Posted on May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 in beach, meadow, mountains

Good Talks

Santa Barbara, California

Growing up in a town like Santa Barbara, many of the activities are based on the natural environment. Usually when it’s a sunny weekend, you would find me and my friends lounging at the beach. When it is chilly, I’ll be dancing on the top of a mountain.

Pictured above are my friends Bella and Grace picnicking after school at a local park. This day was a few weeks ago and it was spontaneous. I was getting home from school and my friend Bella texted me and asked if I wanted to meet me at the park close to my house. It was a little bit of a surprise, but I had a good time. I have already done a blog post on this magical park and I recommend checking it out ( https://inchartopia.com/2016/04/20/queen-of-the-woods/).

We spent a long time at the park, climbing trees, and enjoying our surroundings after a long day at school. I felt at peace. We sat in the long grass and talked about things we want to do in our lives and things we dislike in our lives. I realized then that nature does not only make me and others happy, but also brings people together.

Some people feel that coffee shops are the best place to hang out and talk to someone, but I disagree. When you hike with someone up a mountain, that is when the good conversions start flowing. They may be all complaints about the dust or blisters, but sometimes after you have been hiking for a hour and so and you are so done, that’s when one becomes vulnerable. That’s when the good talks happen. And then you wonder why does this matter? As you know, we live in the age of technology. It’s a great thing to be able to send a message across the world in a second, but there are also some problems that come with it. This problem is the lost of physical connection. We are so into with saying “what’s up” over text with the answer of “I’m good! wbu?” The end of the conversation. Done. Nothing else.

vsco-photo-3 — At the beach with my friends

So instead of just texting someone this weekend, go out of your way and take a friend to a park or on a hike and ask, “What’s up?”

In person.

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Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

Posted on May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 in meadow

Nothing Gold Can Stay

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“Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay. ” -Robert Frost,

Summerland, CA

This morning I woke up at 6 am anxious. I got myself together and booked it to my favorite coffee shop, The French Press. While I was ordering my ice coffee the lady taking my order asked me what I had planned for the rest of the day. I answered with a simple reply of I am taking an AP Computer Science test. Her facial expression changed quickly from a tired gaze to a short laugh, then a “glad I’m not you” look. She handed me my coffee as if she gave me gold. After that I was off and on my way hyped on a bagel and caffeine.

About four hours later I finished my test and as Shakespeare puts it, “Twas’ a rough night.” (Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4), but it wasn’t night. It was bright and early in the morning. I just thought that quote was relatable. Computer science is hard, but most of the time I have fun with it. Even though I feel like I failed the test, I am proud that I did it. I felt like a queen after taking the test, I hugged all my friends as if I just won a battle.

To celebrate, my friend Kelsey and I left school . We went to the beach. As I felt golden, the sky was gray. We left the gloomy beach after drinking our oreo milkshakes, and headed to the mustard greens meadow in Summerland, just south of Santa Barbara. I did a blog post about this yellow magical meadow earlier. But this was earlier, and now most of the leaves were brown. There was a small patch of yellow left in the meadow. I savored the last of the golden field and ran around through the tall weeds without luckily getting stung by a bee for hours. It was a nice celebration to be there after taking that test in the morning. Nature is always a party

It makes me sad to see the meadow turn brown, but it reminds me of the Buddhist term, impermanence , which basically means nothing is forever and to enjoy the beautiful things in life for the moment.

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

Posted on April 28, 2016April 28, 2016 in travel

Because of Them

1988 - Yosemite - Whitney, Soma, Russ, Kerryn

The “Hippie” School

I crawled out of my tent as the sun creeped over the horizon. My legs were covered in bruises, scraps, bug bites, and not to mention insanely sore because the day before I biked 53 miles up and over a mountain. I was 14 years old, and this was a normal day at school for me. Last year I graduated from an experimental/ outdoor education school, Santa Barbara Middle School. Overall, we were out of the classroom for over 30 days of the school year from backpacking in Catalina Island to biking through dust storms in Arizona to swimming in the lakes in Oregon. It was the best thing for a kid growing up to experience, being pushed mentally and physically in a loving community of people of support who you are.

We got the reputation as the “Hippie School” just cause the teachers didn’t believe in conforming to the “norms”. Why should we when there is a whole world out there to explore and learn from? Let’s go back in time starting from the 1970s to see how this school became a close community of learners and how they taught me to Carpe Diem.

1987 Hutch and Robin 1991 Matt & Elio

The year was 1976. Some people came together, as the school’s website (sbms.org) puts it, “…sought to create a school that would combine an innovative, challenging academic program with an environment responsive to the many needs of adolescent students.” Their wishes came true with hard work. The crazy thing is these people who had this dream of creating this school and made it happened, were some of my teachers, 35 years later. The first picture of the four people taken in Yosemite in 1988, on the far left, is Whitney. Whitney is still the Director of Admissions, and the lady who accepted me into the school 3/4 of the way into the school year. A true savior. I came from another school that was not a good fit for me. SBMS instantly felt like home and even when I go back and visit it feels like I never felt.

Two from the right in the picture, was my math and science teacher, Russ. I am very lucky to have had him as a teacher. I have never witness a teacher to love the subject they were teaching as much as Russ does. I remember he told our class to read the Physics textbook for the fun of it because thought it was an interesting. As I may disagree with him, I do respect his passion for teaching math and science, and also for teaching me to notice small, intricate things nature can create like leaves that can be so beautiful.

1987 Driving home over the Golden Gate Bridge 1987 Six O'Clock Sunrise Swim

As this is hard to wrap up, since I have so many stories and things to say about my experiences of biking, backpacking, and camping with this school, I would like to finish with the quote I said at graduation that sums up most of my experience (also one of my favorite quotes):

” Peace comes from within, do not seek without.” -Buddha

Think about that quote. What does it mean to you?

1979 new 1980 Petula and INa

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

♥︎

*All pictures are taken by SBMS alumni (www.sbms.org)*

Posted on April 20, 2016April 28, 2016 in meadow

Queen of The Woods

Hale Park, Montecito

“Ah so you have finally taken me to Chartopia,” she said gazing up at the eucalyptus tree.

“Indeed I have,” I replied with a smirk.

I woke up my friend, Lily, early on Saturday morning. I offered her some coffee as a nice gesture for terribly waking her up before noon . She declined my coffee offer, and I told her I had somewhere to take her. I drove, got out of the car, and jumped over the stone wall that opens up into Hale Park, also known (to me) as Chartopia.

As you can see, I call this park Chartopia like the name of my blog. It is what actually gave me the inspiration to start blogging about the places around me as I feel this park represents how beautiful the world can be. This place is untouched, and you don’t get much of that anymore as the industrialization of the world is becoming more prominent. It is like they feel the need to fill every square inch of Earth with cement or man-made structures! What surprises me is that I barely spot any people whenever I am there, and I go there a lot. Where am I after school? The park. On weekends? The park.

This is because I can go and sit and just stare at lovely, purple flowers, or lay in the middle of a wild grass field with a book. I feel like a kid, and I think that is what makes me so happy. People need places to go to be alone, or a place they feel comfortable at where they can reconnect with themselves. For me, I feel most comfortable in nature, and I think many people would agree. I feel like metaphorically “The Queen of the Woods” whenever I go to Hale Park because I have the place to myself, and it is my happy spot. It is Chartopia! As a teenager who is loaded up with school, homework, AP tests, and stress, it is so important to take a break and enjoy the beautiful parks, mountains, and/or beaches that surround us. Lily loved the park and I brought some more of my friends there this morning… we had a really great time!

Nature is a place worth spending time in. Happy almost Earth Day!

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

Posted on March 18, 2016March 18, 2016 in mountains

Resilience

San Ysidro Falls

On my previous post (Secret Gardens [check it out ;)] ) I dared everyone to take a hike this past weekend, including myself. So I did.

There are many, many trails where I live (Santa Barbara / Montecito), but since it just rained, I decided to go to San Ysidro Falls. You can access the trail from Park Lane off of East Valley Road. I enjoy this hike because along the trail, you are next to the a creek almost whole way. Plus, there are so many awesome natural pools of water to SWIM IN! Yes you can swim in! It’s a cold, wet, but fun adventure. The best part is the waterfall (pictured above). The volume of water in the waterfall is not a ton, but it is decently tall, about 50 feet. The picture I took only shows the top of it, so it does not look that large in the photo, but it is. The waterfall is about 2 miles up the trail, so in total it is a 4 mile hike (up and down).

But what is hiking really all about? Why do we choose to walk up a mountain then done the mountain?

It’s about the scenery:

all the wildflowers, the odd shaped boulders, the birds’ singing, the eucalyptus trees

I went on this hike with my dad and while we were walking past a green field of long wild grass, he said, “It’s funny how people pay all this money to have gardeners, who make water drip systems, remove all the weeds, and put wiring under the soil to protect it, so your garden can survive and look nice, but then you go out in nature and see a tree growing out of a rock, and you’re like, that’s so much cooler!”

It’s true. I remember in eighth grade my English teacher read us this poem a kid wrote about a desert plant. I don’t recall word for word what it was, but it was the comparison between a pretty garden flower versus a stark desert plant. When I grew up I was told to like the delicate attractive flowers that are watered each day and taken care of, and I do like them very much still, but this poem brought to my attention to the inner strength of a plant. A cactus for instance, stands in the middle of a dry, hot, dusty, windy terrain. It’s surviving and thriving. Yes, they are not a beautiful small flower, but they are some bad ass plants that can with stand a whole lot more than a rose.

I think the poem explains nature well as a whole. It’s not like anyone is taking care of the natural world all the time, and it’s almost the opposite, since nature now has to suffer from deforestation, trash, and global warming mainly due to the PEOPLE that roam the Earth. Yet, somehow through all this bad, it still looks beautiful. Though, if people keep treating it like it is for granted, it will change for the worst. Give nature some love and take care of it, so it remains green and happy!

That is why I love hiking because it is the time I can really appreciate my natural surroundings.

Have a great weekend!! Give nature some love!

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte

Posted on March 11, 2016March 18, 2016 in travel

Secret Gardens

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“Is the spring coming?’ he said. ‘What is it like?’… ‘It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine, and things pushing up and working under the earth.'”

-Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Summerland, California

I have saved this quote for awhile and I felt it was the time to use it because it is now March and it feels like spring. A slight storm came in and brought gloom to the sky, but the flowers and grass were vibrant and growing above the ground with little birds searching for pollen. It was a true spring day. On this day, I drove south to the small town of Summerland, California. It is a small, happy, and sleepy with cute local shops with all sorts off knick knacks like any other small California beach town.

What makes this places more special than other towns is this place towards the end of the main street (Lillie Ave.) called, Sacred Space. Sacred Space is technically a store, but it is more like a meditation garden with the influence of Buddhism. It is like how a Buddhist temple can have a gift shop, but the more important thing is that it is a temple. I want to put out there that I do not feel that my pictures below show the beauty of the place.

My camera did not like the fog.

Jameson at front entrance of Sacred Space

Jameson and I walked around the grounds of Sacred Space, which is small, but lots to see. Sprawled upon the bamboo, palm trees, and succulents, are Buddhas. Buddhas everywhere. There are also some other spiritual figures like the Hindu god, Shiva and Vishnu. Once we walked around and admired the place, we settled down on the couch under a cabana type of thing (pictured on the right-back below).

In front of the couch is a table with a journal. If you flip it open you will see quotes, journal entries, drawings from people have come to Sacred Space. The journal is my favorite part because people write in the journal about how thankful they are. Definitely check out the journal at Sacred Space.

It’s dope and inspiring.

After are time at Sacred Space we went up the road for a new adventure…

The mustard field (pictured above)! I can’t explain how I exactly got there because it’s sort of confusing, but this place is so BEAUTIFUL, nothing like it. It’s a massive piece of land filled with flowers! In this time of age of sky scrapers and concrete, sometimes it puts you in shock to see a place like this. It was my first time going to this field in Summerland and not my last! If you really want to know where it is ask me in person or comment below and I will give you the best directions I can:)

HAPPY ALMOST FRIDAY!!!

Have an adventurous weekend.

Go take a hike, I dare you.

Much love and peace,

Charlotte

P.S. Be a super cool, awesome person and follow my Instagram! @chartopia_ @chartopia_ @chartopia_

Posted on March 4, 2016March 18, 2016 in beach

Clovers

Hammond’s Beach

After some rain, the meadow at Hammond’s Beach has changed from brown weeds, an optimist would call it “gold”, into a lush green landscape. I was surprised that a small amount of rain can make the greenery come alive again after such a long drought in Santa Barbara. People think the drought it over, but hate to break it, but it is not. It will take the amount of time that got us into this drought, which was a few years, to get back to the normal water levels with sufficient rain.

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Enough with the drought, Hammond’s is still a beautiful place whether the meadow is dead or not. It is a popular place for people, mostly locals, to be because it’s more secluded than close by areas like Butterfly Beach. Butterfly is great to and it is a place where you run into a lot of people. Comparing Butterfly and Hammond’s, I would consider Butterfly Beach to be the “scene” and Hammond’s as the more “low-key” area. This is because in order to get to Hammond’s especially in high-tide days, you have to climb over some rocks dividing Butterfly and Hammond’s. Or, you can walk the train tracks and there is a path that veers off to the right. That way is hard to find, but basically if you are walk from Coast Village Road toward the beach, you will see the train tracks. Turn left onto the train tracks and follow it for a few hundred feet until you see an uphill dirt trail on the right side. You will walk past so walls with graffiti that says in pink and black “SB Locals,” then the path will release you into the meadow of Hammond’s Beach. Bring a towel, water, and snacks because Hammond’s is a great place to hang out all day.
meadow

I think I love this place so much because I have many memories of being at Hammond’s. I have lived in Santa Barbara my whole life, so I have been going to this beach for awhile now. I feel like when you grow up, the places you go to change like in elementary school it consisted of Girsh Park, then in middle school it was Paseo Nuevo, and now it is probably Lizard’s mouth or my house because school makes me tired. But through all these times I would and still frequently go to Hammond’s with my family or my friends. A good memory I have of this place is when it was in middles school. It was a full moon, so my friends and I thought it was a good idea to sneak out to the beach in the middle of the night and jump in the ocean. I still remember how cold it was. So, so, so cold. We didn’t think it through that we had to walk a mile back to the house in wet clothes. We survived, but it was maybe the funniest, and possibly stupidest things I have done.

I love Hammond’s beach because 1) it is more private than other beaches in SB, meaning less people 2) the green meadow edges up to the sand and ocean, making it a unique place 3) a killer view of the sunset.

I recommend going if you want a good beach to go to:)

Much Love and Peace,

Charlotte Wall