.

San Luis Obispo + Monterey

We spent a night at the La Cuesta Inn in San Luis Obispo on our way up 101 North. It's a smallish college town that kind of pops up in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't impressed at first glance, but once we drove down Monterey Ave. into the centre of town, things started to look interesting. We ate dinner on the patio at the Mission Grill, and as I struggled to avoid the sun-glare in my eyes, I started to feel the transformation. I was floating through inner space, bathing in data from new atmosphere and surroundings. Cultivating, calibrating.

After dinner, we rode the shoeleather express for a bit. Amy unleashed another of her bizarre classifications in declaring it a "cutie pretty town". I was looking for photo ops, but wasn't really feeling the cohesion. We stumbled upon an alley with a few interesting stencils and I started to wake up, experimenting with ISO and aperture settings. I'm still trying to figure all of that stuff out. When evening moved towards night, temperate air towards chillyness, we went back to our hotel and called it a night.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Big Sky Cafe, then wandered around looking for Bubble Gum Alley, an infamous spot where lots of people put their used gum. We eventually found it, and it was cool, and also quite disgusting. There wasn't the range of colors that I imagined -- the brick walls were covered in a medium gray/tan sludge more than the bright vibrance that I expected. Regardless, it was worth seeing.

We soon hit the road and continued north. Central California is very brown. The green patches on the hills make the land look like a quilt. There are horses, cows, farms, and vineyards scattered throughout.

We arrived in Monterey and headed straight for Cannery Row. It was infested with tourists, but overall a very nice looking place. It wasn't quite what I expected -- I thought it would be more beachy than industrial, but the history evident in the fundamental structures gives the place a certain validity and class.

After walking around until my dogs started to bark, we headed to our home for the night at the Best Western De Anza Inn. The room was very big, but there were some noise issues -- the sounds of reggae consistently boomed from a bar or club beside the hotel. It was nice to bust a move to during the evening hours, but at some point I was interested in sleeping. Luckily, I brought earplugs.