XC 1X2

Maegan and I chatted some more in the morning before I had to be off again. After a brief stop at Arizmendi (a fantastic bakery) for sourdough I made it to my friend Becca’s apartment. Becca and her sister Julia have known my sister and I for so long that we may as well be family at this point. Since Julia, who is ordinarily in LA, was up in SF visiting her sister it was only natural that we convene with my sister, a Bay local, for brunch.  Five for a fantastic feast Becca and her boyfriend Alban cooked a fantastic breakfast for the five of us. After talking for a few hours, we hit the grocery store in preparation for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Hardly Strictly is a free bluegrass festival that takes place annually in SF’s Golden Gate Park. It is massive. Most of the park is shut down for the six stages that run. The entry line was a quarter mile long sea of people. Luckily since they weren’t checking tickets (and weren’t really checking bags either) we got in quickly enough. By thi...

As long as I can remember, I’ve always had a terrible time sleeping before a big adventure. Today was an exception. After an evening of packing up my things from my parents’ house, I slept like a dead rock and woke up in the morning refreshed. After a morning of final preparations and finishing touches, I was off. Now Boarding What a send off I got. There’s something so depressing about saying goodbye at an airport. You’re stuck dumping your loved one off at a curb and hogging them goodbye before they start their long and unpredictable adventure… through security. This is much better. My parents and I walked around The Funk Zone, Santa Barbara’s hippest place to be. Like so many cities with fleeting industry, warehouses have become vintage shops and breweries. Just our luck that all these things are planted right by the train station. We made it back just in time to hear the whistle blow and my train pull in. As much as Amtrak can resemble a rolling fossil at times, there’s still somet...