The past two days, Sasha and I went on an amazing mission for bay area hiking. We fueled our bodies with avocado and spinach sandwiches, then headed south to Martin's Beach. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. There are some scary 'keep out' and 'Bush-Chaney' signs on the highway turn-off but we braved the republican threats and drove down to one of the most incredible and carefully hidden California coastal spots. We visited Sasha's friend Ana who just came home after a year working for a Brazilian dance troope.

We mosied south to Santa Cruz and crashed Natural Bridges park with our guitar and hollared folk tunes to the waves, the sky, the cold winter breezes and a dead sea lion. Some of our favorite songs are Angel from Montgomery, Rock Me Mama, Miss Ohio, Navajo Rug, You were meant for me, and anything by Shania Twain or the Dixie Chicks.

Then began the Zoe treasure hunt. Our mission: to find Sasha's old high school friend living somewhere in Santa Cruz with a strong aversion to answering her phone. We stalked around aisles of Safeway assuming that most college students go grochery shopping on sunday nights. We cruised streets she might live on. We new teh street name began with an 'N' and she lives in a duplex. Despite our good detective work, still no signs of the elusive Zoe. The lead from an annonymous outside source, we began to search for a bar where a short fat white guy was performing who sounds like Tracy Chapman.

We finally found Zoe on Nobel drive. We laughed and danced and assembled Ikea furniture to celebrate the success of our mission. We cooked a big kinoa dinner and I ate chard, a leafy green vegetable with red stalks, for the first time. Mmmm delicious. Then we hung out with Felix, another one of Sasha's high school frineds, drank tea and played guitar. We wrote a song for our 'Refresh mint tea' from Mt Mazuma. It chorus goes a lil something like this... 'This tea is a lot like me, it's kinda weak and warm and very lonely...'. It's going top fourty, I just know it.

The next morning, we had breakfast with Felix and his 3 year old toehead flatmate Miles. We made omlettes with eggs from their backyard chickens, onions, mushrooms and more of my favorite new vegetable. Maybe the best omlette I've ever had.

Sasha and I drove up to Big Basin state park and blazed the Berry Creek Falls trial. The terrain was steep and winding through the most beautiful Redwood forests. I forgot that trees can get SO BIG. We named one big tree Herman and his lady tree Sherylyn. The falls were roaring and spectacular. It was nice to be in the woods. We stopped at Hidden Villa, www.hiddenvilla.org, a working farm and summer camp where Sasha works. Dang, that was one good trip, full of music, food, beaches, redwoods, nice poeple and everything else I like about California.