the fall 2011 road trip is coming to an end. we flew into LAX and for 12 nights drove up the dramatic coast of California, saw big sur, stayed in SFO and hung out in LA. it was a whirlwind tour, made that way by taking a 2 year old on the road with ya. it is just too much change and movement for someone that small, at least it was too much for pema. by day 5 she kept saying she wanted to go home and didn’t want to go back to the hotel. so, i commented to some folks in San Fran, that we are on a 2 year old schedule and that the brilliant moments, like a sunset in Los Angeles, for example, are always 1 second away from a total catastrophic melt down. i think we are all ready to return back home to DC and be in our casa, our bed, around our home-cooked food, our town.
so, it is 5:30 in the morning here in our LA hotel, violeta is asleep in one bed, paloma asleep on the other, pema is face-down fast asleep on the floor and i am huddled over the computer, in the pitch black, listening to a crazy slovenian philosopher talk about wall street and the end of times, thinking about when i am going to get dressed and drive over to intelligentsia venice beach for my final coffee, trying to sum up my last 12 nights of existence on the california coast. it was sweet, it was brutal, it was crazy, it was nerve racking, it was RITUAL, it was BLUE BOTTLE, it was FOUR BARREL, it was INTELLI, it was borderline, cruise control, dramatic, cliffs, TARTINE, rolling hills, mill valley, tense, flowing, HUMPHRY SLOCOMBE, cheap hotels, good food, MOZZA, missed opportunities, defining, inspiring, exhausting, enthralling, un-plugging, learning.
and now it is time for us to go home and we are ready, it makes me feel old to say that, although i don’t feel old, it still sounds it. so lame, such ashame, it all has to come to an end.