This week we are approaching the next level of record heat in Phoenix. The area breaks another record for heat every year. I have lived in Phoenix for ten summers, that is the hard and sure measure of time here, the summer. What averages a three month season seems more like six months here. In fact, in my home city of Seattle, maybe two or three weeks of its hottest summer weather is comparable to months of clear skies in Phoenix’s winter. I have said to myself I will leave Phoenix for the whole summer every year and yet have never made it happen.
I have found that I need a temperature reset once or twice every Phoenix summer. The quickest trip is north to Flagstaff, a three hour drive and almost five thousand feet elevation gain, that is thirty degrees cooler on any given day. The town also benefits from is mountain breezes and shade from an extensive pine tree population.
Another little longer drive for respite from the severity of the summer is west to the Pacific. I have spent a year or so in Los Angeles two decades ago and nearly attended USC to finish architecture school. I had never travelled to San Diego until two years ago but have visited three times now in those last two years, as the climate is as pleasant as possible.
This summer for my temperature vacation I decided to travel to San Diego and Los Angeles areas. I asked around and found some event suggestions. One concert and one drawing workshop. I planned my trip around these. I ended up missing both but they helped structure my trip. The workshop especially would have been good, it was a plein air drawing session, so I decided to practice at least every day. I packed colored pencils, sketchbooks and watercolor tins. I was not looking forward to drawing clear skies with pencil so I brought watercolors and brushes. Even though I ended up happy with the colored pencils.
I booked my first night just outside of San Diego in La Jolla. As I read it was 70F while Phoenix was 110F. I checked the other areas of interest, Pasadena was in the middle or high 80s, which makes sense because it does not as directly benefit from the ocean’s thermal mass and breezes thirty miles inland. I planned one night in Pasadena to see the Huntington Library and its garden grounds.
In La Jolla I asked my host about nearby scenic ocean hikes, she suggested Torrey Pines State Park. I had heard the name Torrey Pines from golfers, that they have a major golf tournament, and I said “isn’t that a golf course?” She told me that there were miles and miles of trails at the State Park. I visited it and was completely impressed by the ecosystem and presence of nature. I went to the top of one of the bluffs and found a ranger station adobe lodge that the docent told me was originally a restaurant. Taxidermic specimens of the local fauna lined the walls of the gift shop. I asked the docent for a reasonable hike recommendation, and he sent me on my way. I found a bench and drew a ravine between two bluffs. Not my best work but my first plein air drawing in a while.
In the morning I went to the Pacific at La Jolla to watch the sun rise. The sun rises opposite the ocean and i listened to the din of seagulls and sealions. I took it all in. Sketched the sea and felt better about the second drawing.
After visiting San Diego I drove north and had a lot of time before my check in time in Pasadena. I ended up driving to the Getty Villa in Malibu. Traces of recent wildfires were disheartening. The Villa was nice. I took an art and architecture tour, but missed the museum collections due to whimsical planning and timing. I was more inspired by the newer facilities from the 2000s much more than the 1970s classical remake. The gardens were nicest and our guide related the flora selections to antiquity’s myths and poetics, but I appreciated secondarily the concrete textures of the 2000s facility and its raw quarry inspired designs. The finesse of the accessible routes and circulation that the architects planned were another high point. I heard the architects wanted to monumentalize these ramps and paths that are usually temporary or afterthoughts to meet codes. Unfortunately I did not sketch anything at Getty Villas.
Took me an hour and a half along the interstate 10 to get from Malibu to Pasadena. It is only 18 miles! That might be why they call it the 10, because the speed in that stretch is around 10 miles an hour. Due to the delay I stayed around my lodgings and skipped the concert since I did not want to be trapped in traffic again. Near where I stayed in Pasadena I visited the original Trader Joe’s and the house where Einstein lived while at Caltech.
I did not visit the Huntington library the next day, as I planned, but instead I headed over to Santa Monica early to walk along the beach. I also went out on the pier for another sketch looking back to the shore.
I stayed in Santa Monica on the third night after watching the sunset. The room was oddly warm and humid and I woke up extremely early. Checked my car on the way out and saw a coyote wandering the streets at 4am. Nature is present!
The workshop was in a few hours but I decided to see another town I had never before and drove up the PCH to Ventura. I made it to the beach at dawn and walked up the wharf and enjoyed watching surfers and waves. At a reasonable waking hour I wrote a friend from Ventura. He replied, “why there, why not Santa Barbara?” So I visited SB too but planned to stay in Ventura. I ended up resigning to skip the workshop, feeling accomplished e ouch after daily sketches, Both Ventura and Santa Barbara were foggy, charming towns and a little chilly. They both had street fairs starting at 10am. Annual Fiesta. Ate a freshly caught snapper on the pier in Santa Barbara, among the best meals I can remember. Santa Barbara displays many signs, with a reminder of their municipal code prohibiting smoking and making a smoke free city.
Around noon, I returned to Ventura and all the hotels were booked for the weekend. But I wanted to traverse Los Angeles on the way back to Phoenix, at the earliest possible hour so needed to find a place to stay. Eventually I found one that was overpriced and under maintained. Went to the beach again, to be sure to draw.
I left early the next morning, feeling my body temperature successfully reset and recharged to face the next Phoenix heat record.
Here is my essay closing resolution: next trip to Southern California will be by plane and involve no private car, only public transport. I do not want to contribute any further to the congestion and smog of this lovely city and region.
drdrr.work 