The Journey Alone

This past weekend was awesome.  At the last minute, I decided to take a solo retreat.  I needed some time away from everything. 

I left Saturday morning at 5:30am for San Luis Obispo.  The drive was beaaaaautiful!  North of Ventura on the 101 is along the oceanside, then the 101 to the 154 through Los Padres National Forest and the Chumash Reservations.  I love California.  Where else can you enjoy the ocean, forests, and mountains within a span of a 4 hour drive?  On the 154, you can see Live Oak and Sycamore trees, oh and for the first time, I saw happy cows!  Well, at least, I think they were happy.  I’m sure they’re happier than the cows in the cow factory on the 5 towards Frisco.  These cows had plenty of space to graze. 

I arrived at the Montana de Oro State Park around 9:30am.  I parked at the end of the road by Spooner’s Cove.  The ocean water is blue!  I haven’t seen water that blue since Hawaii.  I’m not used to it.  I think that the gray color of the ocean in Los Angeles is normal. 

I climbed up the hill and hiked on Bluff Trail which is a path along the edge of a mountain overlooking the water.  The views were fantastic.

I love my Sony DSC-WX1.  The color’s accurate, and it was very easy to take it with me on my hikes.  After I reached the end of Bluff Trail, I decided to take the Coon Creek Trail that goes up the mountain.  I was only able to finish about half the trail before I started heading back.  The traction on my sneakers were pretty worn down, so I kept slipping.  No bueno if I’m alone in the mountains and I end up breaking my ankle. 

After baking in the heat and hiking for 5 hours, I drove to uptown San Luis Obispo to have lunch at Splash Cafe.  I ordered their infamous clam chowder in a bread bowl and a glass of chardonney.  And H-O-L-Y S-H-I-T…

I think I died a little and gone to heaven.  It was the best clam chowder I’ve ever had…. ever!  Normally, when I order soup, I only have about half before I get tired of it, but I had the whoooooooole thing.  I would drive 4 hours there and 4 hours back just to have the soup.  Seriously!  It was that good!  When I finished lunch, I left and walked around for a bit.  I stopped by an antique store down the street.  I asked the ladies working there if there was anything to do around town.  They suggested going to downtown and checking out the Mission. 

People outside of Los Angeles are much nicer.  Everyone I met on my mini-vacation were so kind and generous.. to a complete stranger.  Even driving through San Luis Obispo felt very different.  No one rides your ass when you’re on the road because you’re going too slow.  Everything was at a relaxed and leisurely pace.  I almost felt like I was in a different dimension. 

Anyway, I headed to downtown San Luis Obispo to walk around and visit the Mission.  There was a wedding ceremony inside of the church but I was able to get a few shots of the outside and the garden area. 

I had a quick dinner and a little time to kill before my reservation time at the mineral springs so I went to Avila Beach.  I think I stayed there a total of 10-15 minutes.  It was waaaaay too crowded and there were kids EVERYWHERE.  Not exactly the ideal place to relax.  So I did a little driving and went as far as Hearst Castle before I started heading back.  I reserved a private tub at the Sycamore Mineral Springs from 7:00pm – 8:00pm.  It’s located in the mountains.  There are separate, private outdoor tubs and it’s surrounded by these really beautiful trees.  My tub was at the top of the mountain so I had to climb a lot of stairs but it was totally worth it.  I brought a cooler with me with wine.  I soaked in mineral water heated to 104F, listened to my favorite songs on my ipod, enjoyed the view with the sunlight peaking through the trees, and drank my wine.  It was heavenly. 

I left around sunset and the drive back down the 154 and the 101 felt very peaceful.  I arrived in Carpinteria in 2 hours.  After I checked in at the hotel, I took a shower, did the girly-self-pampering and put on a cucumber mint mask, ordered a pizza, and watched cable tv.  I fell asleep around midnight, and woke up around 9:00am.  I took another shower to start the day, checked out, and searched on Yelp for breakfast places around the area.  I decided to go to Worker Bee Cafe, a small mom and pop diner, that was about 2 miles away from the hotel.  I arrived early enough to beat the late morning rush.  It’s a cute place.  The decor is all bee-related.

The food and the service was excellent.  The coffee was the best diner coffee I ever had. 

I experienced a lot of “bests” and “firsts” during this trip.  First trip alone, first time in San Luis Obispo, Carpinteria, and Ojai, first time I shut off my phone for 2 days.  Best ocean views, best clam chowder, best diner coffee, best desert setting for meditation, BEST TRIP EVER!

After I finished eating, I headed out to Ojai for some desert fun.  I went back and forth about my 2nd day; where I was going to go, what I was going to do.  Initially, I was going to visit Santa Barbara, but I figured there would be too many people.  Ojai seemed ideal since it’s a much much smaller town, and there was an art show that I wanted to check out.  After arriving in Ojai, I walked through Arcade Plaza where they have these neat little stores.  It was strange to walk inside the stores and hear “Hey Mary!  I saw you at such and such place trying on such and such, how did you like it?”.  Everyone knew each other!

At the end of Arcade Plaza is the Ojai Visitor’s Center / Museum.  It’s located in a converted Catholic church. 

There weren’t very exhibits inside the museum.  There was a Chumash Exhibit, some historical artifacts on the settlers, but more than half of the museum had exhibits on recent events and current culture of the city.  You can tell that the people living here are proud of this town. 

I visited Libbey Park, where Ojai was holding their 33rd annual art show.  Some of the local artists are amazing.  There were paintings and sculptures.  There were also vendors there selling their own handmade jewelry and trinkets.  I ended up buying a Koru necklace from one of the vendors. 

When I was done, I drove down Gridley Road and passed through orange groves and cactus trees.

I had a late lunch at Bocceli’s.  Most of the people there were locals.  There were some bikers, and a group of foreigners sitting at the table in front of them.  They were pretty rude to the waitress.  I was a little disgusted. 

Before I left, I spent about 3 hours at Meditation Mount.  I meditated, wrote in my journal, walked through their garden and their grounds.  There was hardly anyone up there, which was nice.  It was almost… too quiet.  But it was really a blessing that I had the time to just sit and be.  Peace and quiet are a luxury. 

I went arrived home Sunday evening around 8:00pm, completely refreshed. 

This trip put a lot of things in perspective for me.  This is the first time that I allowed myself time and space to think.  Usually, I try to keep myself frantic and busy about everything else so that I can avoid some of the lingering issues that I’ve always been so resistent to deal with.  This time away hasn’t changed who I am fundamentally as a person.  But the changes and the bad habits that I do want to break aren’t going to happen overnight and I’m okay with that.  I’m never going to be perfect.  If I was perfect, my life would be boring.  It would mean that I have nothing else to learn and I wouldn’t have any opportunities to grow… I really wouldn’t be living. 

Since I’ve come back, I’m starting to feel like I’m making progress.  I’ve been opening myself up, and I’ve been making the effort to experience every second of joy and pain, rather than distracting myself from living in the present moment by having my head in the clouds.  The anger and the resentment… those negative feelings are starting to dissipate.  I’m starting to value the person that I am.  I feel healthier.  It was a little overwhelming to be surrounded by so much life around me when I was hiking up in the mountains at Montana de Oro.  I think this goes to show that the only limitations that exist in life are the ones you create in your own mind.  The me of 2 years ago would probably not be open to experiencing this.  But the me of today is finally ready for the world.