I lived in San Diego for about 25 years, Hector even longer, so there’s a lot of connections there, both family and old friends. We have to be a bit careful when we return that we don’t get overwhelmed by all the folks we would love to see but just don’t have time for. Popularity is really a curse. We made this trip about seeing family and some of our oldest friends.
Because of covid we opted to not bring our filthy travel germs into anybody’s home, so we just rented a 2 bedroom apartment on VRBO. Located near Balboa Park, this place was new, spotless and very comfortable. Find it here. It was just under $200 per night, and a healthy walk to the Park, Hillcrest, and Little Italy. It had a laundry so we were immediately like college students washing all our travel rags. We stayed a whole week and it was really a pleasure to be some place longer than 2 or 3 nights after a month of being on the road.
October in San Diego is a great time, and there was a lot of outdoor restaurant socializing and awkward quasi-distancing in public areas. We met friends in Little Italy, and at Coasterra. I have to say that San Diego was only so-so with the mask business but it was easy to stay within our pods. Our friend Orrie let us store our car in his parking garage for a month as we made preparations to head to the next stop, Puerto Vallarta.
I have lived in California longer, in fits and spurts, than anywhere else in my life, and it still feels like the promised land to me. I remember the smells and the sense of newness from when I first arrived sometime in the late 1970’s. So there’s about 45 years of fun California memories in my luggage. And one of the very best is doing the drive along the Redwood Highway, along the coast, passing through some of the most iconic and unbelievable scenery in the world. There are many routes and diversions along the way, and going south to north is just as good as north to south.
We started on Highway 101 at the Oregon border and drove directly south to Trinidad for our first night. We had stayed at the Emerald Forest Cabins a few years ago and loved it, and it was just as lovable this time, if a bit more crowded. There are a lot of cabins but they are scattered among the redwoods so it feels more secluded than it really is. Very naturey. Foresty.
Emerald Forest
This was when the whole West Coast of the US was having terrible wild fires and the smoke was with us all the way from Colorado. Since we were now close to the shore, there were periods of clearer air but at times it was impossible even to see the ocean as we wove in and out of the forests. The highway narrows through the redwood groves and there are areas to stop and walk through the surreal clearings, no sunlight making it down to the floor.
We stayed a couple of nights in Mendocino, at the Agate Cove Inn [$375 per night] with a fantastic view of the Pacific Ocean. Ate twice at Trattoria Luna [Farfalle California $22], hiked at the Headlands State Park, then restocked the sadly depleted ice chest and headed out for Monterey.
Mendocino CA
Hector used to visit schools several times a year in the Monterey area, and it was always a treat to tag along. Monterey Bay is beautiful and very dramatic, and the Aquarium is the best I have seen in the world, and we have visited lots of aquariums. Driving along the unbelievable 17-mile drive toward Carmel is best done early in the day, particularly on a weekend, because Carmel gets very crowded and Mommy will be terribly cranky as Daddy circles around and around looking for parking for an hour.
After 3 nights in Monterey we came down the coast and stayed one night in Santa Barbara, then into Los Angeles for 2 nights. I lived in Los Angeles for many years when I was a starving young actor, and I have to drive past all my old haunts every. single. time. Griffith Park. Sunset Blvd. Farmer’s Market. Beverly Hills. Poor Hector. Restaurants were still only serving outdoors so we joined our LA-based travel buddies, Tere and Martin, for brunch at Lady Bird Cafe in Echo Park. I had the Chilled Oatmeal [$11]. Only joking. Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes [$13]. Side of Bacon [$4].
The Passport Posse at Lady Bird Cafe. Our latest album cover.
After leaving Wyoming we drove for what seemed like weeks to get to Seattle, a city we have always loved, but we found it in rather reduced circumstances. A combination of Covid lockdowns and recent BLM protests almost totally shut down the downtown and Pike’s Market area. Shop windows were boarded up and it felt a lot like an end of the world movie. Our hotel, the W Seattle, was as quiet as the Overlook Hotel.
On a happier note, we visited the lovely Japanese Garden, the Chihuly Gardens, and took the ferry to Bainbridge Island for brunch. Once we were away from the downtown Seattle area, things seemed much more normal, and Bainbridge was packed with tourists.
Seattle Japanese Garden
Moving on down to Oregon, which I’m sorry to say had only Portland to recommend it to me before now, we stayed one night in a little seaside village that looked charming on Google, but was actually full of tough looking out-of-work locals and roadside Trump memorabilia booths. I shall refrain from naming this shithole to spare them the shame. Face Mask Quotient: 3 out of 10.
I grew up with all these baby boomer images of the National Parks: Yogi Bear cartoons, Disney animal documentaries. But nothing could really prepare me for the actual scale and grandeur of these views. So that’s what all the talk is about! Even with the Covid restrictions- no tourist centers open, no restaurants, no historic lodges-it was still just a thrill, on par with visiting the Giza Pyramids or the Great Wall of China.
Jenny Lake, Grand Teton
Jenny Lake, in Grand Teton National Park is a breathtaking visit. We took the shuttle ferry across the lake [$18 round trip, $10 one way. Runs every 15 minutes or so, depending on season.] to catch the trail up to Hidden Falls, which is no exaggeration. There is a good climb but worth it when you reach the Falls itself. Then from there, continue climbing or come back down and follow the edge of the lake back around to the boat dock.
At Yellowstone, we drove directly to Old Faithful and walked the Geyser Trail, but the famous Old Faithful Inn was locked up tight, so no roaring fireplace and $10 hot chocolate for us. I’ve seen photos of this place in the middle of summertime tourist season and you may as well be in Times Square on New Years Eve. Today? Cool, tranquil, lots of laid back staff who must certainly be smoking pot most of the time.
Old Faithful Geyser
A few nature sightings: bear cubs in a tree, a few bison on the Geyser Trail (I suspect they were actors) and a huge moose lounging in the shade, with an attitude like a sacred cow in Delhi.
Shit, that was a long drive! Driving west on I-80 in Wyoming was nearly as dull as driving through West Texas. But as we got closer to Jackson things started to liven up and the mountains came into glorious view. We got to Jackson late afternoon and found our hotel, The Rustic Inn, a sprawling property that sits on the banks above Flat Creek. It felt like an upscale mining camp [which costs $325 per night] and was packed with road travelers like us. We have been traveling with an ice chest full of food that we replenish along the way so we set up our home base for the week in our cozy cabin-like room.
Jackson itself was nice enough, in a Santa Fe way. It’s 100% tourist-oriented, with a pretty central plaza surrounded by bars and restaurants and little expensive shops selling pointless nonsense. We met friends Joe & Andy one night downtown, they were heading out of town as we came in, but after that we didn’t do much there. There were SO many crowds of people everywhere and the Mask Quotient was hovering around 6 out of 10. As expected, we saw quite a few MAGA hats.
Downtown Jackson Wyoming
Spent a day walking around town in beautiful weather. Way more road travelers than I expected, from everywhere. The ski trails were not opened yet of course but still plenty of options for the outdoorsy. It’s a very sporty place. Restaurants were busy and expensive. We glanced in the windows of a few real estate offices, as we usually do when traveling, followed by a slap of disbelief at the prices. Can that be right? People pay that to live here?
Things change quickly in the New World: Covid happened. Sold house and contents in Santa Fe. Packed what was left into a 5′ X 10′ storage space. Retired. Hit the road.
It’s not quite as rash as it sounds–all these things have been scuttling around in our attic for a while. Covid just sped things up.
Our Honda packed for multiple climates, we sped north out of Santa Fe on Sept 16, 2020 for the first leg of our hegira up to … Taos. The Journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, to quote my betters.
We’ve stayed many times, through various ownerships, at El Monte Sagrado (around $200 for a Taos Mountain room.) It’s the Taos experience perfect for a Santa Fean. Nearby, beautiful surroundings, a nice bar and restaurant, spa. We can vouch for 2 good restaurants in Taos: Love Apple and Medley. We ate at both.
El Monte Sagrado
OK gotta keep moving. Next we spent the night in Denver, at the Jacquard, in Cherry Creek. It’s a Marriott ($175 per night) and it was the first of our city hotels during Covid, so we were very curious about what to expect. All was eerily quiet in this upscale neighborhood, many restaurants closed. Keeping eyeballs peeled to see who is wearing masks along this trip. Mask Quotient in Denver: 6.5 out of 10.
I won’t even bother with any silly remarks about how quickly things can change. Just 4 months ago I was blithely wandering the beaches and museums of Malaga, Spain and now find myself slowly emerging from a worldwide lockdown that seems too fantastic to have even considered back then. We live in a fairly unpopulated city in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with lots of open space for hiking and roaming, so things have not personally been that dramatic for us. The whole point of Santa Fe is to exist in some form of isolation, at least part of the year. But after a few months of no travel my feet get itchy and I am ready to get on the move again.
Absolutely no one is able to predict with any certainty what the world will look like by the time this all calms down, but it is clear that it will look very different from 4 months ago. Being largely focused on international travel, my own thoughts are about how tourism has been one of the major engines of the world economy for the past decades, and observing with horror how that has now come to a very bumpy halt, at least for the foreseeable future.
Every day I read articles about the immediate future of travel but for every prediction there is a corresponding theory that says just the opposite. Is everyone eager to get out of lockdown and back on the road, or will travel become so threatening to your health that only a few brave souls will be willing to risk it? Are there going to be lots of cheap, empty flights or will airline travel become even more stressful and infuriating? Is such a thing even possible?
Combining my own instincts and observations with those of people smarter and louder than me, here are a few take-aways:
Air travel: Fewer choices, longer waits, uglier temper tantrums. Although airlines may offer some short term cheaper enticements to get people back in the air, airline companies are unashamedly greedy, so expect fees, delays, obfuscations and unscrupulous practices to continue. Frontier Airlines recently backtracked on a plan to charge passengers a fee for choosing the presumably less virulent option of sitting next to an empty middle seat. Additionally, major airlines have been itching for an excuse to cut expensive in-flight service even further, so now they have one. You can pack your homemade healthier, tastier, cheaper meal in your carry-on. Assuming carry-on still exists in the New World.
Cruise lines: LOLZ! Cruises were already notoriously the best venues for a range of gastrointestinal viruses, and now the thought of lining up with four thousand strangers for a buffet breakfast has never sounded less appealing. I have never been a cruise ship kind of traveler and that looks to remain my personal status quo. Cruise companies have a lot of work to do to change their well-deserved unsanitary image. Expect fewer options for cruising for a while, with many ads showing jubilant crew members wearing smiley masks and rubber gloves. No really, we’re clean now!
Hotels: The previous two years were the best years for hotel occupancy in the past 4 decades, even with stiff competition from home stays. Look for discounted rates or specials across the entire range of hotel experiences, at least for a while. [We are currently taking advantage of a 50% discount on Marriott points required to stay at a Ritz Carlton in Arizona.] This is a good opportunity for hotels to sell themselves as a cleaner alternative to the crap shoot of home stays like Airbnb or VRBO. Industry experts predict it will take a couple of years for occupancy to return to pre-Covid numbers, so this summer might be a good time to explore that seaside resort you’ve been fantasizing about as you stand in line waiting to get into Trader Joe’s.
European travel: There is a special spot in my heart for places like Spain that have responsibly invested billions of euros in tourism infrastructure after decades of economic suffering, that now find themselves with the impossible choice between economic catastrophe and responsible policy. Fortunately, most EU countries are generally socially responsible enough that the citizenry has greater confidence in the central government to make well-informed decisions (as opposed to strictly economic ones, ahem). As Europe reopens for tourism, it will first focus on domestic travelers, with green zones between borders, before they rely on international travelers. Spain will allow international travelers by July but people everywhere will be reluctant to go far from home for a while. One of the decisions for New World travelers: where do I want to be potentially quarantined?
[added June 21, 2021- Spain, and the EU, has just now re-opened to any kind of international travel.]
USA Travel: Now is the perfect time to explore the home turf. Road trips, cheaper short haul flights and discounted hotels combined with a sense of security will mean that there will be plenty of domestic travel for the foreseeable future. In fact, countries all over the world are already encouraging domestic travel as a healthy, responsible and patriotic alternative to international travel. A recent poll conducted by the Matador Network found that almost half of those who travel will choose to remain within their borders for the near future, with 40% of those planning to travel by car. Been meaning to visit some National Parks? Disneyworld? Santa Fe? Check the air in your tires, fill the ice chest and get going.
Recently, Malaga has begun to refer to itself as the City of Museums. This is the kind of boosterism most cities indulge in (San Diego: America’s Finest City, Santa Fe: The City Different) but in Malaga it is true enough. I don’t know the number of museums a city of 600,000 is supposed to have but Malaga currently claims to have 37. Some are better than others, naturally, but almost all are very viewer friendly. Not just in scale; they are usually well-located, affordable, and interesting, if not downright eccentric. Aside from the Picasso Museum, which often has a line out the door, or the Centre Pompidou Malaga which has big name appeal and a great location, they are, in the words of Little Red Riding Hood, just right.
Museum of Malaga at Palacio de la Aduana
Don’t get me wrong, I love the grand scale of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC or the Prado in Madrid, but what a luxury to wander into a museum because you happen to be passing by, or revisit your favorite rooms and leave without feeling you’ve not had your money’s worth.
If you would like to read about some of our favorites…
Tonight the annual Goya Awards are being held right here in Malaga! That’s the Spanish version of the Academy Awards and it’s a big fucking deal since the Spanish are very serious film makers and film lovers.
Penelope y Antonio
I was just sitting in the bar of the AC Palacio hotel, one of my reading/ writing/ wine-drinking hangouts, when the lobby began to fill with hordes of people. These were definitely not tourists, certainly not Malagueños, because they had that dark, sleek look of Madrid. There was lots of kissing and th-th-th-th Spanish, but also the unmistakable, semi-frantic room-scanning which can mean only one thing: show business people. Everyone was looking to see if there’s anyone famous in the room. There was not.
Tonight’s Honorary Goya recipient is Pepa Flores, known as Marisol, a Malaga-born actress and singer who became a sensation in the 1960’s and 70’s, a Brigitte Bardot/ Patty Duke/ Hayley Mills kind of thing. She retired from films in the 1980’s and lives something of a quiet life here in Malaga. Apparently my invitation to the awards was lost in the mail.
This morning I awoke early, still dark at 730 am, to the wonderful sound of rain on the patio outside. But then I thought, wait, I have my earplugs in. So I removed them and that sweet tinkle became the sound of shrapnel hitting the tile floor outside. Gloria had arrived.
For those who care about these things, Winter Storm Gloria began over North Africa, and eventually merged with a cold front from Scandinavia, bringing high winds and rain to the Eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain and into France. Edges of the storm carried Saharan sand as far as the French Riviera.
So back to me: I turned on the patio light to see that we were being pelted with Garbanzo sized hail stones and it didn’t let up like it does in Santa Fe after a couple of minutes. It started piling up into drifts. Later, out on the plazas, areas were piled 6 inches deep with hail and trees were denuded of oranges. Things are calmer now, but rain is predicted for the next few days, which I enjoy, being someone who lives in a perpetual drought zone in New Mexico. Malagueños don’t seem so enchanted. This kind of weather is very unusual. Plenty of funny memes have appeared on local social media.
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