The Redwood Highway

World Famous Paul Bunyan
World Famous Tour-Thru Tree
World Famous One Log house

We're on a big road trip now- just like when you were a kid. We actually saw all these world famous things in ONE DAY! We flew up to Medford Oregon (airport like a bus station) on Dec 22 (holiday crowds, lost luggage, squealing babies), picked up our rental car and immediately headed for California Highway 101, the Redwood Highway! We spent the first 2 nights in Trinidad, CA and I fell in love. It's a wonderful, picturesque, authentic fishing village. It's the first time I ever experienced massive redwood forests that come up to very edge of the sea. We stayed in a cabin among the trees, it drizzled the entire time and it was just perfect. We hiked for 2 days among the redwood forests, had dinner at the Seacoast Cafe right off the fishing pier, where the crabs were being hauled in right then. At night we were back in our little cabin by 7pm. Almost no other tourists around and trust me, they like it that way.

Next we drove up to Mendocino along Highway 1, hugging the coastline for hours. Mendocino is another charming little village in an unbelievably picturesque location but this one is all about the tourists. In summer it must be utter hell. But now, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it was quiet and friendly. Almost everything was closed, except for the B&B's. They were all full of people from San Francisco. And us. The Mendocino Headlands separate the town from the sea with dramatic cliffs and trails with incredible views. We stayed at the Sea Rock Inn, on the edge of town, overlooking the rocky coast. Lots of walking, chatting with other gay couples.

Now, Wednesday, we came down toward the wine country and I can see we're leaving paradise behind. Lots of traffic and strip malls and cranky people. We just checked into the Kenwood Inn and Spa and I'm guessing we won't be leaving here the rest of the day. It's pretty spectacular. We're killing a bottle of wine in front of the fireplace right now.

Whale Watching

Today I cancelled all my vital appointments and we took Diane whale watching from San Diego Bay. Neither Hector nor I had ever done this. Huge boat, but only 10 guests. It was quite cold out on the high seas and Di and I got a bit queasy. Saw no whales-- just lots of dolphins and sea lions. There were more guides than guests on board and by the end we were hiding from them so they'd leave us the hell alone.

Now I've taken her to the airport to go home and we have a dinner party to go to. I'm just tired from all this hosting and partying. I'm really looking forward to leaving on our driving trip on Saturday.

Hector's International boss called him last night at home. Ostensibly to personally let him know about upcoming changes but clearly she was fishing for info about his interest in working overseas full time. Actually, she is leaving the new company in 6 months and wants to start a consulting biz in the Arab Emirates. I think she was fishing about his interest in doing that. But I'm not sure that's his cup of tea, although it would certainly be mine.

Welcome to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers

Hector got his official welcome in the mail, so apparently he has a job. It was nothing but a form letter, full of legal mumbo jumbo. Today there was a company-wide conference call announcing new executive positions, everybody congratulating each other. But the good news for us is that the new president wants to do an international expansion to spread the business worldwide. (This is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Inc-- not George Bush) Like the sound of that. Maybe we'll be going somewhere after all.

UCSD Library

And now I'm a college student, yet again. I enrolled at Univ of Cal at San Diego Ext. for their TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) Certificate Program. I begin Jan 15 and it should take about 6 months. So if we really do get to move out of the country I should be able to teach English. The first thing I'll teach them is to say nuclear instead of nucular.

Wait A Minute Mr Postman

Al and Marc from London paid us a surprise visit. Since Al lived here 7 years ago before he became a Eurogay, he wanted to show S California to Marc, a Eurogay from birth. We dragged them to several Xmas parties and they continued their pub crawls into the night. The verdict is that bar life in San Diego isn't what it once was. Listening to them talking about London, their plans to move to Spain etc really, really puts a fire under us. I wanna go. go. go.

We're having cold and rain. Most unusual. More parties the next 2 weeks to contend with, then we get the hell out at last.

Hector finds out this week, via mail, whether he has a job with the new owner of the company, who is a direct competitor. I'm watching for the mailman even as I write this.

Full-on Christmas. The tree is up and the carols are wailing. At least I have a litle insulation since Hector does virtually all the gift shopping and wrapping. The malls are already hell.

Our neighborhood is all torn up with termite repairs. The association is going house to house replacing rotten wood. We're last on the list. The young couple who was renting next door have moved and we've been fearful of another house full of college kids moving in but the owner, Ernie, tells me he's going to rent to "two women" who have an 8 year old daughter. Sounds like Heather has two mommies.

Hector and I are still discussing our desire to relocate. We have to wait to hear how it all turns out with the sale of his company. No one is going to know anything about their jobs until right before Christmas so speculation is rampant. Every day Hector hears another wacky story from a co-worker. I don't really care where we go I'm just ready to do something different. The fantasy, of course, is to move to a different country but I'd gladly move to another city (within certain parameters) in the US. Here's my wish list in order of preference:
Europe or "over there" somewhere.
Central America
New York City
Chicago
Santa Fe
South America