back to the channel islands... way, way, way back

After seriously spraining my ankle earlier this year hiking on an island, you'd think I'd be hesitant to go hiking again on another, farther away island. I would've thought that too.... except Island Packers only goes to San Miguel Island once or twice a year. So I wasn't going to pass up this trip in October!



Neither was my friend James, who sprained his ankle a week before and was wearing an ankle boot to protect his injury. He was a total trooper considering there is no dock on San Miguel Island... you get to the island via one of two tiny motor boats loaded on the back of the big boat.

Yet, halfway into the literal 3-hour cruise to San Miguel, I started wishing I had passed up the trip for a while... that was the roughest boat ride I'd ever been on. Seeing two pods of dolphins didn't make up for getting as close to puking off the side of a boat as I've ever been. Ginger candy didn't work. My motion sickness bracelets didn't work. And five other people puking off the side of the boat next to me definitely did NOT help. It was bad. (Adventure organizer Linda has given me motion sickness patches to try on the next trip :p)

However, once we finally got out to the island, and my stomach settled, the fun of the adventure set in. We made it to the shore without getting drenched (although on the return trip to the boat we were not so lucky, as a wave washed over us while we were loading).








You can only hike with Island Park Rangers because San Miguel Island was used for military tests in the past. (We had to sign a waiver saying we wouldn't sue Island Packers or the government if we stepped on a bomb.. I'm not kidding.)  So Linda and I joined the hike that was supposed to go to the Caliche Forest (James stayed on the beach with his ankle boot and a book). But after hiking through the sand and up stairs built into the side of the hill....



.... and then up the path and around the bend, our volunteer Ranger guide missed the turn-off for the forest and didn't realize it until we'd gone about 30 minutes in the wrong direction. We tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and followed him for a while longer in the correct direction. But when it became clear we would never get to the Caliche Forest in the limited time left before the boat had to leave, we turned back and visited the Cabrillo Monument on our own and look photos of all the vegetation. It was quite a contrast to the pretty green-ness we saw on Santa Cruz Island in March.... everything was dried out from the hot summer and fall. But it was still cool to visit one of the first islands explorers discovered when arriving on the west coast.

Remnants of an old windmill

          

Loading back up on the big boat

We stopped in a nearby cove on the way home to see the elephant seals sleeping on shore. 

We had a great sunset view on the boat ride home, which was MUCH smoother than the ride out. 

jamming in the san bernardino sun

Most people who hang out with me know that I despise the Forum and I hate Dodger Stadium, each for various reasons that inconvenience me. And there are a very select few musical acts I will go to those places to see in concert. Yet there is one single band I've seen at both places... and that fact should explain why I trekked to god-forsaken San Bernardino in October when it was a billion degrees outside for Cal Jam 17 at Glen Helen Amphitheater.

That band had an idea... and I and 65,000 other sweaty people joined in...



The parking was a nightmare -- we ended up on the other side of I-15 and had to walk a mile each way to the venue. (How about some shuttles next year Dave?). And I already mentioned it was a billion degrees outside in October. But other than that, for an outdoor, all-day music festival, the event was actually pretty well organized. There were tons of food and beverage stands, water stations to fill up water bottles, and a bit of shade here and there.

We arrived around 2:30 so my friend Lisa could see/hear Royal Blood on the main stage while we cooled down with shaved ice. Then we went in search of cooler temps and found them (after waiting in line for 20 minutes) inside the air-conditioned tent housing the Foo Fighters Rock n' Roll Museum,  which was packed with two decades of memorabilia -- everything from the "footos" in the "Big Me" video to Dave's throne from the Sonic Highways tour and the cast that necessitated said throne...



                     

Dave's motorcycle throne from Love Ride 2016

The "White Limo"

The knitted band name from the "Run" video

Wigs that aged the band in the "Run" video

"Best of You" lyrics

"Big Me" video's famous "Footos"

"Wasting Light" recording chart

My favorite guitar in the world :)

Photos from the Sonic Highways recordings/shoot.

Dave's original post-op drug-enduced sketches for the "throne"

After spending an hour in the air-conditioning, we went to get dinner, then settled into seats for the night's top three acts: Cage the Elephant, Queens of the Stone Age, and my beloved Foo Fighters, who played until past midnight with many, many special guests.

Enjoy this sampling (and be thankful I spared you the train wreck of Liam Gallager trying to sing "Come Together" with the band and Joe Perry -- that was almost 3 months ago and my ears still hurt)...

Foo Fighters "La Dee Da " w/ Dave Koz and Allison Mosshart @ CalJam17

 Foo Fighters and Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" @ CalJam17

 Foo Fighters "Dirty Water" w/ Inara George @ CalJam 17

 Foo Fighters and Joe Perry "Draw The Line" @ CalJam17

the land of joshua trees and meteor showers

In early August, there was supposed to be an amazing meteor shower over Southern California. But living in the Valley, the land of street lights and strip malls, there's no way I'd ever see it. So a group of friends and I headed out to Joshua Tree to watch the stars from the hilltop home of James and Karen's Uncle Carl. 

The sky was crystal clear and there were some really amazing meteors that night. But you'll just have to take my word for it because I didn't have a telescopic camera and this video from my Instagram story that night is the only photographic proof (or lack thereof) I retained of the night sky ;) 

The next day, however, we went and visited Joshua Tree National Park and I took massive amounts of photos. I'd never been before and being the U2 fan I am, went searching for "the tree" from the iconic album's back cover, knowing full well it's no longer standing. So "I still haven't found what I'm looking for...." but it was a fun ongoing joke, and gave me an excuse to play the album over and over (and over and over) again in the car, because everyone else was dumb enough to let me drive. Mwahahahaha!

Here are photos of the gorgeous desert baking in the hot August sun ....

The JT Adventure Crew (l-r): Uncle Carl, Linda, Daryl, me and James

Is this "the" Joshua tree? Nope..

What about one of these?

     

I think this one might really be it.... 

 Exploring the desert..

This HAS to be it, right? It's so perfect!

What about this one, perfectly centered between a crack in these rocks?

Field of trees

Then on the way back to LA, we marveled at the wind farms...

And stopped and visited Pee Wee's dinosaurs off the side of the 10 in Cabazon :)