The Long Journey Home

I've run out of work for the year. I guess I have no excuse to ignore this blog any longer. 

Where were we? Sacramento? Ah yes!

Alors, Camille and I dropped Tim off at the airport and made our way to San Francisco.  As a serious film buff of all decades, she was very excited to explore this city and see all of the familiar sights from the big screen.

The plan was to first see the Golden Gate Bridge from outside of the city and camp somewhere for the night but I missed the exit and we were forced to drive over the bridge. Woops... It's also very expensive to cross the bridge so we decided to find a place to sleep in the city.

We found a quiet dark road with no signage indicating we couldn't park there overnight and decided to call it home for the night. Unfortunately we were woken up by a police officer at 6 in the morning telling us it was illegal to park there overnight because it was within national park boundaries. We had no idea, but thankfully he was very nice about it and just asked us to leave before the next shift of officers started. Being one of the most expensive cities to live in, you can imagine there's a lot of people living in their vehicles and finding legal places to sleep overnight is a challenge.

Silver lining of the ordeal was that we had time to drive to the beach and watch the sunrise strike the silly orange bridge. T'was nice!

Then we had a very long day of touristy things! We visited the most popular bakery in the city, waited in line and upon seeing the insane prices, I had to restrain Camille from murdering someone. But I still got a couple things. They weren't that good. Hype is hype.

We ran into some big gay festival in the gayborhood. Mostly just tents lining the streets and people trying to sell things.

Then of course we rode the trolly. That was pretty cool.

Lombard Street.

And there happened to be a free bluegrass festival going on all weekend. Unfortunately we got so caught up in other things that we missed almost all of it. But we were able to see the last few songs of the Punch Brothers set which was pretty awesome.

Then we wiggled our way down the California coast. We preferred the more natural and wild coastlines of Oregon and Washington, but it still beats the Atlantic coastline any day!

Along the way we made a stop in San Louis Obispo to visit some friend of mine, Corey and Suzanne. It was a brief visit, but it was nice to catch up. 

After the craziness of San Fransisco, we decided we could only tolerate a day trip into LA. Film enthusiast Camille really wanted to see one of the studios. There have been a lot of things I've avoided in the past because they were too "touristy" that I then ended up seeing or doing per Camille's interest that proved to be really worth it (Mount Rushmore, for example). So by now I've learned my lesson and was excited to do the studio tour.

And it was fascinating. We got to see various sets, indoors and outdoors. It was impressive to see the level of detail that goes into these things as well as the reusability of some of the larger sets.

And we saw lots of props.

After the tour we drove up to the Griffith Observatory for a view of the city. It's a really really big city...

And then we got out of there as fast as we could!

Next stop was Joshua Tree National Park.

We got a lovely campsite in the boulders.

And we did some climbing. Unfortunately the first route we tried was an offwidth. Basically a crack that is too big to climb with your hands and feet but too small to fit your entire body into. This was Camille's first offwidth and she hated every second of it... as do most people. I guess it was a poor choice.

But then we climbed another route that was much more enjoyable, albeit still quite difficult. 

And that was good enough for us!

Next stop was Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. A place I've driven by before but have never visited.

The park is home to many Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, spanning many centuries. Driving around the park, we were treated to a sort of timeline of exhibits demonstrating the progression of these dwellings and explanations as to how these tribes lived and protected themselves. 

Apparently tarantulas like pistachios?

The cliff dwellings were insanely fascinating and historians only have hypothesis as to why these places were abandoned. Unfortunately all of the tours were booked up so we couldn't see them up close, but it was still worth the visit.

Then we made our way through colorful Colorado.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park!

It's a lovely canyon.

We hiked to the bottom, as I did last time I was here. Although this time, each of us had a bad knee that gave us trouble the entire trek down and out of the canyon. I guess that's what it means to be 30. 

Then we stopped to visit my friend Aaron outside of Colorado Springs.  Camille had actually met Aaron previously as we ran into him last year climbing in Portrero Chico, Mexico. We headed to Garden of the Gods for a quick run up a very fun 3 pitch climb. 

The view at the top was worthy of a selfie.

The "hike" down was just as exciting as the climb up!

The next day we said our goodbyes and drove straight east. There were lots of people I wanted to visit in the Denver area but I was feeling pretty worn out and wanted to get home. But we decided on one more stop... The Red River Gorge in Kentucky. Home to some of the finest sport climbing on the east coast.

I mean, look at those features!

We debated climbing a second day, but once again my desire to be home outweighed the awesomeness of the Red.

A few hours into our drive home from Kentucky, Saturn Jr. lost the will to live and threw a connecting rod, effectively destroying the engine. As such, we were stranded in the middle of nowhere West Virginia. Not cool...

We had the tow truck driver drop us and Jr off at a hotel so we could come up with a plan. 

Here's a comical photo of us trying to catch all of the oil that was spilling out the engine.

So our options were to rent a one-way car back home and go from there or to buy a car in West Virginia and drive that home. I was more interested in just getting a new car down there. Unfortunately all of the dealerships were closed for the night and closed the next day, Sunday. So we had 2 days to kill... in a hotel... in West Virginia... At least it gave me plenty of time to do car research.

On Monday we reserved a rental car and walked to the office to pick it up. Well they didn't have any cars available. So we walked to the dealerships. I was keen on either a Honda or a Toyota, per my brother's recommendations. The first 2 dealerships were a wash. On the long walk to the 3rd one, we were picked up by a kind gentleman who saved us at least a half hour of walking.

After a few test drives and hours of bargaining, we drove back to the hotel with a 2016 Honda CRV. It's my first non-Saturn and my first vehicle that isn't already 11 years old. Feeling like a real adult!

Then we coordinated the pickup of Saturn Jr. by a junkyard and quickly transferred our things to the new car (who has yet to be named...). Everything barely fit.

Then we hauled ass home! Home sweet tiny home.

And without skipping a beat, Camille and I got to work getting the house ready for winter. 

She looks good with that brush hog!

Cou Cou

If you're wondering, yes, I am still alive. Camille and I are back at the tiny house in Massachusetts. However in blog land, we're still in Seattle.

We drove to Matt and Yurie's new place in Seattle and very quickly got out of the city and into Olympic National Park.

Hope you're not sick of waterfalls yet, because this one is quite stunning, especially with that magical rainforest light.

Then we drove to the coast to find a place to camp on the beach. It's not often you get to hike on the beach with backpacks full of camping gear.

We stayed at a camping area called hole in the wall. I overheard a woman asking, "So is this the hole in the wall?". I'm not entirely sure why it wouldn't be.

Camille and I slept next to the fire, my favorite place to sleep while camping. We met a family of raccoons that night. They spent most of the night trying to dig through our packs. And they successfully got our bag of food from the "tree" which was only 5 feet off the ground. Our laziness became their dinner. 

The next day we did some more hiking. We found some really large dogs hanging out by the visitor center.

Beyond Olympic, we explored Seattle a bunch with Matt and Yurie and after a week or so we said our goodbyes and headed out for more adventures around Washington. 

We really wanted to explore the Enchantments but the permitting system is quite strict and availability is slim to none. So instead we hike around areas just outside of the permit zone which were beautiful enough for our standards.

Then we headed to Mt. Rainier. Interestingly, up to this point we had spent several weeks in Washington but saw Rainier either due to clouds or other mountains obstructing the view. So the reveal as we approached the park was quite wonderful. 

And then I got terribly sick. Worse than I've felt in many many years. Sick enough to justify getting a hotel room for the night... A rare moment indeed. But my god did that feel good to have a hot shower and large warm bed!

Then we started making our way back south, via the coastline. The drive was a mix of small towns and untouched wilderness. We made many stops and saw lots of wildlife, including whales, seals, pelicans, dolphins and sea lions!

Our trip down the coast ultimately led us to Sacramento where we picked up Tim from the airport. He had some vacation time left and we told him that Yosemite was our next stop and the rest is history.

It was Tim's and Camille's first time in Yosemite Valley and my fourth, but it still felt like the first time for me. It's a spectacular place.

Day one was spent hiking around the valley. And of course we saw some more waterfalls.

Watching the colors change on El Cap as the sun set can be pretty nice.

On day 2 we climbed a few pitches on Yosemite's pristine granite. With 3 people and 1 rope, we didn't dare do any multipitch, but had a great time nonetheless. 

And another nice view on the way out of the park.

Day 3 we visited one of the Sequoia groves before heading back to Sacramento.

More big trees!

Then we stayed in a motel in Sacramento so we could get cleaned up and ready to drop Tim off at the airport in the morning.

And then Camille and I headed south! More to come soon soon! I promise...