I Dig Leo Carrillo

This campground rocks! If you have children, dogs, or out of town guests, take them here for a night that you will never forget! If you want to hike or run on trails, you are in for a real treat. Start at the Willow Creek Trail head which starts about 20 feet from the front entrance of the park. Hike or run approximately four miles up that hill until you reach a fork in the road. Take a right, and go up to the top of the hill about another 1/3 of a mile. You will be rewarded with solitude, and some of the best views of Malibu imaginable. Red Tail Hawk, ravens, scrub jays, mule deer, and plenty of reptiles will be your companions on this dry, mostly exposed trail that heads through a wonderful canyon, up a ridge, and to pink sandstone steps that will leave you humbled and in awe. This is a great hike to take with children who will appreciate the gradual switchbacks and the exceedingly rewarding view at the top. I did this on Saturday evening and enjoyed myself so much that I could not wait to wake up and do it again on Sunday. I love being able to get a campsite here and then drive into LA to work for a few hours and then head back up the California Coast to this fantastic place to spend the night. Simply put, this is one of the best pieces of real estate anywhere in the world and it can be enjoyed for chump change at this great State Park. There are full facilities here and the beach is just a short walk under PCH and is a great place to explore the intertidal. Campsites are set among oak groves in a canyon, with hiking trails on one side. Despite the proximity to PCH, there is little road noise in comparison to, say, El Capitan State Beach. The canyon and the beach tend to get a little windy in the afternoon, but it tends to die down after a while. The camp store will sell you firewood and beer if you did not exercise care in packing your stuff. The hiking trails are Nicholas Flat and Willow Creek and you can go back pretty far and catch some other trails like Malibu Spring. There are deer, tarantula, morning dove and coyote in these parts, and views of the coast, spectacular canyons, rock formations and smog less blue sky. With fresh ling cod, salsa, beans, tortillas and corn on the cob cooked over the campfire, this great depression we are going through doesn't seem half bad.

Short Order, Short Temper

In the age of $5.00 gallons of gas, how can you get bent out of shape over a $14.00 burger? I am not particularly fond of Nancy Silverton, but I consider Pizza Mozza to be a worthy endeavor, so I was happy to walk by here last night and give it a try. The place was not very crowded and I found the servers to be most friendly and helpful. I ordered the Backyard Burger and found it to be juicy and flavorful with plenty of salt, a nice side of ketchup unlike that half-wit at Father's Office, and spicy mayo (not Siracha, sadly). The bacon was wonderful but not overpowering. The burger arrived perfectly Medium Rare, and the only complaint that I could muster is that the uniformly melted Comte is rather flavorless. This burger was outstanding, but allegedly so are the burgers of many other places in this great metropolitan area. With that in mind, it will be quite some time before I return to this place, but I most definitely will return one day. My wife got the chick pea patty which was considerably more flavorful than the burger. It had fresh, homemade harrissa and a very nice yogurt based sauce on top of two of the most flavorful, crispy falafel patties I have encountered. I do have to declare that it was strange eating this concoction inside of a bun and would have much preferred a pita but it was surprisingly good. She also ordered a very small root beer float. I mean it was so small it looked like it came in a Dixie Cup. And it carried a price tag of $5.00. Finally, the deep fried baked potato pieces are perfect in every way. I am kicking myself for not ordering the sour cream and bacon dip available for an extra $2.00. I came here again the other day and ordered the backyard burger and the regular fries. The burger was very nice and similar to a burger that I would cook at my house but without all the hassle. It was cooked the way I ordered it, and the bun almost held up until the end. I get a burger about once a month, and this one was certainly a treat. The fries were not cold, but rapidly getting there as I was seated upstairs. The ranch dressing was top notch. My wife got a grilled mushroom burger. I suspect she might be a comuniss, because anyone who orders a mushroom burger must hate America. Corn on the cob with cojita and tomatillo salsa was very good. When I got the check, I asked the guy if he could kindly get me a validation, and even though I had just shelled out $20.00 for my burger and fries, he refused and directed me to get it downstairs. When I got downstairs, the guy I asked refused to give me a validation. Maybe he was new or something, and I finally did get my validation, but it raised my blood pressure, made me want to smash things, eat a can of spinach, and run amok.

Santa Monica Seafood

It costs a dorsal fin and a gill to shop here but the $5.00 off coupon in the Los Angeles Times Food Section makes it a bit more tolerable. I have been coming here on a regular basis for the past year, stopping by on my way back home from Topanga State Park. The Pacific Rockfish can be an excellent choice most days. The freshly filleted pieces are very tasty seasoned with salt, freshly ground black pepper, red pepper, dredged in flour and pan fried in peanut or grapeseed oil until they are golden brown. At $8.99 a pound, you can't go wrong. Serve them with lime wedges, a fresh salsa, and some homemade tartar sauce. Yellowtail, shark, ling cod, and local halibut are a pretty good buy as well. The Pacific halibut is the most expensive of these four at $20.00 a pound, but is well worth it. They also have Alaskan Halibut, and Copper River Salmon in season as well as many East Coast fishes if you are a billionaire. If you come on a Monday or Tuesday and get local Pacific seafood, you are going to be mighty happy with your purchase here. All of the guys and gals at the counter and cash register are awesome. I feel like they make me feel very welcome every time I come in and are a big part of why I return so frequently. You and your family deserve fresh, good, clean and healthy food and this is an outstanding place to find it.

Bryan Kest Awesome Yoga

I recently came here again with my daughter for a class on Tuesday morning. I have gone into a lot of yoga places around town and have really wished that I had half an Oki Dog to put underneath the heater so that the people can sense my lack of approval for their phoniness. They may say namaste, but when you see how they treat the cleaning lady or fight you for a parking space over at Urth Cafe, it is enough to induce projectile vomiting. The people at Bryan Kest power yoga are for real. This is a seriously challenging, hardcore workout taught by people who are serene and willing to share true yoga with you. I am no expert on yogic philosophy and karma, but I don't think that studios that engage in litigation and attempt to assert ownership, dominion and control over yoga poses represent true yoga. In my lifetime, I have seen Santa Monica transform from a very compassionate and liberal place into one of the world's most gleaming examples of insidious capitalism. By requesting a donation after class, Bryan Kest Power Yoga may just be the only remnant of that great era in a sea of soulless places like the Border Grill and Design Within Reach.

Haiku to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest

One of those places that exceeds the splendor of anything and everything manmade.

Roach Genocide at United Industries

The cockroach is an amazing animal. Perhaps the most amazing animal on earth. Certainly roach societies are better in many ways than human societies. They are more durable, humane, organized, efficient, and leave far less waste. Most importantly, they work together as a team and do not kill each other. Like the majority of Americans, they also eat garbage. When you see one in your kitchen, you had better believe that there are at least a thousand of them in your crawlspace. Roaches are positively thigmotactic. Think swarm. There are different types of roaches, but my building seems to be infested with the German and Oriental varieties. They are nocturnal. They wait for you to go to sleep and then raid your territory and contaminate your food supply. They watch you. They attack. They are not good for your asthma, either, that is for sure. This company manufacturers boric acid AKA roach kryptonite. It is relatively non-toxic to humans, but to roaches, it is death by chemical warfare. Attack back. Just dust it into your crawlspaces and put a fine layer in the cabinets and all over the kitchen. In a few days, the roaches will have eaten some of the deadly powder and have taken it back to their brethren. Prepare yourself, because for the next ten days, a thousand roaches are going to make a mad dash to your kitchen in a feeble attempt to recover from the effects of the boric acid that you have strategically placed in your kitchen. The Oriental ones will die first, but the German ones are a little tougher vill continue fighting and coming out of der bunker for a couple of extra days. Thanks to United Industries and their wickedly effective roach killer, you can stage your very own cockroach genocide. You can be a real cockroach Pol Pot.

Chill Out

I came here afterwork yesterday and occupied campsite #39 in Manzanita Loop. There were a total of three other parties in the entire campground and the experience could not have been anymore magnificent. My godson who is three had his very first camping experience was absolutely delighted with Chilao. He climbed around the boulders, explored the vicinity of our space, ate s'mores, hot dogs, sat around the fire, watched the stars, and collected pine cones and rocks. He could not have been any happier. We will both surely never forget this fantastic little trip. We saw blue jays, crows, squirrels, chipmunks, and a couple of red tailed hawks. The forest has come back since the Station Fire and looks much better than it did the last time I was here approximately two years ago when it looked like Downtown Grozny. It was a fine night to go to Chilao. The temperature was in the 60's all night and the moon and stars were just breathtaking. Instead of the sleeping in the tent, I put my air mattress in the middle of a clearing so I could get a better look at the stars and planets. I turned on a little Frank Zappa and had some cold ice water and crashed. I woke up at 4AM and took a leisurely two hour stroll in the moonlight. The burned trees in the moonlight reminded me of skeletons and the purple flowers of the poodle dog brush glowed like they were under a blacklight. The forest looked hopeful and like a war zone simultaneously. An owl's call and some crickets were the only sounds in the canyon. I went to some intense boulders on one end of the canyon south of the park and climbed to the top of the stack and carefully observed what was going on around me. Life can be exceedingly disappointing when you look at the big picture, but very grand indeed because of times like this.