Best Latte of my Life

People... I have news for you. The best latte in the USA can be found at Toby's Coffee Bar in Point Reyes. I don't know what their secret is... if it is in the beans themselves or the technique or what but DAMMIT they make a fabulous latte. It could be that they use freshly roasted organic beans or that the milk is from a local organic farm or that they are magical elves from the land of eternal happiness. I could not wait to drive in to town this morning to get one. And if you ever find yourself in Point Reyes and want to get get one for yourself let me say this. You will wait in line. For a long time. There will come a moment (or several individual moments) when you will think to yourself "I can't wait in this line any longer. Why is this line taking so long?" And you will think about walking away. BUT DON'T!!! Stay and wait for your best latte ever. Stay and wait and watch the weird little woman dressed in an expensive but ugly, artsy, hand dyed, shaggy fiber jacket in line in front of you grouchily order an impossibly annoying item from the barista and wonder how you turn into a person like that...a person who stands there coughing and hacking without covering their mouth and then does not leave the barista a tip??? This is why the line takes a long time. Because there are lots of " I want a sugar free soy chai latte with the tiniest amount of foam and hand grated cinnamon and nutmeg, and while you are at it can you get me a half decaf, half regular americano?" type orders. Oh well. These are the moments when I thrill in being the next person in line who says "I'll take a large latte." Clean and simple. Have I talked (bitched) enough about this particular subject yet? Yes. Let's move on.

Yesterday we did our long walk on the Bolinas Ridge Trail which turned out to be not as long as we wanted it to be. We got a late start. By late I mean like one o'clock. So we only did a 6 mile round trip walk. I wanted to do something more like ten miles. It will have to wait for the next time we are here. We have had a few gorgeous days in a row hitting the mid 60's with full sun so it was a perfect day to be out walking. Here's a few pics from the trail... this whole portion of the BRT is through ranch land.





When we got back from the walk we went into town and ate at the Reyes Cafe which was really good food. We had a salad with the locally made Point Reyes Blue cheese and wood fired pizza that was awesome. We left stuffed. But not too stuffed to stop off at the grocery and grab some Three Twins Organic Madagascar Vanilla Ice Cream to go with the homemade apple crisp we had waiting back in the trailer. We walked 6 miles right? What the Hell.




I am so in love with this tiny little town. I think I have mentioned that like 64 times. I grabbed a few random shots so you can get the feel of it.... the first shot is actually here at the campground, a cool old truck parked next to our site.





I also have to rave about the Bovine Bakery which is another place you have to try if ever in Point Reyes. I borrowed this image from Hanson Q's reviews page on yelp.com...



Armed with my perfect latte and a pain d'amande from the Bovine I was in foodie heaven.

We are leaving tomorrow morning. I am so looking forward to the next time we can make it out here.

News from the Silver Tube Dwellers

Sometimes I lay awake at night considering the fact that Billy, Rudy and I live inside of a smallish aluminum tube on wheels. This tube has a fridge, microwave, gas stovetop and oven, shower, sink, toilet etc. And then there is the fact that we have lots of stuff in here with us. Random stuff. We have a sock monkey, loads of yarn (for crocheting), books, magazines, a coffee maker, various other kitchen gadgetry, everything Billy needs to create oil paintings, dog toys, I have about 42 pairs of shoes, tons of clothing, etc., etc., etc. It's incredible. This tube is jammed full. And then we live in here too. We drag this thing all over the country. Again... amazing. It is weird how a space like this can become so comfortable. I mean obviously we have become intimately aquainted with every nook and cranny in here. But the weirdest thing which is hard to convey is that this space has become a sanctuary that is mobile. Even if it is parked in a noisy parking lot where we have pulled off the highway to rest and grab a bite to eat it is protection and sanctuary from the bizarro world outside. Thin aluminum walls is all it takes. Billy has suggested that the next step would be to see if we could find comfort and sanctuary living in a cardboard box. I am only game for that if the box is in Tahiti andcomes equippedwith a servant that brings me exotic food, umbrella drinks and reads me to sleep at night while birds of paradise fan me with their tail feathers. Until such a thing can be arranged I will stick with tube livin'.

I thought I would take a portrait today of what we are currently looking like to the world at large. Us with our tube on wheels. I find that we look oddly threatening. Like tiny circus clowns in a hyper realistic nightmare. Well, Billy does not look like a clown... but I most certainly do. I come by it naturally.



We decided to stay home today and rest. I have not been feeling my best for the past few days so it seemed a good idea. I have spent the day reading, working with photos and wasting enormous amounts of time creating my own radio stations on Pandora.

Here are a few more pics from the past few days out here at Point Reyes. We went for a drive yesterday as far north as the town of Tomales and walked the beach there. It was freezing cold and windy but beautiful. We also walked the beach out on Point Reyes and caught a sunset from up on one of the hilltops as we were on our way out of the park.



Rudy and I had a very serious discussion about life and death on the beach when we discovered the skeletal remains of a coyote. He cried a little in disbelief and I assured it him would eventually happen to us all. He said... "Fuck that." Rudy still has a lot of growing up to do.



He then immediately went back to chasing tennis balls and having vast amounts of fun.



Billy observed that my head is many times larger and more powerful than the moon. And so are my sunglasses and teeth.



And finally a couple of views of sunset from the ridge line...




We discovered an area of massive amounts of rolling hills and ranch land covered with thousands of sheep and lambs. It was like cuteoverload come to life before my very eyes. The lambs were doing what lambs do best which is to run, jump and cry in their bleaty little voices. They are the goofiest, sweetest little creatures I can imagine. Besides kittens. Anyway... here are some lambs. These pics were taken just past sundown so they are a bit dark...




If I had my tripod I could have taken a few more but it was getting too dark. And lambs have a very strict bedtime. I did not want to get anyone in trouble.

I am already in a panic that we are leaving this area on Sunday. I wish we could stay for a month or so. I really love this place.

Checking In

Hiya! Listen... I am too tired to write a full on post right now... but I just wanted to pop in a let y'all know that we are at Point Reyes National Seashore for the week. We have been going non stop for three days having been on a few mega hikes and today we drove down into the city (San Francisco.) I am one tuckered out kid.

I will post tomorrow with photos and stories of what we have seen and done. To whom it may concern we are totally out of cell phone range for the week. The campground has wifi so we can be reached via email and that is it until Monday. Don't worry about us being trapped in the wilderness without proper supplies... we have giant boxes of French pastry to get us through the week.