I just returned from a trip to the Central Coast of California, a place where I lived for about 15 years. It’s where I went to high school, where I got my first writing job, and where I still am lucky to have many dear friends and professional contacts.
Going home again once home is somewhere new, is a strange sensation. It had been about a decade since I had been back to SLO County and Santa Barbara. I wanted to start this travel blog (and soon-to-be-announced companion art project) somewhere familiar, to get my bearings, and brush up on my travel skills. It proved a wonderful place to do so. It also brought back a nostalgic longing, and even a bit of a former sense of self. I desperately love and miss the coast, but I also feel like a free bird and a new me here in the mountains of New Mexico.
I was reminded that travel is more than just a visual or auditory experience. The immersion in my former life was comforting yet bizarre. I remembered the smell of night-blooming jasmine, the thick feeling of the foggy ocean air in my lungs and on my skin. Many of my favorite restaurants and cafes endured the changing times, offering familiar tastes, (like pink champagne cake at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, or the beef dip sandwich at Joe’s Cafe in Santa Barbara.)
The whole experience was a bit of a whirlwind, and at times I found it difficult to balance my self-imposed creative workload with much needed catch up time with friends. I am someone who can become very engaged in conversation. When I travel with friends, I feel that I am really experiencing that time with them, which is exceptionally valuable, but when traveling solo, I feel like I spend time with the place. I am a fly on the wall, an observer, and this experience really inspires my creative work.
I knew that my trip would be a learning experience, and an excuse to visit my friends, and it was exactly that. My heart is full with appreciation and gratitude for my “OG besties” as I call them, and I love to see how we are all “adulting” now, to use a terribly millennial term. We discussed deliciously mature topics like mortgages, credit card points, and our IRAs. I even got to meet some new nieces for the first time. I am so pleased to be the jet-set, artist auntie; dream situation! I can’t wait to get to know them in years to come. Welcome to Earth, little ones!
The main purpose of my visit, aside from travel practice and bestie catch-up time, was to attend the Central Coast Writers’ Conference at Cuesta College. I covered the event for the Paso Robles Daily News, a publication that I still edit and contribute to remotely, and on behalf of myself as a writer. Read my coverage of the conference here.
I did find time to take many fantastic photos, and over the coming weeks, I will be sharing some tried-and-true tips for visiting the Central Coast, which is truly my favorite part of California and a place I am very grateful to have spent so much time living in.
With this project, I don’t want to be an “armchair travel writer.” I want to share experiences and tips from places that I have actually been, which is now a rarity in the travel writing industry. I’m so glad that I visited my old stomping grounds so that I can refresh the advice that I can give as a former “SLOcal” and “Santa Barbarian.”
‘Travel Tuesdays’ are the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month
I also want to announce that I will be releasing new blogs every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month (this is the third Tuesday, but I skipped the first one this month, thank you all for bearing with me as I get organized with this new project!)
Please mark your calendars for “Travel Tuesdays,” and make sure to subscribe!
Thank you for being here!
-Until next we travel
<3 Skye
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