If You Are Going to San Francisco

For the past three weeks we have been travelling across the United States, spending much of our time in the most remote locations of the country.  Today, however, was different.

Last night we arrived in the San Francisco Bay area where we would stay with family.  After a couple of hours of catching up it was already time for bed.  We have been accustomed to sleeping in relatively cool conditions, even pitching our tent next to a patch of snow in the mountains, so the temperature of the San Francisco area was a challenge for us to get used to.  Eventually we were able to adjust and get some sleep just in time for an early morning rise.

Our first taste of San Francisco really took place the moment we stepped onto Market Street where the annual Gay Pride Celebration was taking place.  It was quite the spectacle which I am thankful for having the opportunity to witness firsthand.  The energy of the people was amazing & it reminded me how important it is for everyone to be able to live their lives with the same benefits and rights as the next person, regardless of their sexual orientation.

I think back to times when other minority groups were fighting for their rights.  The same struggle which is happening in the gay community has taken place before for others.  This is no different than those times, it is simply a new issue & one which I see soon becoming an issue of a bygone era just the same as the struggles of women or blacks for their rights.

After leaving from the parade area we spent some time in Chinatown.  Comparing it to others which I’ve been to (Washington, DC and New York City), this one beats them all.  We stopped by a couple of shops and explored their wares, but made it out without making any impulse purchases.  Trust me when I say how hard it was to pass up on a Samurai sword.

We continued our walk to Coit Tower for a spectacular view of the city and bay.  From there we were able to see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was my first glimpse of the bridge & seeing it reminded me just how much I wanted to be there.  With a renewed energy we headed in that direction.

Before the bridge we took a stroll by Lurmont Street, the crookedest street in the entire city.  It boggles my mind why anyone would intentionally construct a street in this manner, but tourists seemed to love it, myself being no exception.

Soon we would arrive at the foot of the Golden Gate bridge where we snapped a few photos, though the light was not cooperating and the smog didn’t help matters much.

We finished our evening overlooking San Francisco from the balcony of a family friend’s home.  It was a beautiful view & the company was great.  They were all such lovely people who I would greatly enjoy having more time to get to know.  I’m sure there will be another time when we will return & have a chance to reconnect.

The city life has been a great change of pace for us and we have been debating the possibility of taking a detour to Hollywood.  I think that we will save that for another trip when we have more time and are able to explore the city adequetly.

There is still much for us to see yet on this trip and as it winds to a close in less than a couple weeks I know I will always be able to look back at this trip as one of the highlights of my life.  I’m so thankful I had this opportunity to chase after my dream of travelling.  Not only have I seen many amazing places and done some awesome things, I have met some very wonderful people along the way.

Don’t Talk to Strangers

I remember when I was younger being told not to talk to strangers.  It was my mother’s attempt at keeping me out of harm’s way.  No doubt you’ve been given the same bit of advice while you were growing up.  Maybe you were told not to take candy from a stranger or never to accept a ride from a stranger.  All of this was great advice when we were children however we are no longer vulnerable to the danger of strangers yet we still cling to this advice subconsciously.

During a recent hike I noticed something strange.  Each person I passed behaved in the same manner; avoiding eye contact & looking away.  There were some exceptions, those who offered a nervous smile or muffled “Hello”, but the vast majority did their best to avoid any sort of interaction.

I was curious, as well as guilty of this behavior, so I decided to conduct a highly scientific experiment.  I would make eye contact with each person I passed and maintain it as long as they allowed, but would not say “Hello”.  My hypothesis was that by making eye contact more people would feel obligated to acknowledge me. 

Soon I realized that this was not the way things were going to work out.  As a matter of fact, nothing changed.  People still offered an occasional smile but the vast majority averted their eyes choosing instead to look at the ground.  Out of the 100 people whom I passed, one actually said “Hello”.  This only includes the people I counted.  I didn’t start counting until halfway through my hike and gave up after 100 people.

I began to wonder about this phenomenon.  Is this a result of our upbringing?  Our culture?  Are we simply too important/busy/distracted to inconvenience ourselves with acknowledging a complete stranger?  Maybe, though I have reached a different conclusion.

Tourists.  Throughout my travels I have noticed that my interactions with the people who are local to the area are genuinely kind and helpful.  No matter where I am, domestic or international, I have been surprised by how friendly the local people are.  I’ve even been offered a ride by someone I had met only minutes earlier in a foreign country in order to find a store where I could buy clothes as my luggage had been lost by the airline. 

Yet it seems that whenever I am in a decidedly touristy area, the people act the same, as if they are afraid of something.  Afraid of interaction.  It seems that they are there solely for the purpose of being in the place they saw in the magazines without concern to anyone else.

I am guilty of this behavior as much as the next person, but as I continue to travel & spend time with people from across the country & world, I realize that it is much more than seeing all of the beautiful places.  It is fun to interact with the people from wherever you are visiting.  Many are interesting, some colorful and others a bit quirky, but you gain perspective from these people.  They are also a wealth of information which you will never get from any tourist book. 

Oregon Trail

Our day started with a quick visit to Multnomah Falls in Northern Oregon.  My atlas used to have this waterfall pictured on the front cover (which has since been lost due to heavy use) and both myself & my girlfriend have wanted to go see it for ourselves.  Our original plans didn’t include this stop as it had slipped our minds during the planning process but we were reminded of it while in the Visitor Center of Mount Saint Helens where they have a poster of the falls.

We consulted our atlas and realized that it wouldn’t be very far out of our way if we wanted to take a quick detour.  When we arrived I was quite surprised by how many tourists were there.  I hadn’t realized how popular of a place this was.  We stopped by the gift shop for a postcard and magnet for the refrigerator.

While wandering around the bottom of the falls taking pictures I found a trail which would lead to the very top of the waterfall.  After a tiring walk up nearly a dozen switchbacks we finally arrived to the top and were quite disappointed by the view.  The platform at the top of the falls didn’t extend very far and about all we could see was the edge of the river where the water began its 600 foot cascade to the bottom.  Not as impressive as I had hoped.

Our next stop would be a small fishing town called Newport on the Oregon coast.  We were informed by the locals that sea lions liked to hang out near the pier so we decided to check it out.  We were able to see a couple of them in the distance but none were in their usual place which is more viewer friendly.  While out on the pier I noticed something strange on the rocks and upon closer inspection I realized that it was the arm of a purple starfish.  I had to get a closer look as I had never seen a starfish before.  I climbed down by the rock and touched it.  It didn’t do much, just moved a few of its suckers.

I climbed back up to the pier and as we walked further out into the water we noticed there were starfish all over the place.  It was incredible to see all of the starfish and I was impressed by how large they were.

After a quick bite to eat at a local Mexican restaurant we are now relaxing in our hotel room watching Animal Planet.  Tomorrow will be spent driving down the Oregon coast on Hwy 101 towards our next destination, Crater Lake.

Plagued by Bad Weather

After leaving the Washington rain forest we traveled to Mount Rainier National Park.  We didn’t arrive until late the first night so we pitched camp and attended the campfire discussion which talked about the history of the park.  I’ve only been to 2 of these presentations, but this one was particularly enjoyable as the ranger was able to weave her own life story into the discussion, something I really enjoyed.  It gave the park a more personal feel.

Our campsite sat at the edge of a small glacial river and the roar of the water over the rocks was nice to fall asleep to.  Shortly after putting down our books and turning out the lantern it started to drizzle.  The raindrops on the tent were peaceful, connecting us that much more to nature.  By morning it was raining pretty decently so we decided to drop into town and get breakfast at a diner rather than fight against the weather.

After breakfast we hopped in the car for a cruise around the park.  The weather did not allow us much opportunity to get a good look at Mount Rainier, but at one point the clouds cleared and we were able to see the giant in the distance.  It is a very impressive mountain; one I look forward to climbing someday.

We continued our drive around the park and the weather continued to improve.  We found a trail head and decided that we should do some hiking in order to prepare ourselves for our summit of Mount Saint Helen’s in a couple of days.  The hike was 6.2 miles round trip to the base of Rainier.  We suited up, strapped on our packs and were off into the wild.

By the time we were about a mile from our destination it started snowing.  I didn’t mind the snow as it just bounces off and doesn’t get you wet but on our return trip as we descended into lower altitude the snow turned to rain.  The rain didn’t let off at all and by the time we reached the car we were soaked to the bone in rain and sweat.

The rain continued through the night and into the early morning.  Thankfully tomorrow’s weather looks to be nice as it is then that we will be attempting our climb of Mount Saint Helen’s.  So far the only thing in our way is the huge amount of self-doubt that I am facing about by own ability to climb this mountain.  I hope that once I arrive to my destination and make camp and know more about what I am doing that that doubt will fade.  Even if I don’t make it to the top, at least I will have tried.  If I don’t make it this time, the mountain will remain to allow for another chance.

3,000 Miles Later

A milestone was reached today.  My trip odometer rolled over the 3,000 mile mark.  This is the furthest I’ve ever driven my car on any single trip.  It was a pretty exciting moment, for myself at least.

We spent the majority of the day driving across Washington, stopping in Spokane for a bite to eat at O’Dohertys Irish Pub downtown.  After lunch we took a walk around the park across the street.

As we strolled through the park I was awstruck by what may quite possibly be the largest Radio Flyer wagon in existence.  It also happened to be a slide and I had to take my turn down!  It was great & I didn’t care how goofy I looked sliding down a slide with a bunch of 4 year old kids.

We left Spokane and arrived in Seattle where we took a ferry ride across the Puget Sound.  It was a really cool thing to do.  The Seattle skyline from the ferry was a great sight to see.  We continued our drive to a small town called Port Angeles in northwestern Washington, just north of Olympic National Park.

Tomorrow we will spend the day exploring the park, a rainforest that receives more than 200 inches of rain annually.  The photos of the park look beautiful and I hope to take some nice photos of my own.

A Night to Remember

Friday marked our 4th day on the road & our 1st day in Yellowstone National Park.  For those who have never been to Yellowstone, the park is huge.  The size of the park coupled with the low speed limits resulted in the better part of our morning being spent driving to our campsite.  Once we arrived we pitched our tent, made some lunch & hopped in the car for a drive to see the sights.

There is one word to describe the geology of Yellowstone: Incredible.  There are so many neat things to see and each one seems better than the next.  As we worked our way south the features only got better.  The further we went the more excited we became about seeing what came next and soon we were hours from our campsite watching Old Faithful rise for the final time before the sun went down.  It was great to be watching the sun setting over the mountain and shortly thereafter seeing the most famous geyser in the world for the very first time.

It was getting late & cold so we decided it was time to head back to our tent to call it a night.  After half an hour of driving we reached a section of road where they were doing construction & as I pulled up I watched them closing the gate for the final time that night.  I was cordially informed that my only option included turning around and taking an alternate route which would require hours of driving.  It was already late and by the time we reached the campground we would only have a couple of hours to sleep before starting a new day.

I was quite frustrated.  We didn’t have a tent or sleeping bags, so we wouldn’t be able to just go to another campsite & I wasn’t willing to drive through the night across the entire park to get back to our campsite.  My girlfriend, probably jokingly, suggested we sleep in the car.  Sleep in the car?  What a great idea!  I returned to the Old Faithful Visitor Center & began looking for an inconspicuous place to park my car.  I didn’t need to be bothered in a couple of hours by a Park Ranger wondering what in the world I was doing sleeping in my car.  I found the nearest parking lot with other cars and parked my car.  We laid our seats back and called it a night, only a couple of hundred of yards from Old Faithful.

By about 4 o’clock it was beginning to get uncomfortably cold so I started my car and cranked up the heat.  I shut my eyes for a while but could not get comfortable.  I didn’t sleep well at all and when the sun finally peaked over the mountains I decided to be on my way.  We stopped to grab a quick bite to eat & set out on our hike around the trails near Old Faithful, which was now quite a convenient destination.

The day started off better than I could have asked for.  As we set off on our hike, Old Faithful rose from its slumber giving us a wonderful show.  There were very few people out on the trail so we had the place to ourselves.  We wandered around admiring all of the different geysers and pools of vividly colored algae blooms.  Finally we arrived at Morning Glory Pool where it was only my girlfriend and I in the early morning sun.  We shared the moment of solitude.  For a moment it felt as though we were the only people in the park.

We started our walk back and as we passed the growing number of tourists I felt thankful for having had spent the night in my car.  If I hadn’t, we would not have been able to have had the park all to ourselves, even if only for a short moment of time.