[From the Red Roof Inn near San Francisco Int'l Airport, where I used my Free Night Certificate!]

I think I will give this blog a title: "The Existential Tourist," because of how yesterday went.

 I had every intention and desire to visit the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium in the morning after my decision to stay in the Monterey area and not try to find a (nonexistent) place to stay near Santa Cruz.  Of course,  my plans to do anything in the morning are the kinds of thing God finds hilariously funny.  So when He was done laughing, I found myself near the Aquarium at noon, on a beautiful Sunday, which happened also to be Father's Day.  The crowds were all happy families with big smiles and filling the streets - did I mention "crowds"? - parking was $10, and I quickly decided, "not for me; not today," and decided to head up the Coastal Highway (Rte 1) to my San Francisco destination, only about 100 miles away, via a side trip to Santa Cruz to scope out the town and campus.

I very much enjoyed Santa Cruz: it's clearly a college town, iconically so, and the living is easy.  All the homes are modest, close together on the very lived-in streets, with bicycles and lawn sculptures strewn about; the residents obviously have better things to do with their time and imaginations than keep up their lawns or worry about appearances.  My kind o' town!  I really didn't see any of the campus buildings (not obvious how to find them!), but I soon found out that it was Commencement day, so I decided that it wasn't the best time to visit campus.  I did happen into a faculty housing cluster, which was right out of Disney Studios: the most perfect cluster of modest homes in a beautiful, communally designed setting, you could imagine.  Spoke to a perfect Mr. Chips walking his dog.  He'd been teaching there since the campus opened in 1965, and loved it, except that California's current financial disaster has hit the state campuses really hard, so these are very sad and difficult times for their faculty and students.

Mid-afternoon I continued my drive along the Coastal Highway, and it was another gorgeous treat: this time all about sand: beautiful, expansive public beaches in awesome coves ringed with huge sand dune cliffs, one huge State Beach every 5 miles or so!  (look at a CA map of Rte 1 from Santa Cruz up to Pacifica, and you'll see what I mean).  It was a little frustrating do drive it, though, since between the road and the beach was a continuous berm-like vegetated dune that blocked the view from the road.  The only way to really see the beaches or the spectacular views would be to pull into a parking area,  and get out of the car.  By this time, I was experiencing increasing Awesomeness Fatigue,  suffering from Post Awesome Stress Syndrome (PASS), and just wanted to haul my hybrid ass up to San Francisco!  So I floored that baby and passed all the scenic wonders unseen, except when the road curved on a high overlook and the sight was amazing, but I didn't even bother trying to snap a photo from the car!  I was that jaded.

Hence the title for this blog, The Existential Tourist:  With the right vehicle and maps, and a valid credit card, anyone can plan and execute a successful sightseeing trip.  But to spend 3 long days to get to a site, like Monterey Bay Aquarium, or the UCSC campus, or the Central Coast Beaches, and then not bother to see them takes a special kind of refinement that only comes from great experience and hard work, plus, if I do say so, a certain degree of natural talent  to be in the right place at the wrong time, which, according to my parents, showed itself precociously when I was quite young.

I won't even mention the fact that I ran into the biggest traffic bottleneck I've ever witnessed at the turnoff from Rte 1 to Rte 92 going to SF, where the entire populations of San Francisco and San Jose were returning from a wonderful Father's Day at the beach!  Luckily, I managed to avoid the deadly trap, veered off into the weird seedy/boutiquey town of Half Moon Bay, stopped for a wifi connection, then figured out a way to bypass the traffic jam:  just continued speedily up Rte 1 to Pacifica, and down I-280 to my motel, arriving comfortably at 7 and getting a first floor room!

Okay...heading out soon for the Mendocino area, via Rte 101 this time, to Booneville to visit an old friend, then on to Mendo and then Ft. Bragg where I've booked a Motel 6 room!  Been averaging around $55 a night so far.

That's it from the battle field this morning.