The very first picture of our trip. Headed toward Las Vegas
We were gone for roughly 12 days and in some ways it seemed so much longer than that. In other ways it seemed much too short. On our trip we visited national parks, big cities, small cities, and everything in between. Every moment seemed packed with adventure even when we were just driving across an empty valley with hardly much more than a few barns and windmills. It was amazing. Erinn and I keep wishing we could pick up a little silver bullet trailer and stay on the road indefinitely.
The week that we’ve been back has been full of its own surprises, mostly good, but it has been tough getting used to the daily grind after being so fully swept off our feet by our travels. Someone asked me recently how my trip was and I responded by saying “It was great. Now I’m just getting used to being home again.” As quickly as our trip went by and as short as 12 days really is, it sometimes felt like we had been gone for months. Life at home has a very different rhythm from life on the road.
The truth is that we were pretty tired after our trip. The long days driving do take their toll on you and I was looking forward to having some time to recoup. But as soon as we had unpacked, we both wanted to pack it all up again and head out on the road.
We both started and ended our trip in Las Vegas, mostly because nice hotels are cheap and it was close to where we were headed to/coming from. That first night we were anxious and excited and couldn’t wait to get moving. The last night we were holding on tight to the very last hours of our vacation. Really I don’t think either of us even viewed our trip as a vacation. I saw it as an opportunity to see states I had never seen before and spend time with my best friend.
In two weeks we’ve driven over 3,700 miles and as tiring as it was sometimes, I didn’t want it to end. I loved everything about being on the road, always moving toward some new destination, seeing new towns, new mountains and valleys, new views.
I’m happy to be able to relax and sleep in my own bed, but I already miss having somewhere new to be.
We settled on that name a while ago. It was just silly enough for us and it stuck. We’ve been planning our trip around this name for a while now and the day has finally come for us to go!
It’s a pretty big trip, definitely the biggest I’ve ever gone on as an adult. We’ll be starting and ending in Las Vegas, with a whole slew of major cities and National Parks in between. To list them off in order it will be Las Vegas, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, Denver, Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower National Monument, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons, Salt Lake City, and then back to Las Vegas. All that in about 12 days. It’s gonna be BIG!
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.
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.
themanylivesofjules 