We wonder whether we’ve gone ‘feral’ since being on the road for two and a half months. We revel in brushing our teeth outside at night with the moon shining and owls hooting. We appreciate the night sky as we walk to the cold restroom under the Orion constellation. We absolutely need wild natural places for our well-being.
We are camped at Malibu Creek State Park, which gets high grades for its ‘Yosemite of Southern California’ landscape and low grades for its restrooms which suffer from over use. Example: someone stole the shower head from one of the shower rooms. I showered with cold water yesterday since the aging hot water system gave out. Bathrooms are clean. Mirrors were removed due to prior vandalism.
We are camped just miles from where we lived at Seminole Springs Mobilehome Park on Mulholland Hwy for 19 years prior to moving to Langley. Site 49 is near the restrooms and we are shaded by a venerable California Live Oak. Note: the campsite is short and uneven, requiring a stack of 6 blocks under Marion’s tire 3 tiers high. Red tailed hawk calls out from the trees. A tree frog nearby croaks, a sound like ratchets turning. We have resident Tufted titmouse, juncos, doves, crows, ravens, and ambitious ground squirrels. The temperatures drop to the 30s at night and climb 40 degrees during the day in this Mediterranean climate. We are grateful for Marion’s propane furnace.
We left southern Orange County Sunday morning after a week staying with our son Raymond, his partner Gino and their two dog sons Rogelio and Chicharrón. We appreciate their hosting us in their Foothill Ranch home.
Nov. 28 we picnicked with Bill’s brother Larry and his wife Candyce and their poodles at O’Neill Regional Park. We caught up on their lives. After our visit, as the afternoon chilled, we hooked up Marion, where she was parked for the week in site #13, and parked her near Raymo and Gino’s. Their HOA regulations limit RV parking to 3 days.
Saturday morning we joined a friend from my NBC days in the 1970s, Ron Yamaoka, now retired and living in Laguna Woods. This is the second time we’ve visited with Ron and we think he looks great at 82.
However the Jack in the Box where we met was located in Laguna Beach on busy Hwy 1. We heard a third of Ron’s words due to the loud motorcycles cruising Pacific Coast Highway. With this being Thanksgiving weekend, the creative beach town was inundated with visitors. Bill and I felt overwhelmed and crabby in the face of too many faces and so much noise. We took a drive to San Juan Capistrano and parked behind its old town park and butterfly garden. Taking a break for coffee and ice cream at Cafe Reàl at the Mission we quieted our overstimulated system and took a break to people watch.
Taking a walk to the nearby Mission Basilica at San Juan Capistrano, we slipped inside and sat admiring the artwork of the 44-foot Grand Retablo, installed in 2007. One could question the opulence of 24-carat gold leaf covering the surface of the $2 million altarpiece crafted in Spain. However the project was financed by generous donors as an homage to the Holy Trinity, the city’s famous swallows, and saints, including Native American Kateri Tekawitha. Though it’s gilded, the art is inspiring.
While I’ve been asked why Catholics pray to statues, this entry from Rector Emeritus may help explain the Catholic practice of featuring holy sculptures: “Holy images are both didactic (teaching) and anagogical (mystical or spiritual interpretation); that is, they teach correct doctrine to the faithful and they also indicate the heavenly Jerusalem, where saints and angels gather around the altar to worship the Lamb of God.”
Refreshed and renewed from our visit to San Juan Capistrano, we arrived back at Raymo and Gino’s. They treated us to takeout dinner from Inka Grill Peruvian Cuisine. It’s one of Gino’s favorite eateries with its homemade-style meals inspired by South American cuisine. Gino is originally from Ecuador and finds Inka’s food a reminder of home. We both ordered the paella, which is comfort food.
The following morning we said our goodbyes, and left at 7:30 AM for Malibu Creek State Park. Since camping here during this quiet week, we’ve walked at Pt. Dume Preserve, along the little visited Boney Ridge trail in the Santa Monica Mountains and enjoyed the natural landscape at Malibu Creek State Park.
With the recent rains the meadows are green and the creek is flowing. Our friends Alan and Jessie Kane stopped by with their family at camp Monday night to visit over the campfire. We’ve known Alan since before he was born. Now he’s a kind man with a family. He mentioned the appearance that night of a rocket launch of a Starlink satellite. Later that evening Bill called me outside to look at the spectacle: a red light with an arc of glowing light around it, traveling across the sky. If Alan hadn’t mentioned the launch–which he learned of via an app on his phone–we might have imagined we were seeing a UFO. AI tells me there at least 11,000 satellites now circling Earth.
A light breeze is ruffling my hair, signaling time to end this tale. I’m sitting in a beach chair tethered to the internet and an electric plug at the park’s amphitheater nearby our campsite. There are no electric hookups at the campsites. We are going to visit the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area headquarters nearby on Mulholland Hwy. It was the original estate of razor baron King Gillette in the early 1920s, and is now part of the National Park system.
Bill and I once went to church there during the 1970s when it was a Claretian seminary and my parents wanted us to continue going to Mass. It was taken over for a while by Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s group, followed by the Buddhist sect Soka University, before the property was declared by eminent domain to become home to the National Park headquarters it is today. Sadly, one of the venerable oaks in the center’s meadow crashed last July, killing a summer camp child. Now the picnic tables are moved to the patio of the park’s visitor center. Wild parrots fly overhead squawking before landing in the oak and sycamore.
So, during this Advent season, please take time to feel the breeze, hear bird song, smell the autumn leaves and walk through the woods. We’ll be home in two weeks. Grateful for your comments.