US Travels...California
I lived in San Francisco and the surrounding area for 5 years. I was actually married there. When we first moved from Florida to SF, we lived with friends in the Pacifica hills. My husband actually had us stop on the side of the highway and take a photo when we got there.
To be honest I'm surprised we made it to SF. We stopped at the hotel in Alabama, right on the Florida boarder and had the creepy crawly experience of cockaroackes coming out of the mattress...we slept in our car instead. Then we stopped in New Orleans and spent the night with my God Father's family. This was right before Katrina and the last time we saw them in their house. It was destroyed just 8 months later. We walked Burbon street, Jackson Square, ate at Cafe Du Mond and generally had a fabulous time for a few hours.
We went through Houston and San Antonio, Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Pasadena (we were there a week after the Rose Bowl Parade and had this super cute motel that was omg pink everything), Bakersfield, Berkeley, Oakland, and finally San Francisco. It was an exhausting drive and more than once I was terrified by the roads; the sign in Texas warning us not to pick up hitchhikers wearing orange -- multiple prisons in the area, or the Grapevine and the insane incline in a stickshift, or the landslides on 280 in the Bay Area. Yet we did make it and for the next 5 years I embraced this new life. I worked in sales for a bit to learn the area (I was terrible at it) and then moved in to being an Administrative, then Executive Assistant at a large PR/Marketing firm. We travelled to LA and Burningman, Las Vegas and Tahoe. Saw Yosemite, Fashion Island, little farmsteads on the Pacific Coast, Japan Town (both SF and LA), had amazing Chinese for in Stanford, and went to concerts and parties in warehouses, clubs, and festivals. It was an amazing time and I both grew-up and became wiser. I started to learn what made me...me. What I wanted in my life and started planning how I was going to get there.
We did a trip down to LA for a friend's wedding and I got my first taste of living in an 'alternative' environment. They had a sail boat in the harbor near their house and we stayed there for two days until I couldn't take the fumes from the gas and we found a motel. We toured the Getty and the Japanese Gardens and went to Santa Monica and Fashion Island.
The second trip to LA I booked us double room at the Backpackers' Paradise Hostel in LA. I had no idea where anything was, but we didn't have a car and I knew we needed it to be close to the airport. It ended up being right in the middle of South Central LA and had bullet holes up at the top of the roof near the window. It also looked like it came right out of MTV Touring with the Band. There was a pool in the courtyard surrounded by rooms once you went in through reception. The patio had a pin ball machine and pool table and there were crossed water skis over the entrance. It had been billed as a 'backpackers' hotel and they had excursions by van to any number of destinations, from Disney to San Diego, champagne each day at 5 with chocolate covered strawberries and most importantly for me, two rooms and a bath with kitchenette. Since we were having 3 other people join us later in the trip, it was important to me that we had space. I patently ignored the spider webs high up in the corner and just enjoyed the trip.
The third time we went to LA we stayed with friends in Orange County and had our car, so we were able to go out and see things. We went to the Brown Derby in Beverly Hills and Long Beach, Malibu, and Thousand Oaks.
We've also just travelled around in Cali. Friends in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Up the coast to Sea Ranch and Sadona, Wine tasting in Napa Valley, Fencing in Davis, work in Sacramento, friends in Berkeley, Vacaville, and Pleasanton. Tons of cute little towns just off the freeways.
In 2016, I participated in a training in Livermore, Ca and we got to explore around there, but also went back into SF and Berkeley for the day. The Japanese Tea Garden was my favorite part of the trip (minue the training of course). I don't think there is another place like it in the US.
I'd always wanted to go to California. When I was 18, my aunt and uncle took me on my first plane trip. We went to Yosemite, but we flew into LA and drove up the coast on 101 through Santa Monica, Lompoc, Pismo Beach (my first time in the Pacific Ocean was freaking cold!!), then swung over through Bakersfield, Fresno, and Yosemite. Stupid things you learn as a kid the first time traveling...do not eat seafood in the mountains, even if you are close to the ocean and freak weather is an actual thing. We were there in July and had 10 feet of snow fall while I was suffering through food poisoning. As much as the idea of snow and towering redwoods thrilled me, I just wanted to lay plastered to the freezing cold floor of our hotel room.
I did get some awesome photos (old school, paper things) of my aunt and uncle on the bridge infront of the falls, only to realize I was standing in the middle of the frozen Merced river! One day I will find those photos again. I remember watching deer through the snow and the adorable little wooden chapel, nestled in amongst the trees, white all around and silence. It was the peace of the place that sunk into me, even when I was sick.
I've tried to find that peace again when I travel. Sometimes, when I'm really lucky, I even succeed.
We had driven from Tampa, Florida across the Southern U.S. on I-10 all the way to CA, where we turned North and took the Grapevine through LA and then took the 5 up into SF. There were times, shoved into his little Honda Civic that I thought we'd kill each other on the 3.5 day drive. Most notably when we hit El Paso and this boarder check on the edge of Mexico. He'd had me drive the car, which was a stick shift that I didn't know how to drive. It was late at night, pitch black but for the lights of cars and the flash of fireworks at a Bullfight across the border.
I pulled into the line of cars waiting to be checked by the military...and promptly stalled the car. Over and over. It was one of those instances in your life when nothing could possibly go worse. The truckers behind me were hitting their horns, the car just wouldn't turn over, and the guard with the AK47 was much too close and menacing for my mental well being. And just as the guard came up, after I'd forced my husband to switch seats with me, he decides it's time to mumble "no se hablar ingles, senior" to the guard. I wanted to kill him, dump the body in the desert and go home. You have to understand, my husband is SE Asian and in bad lighting looks Hispanic. The guard, thank goodness, realized I was in near hysterics and waved us through.
To be honest I'm surprised we made it to SF. We stopped at the hotel in Alabama, right on the Florida boarder and had the creepy crawly experience of cockaroackes coming out of the mattress...we slept in our car instead. Then we stopped in New Orleans and spent the night with my God Father's family. This was right before Katrina and the last time we saw them in their house. It was destroyed just 8 months later. We walked Burbon street, Jackson Square, ate at Cafe Du Mond and generally had a fabulous time for a few hours.
We went through Houston and San Antonio, Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Pasadena (we were there a week after the Rose Bowl Parade and had this super cute motel that was omg pink everything), Bakersfield, Berkeley, Oakland, and finally San Francisco. It was an exhausting drive and more than once I was terrified by the roads; the sign in Texas warning us not to pick up hitchhikers wearing orange -- multiple prisons in the area, or the Grapevine and the insane incline in a stickshift, or the landslides on 280 in the Bay Area. Yet we did make it and for the next 5 years I embraced this new life. I worked in sales for a bit to learn the area (I was terrible at it) and then moved in to being an Administrative, then Executive Assistant at a large PR/Marketing firm. We travelled to LA and Burningman, Las Vegas and Tahoe. Saw Yosemite, Fashion Island, little farmsteads on the Pacific Coast, Japan Town (both SF and LA), had amazing Chinese for in Stanford, and went to concerts and parties in warehouses, clubs, and festivals. It was an amazing time and I both grew-up and became wiser. I started to learn what made me...me. What I wanted in my life and started planning how I was going to get there.
We did a trip down to LA for a friend's wedding and I got my first taste of living in an 'alternative' environment. They had a sail boat in the harbor near their house and we stayed there for two days until I couldn't take the fumes from the gas and we found a motel. We toured the Getty and the Japanese Gardens and went to Santa Monica and Fashion Island.
The second trip to LA I booked us double room at the Backpackers' Paradise Hostel in LA. I had no idea where anything was, but we didn't have a car and I knew we needed it to be close to the airport. It ended up being right in the middle of South Central LA and had bullet holes up at the top of the roof near the window. It also looked like it came right out of MTV Touring with the Band. There was a pool in the courtyard surrounded by rooms once you went in through reception. The patio had a pin ball machine and pool table and there were crossed water skis over the entrance. It had been billed as a 'backpackers' hotel and they had excursions by van to any number of destinations, from Disney to San Diego, champagne each day at 5 with chocolate covered strawberries and most importantly for me, two rooms and a bath with kitchenette. Since we were having 3 other people join us later in the trip, it was important to me that we had space. I patently ignored the spider webs high up in the corner and just enjoyed the trip.
The third time we went to LA we stayed with friends in Orange County and had our car, so we were able to go out and see things. We went to the Brown Derby in Beverly Hills and Long Beach, Malibu, and Thousand Oaks.
We've also just travelled around in Cali. Friends in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Up the coast to Sea Ranch and Sadona, Wine tasting in Napa Valley, Fencing in Davis, work in Sacramento, friends in Berkeley, Vacaville, and Pleasanton. Tons of cute little towns just off the freeways.
In 2016, I participated in a training in Livermore, Ca and we got to explore around there, but also went back into SF and Berkeley for the day. The Japanese Tea Garden was my favorite part of the trip (minue the training of course). I don't think there is another place like it in the US.
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| Livermore, Ca |
Nothing like looking as if you were in Japan when you weren't!
I'd always wanted to go to California. When I was 18, my aunt and uncle took me on my first plane trip. We went to Yosemite, but we flew into LA and drove up the coast on 101 through Santa Monica, Lompoc, Pismo Beach (my first time in the Pacific Ocean was freaking cold!!), then swung over through Bakersfield, Fresno, and Yosemite. Stupid things you learn as a kid the first time traveling...do not eat seafood in the mountains, even if you are close to the ocean and freak weather is an actual thing. We were there in July and had 10 feet of snow fall while I was suffering through food poisoning. As much as the idea of snow and towering redwoods thrilled me, I just wanted to lay plastered to the freezing cold floor of our hotel room.
I did get some awesome photos (old school, paper things) of my aunt and uncle on the bridge infront of the falls, only to realize I was standing in the middle of the frozen Merced river! One day I will find those photos again. I remember watching deer through the snow and the adorable little wooden chapel, nestled in amongst the trees, white all around and silence. It was the peace of the place that sunk into me, even when I was sick.
I've tried to find that peace again when I travel. Sometimes, when I'm really lucky, I even succeed.
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