California trip June 2009

So, Paul and I flew into Oakland about 1pm, got a car and drive straight to 1984 Printing where over 3,000 copies of Stolen Sharpie Revolution have been stored but the lovely Amy. We chatted for a bit and then Paul and i set out to place ISBN stickers on 2,000 books. It took us a little over 3 hours. Then we carted them across the hall to AK Press, who will be distributing a lot of them for me.

Paul placed stickers on the books and I set them out, counted them up and put them in boxes.

After we got them all stickered and 2,000 carted off to AK Paul put the 2,000+ a sizable remainder in the car where he was solicited by a prostitute as he was loading a car full of books. He laughed a little which the woman said

“what, you think that is funny?”

Paul said “No, I just wasn’t expecting that.”

SHe said “Oh, ok.” and continued down the block. I think that was the best answer he could have given.

From there we headed down to Freemont to my friend Jess’s parents’ house and picked up her sewing machine, a record player and some drum sticks because Paul is teaching her to play drums. The we headed North in search of the Russian River Brewing. We got lost and ended up just getting a hotel room.

In the morning we walked around Santa Rosa and got some coffee and waited for Russian River to open where we had lunch and attempted to have our Stone growler filled up. We found out that in California you can only have growlers filled by the brewery that they growler came from. This sort of ruined our whole plan. The guy gave us a Russian River growler for free though and we headed on our way.

Next was a series of super curvey roads that lead up to the Anderston Valley brewery. I sampled a beer and we bought a bunch to bring home. Then we walked around their property through a disc gold corse, a small hop field and talked to the horses next door. More curvey roads and we hit the coast, stopped at the Lost coast brewery and bought some more beer to take with us.

We made it to Arcata and had dinner at a place with lots of different humbolt beers on tap, too bad I was driving. The we headed north in search of a place to camp or a motel. We found a motel/cabin place that was super cheap and awesome. I swear nothing in it has been changed since 1963:

We parked the car next to a tree stump of a redwood that was the size of the car!

I think this little cabin was Paul’s favorite. It even had a kitchen. In the morning we had coffee and fruit and hummus and bread and made our way up to coast to the Redwoods… which were so amazing. I mean reallly, who would think that giant tress could be so cool?

These trees can live to be over 2,000 years old and when they fall over other trees just grow out of them.

Paul standing in the crack.

Froom inside a tree looking up.

I took a photos of Paul by surprise. These two trees are huge!

I guess if they cross the path they will cut them up. I wonder how old this one was?

My battery ran out on my good camera so I had to take a lot of these with my sucky camera phone. Oh well. We worked our way through the Redwoods and up into Oregon to Crater lake. I wish I had my camera for it. Crater Lake isn’t really a crater, it is a collaped volcano. In the center there is Wizard Island that is the remnant of the volcano cone. I really really wanted to go to Wizard Island.

Our Crater Lake trip was thwarted from the beginning with no good camera, the boat trips to Wizard Island wouldn’t start until July and the second we stepped out of the car we were each swarmed by a dozen mosquitoes. Apparently since the snow is still melting the mosquitoes are growing out of the puddles left by the snow. It was obnoxious to be swatting at them while we were trying to enjoy this view.

It was beautiful but something about the circumstance makes me think that Tahoe might be more beautiful.

Paul and I on the rim.

We quickly decided that we were not going to camp there under the reign of the even mosquitoes because it would just be miserable. We drove up to the Lodge and walked around where a nice lady sprayed us with some Off that helped a bit but we decided to drive to Bend anyway.

We got to the Deschutes brewery on Bond Street that we had heard about for years. I then recalled that in 1998 on my 21st birthday trip to Portland with Paul I had suggested that someday we go to Bend to check out the Deschutes Brewery. There we were 11 years later sitting at the bar, having a beer and eating yummy food! We met a guy sitting next to us working in Bend but has a cabin across the river and down the road from my parents’ place in Yacolt! Small world! We got a cheap motel and had a nice night together with our Oregon beer filled growler.

In the morning we checked out the Victorian Cafe that the guy at the bar had suggested. The food was really good with huge portions. Then we walked around a park and went record shopping. Paul found the 12″ single of Material issue-Valerie Loves me for $1! I found a Contender CD in the $3 stack with me listed in the thank you notes. I had to get it!

The we walked to the Silver Moon Brewery that smelled disgustingly like bacon when we walked in. We had bad service and the beers were just alright. I did get the urge to start writing so I wrote about 3 pages while I was there. Then we walked to the Bend Brewery. Paul Pointed out that the beers reminded him of Eddie McStiffs out of central Utah. We wondered if the water had anything to do about it. Bend Brewing had great beer and nice staff. Paul and I starting writing a few songs for our band we are working on.

On the drive home paul kept getting texts about Michael Jackson being dead but neither of us really cared. I got home and crashed out with jackie the cat who was happy to see me. I guess the rest of the housemates stayed up watching MJ stuff on You Tube and making Mint Julips with fresh mint from the yard.

Now I’m home and have a bunch of buttons to make by tomorrow. My friend James is in town for a Job interview, which I am super stoked about because he really needs to get out of Utah. Anyway, I’m off to work some more!

Advertisement