14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
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I travel south along Big
Sur, my heart in my mouth
as the highway lunges
over precipices and around
death-defying corners.
And now, the Redwoods
(Sequoioideae), the first
on this long, winding road.
Here, they are “only” 6-feet
in diameter, rising 250-feet,
arrow-straight into pockets
of creamy cerulean sky,
statue-ing (new verb), in
this case, in the front yard
of the Henry Miller Memo-
rial Library, a hippie pocket
of respite in an ostentatious
world of box stores, fast
food and homogeneous per-
sonality disorders, enabled
by constantly-in-your-face
cellphone dysfunction.
These trees, titans with
thick, shaggy bark like bear
hide, leave me flummoxed
as to who and what they
are. Are they sentient? Are
they wise? Do they project
fear, or hope, or dignity to
different creatures? Cer-
tainly they are persistent,
as are the Western cedars in
our lush Pacific Northwest.
The few, the proud — they
may live 1,500 years and
beyond, those lucky enough
to survive the onslaught of
FREE
DAVID CAMPICHE PHOTOS
Otters at Monterey Bay Aquarium
Weyerhaeuser or MacMil-
lan Bloedel and the chain-
saw clear-cut massacres, all
stained with human finger-
prints.
But let us not depart into
heartache. Let us, if only
for today, praise frond and
fern, surf and ocean, needle,
limb and soaring trunks of
heartwood.
Aspiring, inspiring, often
tongue-tied, we transcend
into the transcendental.
CONCERT!
Lighthouse Christian Church
presents
IN CONCERT
Come join us in a night of music to benefit the
Manna House Food Pantry
SATURDAY, MARCH 24 • 6PM
For more info: Roger Tele 208-659-1347 or email millriver1@ymail.com
Lighthouse Christian Church
A Lighthouse of Hope
88786 Dellmoor Loop • Warrenton, OR • 503.738.5182
www.LighthouseChristianChurchOregon.com
And, forfeiting my infernal
yakking, I might instead
indulge my eyes and wits,
set aside the pen and marvel
at the yin and yang of my
heart’s desire: the wilder-
ness of our ancestors.
INTERLUDE
Carmel-By-The-Sea
A sleepy, clean, tree-lad-
en, exclusive, expensive
town. Charming and very,
very pretty with ocean
views and fairy-soft air.
Attended an innkeepers’
meeting with old friends
with old inns and old sto-
ries. We ate and drank far
too much. The Cypress Inn
was charming, the hospi-
tality remarkable. This is
Doris Day’s hotel, hangout
and museum. Her movies
are shown in the bar. The
Innkeepers’ consensus was
that, throughout the city,
the quality of food was
overmatched by the tariff,
though I did fine at the
Cypress.
Best meal
A Japanese restaurant
called Ginger Café in Gilroy,
the garlic capital of America.
The best dumplings I ever
ate. One, shaped like a sting-
ray with a crab claw stinger,
radiated on my palate with
tender morsels of lobster
and salmon. Left me lilting
in near-ecstasy. And all this
in a strip mall. Be ready to
be surprised on the long,
winding road.
Jellyfish at Monterey Bay Aquarium
17-mile drive
Voila! For seven of the 17
miles, sea and sandy coves,
and sculpted rocks, and a
thousand blue, gray and
silver hues overwhelmed the
senses. (No, I did not play
golf at Pebble Beach.)
Monterey
What an aquarium. What
a lovely bay. The town
is pasted over with John
Steinbeck history. “Cannery
Row.” (Please read this nov-
el!) It all happened here.
Where there are sardines,
one finds Italians. This was
their town. Authentic. Few
tourists. I miss the small,
colorful fishing boats.
I fell in love with the
jellyfish floating listlessly
in saltwater tanks at the
aquarium. They remind-
ed me of Frank Herbert’s
fantastical novel “The Jesus
Incident,” in which jellyfish
float like gas-inflated bags as
their tendrils drape onto the
landscape of Pandora, held
in place by large boulders.
I preferred the Monterey
variety with dangling day-
Cyprus on the 17-mile loop close to Carmel-By-The-Sea
glow sticky fingers swaying
ballet-like in an aqua bath.
One couldn’t help notic-
ing the aquarium’s commit-
ment to an ecological model,
dedicated to the preservation
of Mother Earth and her
ocean creatures.
And on a wonderful after-
noon with dear friends, we
float like butterflies on the
CW
four Siouxan winds.