We are sitting up here, perched above the Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean. Though there have been constant highway sounds, there has also been a steady rhythm of the waves curling and crashing onto the shore. We also have a full view of both sunrises and sunsets. And we can see the fullness of the big ocean. We’ve seen porpoises and seals, storms come and go, that dense marine layer fog, and the breaking of it into blue skies. And we are perched above it which means we don’t just glance and return to what we were doing. We don’t just walk down its beach and pause when we can. We stare at it for long intervals. It is our centerpiece and our backdrop. That means we see the micro-movements of it. We see motion in the deep, as it slowly rolls forward, collecting itself…part of it more eager to get to shore than the other part, giving a last push to the finish line and crashing over as if beating an opponent with a final surge of one’s chest over the finish line to gain the needed millimeters to claim victory.

At first glance, that big sea looks like a calm lake, so steady and almost motionless. But there is a deep, subtle pulsing…an energy from the life within it that is looking for a place to go to release itself. It moves shoreward, releases some of itself on the beach, but what remains pulses back into the sea only to regain strength and return again. The pulse, the current rocks the sea back and forth. It is searching, looking for a resting place.

• We stayed: Malibu Beach RV Park
• We explored: Santa Monica and Venice Beach, Solstice and Topanga Canyons, the notion of a “country mart” in LA, Montrose and Pasadena, state park and public beaches (Matador and Corral Beach), highway traffic of LA, the unusual rainy day in SoCal, Mulholland and Sunset/Hollywood Boulevards and the Griffith Observatory, Santa Monica Farmers Market
• We hiked: the rocks at the top of a Solstice Canyon hike, the views from the top of a hike in Topanga Canyon State Park (both unnamed, we just followed the leads of our friends), Malibu Lagoon
• We also: took a surfing lesson, enjoyed time with friends
• We enjoyed: lots of fancy food, though a good beer was hard to find. If you are in the market for “hard kombucha” southern california is calling. We did find a beer we liked at our previous stop in Santa Barbara: Topa Topa. Some of our favorite restaurants were Gjusta, Superba Food + Bread, Malibu Seafood (to make us feel a bit more normal, eating fried food in LA), Sweet Rose Creamery, Goldburger, though our best meals were (as is always true!) those shared with friends.
• We listened to: Taylor Swift, pop and the newer emo
• I (meant to) read: Joan Didion but some city life called

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•