I'm embarrassed that this took so long... but six months after moving to the California Central Coast I finally visited a spot in Morro Bay State Park, immediately behind a very cool natural history museum, where the Chumash people had carved mortars in the exposed bedrock for grinding acorns.
They couldn't have picked a more serene or beautiful spot, overlooking across Morro Bay to the sand spit and the massive, signature Morro Rock, one of seven (or is it eight?) "sisters" - a line of volcanic plugs that extend east toward San Luis Obispo.
I squatted next to the mortars (insert sound of knees cracking here) to get a feel for what it must have been like to spend hours in that beautiful place turning the another bountiful - and virtually labor-free - harvest of acorns into a year's worth of nutrients. I pivoted to look out over the bay...
... and found myself staring straight into an impenetrable wall of eucalyptus trees. Gah.
Given the reckless way in which eucalyptus were planted in California (and the wannabe timber barons of Montana de Oro State Park is another story for another day) I'm only amazed that the place isn't overrun with koalas.
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