103 feet. The General Sherman Tree is an estimated 2200 years old. Its largest branch is almost seven feet in diameter. The little asian boy was left in for scale purposes but we really had no choice because he refused to leave the spot so that others may take their photo with the famous giant. Punk.


Sequoia National Park is the second oldest national park. This was an effort by Congress and residents to protect Sierra tracts from logging. The remaining groves were saved because they were too remote for the loggers to find. These magnificent monarchs grow naturally only on the west slope of the Sierra Nevadas. In volume of total wood the giant sequoia is the largest living thing in the world. Sequoias do not die from disease or even fire. Toppling is the main cause of death since they have a shallow root system with no taproot. That night we heard a tree topple. The sound was monstrous like a train running directly into a mountain at full speed.

Our campsite was incredibly scenic. It was nestled among the trees right beside a stream. Bears are a big issue here. We had to use bear boxes to store everything from food to deodorant to magazines with perfume ads. No bear was sighted. We did have a doe who was living in a dell just behind our tent. She had given birth to a fawn just before we got there.

The morning light was phenomenal.

Moro Rock is a domed mountaintop commonly found in the Sierra Nevadas. It was a difficult climb up fraught with many dangers of falling but in the end the view was well worth it.



You gotta love the Tunnel Log! Go, Blue Thunder, Go!


Unfortunately, we didn't do any hikes to see the backcountry glory of this park. That is another vacation in itself. I know we will come back--when Lucy is older and can carry her own pack.

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Sequoia National Park July 2, 2007

Sin City--Rated G Version

Las Vegas, Nevada 1 July 2007

Las Vegas is a town with a short memory. This is a city that is constantly reinventing itself, from a waterhole oasis to a gambling mecca to the tourist destination to an entertainment hotspot. The demolition of former gloried casinos can only elicit a slight sigh of nostalgia before the wave of sweet anticipation takes hold. For what is coming is only going to be bigger, bolder and therefore better. In its prehistory the area used to be marshland. The waters eventually saturated into the ground creating artesian wells that gave certain places extensive green areas--las vegas (the meadows). Today, those extensive green areas are million dollar golf courses. And each hotel is a city within itself. As a student of landscape architecture these hotels are wonderful demonstrations of creating a sense of place. When you enter The Venetian you are immediately thrust into what makes Venice memorable. The gondolas and opera-singing gondaliers are key.




A reproduction of the Piazza San Marco replete with the Campanile, Doges Palace and even the Bridge of Sighs is necessary. All it really needed to get that truly authentic feel is to paint fake pigeon poop all over everything and scent the outdoor misters with a more piscine aroma. Then the true aura of Venice in the summer time would have been captured. There is even gondola rides inside the gallery with an ever changing sky and a view of all the boutiques that you can fraternize after your ride. But if you have ever been in the gallery you will no doubt remember the smell of overly-chlorinated water mixed with the heady smell of overly-sweaty people. This is not a good combination and it really does behoove you to get away from the melee of photographers taking pictures of people they don't know (oh wait, we did that, too).

Directly across from The Venetian is The Mirage. And to the south of The Mirage is Caesar's Palace and next to Caesar's Palace is The Bellagio, our ultimate goal so that we could see the fountain display. On the map it looks roughly like a 2 block walk. But we come to find out that each of these hotels span at least 2 city blocks. I think it was a heat mirage that duped us into thinking things were closer than they appeared. Outside it is just too hot and the blazing summer sun could singe Bell's nipple hairs through his shirt. And what appeared to be a short festive jaunt to see some water shooting into the air artistically timed to a Wilson Phillips ballad quickly eroded into the trail of tears. The best way to get around LV in the summer is to walk through each hotel going through a myriad of corridors, casinos, lobbies, walkways, going down escalators, going up elevators. This venture could take up quite a chunk of time and all the while listening to Celine Dion could be pure torture. But it is worth it if you never have to experience the full force of the desert heat because it is a lot hotter and drier than Djibouti.

There are many free things to do with kids in LV. Lucy has not stopped talking about the fountains at the Bellagio, the volcano erupting at the Mirage and the pirate show at Treasure Island. But all she really wanted to do was go swimming and the Venetian was sure to please this little girl. There are 3 acres of pools in this hotel alone.



Water, water everywhere and only a small percentage is used to drink. It just seems so irresponsible. If you are not familiar with Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner it should be a must read for everyone.

Overall, we really liked our hotel. We enjoyed our restaurant and the pools were awesome. But it was still sensory overload. You definitely need more than one night to take in the sites. And only $1.00 was spent in the casino. Yeah, we are high rollers. At least we refrained from the buffet gluttony.

Las Vegas July 1, 2007

Hoodoo Voodoo

Bryce Canyon, Utah 30 June 2007
Click on the above image for the entire panorama of Bryce Amphitheatre

Bell and I have this sad tradition of playing songs that mention the moniker of places we are going. Like playing "Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis when we saw the Las Vegas skyline, "Hearts and Bones" by Paul Simon when we went to the Great Sand Dunes (he mentions the Sangre de Cristos) and "Sasquatch" by Tenacious D when we were searching for the Sasquatch Provincial Park in British Columbia. Okay, so maybe this is my tradition and Bell just takes it. Oh, think of the sweet torture Lucy will have to endure in the upcoming years, and pray for her.

So "Hoodoo Voodoo" by Woody Guthrie and masterfully remade by Wilco has absolutely nothing to do with Bryce Canyon, honestly, I haven't a clue what it is about, but Bryce is full of these beautiful towering sandstone rock formations called "hoodoos".



Bryce Canyon is actually a misnomer since it was not carved out by a river. Therefore it is not technically a canyon. Formed due to erosion, it is more of a natural amphitheater or bowl. It should have been called Bryce Bowl (this is Bell's blurb). It was settled by Ebenezer Bryce, a Mormon rancher who only lived there for five years. When asked to describe the canyon he said, "It is one hell of a place to lose a cow." What a pity it is named after him. Another misnomer is the Natural Bridge.



It should be called an arch because it was not carved by water. I'm not trying to debunk the hard work of past geologists. This is actually what is said on the signs. Wouldn't it be better to make a name correction instead of adding the fine-print onto the signs that are glorifying what they are not? Makes you wonder about those Mormons. If you would like to know more about the geology of the area go here.

Enough with the semantics. Bryce Canyon is beautiful. It is a small National Park but it sure packs a wallop. It rests high on the Colorado Plateau at 9300ft so the temperature remained in the mid-80's. It was also a good park for Lucy because all of the scenic points were accessible via a shuttle or a short hike.



You can hike into the canyon but with the babe it is a lot more difficult. We did do a portion of the Navajo Loop which takes you down into Wall Street.




Inexplicably, there is a small grove of Douglas Fir growing in the slot. The Loop was closed off due to a rock slide so the climb back up appeared to be daunting.



But the task was not a problem for our Rocky Mountain lungs.

The campground was a little crowded but we got there quite early and was able to procure a prime spot. A deer walked through our site which was very cool and you can also get cell service which our teenage neighbors very audibly demonstrated which was not cool. But at the end of the day it was a great time. I think Lucy is really enjoying camping and the outdoors, as she demonstrates by scarfing down a camping staple.



And since this is a National Park, Mormon laws do not apply and beer and wine are sold at the General Store, and also real coffee--none of that Nescafe junk.

You can view more photos in the album.

Bryce Canyon National Park

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P.S. Utah's state highway signs


How can you not call it the boob state?