Of all the beautiful places we were hoping to see, the promise of the Pacific Ocean was the most exciting.
We were all half-mad from the anticipation of it. Allie kept threatening to walk straight in and disappear. Around every curve I could see it, the sky teasing me, affecting a mirage of endless saline blue.
It wasn’t until my second day in California that I finally saw it. I’d taken a day down to Malibu while Allie and Greer stayed on in Ventura, eventually making their way to Santa Barbara. Our first mission in California was to collect ourselves and reorganize, heal a little bit from the scorch of the desert.
Especially after surviving Las Vegas, the cool ocean air was delicious -so sweet I could taste it on my lips. The way California smells is incredibly intoxicating, salt and citrus and earth bottled up in ozone. We had to soak it up while it lasted – after Ventura we go inland to King’s Canyon, on the hunt for big trees and Patrick Rizzo, downhill skateboarder and National Park Service enthusiast.