Archive for July 2007
Obsessions and Goals
I am a very goal driven and obsessive person. I tend to feel alive when I have something to look forward to or work towards. Without some kind of ‘next big thing’ in my life, I begin to feel empty. For almost 2 weeks I spent just about every spare moment planning (or just being excited about) the Northern California coastal trip. Following this trip I had basked in its afterglow, but soon thereafter, began to feel a longing for something new.
I started planning out a Southern California coastal trip to see the remaining three lighthouses on my list, but due to the limitations of visiting times, realized a trip to cover those would not be so easy. Besides, the trip seemed too similar in nature to the recent one, and I came to think that it was a copycat operation.
Ultimately, this all got me to think about my obsessive personality and my goal seeking nature. I think the sense of obsession never disappears, it simply takes different forms over time. When I was younger, I was completely obsessed with hockey (there’s a reason I have so many hockey pictures on my site). At some point, this obsession transformed to reading philosophy, developing Software, then lacrosse, and now the coast and lighthouses consume my time.
My obsession for the coast has not subsided, nor have past obsessions died out. I still play hockey, enjoy reading philosophy, play lacrosse and like writing Software. However, this latest trip has left me wanting more than just a hobby- of visiting lighthouses and touring the coast- to obsess over.
I have a strong, increasingly growing desire (which is becoming an intense goal) to move out to the coast- in the near future- and away from the seemingly straight-line, restricted path of standard life. I often wonder if my obsession is enough to bring about this goal or will this forever just remain a hobby. If these hobbies and obsessions merely remain just those, will I continuously develop more? And assuming I do pursue this coastal desire, how long will I feel a sense of accomplishment?
Reflections
For me, this Northern California Coastal trip was the best vacation I have ever taken in my life. We left home Wednesday, July 4th (2007) and returned 4 days later on Sunday the 8th. I found it most relaxing and miles away from anything I see day to day.
I also enjoy road trips, the ability to see everything around me, to be able to pull off the road if or when I want to. I am able to see, hear and smell the things around me. I am also more in control of things and for me that’s a good feeling.
This trip started out as a talk in the car between Tobia and I about seeing lighthouses. The plan was to visit the real far Northern California lighthouses, see the coast, and end up in Mendocino where we already had a hotel booked for Saturday the 7th.
Some loose ends and this and that type stuff I’d like to talk about here:
- The Western most point in California is in fact Cape Mendocino as I had said. The reason I made a big deal about this was because I had done much research and it became somewhat of an obsession for me to find myself in CA’s Western most point along this trip. After all, it was a West Coast trip. That and also the fact that I expect guys who run a lighthouse to know these types of things, or at least not say incorrect things. A final note about this subject here- I felt bad dragging Tobia through the Lost Coast, a very desolate, depressing and incredibly tough place to walk or drive through. So for me to think that I led her there with all of our struggles, for no good reason, would have made me feel really bad. So the first thing I did when we returned home from the trip was to check the actual longitudinal coordinates for some of the Western most points in California. Cape Mendocino is, in fact, the Western most point, at -124.3520 degrees West. Point Arena (not even 2nd or 3rd Western most point) is merely at -123.7406. I know this is very nerdy, but I feel vindicated and rather smug too. I consider myself a sick and twisted man, but also a Northern California Coastal expert.
- Tobia and I have now driven a large chunk of Highway 1, roughly 475 miles to be more exact. As it is my favorite Highway, I expect to soon drive the final missing leg, the distance from roughly Morro Bay to San Juan Capistrano where Highway 1 ends at the Southern point. Of course, the Northern point is roughly at Leggett where we have already driven. Certain parts we covered during our Morro Bay trip in 2005. Other parts we covered due to our lighthouse tours over the last few months.
- Our next coastal trip will be to see the last 3 lighthouses on my list: Piedras Blancas (in Cambria), Port San Luis (San Luis Obispo) and Point Vicente (West of Long Beach). I will soon begin to plan that trip. I imagine this will happen either in late July (2007) or August.
- I over planned this trip a bit. Things like getting low tide times were completely unnecessary, because all we had to do was wait for that to happen naturally, as it did (without planning or my knowing it would), and we were ultimately able to easily cross the path to Battery Point Lighthouse when the water path cleared. All the planning in the world for that was reduced to seeing people cross at a distance, and we quickly rushed over and crossed the pathway as well. Other things like trying to figure out places to eat in a town were completely unnecessary as we just eyed decent looking restaurants, went over their menu, and decided if we wanted to come in and eat or not. All the extra work of this type of nature was not only indicative of my over planning nature, but completely gratuitous and a waste of time. One last point on this subject- on this trip, even though we made it to remote places, we were still on earth and in CA, and for the most part, important resources were always available. That means bathrooms, food, lodging and just areas to rest and take a load off. Here’s to winging it more next trip!!!
- On that note, some of the most incredible things were activities we ended up winging. Things like walking downtown Crescent City to absorb it, being fortunate enough that low tide was at that time and walking up to the lighthouse. At another instance we came across Point St. George Lighthouse at a distance due to just roaming around.
- I really loved that even though I was 400 miles away from home, it felt like I was thousands. Places like Shelter Cove, Crescent City, Mendocino and the ocean in general just makes me experience a different life and attitude altogether. Life is much slower, calmer and nature oriented. Tobia and I got to be in really good sync with the sun. We typically woke up anywhere between 7 and 7:30am on this trip with very little difficulty. Some towns did not have street lights and we were forced to turn in early and take advantage of sight seeing early in the morning. The ocean and its crashing waves, as well as rocks jutting out in the middle of the ocean create an incredible relaxing and luring scene for me, as I can sit and watch it for hours and let my mind run free. I do some of my best focused thinking too, as a result. The temperature never gets too hot around the coast, and it was a pleasure also to take advantage of this as the Bay Area hit 3 digits for temperature while we were gone.
- California has many faces. I could restrict California to just the North and it still has many faces. There were many vineyards, acres upon acres of redwood trees, rugged coastal terrain, Lost Coast Moutains and trees (straight lines that cut through at a steep angle), flat barren areas, and also miles and miles of grassy hills. This mixture makes for one incredibly beautiful state and a very interesting drive.
- Tobia and I bought 24 cases of grape juice. Yes, we are a bit crazy, but when we love something, we love it obsessively. We figured it is pretty tough to get this stuff and we got a massive discount for buying such bulk. I typically just enjoy drinking water, to a lesser extent tea, and even less than that orange juice. But now I have discovered grape juice and figure to enjoy it for the rest of my life.
- Regrets: sure, I always have some of those. I regret not researching the very difficult to reach and explore Cape Mendocino area. I suspect there are no roads that lead directly to Sugar Loaf Island or the location where Cape Mendocino Island used to rest (before it was moved to Shelter Cove), but could not confirm this one way or another. I have, since visiting there on Thursday the 5th, sent California Parks an email asking how to get there. I also regret that I was unable to push myself to the physical Westernmost point in CA, but rather had to stop about a half a mile shy due to completely intolerable conditions and Tobia’s difficult struggle. On that note, I regret trying to push her so hard to come with me all the way, as it was obviously extremely tough. I touched upon the final regret earlier. I had over planned where such extreme detail was not necessary (except probably in Cape Mendocino’s case), and in fact could have been limiting if we had stuck to what I put together. I’m glad we were able to split from it and still get to everything we wanted to see.
Point Arena, Highway 1 and Back Home — Day 5
On the last day of our trip we woke up around 7:30am in Mendocino. We had seen signs across town that they were going to have a pancake breakfast from 8am – noon. From past experience (having done this in labor day of 2006), we knew this would be good. When we showed up at 8am, figuring things would just start rolling, elderly men were making pancakes, eggs and sausage, and already serving dozens of people before us.
I ultimately settled for 5 pancakes, an egg, a bunch of melon, pineapple and some orange juice. Yum! It was really good.
Following breakfast we fueled one last time and hit the road on 1 South, determined to complete the last leg of our trip seeing this part of road we’d heard was beautiful. Beautiful it was. Instead of cutting Southeast at Highway 128 to Cloverdale, we continued down South to Elk on 1. Elk was followed by Point Arena. At Point Arena we pulled off- as we had originally planned in our trip- to go visit the lighthouse. After 2 miles of driving almost purely West, we reached the incredibly tall lighthouse structure.
Once at the site, we were given a trip up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse. Both our tour guide and the gentleman waiting for us at the top of the lighthouse insisted that Point Arena was the Western most point in California. I had read the entire last month that it was Cape Mendocino and let them know this. Still, they insisted where we were was the Western most point. I figured I would resolve this later at home when I could check actual coordinates of the locations.
We climbed about 10 flights of stairs to the top of Point Arena. Picture of staircase looking down.
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View of Point Arena from the top of the lighthouse.
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Point Arena Lighthouse the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast. But not the Western most point in California
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Point Arena Lighthouse is perched on this rock.
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Following Point Arena, we continued through Anchor Bay, Gualala, Sea Ranch and Fort Ross. Roughly at Fort Ross (even though advertised as Jenner), we pulled off at the Timber Cove Inn. We had read about this place in Tobia’s Via magazine, and the picture used to describe it is beautiful. Walking in like we owned the joint, Tobia and I trekked into the beautiful Inn and walked around, sneaking glances into rooms as they were being cleaned by the maids. We noticed a hallway door that led outside, and we followed it out to the rocks.
Once on the rocks (almost as if at home), we descended down almost to Ocean level, taking pictures, getting some good air, and appreciating being out of the car for a while. We were able to find out way back to the car without entering the Inn on our way out.
After venturing right through Timber Cove Inn we walked through to the back and scoped out the scenery.
Gleason Beach south of Fort Ross.
From Fort Ross we continued down to Jenner and Bodega Bay. It was around 12:30pm when we reached Bodega Bay, so pulled off to the side of Highway 1 and ate at a marvelous restaurant called Brisas Del Mar (see breezes). For me that meal was the most delicious in our entire trip (and we had some good food throughout) and the service was phenomenal.
With our stomachs full and content, we continued through Highway 1 across the Point Reyes National Seashore area. We started cruising more Southeasterly and eventually met up with Highway 101 South at Petaluma. Reality kind of hit us there as many vacationers were returning home too and the honking, passing up of other cars and impatience returned. Most of all, it was really hot again.
We followed 101 through SF, passing the Golden Gate Bridge, driving slowly through the City to get through to speedy 280. At the junction with 380 we crossed over to 101 where we pulled off into Foster City, realizing reality was back and we needed groceries for the week. We picked up food at the Whole Foods salad bar for dinner and drove home. We returned home at 4:30pm to some chores but content with the trip and being back. Our dinner consisted of our salad bars and a bottle of the Gewurtraminer white grape juice we bought in Philo the previous day. We toasted to a most incredible road trip and relaxing vacation.