California

I have just spent hours walking along a sandy beach watching surfers in the Santa Cruz area. I am sun-kissed and feel great with sand between my toes. This is supposed to be the rainy season, but global warming is bringing magnificent weather. It is a little more summer for this Vermont girl and I love it. Between this and the other fab things out here like copious organic and fresh food, no rust on the cars, diversity, large areas of protected land, it makes you wonder why everyone wouldn’t move to California, except I have found some reasons.

For one, when you are on a highway, or the “freeway” as they call it out here, you think that possibly everyone HAS moved to California. It is crowded!

A few other issues – fires – a real problem. Fires are burning in Southern California as I write and I visited a friend near Monterey who had fires almost reach his home in the mountains around Carmel. Of course, there are earthquakes. In fact, one house I stayed in had child-proof latches on their kitchen cupboards, but no small children. When I asked why, they said, to keep the dishes from crashing to the floor in an earthquake….hmm.

And the driving, there is plenty of that here, which is what I don’t like in Vermont. How can the United States be so behind in public transportation? Is it just too large a country? It certainly seems that the priority is not there. I have been traveling without a car and it is has been very difficult to get anywhere on public transit that is not a major city.

So here are a few pictures – some of the great and no so great of the California life.