By Josh Edelson

Today we traveled up the coast of California. We saw some of the most beautiful views. Two hours after leaving Los Angeles, we stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch and explored this unique town. After eating, we drove a few more hours and stopped in San Luis Obispo beach where we played Frisbee and hung out by the ocean. It was a refreshing break from the long drive.

On the last part of the drive we watched the movie “Milk” to get us ready for our visit to San Francisco. It was about the first openly gay elected official in America.

We finally made it to San Francisco where we checked into our unique hotel. Billy walked us into Chinatown and told us that we would have a great dinner but we would not be ordering from the menu, rather, the chef would make us what he wanted. Everyone agreed it was a fantastic dinner and a very unique way to have a meal.

Our last activity of the day was to walk to City Lights Bookstore in the North Beach section of town. We had heard about the history of this bookstore and the connection it had to Jack Kerouac and the beatniks from our talk with Steven Taylor at Naropa University. Many of us bought the writings of the beatniks as well as other books and had a great time in the store.