Watercolor Restaurant

Watercolor Restaurant is on Soda Bay Road on the south shore of Clear Lake in Lake County. It's a fine place for humans to observe fellow humans. A man discusses the breakup of his marriage, "What I did wrong, according to her, was leave, but the only thing I did right was get out of there." Later, on his way out, he said to the waitress, "You're the cutest thing I've seen around here." A woman on her cell phone said to her teenage daughter, "A beer has less alcohol than wine. Drink one beer and relax." A man among four men said, "I used to be a successful contractor. Now that they're putting me in jail (laughs), I wanted to have this going away party." The croissant raisin bread pudding is excellent, even in the absence of decaf. "We're all heavy hitters here," the waitress said.

Edgewater RV Park

Edgewater RV Park is on Soda Bay Road, on the south shore of Clear Lake, and is the choice RV Park among many on the lake. Its location at the foot of Mt. Konocti means cool and wet, and cool and wet supports a diversity of plants not found elsewhere on the lake. A pier out over the water allows unimpeded access to sunsets reflected in still waters.

Zephyr Zen

In Zephyr Zen in the town of Clearlake on the shores of Clear Lake in Lake County, is an alabaster statue of Buddha holding an alabaster statue of Mary, illustrative of the next stage in the development of American religion.

Steves Place

The yellow of Steves Place is hard to miss. It is in the town of Clearlake on Clear Lake in Lake County. The sign says Compassion Center, but it looks not all that welcoming. Another sign says, "Ring door bell: clerk will let you in." Steve is a big man with a rough voice, "We're a head shop, basically. We sell medical marihuana, and you have to have a prescript for that." Steve also sells bongs, clothes, sunglasses, and trinkets. A bible on the counter was open to II Samuel.

Silver Dollar Plaza

The Silver Dollar Plaza is a town unto itself. It on Highway 53, just past its intersection with Highway 29, on the edge of the historical downtown of Lower Lake. Its customers are few. The rent is probably low. Yet, and this is its redemption, it is the Alpha and the Omega. The Tree of Life is here, the tree that Adam and Eve rejected in favor of the Tree of Knowledge. Here's an opportunity to make up for their oversight. The New Jerusalem is here, too, so Revelation is just a few stores down from Genesis. On the way are hookahs and healing, good fellowship and wild tattoos.

Lucerne

California's Lucerne is on the north shore of Clear Lake in Lake County. Highway 120 runs right through it. In Harbor Park one of the staff of Lake County Parks said,"No, the county really got on the hydrilla problem and now is doing the same with the mussels that attach themselves to boats. There was a die-off of carp recently, and they had all of us out immediately to pick them up. It wasn't so bad, but you couldn't get the smell out of your nose for a week. The police now patrol the parks and the highways. We want to make this a nice place for people to come. Until I got this job with the county, I lived in Cobb, and I wouldn't come to the North Shore. That's the meth place, I would say. But not now. People used to say to me, 'Lake County! you've got all those druggies and convicts.' No more, we're sending them to you now."

In the park is a collection of artist shops and galleries, a cooperative effort between the county, the town, and local artists.

Mary Lou's is in the center of town and is the central attraction. It's full of bird houses made by the husband of the owner. A woman came in, ordered coffee, glared at the other customers, mumbled a hello in response to hellos, and went outside to sit in the cold. She pulled out a cigarette, sipped her coffee, ran her hand through her hair, rocked by and forth in a lean-back chair, and left.

A middle-aged woman came in. "Terri here?"
"No," responded the barista, a young man with a guitar, in his twenties. "She just left."
She sat down with her cappuccino. "I walked in this morning."
"You walked all the way from home?"
"Yes."
"You are looking good."
"Thank you, but I know better. I've been on this diet. I hate it. My doctor says 'Lose weight!' and I know he goes out behind his office and smokes. A bunch of us went out the other night and had fish. I hate fish, but it's supposed to be good for me."

"Yes, business is not good," the young man said. "All last summer it was like it was late fall. I've been here ten years, and I see business after business come in and go out. They last about one to two years. It's that way all over the lake."

An old man came in for espresso. He knew everyone.
A woman and her brain-damaged daughter came in for lunch. She, too, knew everyone.

Mystic Barrel

Mystic Barrel is in a small arcade off Highway 120 in the town of Nice on the shores of Clear Lake. It sells guns, knives, native spirits, mood rings, fairies and fairy dust.

Holy Joe's

Holy Joe's in historic Upper Lake shares a building with Mr. Hope Services, Virtuous Woman, and ads for Angel Intuitive Readingsand Awaken Colon Hydrotherapy. It is directly across from a Christian Bookstore and serves Spirit Up, Been Berry Blessed and other Enlighten Elixirs that Invigorate, Refresh, Restore, and Cleanse. The barista was a trucker and bookkeeper, until he lost his job. Now, besides making coffee, he is a reporter embedded in paintball wars. He really wants to be a writer. He likes to sit down with a blank page and write whatever comes into his head. He thinks humans are limited only by their own thoughts. "Why are there twelve months to a year, eighty years to a life?"

Library Park

On the shores of Clear Lake in Lakeport in Lake County is Library Park. Its rails and poles frame the stature of Mt. Konocti. Those in the know claim the no-longer-active volcano is hollow inside and inhabited by little people (perhaps cousins to the Lemurians inside Mt. Shasta) who give out vibes to all with proper antennas. Meanwhile limnologists at the University of California, Davis, occupied the Carnegie Library for many years and submitted their lacustrian findings to all the proper journals.