Channel Islands
The Channel Islands was interesting, and not totally in the ways that I thought it'd be... but then again, that's always the case, right?
The ferry to get there was lovely, saw lots of sea lions and while I scanned the horizon for whales or dolphins, I didn't see any on the way out. However on the way back... ! A whole pod of dolphins jumped in front of the boat for the longest time. It was lovely. A dolphin jumped up next to the bow of the boat, maybe 3 feet away from me. So wonderful.
photo by Normandie Wilson
view of Santa Cruz/Santa Rosa Islands
I had never been camping before without fires. I incorrectly assumed that the reason there was no fires was because of the risk of invasive species. These are, after all, called the "Galapagos of North America." Wrong. The reason was because of fire danger. I'd never done that before, and things got ... a little weird. Let's just say a lot of the conversation sounded a lot more like a therapy session than normal campground banter. The sun went down, and everyone just went to bed.
There was a moonlight walk involved to the ocean to see the moonlight playing on the surface of the water. Truly magical.
photo by Normandie Wilson
kelp forest, Santa Cruz Island
It was absolutely blissful to be away from my cell phone for just over 24 hours. Cell phones were left in the car. The things that come up in conversation are definitely different when you can't reference Wikipedia or IMDB about which movie so-and-so was in or what the real story behind the economic policy of Colombia. But that's not so important.
I just noticed a freedom without my phone. I loved it, and I love when I'm able to get away from my phone. I came back to find 3 missed calls, 2 voicemails, and a bunch of other assorted texts, emails, and social media escapades to deal with. The 3 missed calls, 2 voice mails, and texts were from a person who had auditioned to play bass with one of my bands. He was calling to let me know he wasn't interested. Considerate, but also annoying at the same time. Of course there were emails I had to deal with, and a bunch of texts from family members that needed to be addressed immediately. Right after I got my business dealt with, my best friend (as usual) started dropping all kinds of wisdom on me.
"I can see why you always talk about wanting a break from your phone!"
me: "Why's that?"
"Because all it does is seem to bring you bad news!"
Of course, this isn't entirely true, but it felt true that afternoon. I have to make sure I take periodic breaks from my phone, for my sanity.
All in all, it was a truly lovely weekend away from a whole lot of drama, both personal and work-wise, that totally consumed me over the majority of last week, and even in the car on the way up. [BLARGH] My show at The Mint is next weekend, and another CD release show is coming up in San Diego. Once this record is DONE, as in DONE DONE DONE, I'm going to feel so much better about everything.
In the meantime, it was a great exercise in a lot of things... being away from cell phones, the importance of proper packing for camping (or the value in camping with people who have more stuff than you do), connecting with old friends and making new ones, all great, all good. Super lovely time.
Some updates about the LA portion of the trip probably coming soon... and more blog posts about a lot of news-related items and music-news are coming up soon.
Once again, welcome to the blog. :)