July 13, 2018:
That's not hyperbole. Not even a little.
There's a reason the movie industry settled in Hollywood. It's not just the number of sunny days per year. If that's all it was they'd have been just as well in Arizona. It's the uniquely vibrant quality of the light.
The perfect temperature, not too red not too blue. Vibrant, cheerful, without being overbearing as it can be in the tropics. Mediterranean.
There's a communal quality to it, an outdoor quality, like a village square in the mountains of Greece. Where the light in NorCal is like that of Northern Europe: inward, private, desultory.
Soon as you descend the pass into Gaviota: there you are. Wrapped inside that beautiful light like a warm blanket of pure endorphin.