Jalama Beach Days & Farm Fresh Eats

If you ever find yourself in the Southern Central Coast of California, I highly recommend a peek at Jalama Beach. The beach is good for surfers, families, camping (park fees apply) and all around hanging out. Just a few miles south of Lompoc off Highway 1, Jalama Road - which takes you out to the beach, winds through some beautiful ranch and farm land on the way out to the coast.

If you're traveling thru on a weekend between June and November, make sure to stop at the Jalama Road Family Farmstand. Good people selling some of their delicious farm fresh produce, beans, eggs, honey, jams and more. A very cool operation, partially run by the Malloy family - who readers may recall I'm a big fan of - there isn't a cashier or a "sales associate". You pay by the honor system, placing cash in a little lock box and noting what you purchased on a note pad.

The Stand

Jalama Beach - facing South

Jalama Beach - facing North

Cheers!

Oregon Trail Pt 2

Yeah, well....so much for the regular posts here. I guess they will just happen when they happen. While probably not in the "how to create a successful following on the interwebs" user manual, I will humbly request that my readers take a slightly zen approach to my work here. The river will flow when the water makes its way down from the mountain.

For a slightly more regular transmission pattern, keep an eye on my tweets @onesteelhead and also check in with me on instagram under that same username. But here we go...more Oregon photos from this past August.

We moved on from Portland after enjoying the city and it's many fine eateries. For a relatively small city, Portland has some killer cuisine - spanning the range from food truck to 3 star Michelin guide restaurants. And its all good. But before leaving town for some spots slightly more rugged, I made sure to get a shot of Portlandia herself. We hit Silver Falls State Park and did the Trail of Ten Falls Loop. As the wildly creative name would suggest, there are ten water falls that provide great scenery on this moderately easy loop hike. Next up was a stay on the Rouge River near Gold Beach at the very posh but still laid back Tu Tu Tun Lodge. We paddled and swam in the river. I managed to visit the ER in Gold Beach - but x-rays proved negative. Enjoy.

First up, the goddess of...er, something...Portlandia

Next 4 - Silver Falls State Park

Next 4 - Tu Tu Tun grounds; Rouge River dock; Claire (my wife) paddles; smashed instep on ice (but still happy)

Cheers!

Crave

Hey folks - check out Crystal Thornburg-Homcy. 

Above photo by Chris Burkard.

More fetching photos by Crystal and her husband Dave on Instagram - @cravegreens.

Cheers!

Oregon Trail

Took a two week trip through the Pacific Northwest in early August. Started off with a few days in Seattle and then headed South into Oregon for the remaining ten or eleven days. The next several blog posts will be pictures and some quick notes from the trip. Wait, did I just say the next several...this blog has been dormant for several months now, so I understand any skepticism that may meet that statement. Let's just say I'm making a concerted effort to carve out some time for creative endeavors and documenting some of the things in life that I have fun doing. As usual, we'll see where it goes. Right now, let's start the Oregon trail...in Washington.

Seattle is one of those comfortable towns where doing a cheesy touristy thing is actually not so bad. One that's pretty well known but still a little off-the-beaten-path is the Underground Seattle walking tour, where you literally get to see the city beneath the city.

The Ballard Locks are surprisingly fun. Joining Puget Sound with Lake Union, it's a small scale Panama Canal. Well, sort of...without the drama, international commerce, and tropical scenery...but you get the idea. One of the cool things is the fish ladder they built along with the locks for the Salmon returning from the ocean to spawn. I waited to try to snap a shot of a Steelhead or Chinook leaping his way up the ladder, but no such luck or patience was mine.

Underwater view of a Salmon who made it up the ladder and pushes on towards Lake Union.

Seattle is a nice sized city with a relaxed pace, lots of good places to eat and plenty of cups of coffee. But after a few days it was time to head South. Our first stop in Oregon was a place where the bicycle is quite popular...any guesses?

I know you've got this one figured out already...but the official answer must wait until our next installment of the Oregon Trail.

Cheers!

Wine and How It Gets That Way

I used to have a blog dedicated entirely to the world of wine. I also used to work at a small winery. I don't do either any longer. But I'm still drinking wine.

The thing with wine, and the reason I got a little burned out on blogging about it, is that it all boils to down to taste and yet we all seem hell-bent on proving why the wine we like is the best. It's a game you cannot win. I'll use a totally different, yet strangely similar, subject to make the point. You like Kenny G, I like John Coltrane. Now, I know that Coltrane trumps Mr G. But there is no math to point to, there is no actual score. Taste be taste. Go spin your Kenny G if you must (but really, I hope not).

So anyway, I know what I know and I like what I like. The interwebs are filled with people arguing about stupid shit. The world of wine, while presumably the domain of the elite and educated, is no different. There are chat threads where Robert Parker is the villain and others where Neil Rosenthal is the bad guy. For the record, I like the wines Neil imports, and I avoid many of the top "Parker Point" wines. I'm just tired of arguing about the reasons why.

The nice thing about wine is you decide. The subject can be quite complex and a person can get in deep. But at the end of the trail I hope you're at least drinking something you like and not simply trying to defend a philosophy all the way to your grave.

I'm planning on making the odd post here and there about wines that I really like. I'll kick things off here by saying that if I could only drink one wine it would definitely be this one.

Cheers!

Desert Dwelling

Spent a few days earlier this week in the desert this week. The desert is definitely home to all sorts of misfits, crazies, extreme personalities, and your basic loners. Oh, and then there is the retirement community to add to the mix. I always seem to spend half my time in the desert just tripping on the people who call the place home. For sure, I always feel like an outsider. There is a solid line of demarcation between those who are in the desert temporarily and those who are dwelling there on a permanent basis.

But with scenery and geography like this, any human oddities and awkward interactions are easy enough to deal with.

Along the trail up Mt Ryan in Joshua Tree National Park.

Top of Mt Ryan and views out into the endless landscape.

Looking down while heading up Mt San Jacinto via the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

Sunset on top of Mt San Jacinto.

Speaking of deserts...I tweeted yesterday that every man, woman and child should be checking out Jimmy Chin when cruising on the interwebs. Just to whet your tastes a bit more - check out this short movie set in the Ennedi Desert by Jimmy & the Camp 4 Collective.

Towers of the Ennedi from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

Towers of the Ennedi features Alex Honnold, who readers may recall being featured on 60 minutes as that guy who climbs mountains without ropes or safety lines. When I watch him do his thing I get hot and begin to sweat in a not so pleasant way. Still, I'm fascinated and can't turn away. For Alex it's all "chill". Weird. Like big wave surfers, these types of climbers are definitely born and not made.

Cheers!

Good Bad TV

OK, this is pretty lightweight, but as the MacDonald's ads say - I'm loving it.

For those of you might care, or might care to remember, or have tried but are unable to forget...David Caruso was once a hot television actor who poo-pooed television acting and went for the gold of movie acting. Only someone figured out he wasn't so much of an actor and so he went slinking back to television and traded in his big screen dreams for a pair of sunglasses and the cheese.

Enjoy!