Day 8: Cloudy With A Chance Of Gridlock

The morning began with a trip to Will Rogers State Historical Park, not far from yesterday's stop at Temescal Canyon. I learned what kind of house a person could buy with a large fortune in the 1920s. Now I just need a time machine and a vast fortune. The confusing and woefully under-labeled trails offered great views--very similar to yesterday's, though the Southern California coastal region continues to be thrifty with the sunshine the past few days. The park also offered some of the most expensive per-mile hiking to date. I still don't understand how the state of California is so broke when they're practically printing money with their state park fees. Next, we opted for the longer and more scenic route to San Diego down the Pacific Coast Highway. Shame on me for forgetting that the road doesn't always live up to its name every mile of the drive...there are plenty of stretches where you're a lot more likely to see filthy oil refineries, grizzled bums, and gang-riddled ghettos than amazing views of the Pacific coastline. My right knee started to get sore from all of the back-and-forth between the accelerator and brake. On the plus side, I got to drag race a red Ferrari through a short stretch of Huntington Beach. I was briefly winning until the other driver noticed that the light had turned green. Once the PCH ended, I-5 was a parking lot down the rest of the coast, with eight lanes of barely-moving cars as far as the eye could see. It turned out to be a very long drive to cover a relatively short distance, but generally scenic nonetheless. Upon arrival in San Diego, there was enough time for some hiking at Torrey Pines State Preserve, which has some unique foliage and is located next door to the golf course that Tiger Woods made famous a few years ago. Once again, a little short on sunshine, but it was a nice hike down to Flat Rock, which compensates with visual appeal what it lacks in a creative name. The only downside was that the high tide kept me from climbing all over that thing. The sea was angry that day my friends...