After almost 8 f’ng years of graduate school, I was finally Ph-done and decided to take a much-needed break. Due to certain constraints, I was forced to abandon my romantic dream of driving a scooter around South East Asia to a gorgeous beach or temple, and instead find interesting destinations inside the U.S. A few years ago, the people from Favorite Places did an amazing trip that consisted in taking a train from Chicago all the way down to the Bay area, definitely something very exciting and new for me to consider trying. I’ve never been in Chicago and I’ve only taken a few train rides in my life, so this was a perfect and exciting plan. I began planning my trip and train stops using the Favorite Places blog and The Man on Seat 61 blog. However, other happy plans pushed me to fly directly to L.A. for a wedding and ended up staying around for a couple of weeks after the wedding, enjoying the weather, the food and the relaxed and friendly Californian attitude.

Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo Beach

During my time in Manhattan Beach (and the surrounding beach cities of Hermosa and Redondo Beach), I had the chance to get into beach volleyball and meet some locals. People in their 20s and all the way to late 50s/early 60s with the best attitude (there must be something in the water), willing to give advice in a fantastic disposition. While playing, some “rad” dude gave me great advice for blocking; duuuuude – he said – you have to jump aaaafter the other dude is in the air, that’s how you block! I followed his advice, and, to my surprise, I blocked the other guy! “Gnarly🤙, duuude!” he said. Ah! he had definitely made my day in more than one way! Besides volleyball, I had the chance to take loooong walks on the beach, “get into learning French ” with Duolingo, practice some guitar exercises with my cousin’s guitar, practice a little meditation, enjoy sunsets and surrender myself to the challenge of doing absolutely nothing. This last item was very challenging to experience, considering the pace at which I had been working lately. It was definitely interesting to accept and be ok with the free time and to just drift in thoughts, with or without music, staring at the ceiling or at the ocean.

I also started reading Jack Kerouac’s On the road to prime the spirit for this West Coast adventure as well as other books. This was very nice because I always felt guilty about reading books instead of scientific papers, but not anymore!!

Days began to go by very quickly between reading and doing nothing, and when I least realized it, it was time for me to say bye to L.A. and head north to San Francisco via Santa Cruz. I chose to drive, so I could enjoy the Pacific Coast Highway’s scenic route. I picked my rental car and blasted my stupid (awesome) playlist I had made for this 5 hours 30 minutes trip. I carefully picked songs that had a West Coast vibe and could be repeated without getting bored by them, and more importantly, I could shamelessly sing them as loud as possible! I imagined myself sitting in traffic and nodding my head to a banger like Mr. Brightside or screaming out my favorite Gustavo Cerati song, what a f’ng joy!! Magnificent views and great music, what else can you ask for? Maybe better snacks for the road? Incidentally:

Better planning next time

I realized a little too late that it would’ve been great to stop by Pismo Beach…. or Hearst Castle…. or Santa Barbara, ugh, classic me. I reached Big Sur and thanks to my “no-planning-ahead-but–instead-do-things-as-they-come-ways”, I also realized that I could’ve stayed there for one or two nights and go on a hike, but whatever, it’s just an excuse to visit it again (plus, lodging must be booked in advanced,… like months in advance! whatcha gonna do 🤷‍♂️). Anyway, I reached and crossed Bixby bridge and the views… oh the views,… they’re breathtaking, and pictures obviously don’t make justice to them:

I continued my journey and reached Santa Cruz, home of the hoodies my skateboard friends would always wear. Of course, in my mind, I imagined that everybody would be riding a skateboard everywhere because, c’mon, it’s Santa Cruz!.. however, I only saw like 4 dudes riding skateboards and maybe 1 more on a longboard? Oh well. I parked the car and dropped my stuff at the Airbnb I was crashing in for the night and headed to the wharf. I walked around and I saw a seal, like literally, one seal: