Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry

At the end of February I traveled to the South Carolina coast to visit family. This pretty much catches up the recent travel backlog.

I knew when I booked the flights that my inbound travel to Charleston was going to be challenging, but the flights turned out to be the easy part. After brief de-icing delays in Chicago, we landed in the rainy part of one of those winter storms with names. Torrential rain combined with after-dark driving, exhaustion and really bad GPS instructions for a very long night driving up the coast. Pro tip: SC Route 41 may call itself "Route 17 Alternate," but that only makes sense if you define "alternate" as "the road you take when you want to make a bad drive in a downpour twice as long and twice as scary and include 200% more hydroplaning." 

I learned many important driving lessons on that trip, but enough about that. I slept until noon the next day and then with my Aunt and Uncle as guides, we set about exploring some coastal treasures.

Boardwalk. Huntington Beach State Park

Saltwater Marshes. Huntington Beach State Park

Escape to Stinson Beach

I know this post is four months late, but I want to get through the backlog before getting ahead of myself... and the pictures were nice. Please enjoy this window into the recent past : )

On Black Friday, we escaped.

Sunset over Bolinas Lagoon.

While others were lining up outside Best Buy at 4am, or preparing for another night of roaming protests in the East Bay, or possibly experiencing a combination of shopping and protesting hordes in Union Square, we drove out to Stinson Beach for some peace and quiet.

Bench at Divide Meadow, Point Reyes National Seashore

Which we found in abundance. On Friday we drove up the divide to Point Reyes Station for lunch, and on the return trip down to Stinson Beach we stopped off at the Bear Valley visitors center for a short hike in the Point Reyes National Seashore, although we didn't see any seashore on our hike, just lovely trees and meadows.

Divide Meadow, Point Reyes National Seashore

The sun sets early in late November, and by the time we returned to Stinson Beach it was completely dark. Apparently the Stinsonites don't care much for streetlights or sidewalks, making the foray out for dinner somewhat fraught but memorable.  After a good night's sleep and satisfying breakfast, we headed out for Muir Woods, thinking the chill might just maybe keep some of the tour buses away (don't bet on it). On the way we had to stop for this view...

Concerts on the Road: LA, Berkeley and Seattle

I've been rattling around the Golden West the last few months seeing a few choice shows here and there. I made a trip down to LA (Burbank to be more specific) in early October especially to see Elbow at the Greek Theatre.  The week before, I had seen another favorite, Bon Iver at the Berkeley Greek, with opening act Other Lives.  Most recently, I took a long weekend in Seattle and stopped in to the Neptune theater to see The Belle Brigade and Dawes.