Day 18: On the road again

The drive from San Francisco to Portland was a tiring one. Not only was it about 12 hours on the road, but it was also hard to leave a place where I had such a great time and met so many interesting people. Nonetheless we made our way north of San Francisco where the bay turned into rolling hills of golden grass which in turn transformed into the foothills of great mountains when we finally entered Oregon.

Oregon was actually a fun state to drive through because it had this feeling of untamed wilderness that was very striking. Sparse settlements occasionally dotted the undulating landscape-- just enough that we were reminded that people did actually live in this place so close to the pristine wild. Even when we did pass through major population centers they were hidden by a thick screen of trees and sharp hills.

At last, when it was nearly dark, we reached Portland. The sky was stained a glowing orange that wonderfully illuminated the distinctive evergreens, so different from the ubiquitous palm trees found in California. We reached our destination just as darkness fell at the house of Bob and Christy.

We were immediately greeted by Goose, the lovable black lab of the household, and welcomed inside by Christy just as Bob arrived. We had an excellent dinner and discussed some of the next day's possible activities, getting some great suggestions from our hosts. Also before going to bed, Bob, who has an extensive knowledge of bicycles, helped fix some nagging issues with my bike that in just a short amount of time dramatically improved its performance.

Day 17: The San Francisco Bike-athon

The morning broke with no fog to speak of, but being wary of the deceptive weather I decided to go with jeans for the day, which turned out to be a solid choice. We left at about 10am on our bike tour of the city and didn't return until 6pm. Our first stop was at the Golden Gate park, which was very close to Lance's house. It was a nice park to ride through, though we didn't really stop to enjoy it very much. We made our way through the park until we reached the street that would take us to The Presidio, which is a national park that provides access to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Our tour through the Presidio gave us our first taste of how hilly San Francisco is. By car it's easy to underestimate how steep some of the hills are, but when you travel by bike, even some of the lesser hills can be agonizing. After a particularly grueling climb we made it to the top of the Presidio which offered a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as the part of the city that juts out into the bay. More than just being an incredible feat of engineering, the Golden Gate Bridge is a spectacular work of art. It's signature red expanse just completes the image of San Francisco in my head.

Once we had our fill of the view from the Presidio, we took the much easier ride down the hill to come directly to the Golden Gate Bridge where we got to ride our bikes all the way across the San Francisco Bay. It's incredible how deceptive the length of the bridge is. We made it to the south tower in what seemed like a short amount of time, but it felt like it took quite a long time to get to where the main cable almost touches the bridge, marking the center. It was also much higher above the water than it seemed. As we were stopped at the south tower to take pictures of the bridge and the bay, including Alcatraz in the distance, I watched a man drop a banana peel off the side, and it took a good 20 seconds for it to reach the swirling waters below.

Since there wasn't much to see on the north side of the bridge but the bridge itself, we made our way back across to continue our tour of the city. On our way to Fisherman's Wharf from the bridge we took Lombard Street, which is absurd in about every way a street can be. We didn't even bother biking up the comically steep hill, passing cars that looked as if they were on the verge of tipping over and toppling down the street. Once we reached the top we made it to "the crookedest street in the world" which followed a path that might have been drawn by a polygraph down an only slightly less steep decline than the other side of the hill.

After our ordeal with the hills of San Francisco, we arrived at Fisherman's Wharf, which as we were warned was bustling with tourists. Being tourists ourselves, it didn't bother us much, and it was a pretty novel experience with the cool ocean breeze, and the countless street performers crowding the streets. At Lance's suggestion, we tried out Boudin's Bakery for lunch, where we got the traditional clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl. It was the perfect lunch for the day: both delicious and filling, since it basically amounted to a whole loaf of bread with some excellent clam chowder added in. Next we took a brief trip to Pier 39, which is basically just a mall on one of the piers in the bay, and then hopped on our bikes again to explore more of the city.

On our way out of Fisherman's Wharf we passed through Chinatown and North Beach again, but stopped to savor it this time as we went to Z Cioccolato, another suggestion of Lance's, where we got some amazing saltwater taffy to bring back for our host (and ourselves). Next we made a brief stop back at the Union Square area to pick up some photo prints before heading out to the Mission district centered around the old Delores Mission, one of the oldest buildings in the city if not the oldest, dating from the 1700's. While in Mission, we stopped at Bi-Rite Creamery where I got some of their famous salted caramel ice cream.

Finally, on the last leg of our city wide biking marathon, we passed through Castro, the gay district, and went almost up to Twin Peaks, the tallest point in San Francisco. We made it up about half the slope before we decided it would probably be a better idea just to head back, which we did. We arrived at Lance's just as he completed his afternoon run, and hung out for a little bit before Lance made us dinner again. This time we had salmon, burgers, baked potatoes, and brussel sprouts, which were all excellent.

It's going to be tough to say goodbye to San Francisco since it was such a vibrant and fun place to be, and because our host showed us an excellent time, but tomorrow we'll be headed off to Portland and hopefully another great time.

Day 16: At the Thirsty Bear

Our first full day in San Francisco began with quite a bit of fog. Not realizing what that meant in terms of the temperature, I dressed in my usual shorts and short sleeved t-shirt. It stayed relatively overcast, windy, and pretty chilly for the rest of the day, but since I couldn't bring myself to spend money on a jacket while we were out, I just braved the weather in my inappropriate attire.

We started the day relatively late, but we made it downtown around 11am to start checking out Market Street before having lunch with our host, Lance. In the downtown area, Market Street is absolutely bustling with people at all times. People duck in and out of the dozens of shops that line the street while cars and bikes jockey for position among the many streetcars hooked into the spiderwebbed ceiling of cables that hangs above every street in the city. Geries and I walked around for a while looking at shops until lunch time when we met up with Lance and his friend Michael.

After navigating the streets considerably faster than we had without our guides, we made it to Thirsty Bear, a restaurant and organic microbrewery right in downtown San Francisco. We all ordered the beer and burger combo, which included one of the brewery's beers on tap, and a lamb and pork burger with hard boiled egg and arugula. The burger was delicious, and the beer was also very good. I tried the Valencia wheat, which was good on its own, but I probably should have asked for an orange peel to go with it.

Once we were fed, we went back to the car to try to visit an art store so Geries could get a stamp and sealing wax. Navigating Market Street by car proved to be a nightmare. At every intersection it seemed like it was impossible to turn left, making it quite an ordeal just to get to the other side of the street to go the opposite direction. We eventually found the only way to switch directions was just to go all the way to the end of the Union Square area and turn around then come all the way back.

We did find the art store, and after we got what we came for, we made it back to Lance's to rest before heading out to a birthday party for Michael, who we had lunch with earlier. The party was very low key, and we got to meet a ton of cool people who told us, among other things, all about the things we should do and see in San Francisco. Before the night was out we also got to meet Robin and Jeff, two couchsurfers from New York that had just come in that night to stay with Lance. We had a great time just hanging out and talking with Robin, Jeff, Lance, and all the others at the party. With our new list of places to go, we were ready to get to bed and rest up for our next day in San Francisco.

Day 15: Toll woes

We woke up bright and early to break camp and leave Yosemite on our way to San Francisco. Thankfully our food hadn't been raided by bears the night before, although who knows if they came by anyway? Our campsite was positioned pretty well in the park for us to make a speedy getaway north to San Francisco, so we made good time, and soon the rock walls and trees of the canyon became the rolling grassy hills of Northern California. Before long the city of Oakland sprang up before us, and the San Francisco Bay Bridge loomed in the distance. We had a bit of a nasty shock when we got up to the base of the bridge and were faced with a five dollar toll to cross. After begrudgingly paying the toll, we took the bridge right into the city, getting an excellent view of the bay, Alcatraz, and the San Francisco cityscape.

Our first stop was at a barbecue for one of the fathers at the church Lance, our San Francisco host, attends. We met up with Lance and another couchsurfer, Aaron, who had stayed with Lance earlier, but was leaving that day. After hanging around and meeting with some of Lance's friends at the barbecue, another couchsurfer staying with Lance-- Leo, from Germany-- made his way over, and we all headed back to Lance's place.

Geries and I were road-weary and dirty from the drive and camping, so the first thing we did was take showers and relax for a bit while Lance left to go pick up a friend from the airport. We talked with Leo, and watched some Breaking Bad for the first time until Lance got back a few hours later. Once Lance arrived he made us a delicious dinner of salmon, rice, and zucchini, and told us about some of his work, which included being on set in the miniature photography unit for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

After dinner we had a little bit of trouble with a malfunctioning washing machine that kept us up a little longer than expected, but we eventually got to bed to get some rest for our first full day in San Francisco.

Day 14: Up the winding stair

We woke up with the sun, with knots in our backs, and with some suspicious stares from the older couple that was packing their car in the spot next to ours. Cool air greeted us as we stepped out of the car to stretch our legs and begin our first real day in Yosemite.

First on our agenda was to set up our living arrangements for the night, so we took a trip down to Yosemite Valley to check out the visitor center. Our ride through Yosemite was considerably improved with a splash of sunlight. Once we emerged from the trees and reached the edge of the canyon wall, the views were incredible. Massive walls of glacier-carved granite erupt at nearly a right angle from the ground forming a meandering valley thousands of feet below. On our way to the valley we passed Inspiration Point, where the size and beauty of the park became immediately apparent.

Eventually we made our way to the valley floor where we got a glimpse of Yosemite Falls, only one of many falls in the park. Not long later we made it to Yosemite Village where we were directed to a campsite that had some vacancies. A seemingly short distance on the map turned out to be a nearly 30 minute drive to Tamarack Flats where we made our camp. The drive was just as scenic, but offered views of the meadows on the other side of the mountains before diving back into the forest and to our campsite. It was a great feeling to set up camp after having slept in the car the night before. Carving out a space to call home, even if just for one night, brought quite a bit of relief, and left us free to enjoy the park.

Once we pitched our tent and secured our food against bears, we trekked back to Yosemite Valley to talk to some rangers and plan the day's activities. Originally I had hoped to hike to the top of Half-Dome, a huge granite formation that towers over 8400 feet above the valley floor, but unfortunately we got a little too late of a start for me to attempt the twelve hour hike before sunset. Instead we opted to take a quick bike ride over to the Lower Yosemite Falls, which were absolutely packed with people-- probably due to its easy access from the main roads. It was an impressive sight, but slightly spoiled by the crowds, so we took another bike ride a couple miles down the road to the trailhead that would lead us to the top of Vernal Fall.

The hike was very relaxing, and even though there were still quite a few people, it was nothing compared to the hectic crowd surrounding Lower Yosemite Falls. Paved paths lead the way up most of the trail on the northern side of the river formed by the waterfall until we crossed the river and were faced with packed dirt and stone. From the bridge across the river we caught a glimpse of our end goal: a towering waterfall several hundred feet above. The final leg of the hike was the most impressive and strenuous, as it was essentially a stairway carved into the rock. To make things more exciting, it was merely feet from a sheer drop into the raging river below, and carved so steeply it may have been more akin to a ladder than a stair.

As the stair wound its way along the riverside we grew nearer and nearer to Vernal Fall. Before the stair dipped into the rock face and away from the river for a bit we were taken right next to the top of the falls where a fine mist formed spectacular rainbows and made the undulating staircase slightly more treacherous. When we reached the top we were rewarded with an incredibly clear view of the cliffs behind us, and the deafening waterfall pouring countless gallons of water into the valley below.

Once we were rested we made our way back down the almost comically steep stairs, and biked back to Yosemite Village and where we were parked. On our drive back to the campsite we took a stop along the side of the road to watch the sunset from the edge of the canyon. The setting sun tinted the cool grey granite a warm orange and plunged the trees in the valley into a dark green shadow.

By the time we made it to the campsite, it was almost completely dark. Since we were exhausted from the hike, we just stayed up long enough to build a fire and roast some hot dogs before turning in for the night.

Day 13: General Sherman's last stand (of trees)

After getting a very restful night of sleep at our motel, Geries and I headed out for Sequoia National Park to see some of the largest and oldest trees in the world. The start of the trip was a bit of a nightmare, since the air conditioning was acting up, and the temperatures grew in excess of 100 degrees. Eventually we stopped at a Walmart to get some refrigerant, and that cleared the problem up, but just a little while earlier we were literally cooking in the car.

Once back on the road we followed the highway alongside the Rocky Mountains for a ways, then took a turn that delved deep into the mountains. After navigating ever more convoluted roads we finally made it in to the park. Since we just planned to drive through on our way to Yosemite, we decided just to visit General Sherman in the Giant's Grove before making good our escape.

The roads of the park wound along the side of the mountains with nothing but incredibly stubborn trees clinging to bare rock on one side, and a precipitous drop to the other. It's an incredible sensation almost like flying being only feet from nothing but a several hundred foot drop to the valley floor below. However, it didn't take long for the view on the other side of the car to eclipse the feeling of flight, because we soon came upon the namesake trees of the park. Colossal barely begins to describe the sequoias that occasionally dotted the side of the road in sparse groves. The car could easily have driven through the base of their trunks, and their gnarled branches dwarfed even the normal sized trees that surrounded the giants.

Almost an hour into our drive through the surprisingly expansive park, we came to the Giant's Grove, where General Sherman, the largest tree in the world, resides. Although a few trees in the world may be wider or taller, General Sherman is the most massive, holding the largest volume of wood of any other, and still growing. To stand next to the tree is to feel like an ant only barely able to see its skyward extent. As if the incredible size of the trees wasn't enough, even more awe-inspiring is their age. General Sherman is 2,200 years old, and not even the oldest of the sequoias. To be around a living thing that has lived longer than a large portion of civilized humanity is humbling to say the least.

We wandered through the garden of impossible trees for a little while before heading back to the car to make our way to Yosemite. Before we made it too far out of the park, however, we stumbled upon a grizzly bear crossing the road. We stopped to check it out (from the safety of the running car) as it went about its business without offering us a second glance. By then the sun had nearly set, and we were unfortunately faced with another night drive.

In general I hate night driving because it offers little in the way of views, and especially if I'm traveling through a place I've never seen I inevitably feel as if I've missed something noteworthy. Nonetheless we left the dark forest behind us to dip out of the mountains for a spell before winding our way back up into them as we neared Yosemite.

Not having learned our lesson from the camping situation in the Grand Canyon, we neglected to solidify our campsite before embarking. To our credit, though, all of the reserved sites were filled before we checked them, and the documentation we found was vague on the status of first-come first-served camping. Regardless of who was at fault, we ended up driving around Yosemite, this time knowing we were missing out on spectacular views since the moon was bright enough to unsatisfactorily sample them for us. A few hours, and dozens of miles later, we found a parking spot in an inconspicuous location and-- you guessed it!-- slept in the car. 

Day 12: Beverly Hills is where I wanna be

This morning we said goodbye to Jim and the Chinese ladies on our way out to explore Los Angeles. Our first stop was to see the Hollywood sign. After a short drive the from the little suburb town of Alhambra where we stayed the previous night we were in Hollywood, with its iconic palm tree-lined streets and view of the mountains in the distance. As with everywhere else in LA, there was a dense layer of smog that obstructed distant views, but we were close enough to make out the sign a couple miles before we got there. We took some narrow winding roads that seemed to switch back endlessly through neighborhoods filled with expensive homes before we finally made it to a dead end with some gates that prevented us from getting any closer. Thankfully, a break in the trees revealed an excellent view of the sign, so we took our pictures and headed on to Hollywood Boulevard and the walk of fame.

Parking was a nightmare in Hollywood, and all of the Los Angeles really, but we finally managed to find a spot that would give us two hours to explore Hollywood Boulevard. We spent most of the time with our eyes glued to the ground, trying to spot the Walk of Fame stars that belong to some of our favorite celebrities, only diverting our gaze long enough to gape at Grauman's Chinese Theater, and Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars. It was extremely crowded, but it was a fun experience walking around in a place I've seen so many times but have never been to.

At times it was pretty hectic with all sorts of street performers and costumed panhandlers fighting each other to impede our progress, but in spite of it all we managed to walk most of the street and find all the stars we were looking for (it took a particularly long time for me to find Scarlett Johansson's star, but it made it all the more satisfying when I did). Once we had our fill of the movie tourist crowd, we made a trip to Santa Monica beach, which no doubt had its share of tourists, but was large enough that we didn't feel suffocated by the densely packed crowd.

Santa Monica was beautiful, especially later in the day with nearly setting sun streaming shafts of orange light through the palm trees dotting the beach. It was here that we both got our first sight of the Pacific Ocean which stretched away in three directions as far as we could see. After taking a bike ride along the beach-side path I went out to dip my feet in the water and watch the waves roll in.

Next I came back to play around on what essentially amounted to a huge area of jungle gyms for adults. There were balance beams and pullup bars, swings, climbing ropes, and dozens of rings where people swung from ring to ring like something out of the circus.

Once the sun had set and our parking time had run out, we drove just a little south down to Venice Beach to get some dinner. Since it was dark, it wasn't quite as lively as I would have hoped, but it definitely was a stark contrast to Santa Monica. Venice is like the Little Five Points of beaches-- a place where all the hipsters and hobos go to hang out-- which gave it an interesting flavor that set it apart from the other areas we had seen so far.

We got some dinner at Mao's Kitchen right along the beachside highway, and had some more excellent Chinese food before heading out. Unfortunately the host that we originally had for tonight bailed on us at the last minute, leaving us too short of notice to call for Jim's aid again. So for the first time, we ended up paying for lodging at a Motel 6 along the highway to our next destination. The damage wasn't bad, and we each got our own beds, so everything turned out a little better than expected considering the situation we were in.