Blogs from Arcata, California, United States, North America

Well hello again travelblog. I've been on the road again for over 2 months now without actually writing anything in a journal, diary, paper, or online, and it is a little strange considering how nice it was to have this blog record some of my previous journeys. Looking back on those times from my current perspective is really amazing.. So...at the moment I am here in Northern California. I graduated from UNR in the middle of May, shortly after which I took off and headed south to Irvine (LA area) where I stayed for about a week volunteering at a musical festival event. The next weeks after that I spent in Santa Cruz with a friend named Nathan, in San Francisco with my beautiful sister Irena, in Beldentown, Arcata, and Eugene, OR, with other new and ... read more

Life is good. We are in Arcata, California at the lovely home of Carol and CJ Ralph. Carol is our friend Ali's sister. Ali is a former Academy Studios compatriot of Melisse's. Yes, the one with the goats. Carol and CJ were most inviting. They live at the end of the road next to the dunes and beach. Experts in birds and plants. After a spectacular walk over the dunes to the beach, we tried to play "stump the stars" with them but they had answers to all of our bird and plant questions. Way to go! Washington was glorious. We saw old and new friends there as well. Roger and Mary are from freshman dorm at CU Boulder and Melisse's ties run deep with them. We spent time on Vashon Island with Mary and her ... read more

One word... ...WoAhhhhhhh! ... ...more words: (as transcribed from my scattered journal, so excuse the writing.) 25th July Well, it's been the most wonderful week of fresh air, pixies, family and awesome hitchhiking! It all started a bit slow after Salt Spring Island, with Steve n I not getting the best of luck with our rides up to Courtenay (but nothing as bad as the previous week!) But eventually our lunatic behaviour got us there and we rolled into Alani's place before dark. Spent a beautiful few days hanging out, gardening, making felt and swimming in rivers and waterfalls and then teamed up with some friends to go to Lasqueti Island- which kinda has the vibe of one of those 'final frontier' hippie outposts still remaining in the world. It was another beautiful ferry ride over ... read more

Sorry I suck at updating this. Last time I updated I think we were in Montana. I forgot to mention that something I found extremely interesting in South Dakota was that at every point there was a fatal car accident on the highway, there was a sign that said something along the lines of "Think Don't Die". It was so bizarre. Saw Yellowstone again, got to see Old Faithful! It was exciting. Everyone should see that at some point in their life. Once in Idaho, we saw the Craters of the Moon National Monument. There used to be some volcanic activity here and the lava that cooled seriously makes this area look like you're on the moon. We climbed up what used to be a cone from a volcano. Stayed at a motel in Idaho, I ... read more

Camping in the middle of a "city" finally revealed its drawbacks. During the night, we heard endless trains going by. And, obviously, they all needed to blast their horns at 2am. To get rid of all the cars that were CLEARLY on the road.... So when we finally woke up (around 7am or so) we decided to just get on with the day. We drove to Crater Lake (this time with gas!) and entered the park. The park ranger informed us that only 8 miles of roads were open, which disappointed me a little bit, but we got the point. We drove past 6-8 foot high snowbanks, and then, at the very end of the 8 miles, finally viewed Crater Lake. It is amazing. Crater Lake is a former volcano that finally used up all of ... read more

Tja nach einem ziemlich langen Flug nach San Fran, 3-4 Std. verspaetung, sind wir dann doch noch angekommen und gleich zu Alamo wo wir unser Auto gebucht hatten und dann ab nach Arcata dachten wir. Wir naruerlich ohne Plan von SAn Fran unterwegs immer schoen der Beschreibung von der Ulrike folgend, 101 Richtung Norden, durch San Fran. Nur da hier die Beschilderung nicht ganz so ist wie in D und man hier etwas laenger gedult haben muss wenn man geradeaus faehrt, aber nach ungefaehr einer Std. Irrfahrt in San Fran und nach dem Weg fragen, sind wir dann auch endlich ueber die Golden Gate raus aus der Grossstadt gewesen. War dann schon irgedwas um 2 Uhr Nacht und wir natuerlich total fertig vom Reisen und kaum schlafen, so habe nwir im dem schoenen San Rafael, irgenwo ... read more

On my last morning in Mcleod ganj I went to my favorite restaurant, Oogos, and order some of the very best french toast. As the theme song to our trip "om mani padme hum" (a song we heard in the streets, restaurants, hotels, etc) sung out over the speakers I became quite sentimental. As I paid to leave, the tibetan woman who i saw everyday I came here gave me the sweetest hug goodbye. At thangka painting class I finished transferring my white tara drawing onto canvas. In the evening Jason walked me and my luggage to the bus stop. The boy who was responsible for loading the luggage made all the passengers wait a half an hour before actually doing his job because he wanted to load our bags on the top of the bus. ... read more

Spontaneity is the key to that feeling of freedom, me thinks! This past Sunday, the lady Phoenix and I decided to road trip with our friends, Annette and Azza, back to Arcata, increasing our magical time spent with them aphond also avoiding a long hitchhike back for them (which I'm sure they would have loved, honestly). So from Santa Cruz to Arcata we went. We took Highway 1 all the way up, which of course is always a beautiful route. The plan was also to meet up with some other wonderful friends - Andreas and Julie. It took a while to get up there it seemed, but eventually we arrived at the sacred Team Jazz casa. Much merry making commenced - and there was food and I'm sure a little dancing...but quickly there was sleep since ... read more