More on the trip

Saturday was a busy day. We managed to fit more things into that day than into any one weekend. In the morning, as I said, after a breakfast at the "pretty good grill" appended to the motel, we went to see the elephant seals, then drove up to San Simeon beach, walked the beach and pier, and I visited the little natural history center there, talking with the couple who ran the place about what we should see in the area. They pointed out Moonstone Beach, which we visited later that day. But we also got a taste (literally) of Cambria that afternoon, visiting the bakery and walking around town. After walking the boardwalk alongside Moonstone Beach, where I imitated a squirrel and almost had one climbing up my leg, we drove over to Morro Bay. It was crude and touristy compared to Cambria, but there were lots of interesting galleries, and I ducked into one to look over local art, which was interesting and priced well. I resisted most of it, but bought one piece. I had been hankering for some seafood, but without paying top price for it, some little place out in view of the water, with picnic tables, maybe. That's exactly what I found, and soon R. and I were eating our fish and chips (him) and a grilled halibut sandwich (me) in view of Morro Rock and in hearing of the seals you see in my header, which were hanging around the fishing boat, looking pretty full and satisfied. There were lots of people tossing things to them; I'm sure the junk food will shorten their lives, but they seemed to be enjoying those tidbits right now.

San Simeon

Although there are many lovely and elegant b&bs in Cambria and the surrounding area, we didn't want to spend that much for a place we were only going to be in to sleep. I planned lots of running around, so instead, we stayed at the San Simeon Motel 6, which had only rudimentary tv and a handicapped bathroom, which was rather inconvenient because it didn't have a counter for toiletries. But it was okay for our needs, clean and comfortable, and across the street from San Simeon State Beach (that may not be the exact name), which was dramatic and lovely. About 12 miles down highway 1 from there was Piedros Blancos, the beach where elephant seals breed and hang out. At this time of year, the poor beasts are molting, but we didn't see many adults (the only ones that molt, I think)--just one. The rest were large juveniles, who behaved in hilarious beachy ways, such as basking in the negligible sunlight (it was cold and foggy,and of course we weren't prepared for that), and throwing sand on themselves and their buddies. They rolled on their backs like cats, and the males pretended to be big shots, or as the Russians say, balsheyeah shishki (big pinecones, literally), bellowing and throwing themselves at the other males' chests, elbowing the littler guys out of the way with their flippers. We hung out there for a long time, watching the seals from behind the guard rails. Humans aren't allowed on that beach.
I scanned the area for sea otters, but didn't see any.
Then we drove over to Cambria. The last time we were in that little town, back in the 80s, it seemed much smaller. That was because we didn't know there were two sides to the village, and only went to the East part of town, where the toy soldier store was. This time, we went first to Cambria as soon as we got our rental car. It was quite late by then, and we were very hungry. The train had arrived at 4:00, almost too late to get our car, since the rental place closed at 5 on Friday night, but we walked the mile and a half, shlepping our bags, to the place, and drove away hungry in our black Kia. So when we got to Cambria, which the guidebook told us was full of good places to eat (expensive ones, unfortunately), we were almost overwhelmed by good smells. We considered the new Chinese place, across from our parking spot, but decided that because it was so cold and we were dressed inadequately, the pot pies at Linn's sounded good. And they were. I had a vegetable pot pie with tofu, which had a lovely winey sauce, and Richard had meatloaf--good comfort food. The smashed potatoes were wonderful! We began the meal with warm, homebaked bread with housemade seedless oalliberry jam. We were told the restaurant grows the berries themselves and makes their own jam and fruit products, and it was certainly the best jam I have ever tasted in my life. And we ended the meal with herbal tea and a cookie (me) and coffee (R). The next day we went by their bakery and tried a mini- oalliberry pie. I think I like the plain jam better.
Cambria seems to me like a place where people landed in the 60s and never left. The town is a long strip of stores, interesting eccentric ones, galleries, and craft places, as well as more mundane fare, run by people about our age, dressed as one might expect aged hippies to dress. The population runs to retired people and these other folks. The town sits on a beautiful stretch of beach, Moonstone Beach, that supposedly is covered with moonstones, but we didn't see any. We walked along the boardwalk, scanning the sea for orcas and otters (didn't see any). It was lovely.

Home Again

Today R. and I came home from our vacation feeling entirely different from when we left. We were laughing and relaxed, feeling close and looking forward to the week. The trip up was rather different.
On Thursday, it was one of the hardest day I have ever had at work. I wasn't sleeping because I was very excited about the trip. And it was a busy day--hours at the Writing Lab, conferences with students, and two classes in a row. By the time I got out, my legs felt wobbly, and I was buried under homework that required my immediate attention and comments by email, since I couldn't manage to conference the majority of the students before I left.
All day Friday on the train, while Richard read his golf magazine and looked out the window in the observation car and ate snacks, I graded papers, wishing I had a laptop so I could send comments to my students. But I finally finished, planned my classes for this week, and soon I too was looking out the windows and listening to the forest service volunteers' commentary on the natural and human history of the places we were passing.
The peoplewatching was good too. There were tons of characters, including singles bar type behavior in the observation lounge, busy body seat watchers, who tried to keep us from sitting down in the chairs unoccupied by people who were in the dining car, for hours at a time, and extremely friendly people who jabbered away to anyone who would listen.
I didn't take any pictures in the train; I was too busy on the way up, and by the time we came home, the train was full. Most of the pictures are sideways, and cannot be turned around, I'm told, without seriously compromising their quality, so I guess I can't post them, but I'll post a couple, and I'll tell more about what we did once we got there tomorrow.

Pissed

The other day, on our weekly constitutional around the trails and paths of Northwood, R. and I argued about the issue of Obama's speech to school children. Schools around the country were invited to play the speech for children, as Obama urged them to stay in school. As a black man in a powerful position, he was in a position that no president has ever been in before to urge this, and it might just make a difference. But irresponsible forces of the opposition decided to use lies and fear to stand in his way just because they could. I was fuming about that.
Of course R., as a person who grew up in a small, southern, and very Republican town and household, reasonably pointed out to me that Obama is nothing if not a politician, and even if he never said a word about his policies, he would represent them just the same, so it made sense for the opposition to object to this. But the point was, they DIDN't object to this, but to some imagined boogie-man red scare--he would transform their children into socialists!! That's what those parents said they were told and what they feared. Aren't we all tired of all these lies? Of people believing them?
In a week when my class showed itself unable to distinguish an "objective" newspaper article from an editorial, I was disgusted and losing hope for our country. But interestingly, Public TV news pointed out that when the shoe was on the other foot, years ago, when Daddy Bush did something similar, the Dems objected. Of course, they didn't lie to the public about it either. But they did object.
Can't we send all these liars back to school to study logic and reinstitute some sort of order and civility into this discussion?

This semester's classes

Yesterday was the first time I gave back something with a grade to the students. They had two major homework assignments, designed to gauge their reading and summary skills. One section did very poorly. Despite my explaining what an editorial was, where to find them, and how an argument differed from exposition/a regular newspaper article, about half of them gave me regular articles, not editorials. Some of these didn't even get the position of the piece right. The study questions on the story were written in every form of illiterate prose. I was appalled. They looked and sounded (some of them) as if they were written by 4th graders. And I have no reading class to send them to. At least one of these told me he did very well here in Writing 1. I don't know how.
At least three people dropped on the spot, after receiving this assignment back. I tried to be moderate in my comments, but I had to tell them they had work to do, needed to take the class more seriously, etc.

Upcoming trip

This coming weekend, R and I are stealing some time to take a train trip up the coast to San Luis Obispo. We will hang around that town for a little bit, then drive down to San Simeon, where we'll be staying. I love the Hearst Castle, but R doesn't want to go there. Instead, we will rent a car and drive the backroads, hike by the beach at Cambria and Morro Bay, and ride back home by train Sunday. J. will watch the cats. I will tell my students I won't be available this weekend by email. They'll be writing their drafts, so they may need me, but they can wait till Monday. I am looking forward to it! I will try to remember to take Jeremy's camera and take some pictures.

Vegetarian Bliss

I like the idea of eating vegetarian, but generally, I find cooking solely vegetarian dishes much more labor intensive than eating mixed foods. This is because vegetarian dishes require subtle saucing and much chopping, while meat has inherent flavor and juices that vegetarian foods generally do not have, thus might not require as much effort from a chef.
I stopped eating beef years ago because of the cholesterol, but cheat with lamb, which has just as much cholesterol and more fat, because I like the smell and the flavor of meat. And we all eat tons of turkey and chicken, in every conceivable form--burritos, meatloaf, meatballs, curries, etc. And fish too.
But this evening we went to a Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant called Bo De Tinh Tam Chay, in Westminster. I saw a writeup in the LA Times food section about a month ago, and since then I have been trying to get Richard to go there to eat. We finally went, and it was worth the wait. It was a lovely place, with lots of dark wood and faux waterfalls, not your standard hole in the wall Asian joint. There were even metal chopsticks.
The review offered enthusiastic recommendations of several things, and we tried them, plus at least one other dish. We ordered the standard vermicelli with imperial roll (egg roll), which also had shredded tofu and something called "charbroiled citrus fry," an unidentified substance with the texture of meat. I don't know what that stuff was, but it was delicious. Once I topped it with red-hot chili sauce, shredded basil, bean sprouts, mint, and lettuce, I liked it better than the regular version with meat. We also ordered a spring roll filled with vermicelli, daikon, and shredded carrot, with a peanut dip. That was wonderful too! The third dish was a "sparerib" made with lemon grass. It was sort of funny looking, no bone, of course, but tasted fantastic. There are 100 0ther dishes to try (I'm not kidding), so we'll go back and try some different ones next time.
This restaurant takes the place of an old favorite we used to like that has long since closed down. We like this new one even better, though it is more expensive than the old one. Nicer place too... .