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How to: Day Trip (with Kenneth Bevens) · Learn by Listening

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to CP one oh one. How today trip. We
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: love Slow with all of our hearts, but we need
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to get away every once in a while. Luckily, our
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: little town is driving distance from some pretty cool spots.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: We're going to get into quite a few amazing places
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: today which are solving big Sir Santa Barbara, Monterey and
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: even Herst Castle. Hop in your car and buckle up
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: as we take you on a tour of the best
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: day trip spots near Slow. Cal Poly is in session.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Students swarm through campus and file in and out of classes.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: You're thinking about the chapter reading they have tonight, their
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: next class, their new dorm, their senior project, how to
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: get to the gym, what's for dinner tonight? Where's in
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  Speaker 2: yours bathroom? Kate and I know things can get a
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: bit chaotic as a student navigating the inns and outs
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: of college life.
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  Speaker 1: At cal Poly, we focus on learning by doing, but
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  Speaker 1: sometimes you don't know what to do.
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  Speaker 3: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Emma and I are here to answer your who, what, when, where, why,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: and how's here? On CP one oh one Learned by Listening,
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  Speaker 1: presented by KCPR ninety one point three.
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  Speaker 2: Him sang, I'm Emma Hughes a third year English student.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: And I'm Kate Lopenski, a third year journalism student here
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  Speaker 1: at cal Poly, and we're here to share or tell
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: all guide on how to survive and thrive at cal
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Poly San Luis Obispo.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: So grab a notebook. You may want to write this down.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so before you take off on your adventure, there
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: are some things that you might want to check off
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of your to do list. So spontaneous day trips are amazing.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: But if you like to go buy the book, We've
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: got your back.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So some of the things you definitely want to consider
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  Speaker 2: for your trip is how long you're going to be there,
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  Speaker 2: how long it takes to get there, how you're getting there.
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  Speaker 2: All these things are something you need to know. You
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: have to have those figured out, especially if you don't
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: have a car or a vehicle. So there are other
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: alternatives like zip car, ubering, depending on location, train all
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: these are available, but today we're going to focus primarily
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: on those with vehicles at their disposal.
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  Speaker 1: You could also join a club which will get you
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  Speaker 1: from place to place. And we actually have a very
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  Speaker 1: special guest today who's going to talk about cal Poly
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Vanlife Club.
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  Speaker 3: My name is Kenneth Bevans.
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  Speaker 4: I'm the vice president of Vanlife Club, but we're kind
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: of all trip leaders, and then I also run their
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  Speaker 4: social media and I plan trips for Hiking Club too.
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  Speaker 1: So first, can you just tell us a bit about
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  Speaker 1: Vanlife Club and what y'all do.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, So, Van Life Club is a we like to
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  Speaker 4: think of it as a resource for students to get
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  Speaker 4: out an adventure. So every once a week we plan
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  Speaker 4: an adventure for students and you.
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  Speaker 3: Don't even need a vehicle to join. It's all free.
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  Speaker 4: We don't have any fees except for splitting the cost
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  Speaker 4: of the trip, whether it's through gas or for food.
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  Speaker 4: But yeah, it's just weekly adventures and we go all
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  Speaker 4: over Central California. Just a way for people to out
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  Speaker 4: there a very wholesome, nice, adventurous community.
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  Speaker 2: I love it how many people typically go on these adventures.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So for our last point Ray's trip, which was over
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  Speaker 4: President's Day weekend, we had twenty seven people, which was
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  Speaker 4: pretty good turnout.
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  Speaker 3: We all got along super well.
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  Speaker 4: I even brought my fourteen year old sister from Sacramento
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  Speaker 4: and she stayed with us on the trip.
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  Speaker 2: It was awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, can you tell us a bit about the planning
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  Speaker 1: and the work that goes into each of those trips.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we kind of split up. We're changing the
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  Speaker 4: model for next year. But how it worked for the
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  Speaker 4: point rays trip is every person that's going we divide
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  Speaker 4: up the work into segments kind of, so one person
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  Speaker 4: might spearhead budget and one person spearheads like researching trip locations.
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  Speaker 4: I for my role, I kind of stayed out of
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  Speaker 4: the budget and mostly planned the trip by itinerary. So
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  Speaker 4: we went to Bhutano State Park to kiss some banana slugs.
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  Speaker 4: We explored an abandoned shipwreck in in Vernaz, California. And yeah,
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  Speaker 4: even like planning the campsite in China Camp State Park, I.
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  Speaker 1: Need to join this. Yeah this sounds so cool.
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  Speaker 2: Have you done the banana slug challenge where you put
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  Speaker 2: it on like your eyebrowser your nose for like seven
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  Speaker 2: bananas flug seconds?
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  Speaker 4: What's the difference between a banana slug second and a
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  Speaker 4: regular second?
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  Speaker 2: One bananas lug, two bananas l It's that I did
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  Speaker 2: it in sixth grade. It was like one of our
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  Speaker 2: little trips where it's like you have to wear a
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  Speaker 2: banana slug on your face.
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  Speaker 3: People wore banana slugs. Okay, for sure, I got some
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  Speaker 3: photos of that.
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  Speaker 1: It's so fun. Love that.
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  Speaker 2: So where you kind of mentioned some of the places already,
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  Speaker 2: but can you deep dive into maybe like your favorite
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  Speaker 2: trip that you've gone.
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  Speaker 4: On, favorite van life club trip. I loved Corrizo Planes
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  Speaker 4: during the super bloom. We went last year when it
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  Speaker 4: was really poppin' and we.
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  Speaker 3: Got to see the poppies.
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  Speaker 4: But we Corrizo Planes, for those that don't know, is
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  Speaker 4: a national monument and I believe it's run by the
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  Speaker 4: Bureau of Land Management. So there are a lot of
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  Speaker 4: camp sites out there where you can camp for completely free,
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  Speaker 4: from up to fourteen days, and there's one Acchorizo Planes.
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  Speaker 3: It's first come, first serve. But we went out there
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  Speaker 3: early enough.
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  Speaker 4: That we got to do that during the super bloom,
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  Speaker 4: and so we camped out there for one night and
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  Speaker 4: explored the salt lake that's out there and the poppy
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  Speaker 4: trails and saw all the social media influencers. But we
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  Speaker 4: kind of did our own thing. It was really fun.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah, So our episode today is about how today trip,
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  Speaker 1: And so I was wondering if you maybe have any
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  Speaker 1: tips for cal Poly students who are looking just to
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  Speaker 1: explore the area a little bit more and might have
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  Speaker 1: a harder time wrapping their minds around how to do
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  Speaker 1: this all.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So one thing that I love about San Luis Obispo
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  Speaker 4: and what attracted me to the area is there is
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  Speaker 4: there's so many different subjects of adventure to tackle. So
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  Speaker 4: if you want to go to Kyukis, there's an abandoned
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  Speaker 4: shipwreck there. If you want to go east of cal Poly,
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  Speaker 4: there's the Santa Margarita Lake and an old abandoned mercury mine.
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  Speaker 4: Or you could go to montagnade Ora State Park and
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  Speaker 4: see a giant sand dune or explore the super bloom
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  Speaker 4: like conditions there in the springtime. So kind of section
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  Speaker 4: it off into what like quadrant of San Luis Bo
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  Speaker 4: County you want to explore and then see what's around there,
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  Speaker 4: because no matter what area you pick, there's going to
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  Speaker 4: be something and you can do it for pretty low budget.
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  Speaker 2: So how do you go about choosing your location and
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  Speaker 2: then planning the itinerary?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so for the location we for Van Life Club,
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  Speaker 4: we all get together at the start of the quarter
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  Speaker 4: and say like, well, what kinds of activities do we
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  Speaker 4: want to do? We haven't done any snow related activities yet.
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  Speaker 4: That'll probably be for the future Van Life Club leadership
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  Speaker 4: to tackle next year. But we yeah, sparse it out
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  Speaker 4: to like, oh, maybe we want to hit the central
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  Speaker 4: coast or you know, smoot some banana slugs, and so
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  Speaker 4: we figure out where we could do that activity and
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  Speaker 4: then we kind of base it around that. So we
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  Speaker 4: kind of our Van Life Club leadership team is only
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  Speaker 4: about eight people, and so we split up all those
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  Speaker 4: activities like budgeting, location picking, and so we each give
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  Speaker 4: input into like what we would want to do for
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  Speaker 4: our dream event, then we plan around that.
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  Speaker 1: That's really cool. How you pick what you want to
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  Speaker 1: do before you pick the location. That's actually a really
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  Speaker 1: smart approach.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is an area where that's possible. Not all
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  Speaker 3: areas have that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, for students who are looking to get involved, how
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  Speaker 1: should they go about doing that? Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: So for Van Life Club, we have the Van Life
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  Speaker 4: Club Instagram and the Van Life Club Slack channel, which
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  Speaker 4: Slack is, from what I've seen, the main form of
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  Speaker 4: community app other than Instagram the club's use and we
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  Speaker 4: post both of our events to both areas. But if
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  Speaker 4: people really want to get involved, join the Slack community,
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  Speaker 4: and there's a link to it in our Instagram bio.
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  Speaker 4: Some people post trips outside of the normal Van Life
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  Speaker 4: club things and it really fosters that community.
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  Speaker 2: I was going to ask how many people are in
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  Speaker 2: the club, and then how many typically go on the trips.
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  Speaker 4: Unlike most clubs, we don't really have a number of
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  Speaker 4: who's in the club because we have a rotating cast
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  Speaker 4: and crew. Like those twenty seven people that were on
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  Speaker 4: the Point Ray's trip, probably only.
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  Speaker 3: Ten of them.
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  Speaker 4: Had been to like a significant number in air quotes
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  Speaker 4: of Van Life events, so it kind of rotates.
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  Speaker 3: We get in a lot of new people every time.
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  Speaker 1: What made you want to join the club? Initially part
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  Speaker 1: of it was.
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  Speaker 4: Our club president, honestly, Nick Tansky. He is one of
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  Speaker 4: the nicest people I've met at Count Paul really good
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  Speaker 4: friend of mine. But I myself wanted to get into
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  Speaker 4: van life at some point. I didn't know to what
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  Speaker 4: extent necessarily, but it's a great resource for figuring out
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  Speaker 4: how to go about that.
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  Speaker 2: So how many of you have vans and how how
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  Speaker 2: does the travel look like?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good question. So I most of the
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  Speaker 4: leadership team this year.
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  Speaker 3: Has a vehicle of some kind.
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  Speaker 4: So I got my car this year after summer too
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  Speaker 4: super stoked about that.
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  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
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  Speaker 3: I named him Travis for traveling.
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  Speaker 1: So it's the vibe.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Then our president Nick Tansky has a van, and over
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  Speaker 4: the tours of the past couple of years, people have
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  Speaker 4: picked up some rags like Niko Stallone now has a
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  Speaker 4: van and Ethan Jeram has a converted Forerunner. I believe
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: that he took up to Canada and back. For me,
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  Speaker 4: this is one really cool idea I had back in
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty one, and I think more people should start
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  Speaker 4: to do it, which is I make a Google Earth
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  Speaker 4: map of all the places I've visited across California. So
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: the reason why I use Google Earth is because you
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: can make a map and have just an icon of
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  Speaker 4: the type of activity you do there, whether it's skiing,
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  Speaker 4: you did a little ski icon and it looks all
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  Speaker 4: really clean and you can name it to whatever you want.
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  Speaker 4: So I have a Google Earth map for all the
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  Speaker 4: places I had ventured in twenty twenty one across California
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  Speaker 4: and then twenty twenty two, three and four. So how
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  Speaker 4: I plan my own personal day trips when I'm outside
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  Speaker 4: of Van Life Club or hiking club is I look
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  Speaker 4: to see what area of the map is still unexplored,
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  Speaker 4: so that way, by the time I leave college, I'll
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: have all of California map out.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's really smart.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's completely free.
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  Speaker 4: It's completely free and just updated at the end of
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: every month or two. Just go back through your photos
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  Speaker 4: and see the places you've been, add a little note
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  Speaker 4: to them, but build it up.
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  Speaker 1: That's a great tip for all of our passionate day trippers. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: How often are you day tripping? You said, every week?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So I'm a photography miner and whether I'm out on
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: shoots or well, the type of photography I shoot is
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  Speaker 4: outdoor adventure port traits. So I shoot I document the
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  Speaker 4: van life club trips and the hiking and backpacking club trips,
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  Speaker 4: and those usually involve like a fifteen mile backpacking experience
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: with my camera on my backpack. It's pretty intense, but
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: I try to get out there as much as possible.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: Because I lost a year to COVID two my freshman year,
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: I wasn't on campus, so you know, only three years
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: is a really short amount of time for being in
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: such a valuable space. Just like the wholesome people you
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: can encounter and the types of opportunities there are. I
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: try to make most of it, and so I get
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  Speaker 4: out there pretty much every weekend.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: That's honestly so inspiring. That's really cool.
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  Speaker 3: Also one of the things, like for the budget for
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: the Point Rais.
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  Speaker 4: Trip, including gas and campsite and like all the permits
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: we needed and all food, the whole trip costs with
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: seventy bucks. That's for three full days of adventuring. Like
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: people went to Pinnacles National Park. We went four state parks,
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: got Costco pizza for everybody one night and Costco muffins another.
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  Speaker 3: So it was pretty affordable, I would say for something
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  Speaker 3: that ambitious.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And like, do you guys do an end
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  Speaker 2: of the year, Like do you plan a big trip
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  Speaker 2: for the end of the year or anything like that.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, so we don't really plan like a massive trip
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  Speaker 4: for the end of the year. However, lately this year
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: we've been working with UCSB Excursion Club, which is a
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: lot bigger than we are. They're about a five hundred
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: person regular showing up club and they do like three
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  Speaker 4: adventures every weekend. But we've kind of we've done a
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: couple like Rain dances on mountaintops with them, and we're
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: planning a skydiving trip. Oh wow for Spring quarter in Lompoc, California.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I think I saw on your instagram you guys have
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: done that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we did that.
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  Speaker 4: In the past, this time with UCSB Excursion Club. The
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: amount of people we have, that's the thing too. If
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: you whether it's day trips or kind of more organized events,
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: the more people you have, the more of a discount
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: you can give to everybody, because you split the trip
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: costs up more. So we're going to approach the stydiving
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: airfield and basically say we have these sixty people that
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: want to go skydiving, which is probably four times more
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: than their regular day rate. We'll put one random day
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: in a week and then we could get a pretty
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: big discount and take over the whole airfield for a
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: day and just go sty diving.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Should we go?
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Should we hop on? Like? That sounds amazing considering it,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I would do it. Oh okay, CV one, oh one.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, Kenny, do you might be hearing from us?
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and anyone else who wants to join.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: It's fantastic way to end the year. End the year
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: screaming I love joy, screaming joy.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: But I mean working without rivals.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: That's true. We are working with us.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: We're talking about Santa Barb in the pod today, So
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: we can't give them too much shade.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: They're really cool people, they are. Yeah, they're awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So what's the difference between like doing a van
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: trip versus a biking or hiking trip.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So for hiking and Backpacking Club, it's a lot
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: more like outdoorsy. What's the right like not work, but
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: like getting out their physical activity focused. So for hiking
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: and Backpacking Club, we've done two Yosemite trips that comes
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: around one of the holidays in November, and last year
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: we did oh yes, two years ago we did Yosemite
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  Speaker 4: Falls and then which is you know, a pretty that's
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: a seven mile round trip hike, I believe, and there's
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: a lot of elevation. And then this past year we
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: did Cloud's Rest which is even higher than Half Dome
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: and we started from the valley floor. That was about
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: a yeah, twenty mile backpacking trip. Or so with Van
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Life Club it's a lot more car camping. We'll do
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: the occasional hike, but it's nothing strenuous. And so for
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Hiking and Backpacking Club. When you do the trip planning
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: for that, you have to add in the sign up form,
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: like what are your physical capabilities? Because you don't want
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: to have someone who only does like four mile hikes
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: do a twenty mile backpacking trip because at that point,
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: like there's a certain amount of responsibility when planning trips
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: for clubs because you don't want to like endanger them,
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: right if you went out with and you don't want
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: to have the experience not like ruined for other people,
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  Speaker 4: but you don't want that one person who's not prepared
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: to hike that much to feel bad, you know, if
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: they get caught with a sickness, that's another thing.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: But yeah, it's different.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: And then for Van Life Club, it's a lot more
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: kind of like not it's like nature tourist y, like
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: remote touristy, so we don't go to tourist heavy places,
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: but we like car camp, hang around the vehicles, that
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: kind of stuff.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: That's great that there's something for everybody, no matter what
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: your physical capabilities are. Thank you so much for coming
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: in and telling us more about your club, And honestly,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I feel like we're inspired to tag along on your
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: next trip.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely should. We're open to all.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and the cow Polyvanlife Club Instagram is at cpvan Life.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: You could find the cal Polyvanlife Slack channel in the
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Instagram bio and yeah, keep a let out her future events.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: So thank you Kenneth so much for that amazing interview.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: So let's get into the first spot of the day,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Santa Barbara.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I wanted to talk a bit about this
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: one because I went a couple weeks ago. My best
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: friend goes to UCSB, so we had been talking about
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: planning a little trip for a while. She's super busy,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I'm super busy, So we planned it all out so
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: that our schedule syncd up, and I just took a
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: weekend and just went down there and I had the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: best time. So my favorite spots that we went to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: were obviously State Street. There's a ton of shopping down there,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: good food, it's just really nice to walk around. Just
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: a great area. My favorite store down there is the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Italian Pottery Store. Oh, absolutely gorgeous. I wanted to buy
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: everything in there, yeah, but I didn't because it's expensive.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And then they also have really cute coffee shops. Since
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: we're both students. We obviously had to carve a little
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: bit of time out to do some work, so that
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was super great, just mixing it up because I go
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to my same coffee shops here all the time.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that was a nice I'm impressed that you
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: were able to find time to do homework. If I'm
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: doing a day trip, I'm like schools on the back
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: burner for me.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I was actually there for a weekend, so I had
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: to use my time wisely fair enough. Yeah, But my
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: favorite thing that we did there was tide polling. I'm
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: obsessed with everything under the sea. I told my best friend,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I said, Kara, if there's one thing that I'm doing today,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: I need to pen an octopus. And she said, okay,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: we're gonna make that happen for you. So we went
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: on our little octopus hunt. We went around to all
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the different tide pools, and the biodiversity there is so amazing,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Like they're like little tiny communities in every single tide pool.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I wish that I could be a marine biologist so
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that I can learn more about this. But we found
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a little octopus and I put my finger like right
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: by him, and he grabbed it and he tried to
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: pull me under, but he was so tiny that it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: didn't really make a difference. But what color, I don't
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: He was kind of a brown, brownish color because they
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: blend in with their environments. So yeah, he was a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: little brown. But I named him Marcellus after the octopus
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: from the book Remarkably Bright Creatures. I love Octopi because
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: of that book, So dreams Come True. What's your take
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: on not UCSB on Santa Barbara.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: I love Santa Barbara. I have gone a few times.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: I've done a weekend trip, and I've done day trips
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: and I've done night trips. I've kind of done it all.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: My first trip to Santa Barbara was actually my freshman year.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Very fortunate enough that my older sister went to cal
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Poly and she was like, I got tickets to see
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: glass animals. Like, let's go, Like holf in the car.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: We're going. It's at the Santa Barbara Bowl. We're just
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: going after class. So we left it like four in
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: the afternoon, got to the venue right on time, saw
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: the opener, saw the band, and it was just Santa
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Barbara is gorgeous.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And it really is.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is so pretty and the Santa Barbara Bowl,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: like as a venue is like on a little hill,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: so you're overlooking a majority of the city and you
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: get a seat like it's the sunset right as like
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: the band came on stage and it was amazing. So
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: definitely would recommend checking out concerts because also that venue,
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: since it's so close to the residential area, you like,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: they have to shut down their concerts by like eleven PM.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: So we were able to drive back that same night
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: and we got in pretty early. So I would definitely
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: recommend checking out Santa Barbara Bols specifically. But also I've
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: done cute little day trips with friends where we just
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: drive down for the day and we go shopping. There's
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of good thrift stores and just it's like
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: you said, so fun to.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Walk the I can attest to the thrifting for sure. Yeah.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's so many cool spaces and you just walk in.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: You can find clothes, shoes, little trinkets, you know, anything fun.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: So I definitely would recommend that. We also walked to
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: the campus and just hung out at like a new
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: beach like I feel like slow. I love exploring all
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: the different beaches here. But also it's fun to go
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: somewhere else and see like different college students and'd be like, wait,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: I don't know every single one of you. So yeah,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I would definitely say Santa Barbara is one of like
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: my best day trip experiences.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Before we get into our next place, wanted to quickly
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: mention the KCPR content team who covers a lot of
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the things that go on in Slow, different events that
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: are happening, and they write stories and everything is just
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: absolutely fabulous. So check out the website at KCPR dot
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: org to read those stories and check them out.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, find something fun to do here and slow.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, So our next spot is big, sir. I have
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: always wanted to go here. It just seems so beautiful.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: There's opportunities for hiking and camping and I don't know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, I have heard nothing but great things about it.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Same. I have also never been, and it's just
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: something that like, I feel like everyone goes, they always
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: do it, and I'm like, when's it gonna be me?
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I heard that the driving is a little bit tricky
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: though at some parts. Yeah, I've had friends that have
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: gone in the past and they've gotten to some sticky situations.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So if you are planning on going here, make sure
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that your car, your car is good to go and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: that you have the right tires and everything. How far
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: away is Big sur So usually it takes about four
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: hours to get to Big Surf from Slow However, due
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to the storms, the roads are unfortunately harder to navigate
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: and you can't go the straight way, so that's going
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: to definitely add some time. So maybe stick it out
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: a little bit before you go there.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: So yeah, bigser is great for seeing harbor seals. There's
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: lots of places to sleep in your car, so very
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: just again gorgeous landscape. Go have fun day trip, weekend trip,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: hang out with friends. But one word of caution, be
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: so careful if you're deciding to drive back at night, because,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: like Keate said, the roads can be dangerous and it
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: can just be really scary. So with all of these trips,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: but especially Big sur take every precaution and be so
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: careful in your planning that you know, hey, I want
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: to leave at this time, so it's not too dark outside.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Check the weather. No, off, it's going to rain. Now,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: the road's going to be the conditions in which your
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: trip is going to be, So take every precaution in
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: the world with these trips. Guys.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, stay smart people, all right. So, Emma, I've never
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: been to Solving before. This is so sad. It's so
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: pathetic of me to say. So, I need you to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: tell me all about it, and then you have to
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: promise to take me with you.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, I for sure will. So Solving is like straight
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: out of a Hallmark movie. I kid you not like I.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: When I went there for the first time, I was like,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: literally where am I? I was put into a Disney movie,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: a Hallmark movie. It's insane. It's very It's a Danish
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: style architecture place, and like everything there is Danish, and
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: it's all just very cool in picturesque, very cute, sy
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: and it's just a very small, quaint little town. So
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I I never have spent the night there. Very much
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: something you can get done in a day, but you
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: kind of just walk through like little cobblestone roads and
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: go into all these different shops and sit down and
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: get the full Danish experience. There's lots of clogs, lots
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: of clog places, clog shops, clogs, clogs. There's dogs, a
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: giant like I love that word dog. Clog there's a
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: giant clog statue outside of a clog store, so like
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: it's just it's very much like they're on brand, like
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: they get matching clogs. Yes, yes, And they also have
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: a what you see on TV shop that's just like
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: that's fun. Any infomercial that you've seen, any gadget from that,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: they have it. So it's it's definitely an odd little place,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: but I love it. It's so fun to just go,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: like you said, do a coffee shop, get a nice
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: little walk in. I've also heard that it's a great
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: place for like wine tasting and doing things like that. Lovely,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: and it's like literally ten minutes down the road from
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Ostridge Land, Like they are literally right on the same road,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: so you can see some ostriches and then go have
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: your little Hallmark moment.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I literally I don't even know. I feel like I
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: should have done a burpy every time you said cutzie,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and I would have seen a little worked out cute
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: and clog those are the words to de scrog solving. Yeah,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that sounds fun and I am now definitely going to
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: make an effort to do that.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's like an hour hour and a half away,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: so It's very much quick, easy day trip, just to
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: get out and explore a new town and just walk.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, So our next destination is about two two and
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a half hours from Slow. This one's very near and
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: dear to my heart. It's Monterey. I grew up going here.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I'm from San Jose, so it was never really a
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: far drive. They just have the best food. Such it's
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: so picture picturesque over there. Wo a beautiful ward. I
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: just used there. I know that people like. The main
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: thing that people do there is visit the aquarium. I
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: can safely say this aquarium is not overrated.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: It is a blast.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I love going. It's like I said, I love my
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: marine wildlife, so it's just amazing. My favorite thing to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: do in Monterey, though, is kayaking. There is just this
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: cute little kayak rental and bike shop that's right off
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: the coast. They do kayak tours, paddle boarding tours, bike tours.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: So I did the kayak tour for my senior trip
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: in high school, and then I brought my parents back
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: and did it again and it was so much fun.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: The tour guides are always excellent, and one time they
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: brought us by I think were they Seals over by
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the side there. They were like barking and it was crazy.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: They were jumping and they seemed super aggressive, so I
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: was freaking out a little bit. But it's really cool.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Oh and then the seat as well. They'll pop up
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: every so often.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: I used to go a lot as a kid, but
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I haven't been back in years, so I definitely want
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: to go. And I see a lot of people are
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: like going and just hang out at the aquarium and
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: like doing fun things, so I need to go back.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a fun place. My favorite
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: place to eat is all To Bakery and Cafe. They
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: have really really good coffee and excellent pastries. Kid you not.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I would do anything to have one of their chocolate
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: croissants right now. It's a really really fun place to go.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I love going with my friends and with my parents,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and I actually have a friend visiting me over spring break,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to take her to Monterey. It's just
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: my spot that I show everyone, And like I said,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: it's not too far from slow so you can do
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: it in a day.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, So our last place to visit is the one
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: and only Hers Castle, So I have been once.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Have you Kate, I've never been. I need to go.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: My mom and I my mom has been holding out
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: for me. She's like, we're gonna go together. Oh okay,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: So I've been waiting to go. We haven't fished, I
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: mean not quite yet. Technically.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I went and I wasn't even a student here, like
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: I went with my family when we were just visiting.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: So but it is like insane, like it's it's a
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: literal castle and it's what like forty five minutes away,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: and they have like you sign up for a tour
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: and they shuttle you in. The place has like animals
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: like zebras, bison, elk, deer, sheep. It's just like a
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: very eccentric palace like castle vibes and I love it
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: so much.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: I need to go see me some zebras. That sounds
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: so fun. They just roam like the lawn as they should,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: and it's like free the zebras, and I.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Think they have a lot of like fruit trees that
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: line like the driveway and things like that. And you
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: just walk through all the different rooms and you see
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: like all these different artworks and statues and things like that.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: And they have like a giant pool and it's so
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: gorgeous and it's perfect for like photos, like if you
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: just go get dressed up and then be like, I'm
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: a princess for the day, staying at like my newcastle.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Also fun fact the owner of Herst Castle, like back
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: in the day was a newspaper owner, so very near
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: and dear to our little journalistic hearts.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: So so fun, We'll definitely have to make an effort
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to make it there. Another one just a little honorable
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: mention more obey, not a ton to do there, That's
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: why we didn't really talk about it as much. But
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: they also have coffee shops, thrifting places to walk around. Yeah,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: that's also fun. Anyways, that's all the time we have
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: for today. One last piece of advice.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Don't be afraid to get out and touch grass, but
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: seriously go out and ex flor San Luis, Obispo and
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: beyond and have fun while doing it.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Anyways, we'll be back with more tips and tricks next
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: time on CP one oh one learn by listening. You
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: can find us on any preferred streaming platform for the
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: next episode.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: And to keep up to date with CP one on
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: one and all KCPR podcasts, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, TikTok,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: or Facebook at KCPR nine one three or.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Check us out on kcpr dot org slash Podcast signing off,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: I'm Kate Lopensk.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: And I'm Emma Hughes. Thanks for keeping up with all
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: things cale poly