California is big guys. No really, it's so big. We always talk about how Colorado is a big state and it takes several hours to get anywhere, but that pales in comparison to how long California is. It doesn't take too terribly long to get across it, but to go down the whole thing, takes a long time.
In addition to being big, it's been surprisingly empty. Before you tell me it got some of the biggest cities in the country, let me explain. Most of our time in Northern California was time spent in towns too small for a gas station and with cell service only in the biggest cities along the way. Sometimes we'd go several days without cell service. Neither of us realized how much this affected us until it wasn't available to us. We stumbled upon a dude who flipped his Jeep on Highway 1, who thankfully was okay, but we didn't have service to call emergency services. While we kept him calm and safe, we asked strangers to drive until they had signal and call on our behalf. All we had was a call box on the side of the road, and even that had shoddy connection.
And on that note, we saw a surprisingly high number of flipped vehicles. The 101 was a beautiful drive, and Highway 1 was just a beautiful and a ton more fun (read: terrifyingly curvy) to drive. Just a heads up, if you like winding roads, California's got what you're looking for.
After we had some introspective hiking and camping in Redwood's Tall Tree Grove, we took off down the coast following the famous Pacific Highway, the 101. We had heard from friends in Seattle that the cliffs in Mendocino were worth a visit, so that was our first stop.
And boy were they right. Mendocino cliffs are absolutely gorgeous, with the bluest and frothiest and angriest water throwing itself against them. We finally caught some rays of sunshine here too, which also lifted our spirits.
From there we continued down the coast, stopping in Fort Bragg to do some laundry and dry out the truck, as the sunshine had moved its way there. We also needed to find some cell signal and wifi to connect with our hosts in the Bay Area, as our cancelled trip to Crater Lake had us ahead of schedule. The rain picked up again, so we decided to just hightail it down the 101 towards San Francisco and hope that our Bay Area connections would be able to reach us. We made it to Santa Rosa late at night, with all intentions of just sleeping in the truck so that we could keep going south in the morning.
That was until we found out that Santa Rosa is not very amenable to people sleeping in their cars. In fact, they had just passed a law overturning a previous sanction that prohibited people from sleeping in their cars. Now one could sleep in their car, but if caught with a sleeping back in your car with you, that would be considered camping in your car, which is still illegal and will cost you a couple hundred in fines. Considering that our truck has four sleeping bags in it, we left Santa Rosa to find a pull off out of town to sleep in.
There have been a number of things that we didn't anticipate being a problem or something to consider on this trip, and finding somewhere we can sleep was one of them. We figured that we're not harming anyone and we're not being a nuisance and we're not leaving a mess, so who would mind? As long as we're not sleeping in someone's driveway all creepy-like it shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong.
Another thing we didn't anticipate is what would happen if we didn't have a destination or a designated pit stop. The saying goes "It's about the journey not the destination." Well, that's half true. While you shouldn't focus so much on the destination that you miss out on the journey, having a destination is pretty darn important. Otherwise, you're just lost and letting the wind blow you any which way and so stressed about where you're gonna end up that it doesn't feel like you're on a journey at all. You just feel lost. Which isn't always a bad thing, but it certainly is stressful.
Since we were ahead of schedule, our contacts in the Bay Area were still all out of town and out of contact, and in a rash decision to get somewhere that made sense, we made for Yosemite in the middle of the night to wait until we had originally planned to visit the Bay. About an hour into the haul we entered an area with cell service and had a happy and unexpected text from Aunt Jill that they were back and we were welcome to come stay with them earlier than expected! With a breath of relief we turned around and headed back to San Mateo area where she and her family live.
And what a sight for sore eyes. I want to take a minute here and explain that while we're having fun doing this trip, we're still not very good at it. So rolling up to Aunt Jill and MJ's driveway, to their warm house with room to sit up straight, walk around even, was a breath of relief. We couldn't wait to just stretch out somewhere we knew we were allowed to be and didn't have to buy something to be allowed to be there. We were excited to finally have a destination after wandering around northern California and San Francisco without direction. We were also in dire need of a shower.
Staying with them was wonderfully normal. The boys woke up for school the next day, with their parents chasing them with questions of where their left shoe was and if they had their homework. We woke shortly after and showered before catching up with Aunt Jill before she ran her errands for the day and a busy night of Trick-or-Treating with the boys. We did laundry and charged our electronics and caught up with family and emails using their wonderful supply of wifi and electricity, things we used to take or granted but are now infinitely grateful for.
We were even more grateful for how MJ and Jill and the boys just wrapped us up in with their normal life. They didn't skip a beat, we just became a part of it. We watched the World Series games, played with Legos with the boys, went Trick-or-Treating, and bribed the boys with more playtime in exchange for finished homework. It was such a nice change of pace, and we're so grateful to get to see these beloved family, which we normally see only on special occasions like Christmas, in their normal everyday lives and to be apart of it.
During the days we explored the various "must-see" destinations and attractions. Our first stop was Half Moon Bay State Park and Beach. We knew it was going to be beautiful, but definitely expected throngs of people to be there. But it was almost deserted. We walked around a good chunk of the bay, stopping by some sand dunes for a snack, a nap, and some reading. The surf came up and some surfers arrived, but the beach never became the crowded scene we were expecting, thankfully.
Next we explored Fitzgerald Marine Reserve where we had heard the Tidal Pools are wonderful. Chelsea is a huge lover of tide pools, hopping around looking for interesting creatures and awing at the tiny ecosystems. This was heaven for her. We wandered all around them as the tide went out, exposing more and more little pools of hermit crabs, fish, anemones, and other critters. With the rain finally gone, we decided to pay homage to the sun which we missed so much by watching the sunset on the beach. The evening couldn't have ended any better.
Later that night, we had been invited to Mission District in San Francisco by Tobias, an old traveling companion of Chelsea's, for a Dia de los Muertos celebration. This was a wonderful community event, which included a parade of different groups in the district celebrating and playing music and followed by throngs of people celebrating their dead. It was wonderful to experience it all from the sidelines and observe this procession and ponder it's significance to those participating. The parade ends in a park where groups of people play music and dance and eat street food and burn sage and exchange stories of their loved ones and imbibe in marijuana and alcohol openly in the streets.
We had noticed that even though California hasn't legalized recreational marijuana, only medicinal, many people openly partake on the streets and in public places. Coming from the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, it was jarring to see it used to openly, as it is restricted to private use in Colorado. It was a bit of a culture shock to smell the caramelizing onions on street carts, the sweet bread being sold, the sage being burned, and the skunkiness of people smoking weed all mixed together. Definitely a novel experience to say the least.
The following days we continued visiting with the family, making dinner of veggie curry for the boys to try and running around playing soccer with them. We also took a trip to Golden Gate Park, a monstrosity of a city park with over one thousand acres of space encompassing a bison enclosure and a man made lake home to a miniature sail boat club among many other sights. We walked most of the day, eventually making our way to the tower at de Young Museum where we took in a bird's eye view of the park. We then made the trek to Land's End Park to watch the waves crash against cliffs and the sun set. Another golden end to the day.
Our last night in the Bay Area was another exotic evening with Tobias in Oakland for their First Friday celebration. Local artists all come together on a street in downtown to showcase their work on the first Friday of every month. We've been to a number of First Fridays in Fort Collins and the surrounding area, but those are nothing compared to Oakland's. While ours features the art vendors with storefronts in Old Town, Oakland has artists of all kinds come together. From jewelry makers, to screen printers, to painters, musicians, and other crafts and hand made goods, it was all there. There were rap battles and dance offs and dj's and food trucks and protest groups and so many other groups of people it was hard to keep it all straight.
It was here that we had another bit of culture shock. Most people think of Oakland as a dangerous suburb of San Francisco, and it very well may be, we're not experts on the area. But the people there were all just doing their thing. No one that we saw were clashing with cops and the police force wasn't trying to reign in anyone's fun. Fifths of every form of liquor was being carried in the open and weed smoked in the streets. Muscle cars and suped up motorcycles blocked side streets and music blared, yet for the most part, everyone was behaving themselves just letting loose with art and music. And when the festival was over, everyone cleared out and went on their merry way to find their favorite bar or to go home.
Northern California has been a wonderful experience for us; teaching us the enormity of the state, the contentedness that our cell service provides us that we take for granted, the importance of destinations, and the loveliness of family and friends who open their lives up to you for a rest and reprieve from the road and a chance to reconnect.
One last thought: While we were out for a beer with Tobias and some of his friends, a gentleman who's name escapes us asked, "Why did you choose this life for yourself?"
It's a profound question, one that not too many people have asked us so blatantly. What I think he was getting at was why did we choose to give up a career, a roof over our heads, a place that's ours and the stability that comes with it for this life of travel? We haven't practiced a good response, so to him it probably came out jumbled and lost in the initial surprise of the question being asked. But if we could re-answer, we'd probably say that we chose this life for ourselves to force us to grow. To become comfortable with the uncomfortable. And in doing so, to open ourselves up to the lives of our loved ones and of strangers and the lessons that we learn from those experiences. It's not glamorous, nor are we experts at it, but we're growing in ways that "normal" life probably wouldn't have presented.
