It’s been nearly two months since we went to Disneyland. School and work has taken its toll on my extracurriculars, but I put together a short video from our trip and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
A Saturday spent at Disneyland with Club 33 for Lunch from James Walker on Vimeo.
I hadn’t been to San Francisco to visit my sister (Megan) and her husband (Dave) since before they were married. That time, I had come up for a quick trip and the three of us saw a Ben Folds concert. It was pretty great, but I let myself get busy and never went back. I’d always talked about going up to visit some weekend, but that never seemed to materialize because while I’m good at dreaming about running off someplace nice for a weekend, I’m pretty bad at making that happen. Erinn, on the other hand, is not.
A few weeks before that weekend, Erinn told me she was going to take me out of town, just as a fun trip for the both of us. She told me to request a few certain days off and she would do the rest. What I didn’t know was that she had been messaging my sister the whole time, setting up a trip to San Francisco to visit her, Dave, and the city. We had a great time, I fell in love with the weather, the atmosphere, and the countless things you could do in a beautiful place like that. We went on hikes, ate fishwiches at Salty’s, drove around town, saw the Palace of Fine Arts, and lots of other stuff.
What we didn’t know then was that Meg’nDave were thinking about packing up and moving south. It turns out we picked one of the very last times we could have visited San Francisco with them living there, so thank goodness for Erinn planning a trip up there!
I’m just really glad I got to visit. I would have been bummed if they moved and I never got to see them and tour the city with them like we did.
Here’s a bit of what we did.
Fisherman’s Wharf – Boudin’s Bakery, took a picture of a gold painted living statue, got frustrated with all the people there.
Drove up and down the streets of San Francisco – saw so many beautiful buildings, got just a bit lost but had fun doing it, eventually made our way to…
The Palace of Fine Arts – we were planning to just drive by, but it was too good to pass up, we walked around the lake and followed a path under the big dome, followed another path out and sat under a tree on the grass next to some flowers wishing we lived somewhere as great as this… what? Oh, I got lost there for a bit.
Golden Gate Park – it was nice, but we didn’t stay very long and didn’t get too attached to anything in particular there. We walked around Stow Lake for a bit.
Legion of Honor – we made our way to this museum after taking a snapshot of the Golden Gate Bridge from the nearby Land’s End park, we walked right past a cast of Rodin’s “The Thinker” without notice, ate a delicious sandwich in the museum’s cafe, and roamed around the corridors for a few hours.
Drove to Meg’nDave’s place – sat around for a few, went to an Indian-Burrito-Fusion place called Curry Up Now, I had deep fried ravioli and Erinn had a vegan burrito, both were covered in curry and were very tasty, we drove to some park where we could watch the airplanes land and laugh at the local guys fishing and making fun of each other, did a quick tour of their neighborhood, and came back to their place.
Bonita Point Lighthouse – in the morning we drove up through downtown San Francisco again, drove across a very foggy Golden Gate Bridge, went through a single-lane tunnel, and meandered through the Marin County countryside to the Bonita Point Lighthouse. We got there a little early and couldn’t go in yet, but it was too beautiful to complain so we just watched the seals on the rocks below and enjoyed the cool weather. Eventually, we walked through a tunnel, across a bridge, and checked out the lighthouse. Inside was a map of the area with marks where ships had wrecked before the installation of the lighthouse. It was quite foggy that morning, reminding us of the need for such a lighthouse in past times. On the way out we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and grabbed some chips for snacking. Dave took us out a different way than we came in, giving us a fantastic view of the Golden Gate Bridge before crossing it back into San Francisco.
Salty’s Famous Fishwich – After the lighthouse we ate lunch at Salty’s and the living statue was back again, this time painted silver. We forgot to go to the Musee Mecanique, which has lots of antique arcade machines and music players and whatnot. Next time, I suppose.
After that, I don’t remember the order of things, but we went to Castro, got some cookies from Hot Cookie, drove to the top of Twin Peaks, but couldn’t see anything because it was so foggy and windy, and went back to Meg’nDave’s.
We had a lot of fun that day and relaxed that evening with some pizza and House Hunters.
It was a great weekend. I got to visit my sister, Erinn and I got to peruse the city on our own for a while, and Megan and Dave showed us around to some great places, giving us an idea of what it’s like living there.
The next morning we took our time driving back to Bakersfield. We stopped at the Gilroy Outlets, snagged some tasty fruit from Casa de Fruta, and meandered home, watching the scenery turn from green to brown and the temperature go from beautiful to blegh.
Wishing for someplace new is a common theme of my posts. I’ll keep dreaming about moving and I’m sure Erinn will help us get there.
P.S. Here’s a little video I made. I’ll be extending it soon.
It might come as a surprise to some who know how much I love to sleep in till noon, but I really love the early morning. The air is crisp and clean, the sun is soft, and everything seems so fresh and inviting. And on top of all that, there typically aren’t very many people out and about just after sunrise, so the world is all yours. This is how we started the day in San Luis Obispo and it was wonderful.
After a quick breakfast, Erinn and I drove to the trail head for the Bishop Peak trail and got started. The first bit of the hike is an easy stroll under some trees with a lot of wildflowers along the side, but just a few minutes later the incline changes pretty dramatically. To be honest, I thought I would do alright. I’ve been going jogging recently and I’m definitely in better shape than I was a month ago, but this first incline was a subtle reminder that I still have a long way to go. Nevertheless, Erinn and I continued, undeterred.
We did get a little lost early on when we came across a sign that read “Trail”, but had arrows pointing in two directions. Neither of us were sure where to go, so we took the right fork, which was definitely the wrong way to go. We ended up on a horse trail and had to keep a close eye on where we were stepping. The good part is that we were ultimately headed to the top of a 1,500 ft mountain, and it’s impossible to get truly lost with the peak right in front of you the whole time.
View of San Luis Obispo from midway up Bishop Peak
After going around some barbed wire and a cow pond we found ourselves walking through a nice grove of trees, which brought us around to the south side of the mountain. This is where the trail begins to wind back and forth as it takes you more directly up to the peak. There were lots of eager hikers here who were much quicker than we were and less out of breath. Lots of “Good morning”s were exchanged and quite a few dogs were on the trail. As we got closer to the top, we could just make out the ocean, which is right around 9 or 10 miles away.
Bishop Peak is not the hardest hike we’ve ever been on, but it’s also not the easiest. Going up that mountain was a nice workout and gave us a very rewarding view from the top. Once we got to the peak we took our time resting and sat down to enjoy the view for a while. On the top, there are two benches to sit down on and lots of big boulders to climb around on. Erinn and I found our way to the top of one of the boulders and took in the view.
View from the top
Eventually, we scrambled down off the rocks and began the hike down the mountain. By this time it was mid morning and there were a lot of people on the trail. There were lots of golden retrievers, a couple dachshunds, and a giant group of people that was carrying a cross up the trail. Going up, I only had to carry my own weight and that itself was enough to keep me out of breath. I can’t imagine how much harder the climb would be with a full sized cross on your back. I’m sure they traded off, though. There must have been 80 people in that group. For a few minutes we stood on the side of the trail letting the group pass and then continued on our way. It was a very pleasant stroll down.
Bishop Peak as seen from downtown San Luis Obispo
It ended up being a 5.5 mile hike round-trip and it took us just over 3 hours. We high fived each other and drove to downtown San Luis where we ate pizza and watched The Hunger Games. A note about that: Solo Pizza has a delicious Pesto Chicken Pizza. I recommend it.
Can’t wait for the next one.
Credit: Fleet Foxes – Ragged Wood
By the end of the week I will have finished my second quarter at CSUB and I will be just a teensy bit closer to graduating. There are all sorts of obstacles to overcome there, but as for this quarter, things are going well and I’m looking forward to the end.
I am especially excited about this Saturday. Erinn and I will be heading to San Luis Obispo to hike around, watch Hunger Games, and generally enjoy the beauty of the central coast. We won’t be there long, but it’s certainly a long-awaited trip after the busy schedule of the last ten weeks.
The plan is to hike Bishop Peak, which is just northwest of downtown San Luis Obispo. It’s a beautiful place (as all of San Luis Obispo is) and should bring with it some amazing views of the area. Bishop Peak itself is the tallest of the “nine sisters” and should be a pretty fun little hike.
After the climb we’re going to go relax in downtown San Luis Obispo and watch The Hunger Games so it’ll be a nice getaway from the busy schedule of home. I’ll be sure to post some pictures.
I have chosen to follow a simple call: to step into the story God is writing. For me, that means to step out into the world and live a life of justice with courage and compassion.
Life, Literature & Little Ones
themanylivesofjules 