Stephanie Nikolopoulos's Blog, page 53
October 30, 2012
Road Trip: By Night
In honor of Cabbage Night and Halloween, I thought it would be fun to post some photos from my road trip that I took at night. A midnight road trip is deliciously scary. The moon taunting you from above. Tree branches that look like claws. Eerie silence. On the bus, we watched the psychological thriller Vertigo, [...]
October 28, 2012
Prepping for Hurricane Sandy
Just got word that the MTA is shutting down at 7 tonight for Hurricane Sandy. Doesn’t make much difference to me. I’ve been stuck sick in bed for two days. Yesterday, started out well enough. I went to Barnes & Noble and got a Pumpkin Spice latte and Dutch Apple cheesecake and then braved [...]
October 25, 2012
Road Trip: Lone Cyprus Tree
We stopped real quick to see the Lone Cyprus Tree as we took a road trip along the famous 17-Mile Drive on the California Coast. It’s such a beautiful symbol, a tree enjoying the salty ocean air. Here’s a little bit about the Lone Cyprus Tree from Wikipedia: Chief among the scenic attractions is the [...]
October 23, 2012
Road Trip: Pebble Beach Is Not a Beach
Part of my road trip down the California coast included a stop to Pebble Beach. As it turned out, Pebble Beach is not actually a beach. It’s a prestigious place to golf. I kept seeing everyone take photographs with this clock so I took one too. I have no idea why. I know nothing about [...]
October 22, 2012
Road Trip: 17 Mile Drive
On my road trip down the California Coast, we took the 17 Mile Drive. I’d never heard of it before, but everyone talked about it as if it were the highlight of the trip even though we spend a lot less time there. What I discovered was that California’s 17 Mile Drive is a stretch [...]
October 19, 2012
Road Trip: Sea Lions and Sea Otters on the Northern California Coast
I’m a total sucker for cute animal videos, and a while ago I came across this video of a sea lion that falls in love with a woman on the beach. I’m not sure where it was filmed, but I thought of it when I spotted sea lions while road tripping down Highway [...]
October 17, 2012
Overarching Writing Tip from Big Sur Writers: Don’t Censor Your First Draft
If you’re a frequent visitor to this site, you’re probably a fan of the Beat Generation, which means you’ve probably read Jack Kerouac’s Rules for Spontaneous Prose. In a recent fit of procrastination, I stumbled upon Henry Miller’s Commandments while browsing the blog a lovely being. Then through a rabbit hole that began on Poets & [...]
October 16, 2012
A Manhattan in Big Sur: Cocktail Recipe for Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur Manhattan
Big Sur tells the story of Jack Kerouac’s alter ego escaping the pressures of fame brought on after the publishing success of On the Road by hiding out at the desolate cabin owned by his friend, City Lights Bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti (called Lorenzo Monsanto in the novel). Kerouac had a notorious sweet tooth, perhaps most noticeably evident by [...]
October 15, 2012
Big Sur and the Best Laid Plans….
I just got back from a trip where everything seemed to go awry. On my recent trip to San Francisco for a friend’s wedding, I had big plans to visit John Steinbeck’s Monterey, where Cannery Row is set, and Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur, where he spent time in his friend poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s cabin and [...]
October 12, 2012
Clip: Church Hopping: Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes
A car packed with teenagers was speeding down the street at the exact moment we were approaching the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on foot. It was an unseasonably warm October day in 2011, and the car window was rolled down. Or maybe the rebellious, rowdy passengers rolled it down when they saw [...]
