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Welcome to Beyond Ordinary Guides, where we curate gorgeous imagery, locally cherished spots, and accessible stories. We hope you enjoy!
Welcome to Beyond Ordinary Guides, where we curate gorgeous imagery, locally cherished spots, and accessible stories. We hope you enjoy!
All in Stories
My lesson in paying attention to what I order abroad.
An ingredient in certain sunscreens is damaging coral reefs. Find out how you can minimize your impact when visiting these natural wonders.
There is Sarah, the energetic blonde storyteller, a recent transplant from Florida. There is Leslie, the soft spoken and sweet Madison grad. There is Laura, the Bay Area native with a bubbly exterior, but an introverted interior. And there is me, the married dreamer from Minnesota. Together we make up a group of four women who work at the same company but who are still quite new to each other. We’ve teamed up for a two night camping trip in Big Sur, California.
The first cat cafe opened in Taiwan back in 1998. From there, the idea traveled to Japan, where it’s really taken off (and where I first heard about them), and finally to us here in the US. There are now 10 cat cafes in the states, the latest one opening up right here in San Francisco.
"Hey, are you going to be here awhile? Do you mind watching my stuff for a bit?" A shirtless man with an ornate cross tattoo on his lower back asks us.
We look to our left at his stuff. A homemade table made out of 6 empty beer bottles held together by red duct tape, a wheel-less skateboard as the table top. Jars of jelly and peanut butter are perched on top. An empty coconut is jimmied under on the of the skateboard lips, presumably for better stability. A VHS of a Giants World Series win leans against the table base.
I had seen pictures of the Big Sur coastline before and thought that was the big draw to the area. To be sure, it is, but what was fantastically unexpected was that Highway 1 takes you along sheer winding cliffs one minute and then through deep redwood forest the next. Little Mom & Pop gas stations, dark wood cabin style inns, and general stores show up every 1/2 mile. It feels slightly Route 66 - a highway passing through a classic tourist town, the way touristing used to be.
At 9:30am we departed on a 60 foot wooden yacht with four other tourists in addition to our crew and headed southeast. The whale sharks hang out about an hour and 15 minutes from MIrihi Island Resort in the South Ari Atoll. Of the 26 atolls that make up the Maldives, the South Ari Atoll is the best place for a whale shark sighting.
The white wooden gate to the garden swung shut, the metal latch clanging against itself. It's was an unusually warm day in Pescadero - 80 degrees and sunny. So warm in fact, that when our tour guide shooed the goats out of the loafing barn to say hi, half of them immediately turned back around once her shooing stopped to return to the shade. The other half was so excited to see us that they all peed at the same time, in a row. We were at Harley Goat Farms in Pescadero for the adult-only tour of the farm and it had already exceeded my expectations.
