There is more to California than the coast and in a recent trip I was smitten by the Mojave Desert. Sparseness is a suitable adjective for the desert so I will be sparse with my words here. Who would have thought, though, that a landscape essentially made up of various brown hues could elicit such strong emotions?
I think it’s safe to say that Paris is the classiest city in the world. While the museums and galleries are well worth seeing, even more appealing to me is just walking the streets. I mean, modern Paris life takes place inside a magnificent museum. And then there’s the café culture. Museums are best left for the off season when things aren’t so crowded, I think, and in summer just walk and walk with regular rests in cafés of course.
I went downtown the other night and saw a new Granville Street that tried to imitate the old one and forget about the one in between. Until the early 1970s, Granville Street downtown was known as the entertainment district or theatre row and was famous for its neon lights. Then the city, in its wisdom, deemed neon lights tacky and had most of them removed. It also made Granville Street into a “pedestrian mall” — I believe the only pedestrian mall in the world where you could jet a jay walking ticket because buses and taxis still travelled the street. At the same time as all this, Gastown was gentrified and its residents displaced. Guess where they went. Well, Granville Street is returning to its former glory, and the city has grown up enough to realize that the people don’t just disappear when removed from their neighbourhoods. Bring in the old.
There is a small island in the Gulf Island chain of British Columbia that seems to be off the radar of, well, just about everyone. I’m hesitant to give its exact whereabouts but it is, after all, on the charts so I’m not giving away any secrets.
Tent Island is off the southwest corner of Kuper Island and has no apparent official status. It is just there, as all land once was. As far as I know, it is not a park so does not come with lists of rules nor with uniformed officials to enforce these rules. It does, however, have trails among magnificent arbutus forests that also include gargantuan Douglas firs and western red cedars.
There is a small bay, not particularly sheltered but suitable as an anchorage in settled weather. Of course, a kayak could be used to approach the island and there are a number of suitable campsites. Don’t tell anyone though.
I spent a couple of days in San Francisco recently and it is still one of my favourite cities. On a clear day, which it always seems to be when I’m there, the crisp light and unbelievably blue sky seem unique to this place and that’s what struck me when I emerged from the BART (subway) at Union Square. This sky and the classic architecture were at the top of the escalator. San Francisco’s streets are alive and it has the best counter-culture bookstore in the world – City Lights Books. The city’s nod to the importance of the arts in its history is evident in the renaming of some streets after writers who have at least a connection to San Francisco. I never tire of this city and I’ve still only touched the surface of it.
Verdant desert – does that seem like a contradiction of terms? Well that’s the best way I can think of to describe the mountainous terrain of Baja California. A mist makes its way across the peninsula from the Pacific and, while never turning to rain, leaves enough moisture to blanket the desert with a hint of green. Of course there are the remote beaches and idyllic offshore islands of the Sea of Cortez, and not too far away, the wild Pacific coast to complete the picture. Throughout Baja California there is a sense of remoteness and absence of habitation, interspersed with the occasional 300-year-old mission. It is a magical place with which you can easily become smitten.
