St. Louis for the second time

I'm currently in St. Louis, Missouri, halfway through a two-week trip for work. The last time I passed through St. Louis was during our cross-country road trip honeymoon, six and a half years ago. We stopped for a pretzel snack near the Arch but otherwise didn't see anything of the city. I remember it feeling kinda silly but also fun, to have pretzels of all things, in St. Louis. I also remember us being impressed with just how wide the Mississippi really is. It's one of those things where "knowing" it's a big river is really different from seeing it.

I wish Drew was here with me this weekend. Nostalgia feels more bittersweet when it can't be shared.

I'm going up to the top of the Arch later today; I don't usually do the typical "tourist" activities when I travel… but I don't want to let some stupid hipster notion or simple laziness keep me from doing something unique and iconic, either. Especially since the Arch feels kindred with the Space Needle. I'm hoping that I've explored enough of the area in the past week to appreciate the view, at least somewhat. 'Cause it feels like a waste to me, when I go to a scenic viewpoint but can't recognize anything that I'm looking at.

The "history-ness" of St. Louis feels more palpable to me here than in many places on the West Coast that I'm familiar with. The buildings here are old enough that I can't help but imagine past lives, past centuries superimposed on the landscape. According to a plaque on Fourth Street downtown, the Revolutionary War came as far west as here (presumably for control of the Mississippi River). Being in visibly-old cities gives me a sense of place in the larger country, world, history. It's like the sense of awe and connection to the universe I get when stargazing, except on a more human scale. Maybe I've just grown too familiar with Seattle to feel that way there, but I feel it here.

Wandering around Querétaro

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He estado quedándome con una familia de Couchsurfing por mis primeros días aquí en Querétaro. Hoy la otra huésped, una alemana, se fue, y la familia me llevó al centro mientras la llevaban a ella al terminal de autobuses. Por eso, no empecé el día en el centro del centro, sino cerca de los arcos del acueducto, a una distancia corta del centro.

Me reí a mí misma por llamarse en mi mente "el acueducto romano" en la mente, como si fuera construido por los romanos. :P

Caminaba por las calles hasta el centro, tomando fotos de iglesias, árboles, estatuas, y otras cosas de la ciudad de Querétaro. Hacía mucho calor (para mí, al menos: 28°C o 82°F), así que compré un raspado de limón de un vendedor que estaba al mirador de los arcos. Fue tan dulce! No pude terminarlo por la dulzura demasiado fuerte porque estaba demasiado dulce, sólo comí el hielo raspado de arriba, que contó con lo mínimo del jarabe donde el jarabe era menos fuerte.

Encontré el Palacio de Gobierno en un lado de la Plaza de Armas. Miré los murales de la independencia y la revolución. Entonces un tipo (con una etiqueta de nombre) me invitó a escuchar su plática sobre la historia local con los otros visitantes. El tenía un humor un poco extraño, y usó muchas frases coloquiales que no entendí bien, pero me gustó a pesar de esto.

Después, regresé a un restaurante inglés/indio/thailandés que había visto más temprano en el día. Mientras caminaba, vi a un cura bendiciendo un coche de una familia. Muy extraño.

En el restaurante comí curry amarillo thai y pollo a la mantequilla. El curry fue más como un caldo (pero todavía con un buen sabor). Y el pollo a la mantequilla no tenía nada que ver con el plato del mismo nombre de los restaurantes estado­unidenses, porque sus especias fueron completamente distintas (pero todavía con un buen sabor :)).

Por el resto del día, andaba por las calles del centro hasta que llegué a un café, donde me senté para leer y escribir.

Corrected by Ines and Juanfry.

English

I've been staying with a Couchsurfing family for my first few days here in Querétaro. Today the other guest, a German woman, left, and the family dropped me off downtown while they took her to the bus station. Because of that, I didn't start my day in the *middle* of downtown, but near the aquaduct arches instead, a little ways from downtown.

I laughed at myself for calling it "the Roman aquaduct" in my head, as if it were built by the Romans. :P

I walked through the streets toward downtown, taking photos of churches, trees, statues, and other things in the city of Querétaro. It was really hot (for me, at least: 28°C o 82°F), so I bought a lime-flavored shaved ice from a vendor who was at the vista point for the aquaduct. It was so sweet! I couldn't finish it because it was too sweet, I only ate the shaved ice at the top, where the syrup was least strong.

I stumbled upon the Palacio de Gobierno along one side of the Plaza de Armas. I looked at the murals about the Independence and the Revolution. Then a guy (with a nametag) invited me to listen to his talk about the local history with the other visitors. He had a strange sense of humor, and used a lot of colloquial phrases that I didn't understand well, but I enjoyed it despite that.

Afterward, I returned to a British/Indian/Thai restaurant that I'd seen earlier in the day. While I walked, I saw a priest blessing a family's car. Very weird.

At the restaurant, I ate yellow curry and butter chicken. The curry was more like a broth (but still with a good flavor). And the butter chicken was nothing like the dish by the same name in American restaurants, because it had completely different spices (but still with a good flavor ;)).

For the rest of the day, I wandered through the streets downtown until I arrived at a cafe, where I sat to read and write.

Routines

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Durante las seis semanas que estaba en Guanajuato, nunca tenía ganas de escribir. No sé por qué era así, pero mi teoría es que estaba allí por suficiente tiempo que desarrollar una rutina, y ésa no incluía escribir.

Y ahora que me he traslado a Querétaro, de repente quiero escribir otra vez.

Es un poco triste. Quiero tener una rutina que sí incluye la escritura. Y por eso, me he inscrito en otro reto de HTLAL: escribir 100 páginas y grabarme 100 horas de hablar. Para forzarme a escribir y hablar más, lo que es sorprendentemente fácil de evitar.

Quizás puedo encontrar a un compañero de estudio, como un compañero de ejercicio pero para la mente. ;)

Corrected by Moiradora y Diego.

English

During the six weeks that I was in Guanajuato, I never felt like writing. I don't know why that was so, but my theory's that I was there for a long enough time that I developed a routine, and it didn't include writing.

And now that I've moved on to Querétaro, suddenly I want to write again.

It's a little sad. I want to have a routine that does include writing. And so I've signed up for another HTLAL challenge: write 100 pages and record 100 hours of talking. To force myself to write and talk more, which is surprisingly easy to avoid.

Maybe I can find a study buddy, like a workout buddy but for your mind. ;)

Couchsurfing with Luz's Family in León

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La línea de inmigración y la aduana fue muy larga y lentísima. Pero al final, no había ningún problema con mi visa de residencia temporal ni con las cosas de mi mochila. (Pero todavía tengo que ir a la oficina de inmigración para finalizar mi visa — el sello del aeropuerto solo me autorizar a estar en México por 30 días.)

Después de obtener mi sello oficial, encontré a mi anfitriona de Couchsurfing, una mujer de casi mi edad que se llama Luz. Ella viva en León con su familia (pues, no con sus hermanos ya casados) y es posible que me quede en su casa hasta ¡viernes!

Todos los miembros de su familia son amables — encontré a sus padres y a un hermano. (También a uno de sus primos, él que nos manejamos desde el aeropuerto, pero él no hablaba mucho y no se quedó después de llegar a la casa. Pero sí le gusta la música metal, al menos de Rammstein... :))

Cuando llegamos a la casa, admití que tenía un poco de hambre. Afortunadamente había una tienda al otro lado de la calle. Salimos, ella compró pan dulce y jugo de naranja para mí — le dije que le pagaré por algo para ella mañana — y regresamos en menos que cinco minutos. Los dueños de la tienda eran una pareja amable, pero el hombre estaba tan cansado que se equivocó del cambio dos veces. (Con sonrisas y risas, no fue nada malicioso.)

En la casa otra vez, comí mi pan y bebí mi jugo. También pregunté sobre estos pedazos de cosas que resultaron ser tamales de azúcar. Lo calentó y lo probé. No fue muy dulce, solo un poquito; el sabor de masa nada mucho más. No fue mi nueva comida favorita, pero me gustó y lo comería otra vez.

Después de comer, Luz me mostró la habitación mía. Era un espacio sencillo pero cómodo, y era obviamente donde ella practica su música, porque hay un piano y también otros instrumentos.

En la mañana, quizás vamos a ir juntos al museo de arte e historia. Luz me dijo que ha necesitado una excusa para ir, y soy yo esa excusa. :)

Corrected by Maria.

English

The immigration and customs lines were very long and extremely slow. But in the end, there were no problems with my temporary resident visa nor with the things in my backpack. (But I still have to go to an immigration office to finalize my visa — the airport stamp only authorizes me to stay in Mexico for 30 days.)

After getting my official stamp, I found my Couchsurfing host, a woman almost my age who's named Luz. She lives in León with her family (well, not with her married brothers) and it's possible that I can stay with them through Friday(!).

Everyone in her family is friendly — I met her parents and a brother. (I also met one of her cousins, who drove us from the airport, but he didn't talk much and he didn't stay after dropping us off at the house. But he did like listening to metal music, at least Rammstein... :))

When we arrived at the house, I admitted that I was a little hungry. Luckily, there's a shop across the street. We went out, she bought sweet bread and orange juice for me — I told her that I'd buy something for her tomorrow — and we returned in less than five minutes. The owners of the shop were a friendly couple, but the man was so tired that he gave the wrong change twice. (Which smiles and laughs, nothing malicious at all.)

At the house again, I ate my bread and drank my juice. I also asked about these little pieces of something that turned out to be sugar tamales. She heated it up and I tried it. It wasn't very sweet, just a little bit; not much more than masa flavor. It wasn't my new favorite food, but I liked it and would eat it again.

After eating, Luz showed me my room. It's a simple but comfortable room, and it's obviously where she practices her music, because there's a piano and maybe some other instruments too.

In the morning, we might go together to the museum of art and history. Luz told me that she's needed an excuse to go, and I'm that excuse. :)

Flying to Mexico

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En mi puerta del aeropuerto LAX, casi todos los otros pasajeros eran hispanohablantes. Me parece que los americanos angloparlantes no visitan la ciudad de León con frecuencia... La agente de la aerolínea cambió mi asiento porque se requieren pasajeros que hablan inglés sentados en las filas de emergencia.

Hablé con dos mexicanas, ningunas las que hablan ni una palabra de inglés. Incluso les ayudé con los anuncios de los agentes.

Para pasar el vuelo (que duró 3 horas) vi "Frozen: Una Aventura Congelada" por la enésima vez (pero solo la tercera vez en español). Me resulta aún más fácil entender cada tiempo que la veo, y queda entretenida.

Corrected by DavidLz.

English

At my gate at the LAX airport, almost all the passengers are Spanish-speakers. It seems like English-speaking Americans don't visit the city of Léon often... The gate agent changed my site because they require English-speaking passengers in the emergency exit rows.

I spoke with two Mexican women, neither of whom spoke a single word of English. I even helped them with the agents' announcements.

To pass the time on the flight (which lasts 3 hours) I watched "Frozen" for the umpteenth time (but only the third time in Spanish). It's becoming easier to understanding every time I watch it, and it's still entertaining.

Leaving California

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¡Omgomgomg estoy en el avión, ya saliendo del aeropuerto de Oakland, California! Estoy tan emociante, y también una poca ansiosa. Voy a extrañar me de mi familia, mis amigos, mi ciudad, mis gatos, y sumamente mi marido. Pero, como me dijo mi amiga LisaD, esto es una aventura de "la única vez de la vida", así que me enfoco en "emociante." :)

Corrected by BennyDelon.

English

Omgomgomg I'm on the plane, leaving the airport in Oakland, California! I'm so excited, and also a little scared. I'm going to miss my family, my friends, my city, my cats, and especially my husband. But, as my friend LisaD said to me, this is a "once in a lifetime" adventure, so I'm going to focus on "excited." :)

Visiting Forrest's family in Santa Cruz

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Nos quedamos una noche en Santa Cruz en un "pop-up tráiler" que encontré por AirBnb, que por casual­idad estaba muy cerca a la casa de uno> de los amigos de la niñez de mi marido. Nunca he dormido en este estilo de tráiler, así que fue como una diversión quedarnos allí.

Ha hecho bien frío por esta semana en California. Y el trailer sólo tenía un calefactor de propano, el que no es buena idea encender mientras duermas. En vez de tener un calefactor durante la noche fría, dormimos debajo de cuatro o cinco cubrecamas. Me desperté varias veces por la noche por el frío, pero cerca de las cuatro de la mañana, finalmente dormí sin despertarme. No querría quedarme más noches allí sin calefactor cuando sea tan frío, pero me gustaba el tráiler en general.

Después del tráiler, fuimos al puerto para pasar tiempo con los padres de mi marido. Charlamos un rato, y luego él y yo caminamos por "Arana Gulch," que suena dema­siado como "araña", más de lo que preferiría. ;) El sendero va por un campo pequeño de hierbas salvajes y por robles viejos y torcidos. Sólo vimos robles venenosos dos veces, pero sabemos que hay mucho más sin hojas obvias en la región.

Forrest me dijo sobre el campo, que era un espacio libre en su tiempo, pero ahora se están con­struyendo vallas para limitar el acceso público a parte del campo. Él y sus amigos solían recoger zarza­moras por tirar sus bicis en los arbustos y entonces ponerse encima de las bicis para evitar las espinas.

Al final del sendero está nuestro hotel, donde nos quedaremos hasta el 4 de enero. Dormí una siestecita (porque estuve cansada y son vacaciones, pues ¿por qué no?) y regresamos por otra ruta. Dis­cutimos los planes de renovación de la casa, especialmente sobre automatización de los electrónicos y las luces. ¡Estoy emocionante para ver qué cumplirá Forrest en un año!

Cuando llegamos al barco, su hermano menor, Ari, ya había llegado también y todos nosotros platicamos más.

Comimos en un restaurante chino (con servicio muuuy lento pero con comida rica). Nos trasladamos a un café, donde yo escribí y mi marido leyó mientras sus padres y hermano jugaron juegos. Finalmente, regresamos al barco para tomar unos tragos de crema de tequila y ver Rick y Morty, una serie de televisión que Forrest quería mostrar a su hermano.

Corrected by Judai.

English

We stayed one night in Santa Cruz in a pop-up trailer that I found on AirBnb, that happened to be very near the house of one of my husband's childhood friends. I'd never slept in this type of trailer, so it was kinda fun to stay there.

It was quite cold this week in California. And the trailer only had a propane heater, which it's not a good idea to run while you sleep. Instead of running the heater during the cold night, we slept under four or five blankets. I woke up several times during the night because of the cold, but around 4 AM, I finally fell asleep. I wouldn't want to stay any more nights there without a heater when it's so cold, but I liked the trailer in general.

After the trailer, we went to the harbor to spend time with my husband's parents. We chatted for a while, then he and I walked up "Arana Gulch," which sounds too much like "spider gulch" for my tastes. ;) The path goes through a small field with weeds and old, twisted oaks. We only saw poison oak twice, but we know that there's a lot more without obvious leaves around there.

Forrest told me about the field, that it was an open space when he was a kid but now they're building fences to limit public access to parts of the field. He and his friends would pick blackberries by throwing their bikes down on the bushes and then climbing on top of the bikes to avoid the spines.

At the end of the trail was our hotel where we were going to stay until January 4th. I took a short nap (because I was tired and it's vacation, so why not?) and then we returned by another route. We talked about our remodeling plans for the house, especially about home automation of the electronics and lights. I'm excited to see what Forrest accomplishes in a year!

His younger brother, Ari, arrived and we all chatted some more. We ate at a Chinese restaurant (with verrrry slow service but good food). We then went over to a cafe, where I wrote and my husband read while his parents and brother played games. Finally, we went back to the boat for some crema de tequila shots and a few episodes of "Rick and Morty," a TV show that Forrest wanted to show his brother.

Christmas Trees & Not Ice Skating

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Forrest y yo nos dormimos en un hotel bastante lujoso, el Fairmont de San Jose. Forrest encontró un descuento en línea, y por sólo una noche él querría quedarse en un hotel bonito.

Lo mejor es que afuera del hotel había una pista de patinaje temporaria, una miniferia, y una muestra de árboles de navidad que se decoraron varios grupos sociales y cívicos. Una pasillo entera fue poblado por árboles de tropas de Girl Scouts — con números de tropa de más de 60,000, cuando mi número de tripa era menos que 1,000. No sé si es el mismo sistema de números o no.

También fue un árbol que lucía muy triste, con sólo un hilo de luces de Navidad, como si el grupo se hubiera olvidado sobre la muestra hasta el propio día.

Caminábamos por los árboles y las atracciones cerradas de la feria de la calle, cuando descubrimos una verdadera máquina de Rube Goldberg en frente del Museo de Tecnología de San Jose.

La miramos por diez minutes, esperando el momento en cuando esas tres pelotas volaran en el aire, regresaran, y aterrizaran en una canasta de metal. Sólo un niño la miró con nosotros; los otros adultos no tenían interés.

Al final de la noche, fuimos a la pista de patinaje. Había patinado una vez antes y me divirtió. Pero esta vez, al instante que me deslicé por la primera vez, solamente pude pensar en la ocasión cuando me rompió el pie y tenía un miedo bastante irracional, pero no pude evitarlo. Ahora no estoy segura de si todavía me gustaría patinar con patines en línea, como solía gustarme...

Corrected by mauerhase.

English

Forrest and I stayed at a rather fancy hotel, the Fairmont of San Jose. Forrest found a discount online, and for just one night he wanted to stay in a nice hotel.

Better, outside the hotel there was a temporary ice skating rink, a mini-carnival, and a Christmas tree display decorated by various social and civic groups. An entire row was filled with trees from Girl Scout troops — with troop numbers higher than 60,000, when my troop number was less than 1,000. I don't know if it's the same numbering system or not.

There was also a very sad tree, with just a single strand of Christmas lights, as though the group had forgotten about the display until that day.

We walked through the trees and the closed street-carnival rides, when we discovered a Rube Goldberg machine in front of the San Jose Technology Museum.

We watched it for ten minutes, waiting for the moment when these three balls would fly through the air, make a U-turn in the air, and land in a metal basket. Only a little boy watched it with us; the other adults weren't interested.

At the end of the night, we went to the ice skating rink. I'd ice skated once before and I'd enjoyed it. But this time, as soon as I slipped for the first time, all I could think about was when I broke my foot. I had this irrational fear, but I couldn't avoid it. Now I'm not so sure if I'd still enjoy rollerblading, like I used to like...

En California con la familia, preparándome

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Solo quedan dos semanas hasta que viaje a León, para empezar mi año en México. Ya tengo todas las cosas que necesito para el viaje — y, de hecho, un poquito demasiado, porque quiero que mi mochila pese como 5 libras menos que su peso actual de 26 lb.

Estoy en California ahora, para pasar el tiempo aquí con mi familia aquí. Y también estoy preparando todo el contenido digital de mi celular y mi portátil. No voy a leer ni mirar entretenimiento en inglés, así que he buscado libros y películas en español (nativo o doblado).

¡Quizás leeré o escucharé Harry Potter (los libros) por fin! :)

Corrected by An1.

English

There's only two weeks left until I travel to León to start my year in Mexico. I already have all the things that I need for the trip — and, in fact, a bit too much stuff, because I want my backpack to weigh like 5 pounds less than its current weight of 26 lbs.

I'm in California now, to spend time with my family here. And I'm also preparing all the digital content on my cell phone and laptop. I'm not going to read or watch entertainment in English, so I've search for books and movies in Spanish (native or dubbed).

Perhaps I'll finally read or listen to Harry Potter (the books)! :)

Guanajuato, donde empezará mi aventura

Español

Cuando le digo a alguien sobre mis planes de viajar por México en el 2015 siempre me preguntan a dónde viajaré y a qué me dedicaré durante el año. Preguntas razonables.

Y a la mayoría de la gente, después de que les digo que no tengo un horario detallado — ni aún cuál ciudad en cuál mes específico — expresa sorpresa. Solo en algunas ocasiones, me encuentro a una persona que entiende la idea de viajar como mochilero, sin planes fijos, mudándome a cualquier lugar que me interesa.

Pero esta falta de horario me encanta. La llamada de una aventura inesperada. No entiendo por qué esta idea es algo tan increíble. Es una narrativa tan común como la del "road trip" americano, ¿no?

Sin embargo. Lo único que yo sé por cierto es que quiero empezar mi aventura en la ciudad de Guanajuato, en el estado central del mismo nombre. Forrest y yo fuimos allí en julio — sólo por 2 días, pero la ciudad nos parece encantadora.

He leído mucho sobre Guanajuato antes de nuestras vacaciones cortas, y fue todo lo que he esperado. (Casi nos dejamos de San Miguel de Allende, la ciudad tan popular con los expatriados americanos, para regresar a Guanajuato por 2 días más, nos gusta tanto.)

Es una ciudad vieja, construida por los españoles por sus minas de plata. Geográficamente, está ubicado en un cañón. Existen túneles debajo de todo el centro histórico, donde va la mayoría del tráfico de los coches. Por esa razón, la zona histórica es sorprendentemente seguro para los caminantes. En el área más central, el zócalo que se llama El Jardín, no se permite ningún coche.

En espíritu mexicano verdadero, los superficies de los edificios son un caos de colores vibrantes. A mí no me parece muy bonito, pero sí me da algo de ánima por la energía de tantos colores. :) Las calles estrechas son empedradas, y por todos lados hay callejones aún más estrechas que serpentean entre las casas antiguas.

Una tradición turística y divertida es la "callejoneada," un paseo por los callejones guiado por una banda con guitarras y otros instrumentos musicales. Entretienen a los clientes con canciones y chistes procaces. :P Este dura por más de una hora, y creo que ocurre cada noche del año; no sé cómo se adapta la gente de la ciudad al ruido constante! Pero es muy divertido y te la recomiendo. :)

Hay una universidad en el centro, así que la edad mediana es un poco más joven, por causa de todos los estudiantes que viven allí. También es popular la ciudad con los turistas mexicanos (pero no tanto con los americanos). Así que hay mucho que hacer, y las cosas son baratos también.

Es casi ideal (para mí) para el comienzo de mi aventura.

Corrected by Aldebaran.

English

When I tell people about my plans to travel in Mexico in 2015, they always ask me where I plan to go and what I'll do during the year. Reasonable questions.

And most people, after I tell them that I have no detailed schedule - not even which cities in which specific months - they're surprised. Only occasionally do I find someone who understands the idea of backpacking without fixed plans, going to any place that interests me.

But I love this lack of schedule. The call of an unexpected adventure. I don't understand why this idea is so incredible. It's as common as the American "road trip" narrative, isn't it?

Anyway. All I know for certain is that I want to start my adventure in the city of Guanajuato, in the central state of the same name. Forrest and I went there in July - only for 2 days, but the city was enchanting.

I'd read a lot about Guanajuato before our short vacation, and it was everything I expected. (We almost left San Miguel de Allende, the city so popular with American expatriates, to return to Guanajuato for 2 days, we loved it so much.)

It's an old city, built by the Spanish for its silver mines. Geographically, it's located in a canyon. There are tunnels beneath the historic center of town, where most of the traffic goes. For that reason, the historic area is surprisingly safe for pedestrians. In the central area, the plaza is called The Garden, no cars are allowed.

In true Mexican spirit, building surfaces are a riot of vibrant colors. I do not think it looks very pretty, but so many colors are energizing. :) The narrow streets are cobbled, and everywhere there are even narrower alleys that wind between the old houses.

A touristy and fun tradition is the "callejoneada," a stroll through the alleys led by a band with guitars and other musical instruments. They regale guests with songs and ribald jokes. :P This lasts for over an hour, and I think it happens every night of the year; I don't know how people in the city adapt to the constant noise! But it's great fun and I recommend it. :)

There's a university downtown, so the average age is a bit younger, because of all the students living there. The city is also popular with Mexican tourists (but not so much with American tourists). So there's a lot to do, and things are cheap too.

It's almost perfect (for me) for the beginning of my adventure.

2015: My Year Abroad

Since my first trip abroad, to Spain one summer with my high school class, I've longed to live abroad for a substantial time period. I've wanted the adventure, the thrill of being in a different environment, the mental challenge of being immersed in a foreign language and foreign culture.

I made one more short trip to Spain with my mom, and I spent three weeks in Oaxaca (in southern Mexico), attending a language school and participating in the life of a homestay family there. I wanted to take a half year — an entire year — and really live somewhere else.

But I graduated college without doing any study abroad. It just never fit with the class schedule for my major. I started working full time. I got married, bought a house. Although I still wanted to have that adventure, it seemed increasingly likely that it just wasn't ever going to actually work out. The timing never seemed right, and I saw no reason why the timing would get any easier.

Yet I would still wistfully mention it to Forrest. To his credit, he consistently told me I should do it. I just felt like it wasn't something that could reasonably happen in reality.

When I started describing such a trip as something I'd regret never doing, Forrest finally told me that while he didn't have the same live-abroad wanderlust that I did, I shouldn't let that stop me. He told me I should just make it happen already. At which point, I started talking to people about when I would spend a year abroad, rather than if. It's amazing how much difference a single word can make, even just in my own mind.

So after spending almost half my life (damn! I make myself feel simultaneously old and young!) wanting this, and spending the past year seriously turning to the practical and logistical side of things, I am finally going to make it happen.

Many of my friends and family — and any strangers foolish enough to express any interest ;) — have already heard some portion of my plans. It's been over a year since my last blog post; this seems like a suitable "announcement" to break that silence:

I will be spending 2015 in Mexico!

I'm going to be rather busy up until I actually leave. I'm no longer at Google, and Forrest gave his notice earlier this month, so we're planning to do some traveling together before I go off on my own adventure.

In September, I'm spending the weekly camping at Lake Wenatchee State Park with friends, attending CatalystCon West (a sexuality/sex-positive/education/activism con) in LA, and meeting up with the old Jambool gang to go wine tasting 4 years post-acquisition. Then, mid-October, we're going to Disneyland with Jambool-Ben and his friends.

On either side of the Disneyland trip, Forrest and I will visit family in California At the very end of October, we're then heading to Baja with my parents. They'll road-trip with us for ~2 weeks then head back while Forrest and I continue wandering around the peninsula. We'll will return to California in time for Thanksgiving, and also spend Christmas and New Year's with family.

Once January 2015 rolls around, I'll be heading for the city of Guanajuato and the start of my one-year Mexico adventure!

¿Otro Viaje a México?

Español

Hace algunos años — creo que fue en 2008 — mi mamá y yo planeamos un viaje a San Miguel de Allende, donde asistiríamos en una escuela de idiomas y viviríamos con una familia mexicana allí.

Pero teníamos que posponer nuestro viaje. Así es la vida, algunas veces.

Ahora, cuando estoy pensando otra vez en una de mis metas de la vida — hablar español fluido — recordé estes planes olvidados. Llamé a mi mamá y la pregunté si todavía viajaría ella conmigo. Tiene que pensarlo más, pensar en el precio y el horario... ¡pero quizás me dirá sí! :)

English

A few years ago — I think it was 2008 — my mom and I planned a trip to San Miguel de Allende, where we would attend a language school and live with a Mexican family there.

But we had to postpone our trip. Such is life sometimes.

Now, when I'm thinking again about one of my life goals — to speak Spanish fluently — I remembered these forgotten plans. I called my mom and asked her if she would still go with me. She has to think about it more, think about the cost and the schedule... but maybe she will say yes! :)

Complete Costa Rica Series

Standard disclosure: I shamelessly backdate my posts. I want the date posted to reflect the date I wrote the post, even if it ends up being weeks before I have the time to upload them. So you can see what's been uploaded and get back to them easily, I will update and linkify this list as the posts go live:

0. Going to Costa Rica!
1. Finding Our Way Around
   (San Francisco, CA → San José, CR → Ciudad Quesada)
2. (Ciudad Quesada → La Fortuna)
3. (La Fortuna → Santa Elena)
4. (Santa Elena)
5. (Santa Elena)
6. (Santa Elena → Playa Sámara)
7. (Playa Sámara)
8. (Playa Sámara → Liberia)
9. (Liberia → Alajuela)
10. (Alajuela → San Francisco)

See also my Foursquare list of the places we visited, and my Flickr set for all my photos. Like always, you will have to be logged in and "Friends & Family" to see any pictures with faces. `;)` (Forrest also took a bunch of photos with his much nicer camera, but he hasn't uploaded them yet.)

Finding Our Way Around

We flew to Costa Rica and managed to drive ourselves to our first stop, despite the drive being 3x as long away as expected. We ate delicious steak and slept in a very non-touristy hotel (complete with a possessed TV, a "suicide shower", and a scary-giant spider.)

San Jose, CA & San José, CR

Costa Rica! Costa Rica Costa Rica! As Wil Wheaton would say, Costa Rica I am in you!

I'm having fun distinguishing "San Jose" (ie the Californian city) from "San José" (ie the capital of Costa Rica) purely by accent mark. `;)`

Name Games

The adventure managed to start even before we left the country. Forrest had booked the plane tickets for us. Even though I had confirmed the itinerary too, we both missed that my ticket was booked under my married name — which is a problem for international flights, since my passport is still in my unmarried name. Oops!

I called the airline days before the trip, asking if it was going to be a problem. The representative told me that yes, definitely, they could deny me from getting on the plane. He made a note on my file (did you know that you have a "file"?) but said I'd have to go to the ticket agent to get things properly changed over to my unmarried name.

I left my car at Google's long-term parking lot and took a towncar (better service than a taxi and cheaper!) to SFO. I got there early to deal with the name change business. I was glad I'd gone to the county clerk office to get an official copy of our marriage certificate, because the agent asked to see it! Luckily, the airline didn't charge anything for the ticket changes, even though I'm pretty sure their terms of service or whatever says they could have.

Throughout this, Forrest thought I was just being paranoid. I'm still unconvinced, and in any case, I'm glad I got my ticket fixed because I didn't have any trouble.

Flying to Costa Rica

Waiting at CLT during our layover

Forrest arrive around 9 or 10 in the evening of the 28th. We waited around in the airport until our flight from SFO to CLT (Charlotte, North Carolina) at midnight, so technically the 29th. (I had not read the plane ticket carefully, and had thought at first that I was picking Forrest up from the airport, then driving back the next day to fly out at noon. Not so.)

I finally tried out a sleep mask for the first time, and wow does it make sleeping on a plane so much easier! I wish I had tried it before.

So I wake up in Charlotte, where we get some marginal breakfast and kill a little time before taking off for Costa Rica! :D

Landing in San José

Kölbi

The international airport in the capital city is... somewhat smaller than we had expected: SJO has 17 gates (compared to SFO's 102 gates, for example).

The very first order of business was getting local SIM cards for both our phones and the iPad (our "GPS device" for the trip, rather than paying by the day to add it on to the rental car). In the middle of the airport was a convenient kiosk for Kölbi, a local telco. We did the transaction 80% in Spanish — I didn't know how the payments structure was supposed to work, so when we got into the details of it, I got a little lost. Amusingly, that was the thing that Forrest had researched, and by knowing what to expect her to say, he was actually better able to follow the Spanish at that moment. :P Don't underestimate how much context can help you understand a foreign language! Luckily, the saleswoman spoken somewhat more English than I did Spanish, so we were able to clarify what the deal was.

It worked out to approximately $40 for unlimited data on all three devices for the entire trip. Plus local calls, and also calls home at 30 cents a minute. (We ended up calling home a couple times during the trip because that's not too pricey, but we didn't chat on and on either, because it's not dirt cheap either. The Goldilocks amount of calling, if you will.)

From there we went out through customs. It was as simple as running our bags through a scanner and picking them up on the other side.

Getting the rental car

Because it took us 30 minutes to get the SIM cards set up and get out of the airport, I was a little afraid that the rental car company's representative would have ditched us. Or that they weren't going to send a rep like they had said they would. Or that we didn't really have a reservation like I thought we did. (The rental car was the one thing I reserved through a travel agency, because it was $200 cheaper than booking directly. I had thought it was actually even more-cheaper, but it turns out that the agency's quote didn't include all the taxes.) All sorts of nagging worries while we were busy being overwhelmed by the crowd of people crushing up against the glass windows, looking in at the arriving passengers for the person they were supposed to meet.

But then we went out to the curb, and Forrest spotted the guy with my name on a sign (that listed like five other names). Not ditched! Success!

We (by which I mean mostly I) chatted with the guy in Spanish a little bit while waiting for the car to come around to pick us up. Turns out, the car they picked us up in was the one we would be renting. I dunno if that's a normal rental car thing, but it was nice to see that the car worked before we took over. ;)

The guy at Mapache Rent a Car was a little pushy about the optional insurance packages, but not any more than most car-related salesmen I've had to interact with.

But he did give us a map, directions, and a local's sense of how long it would take to drive to our destination — Ciudad Quesada, aka San Carlos — 3 hours, instead of the 1 hour that the TripAdvisor forums had led me to believe. This led to a bit of... strife... with the worried (and also tired and hungry) husband. You see, even though we had landed at 1:30pm, everything was taking longer than expected, and it gets dark very promptly at 6pm on the equator. And when the rental car guy told us it took 3 hours because the roads became very steep and windy 1 hour out... Well, Forrest was worried in a completely justified sort of way. But we decided to drive as far as we felt comfortable, and made room in our expectations for sleeping in one of the two towns that were on the road before Quesada.

Driving is not as bad as we were led to believe

Pan-American Highway in the rain

In what became a theme for this trip, we slowly began to think that the roads in Costa Rica might not actually be as bad as everyone (including the rental car guy) would have us believe. The Pan-American Highway, for instance, is certainly smaller than we would have expected a major highway (only one lane in each direction), but it was in great condition. And sure, it was raining (because summer is the rainy season in Costa Rica), but it was just normal rain, not scary torrential monsoon rain or anything.

Between the verbal instructions the rental car guy gave us, the map he highlighted for us, and the iPad GPS (with detailed maps that Forrest had pre-downloaded before the trip), we were able to find the turn off of the Pan-American Highway and head north toward Quesada. When we hit the first town on the route, Naranjo, we felt comfortable to continue onward, so we did.

Advertisement Van

Just outside of town, there was this van with speakers mounted to its roof. They were blasting advertisements for some local business, in the same way you might get spam flyers in the mail advertising a sale at the grocery store. It was like spam, in van form. Van-spam, if you will. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

A little further down the road, we drove through Zarcero, which is apparently "famous" for its weird topiary garden in the middle of the town. Forrest ask me if I wanted to stop and walk around, but A) I knew as well as he did that daylight was an issue, and B) I didn't especially feel the need to walk around. We sorta looked at each other, judging whether the other was more "into" the topiaries, and then we agreed we'd seen as much as either of us felt compelled to. Maybe that makes us bad tourists, but we're the same kind of bad tourist, so it makes travelling together work out. :)

Zarcero (photo courtesy CostaRicaPhotos.com)

Just beyond Zarcero was where the rental car guy had warned us the road became very steep, windy, and just generally bad. We did get stuck in a traffic jam because of a couple one-way, the-same-direction-must-always-yield bridges, it really *wasn't that bad. For instance, the breaks never failed like what happened once to Forrest when he was driving down some truly steep roads to go backpacking. And the road was always two-lane (except for those pesky bridges with the ceda el paso aka "yield" signs), unlike the part of CA-4 between Ebbetts Pass and Markleeville that we've both travelled multiple times.

If you're Friends or Family with me on Flickr, you can see Forrest's awesome "not amused" expression at being stuck in said traffic jam. :P

We checked in again with each other about how we felt on pushing on all the way to our destination vs stopping early in Zarcero. We both agreed that the roads had been fine and seemed perfectly safe to drive even past dark, if necessary. So onward we went!

Getting to the hotel

Hotel El Parqueo

We rolled in to Ciudad Quesada at 6 o'clock, right at sunset. Our next "adventure" was locating the hotel where we (supposedly! hopefully!) had reservations for the night. In Costa Rica, no buildings have addresses. Instead, they have relative directions. For example, our hotel's location was 400 meters north and 200 east of the central plaza. A block is roughly 100 meters. So we drove to the plaza and counted blocks. There were some one-way streets which we had to dance around, which means we got slightly lost once before finally finding the hotel.

The front door had a locked gate, but ringing the doorbell promptly called the young man behind the front desk to open it. I told him (in Spanish; I'm positive he spoke no English) that we had a reservation. He looked us up in a logbook-type-thing and found us. I was so relieved; up until this point, I had been afraid we didn't really have a reservation and we'd be spending a stressful time chasing down last-minute accommodations.

I asked to see the room before paying. He said of course and took me down the tiled hallway to the last room. It had a private bathroom (which is an optional upgrade feature in most Costa Rican hotels), a queen bed, a twin bed, and a fan (but no A/C, which I hadn't thought to ask about over the phone). It seemed sparse but clean and safe.

Suicide Shower

The only questionable thing about the room (other than the lack of A/C) was the shower. Check out the photo. See the green wire coming out of the wall and connecting to the shower head? That's how the water gets heated. Our guide book said that they aren't all that uncommon, and are affectionately known as "suicide showers". The book recommended you not adjust the temperature while running the water(!). I ended up deciding I wasn't in that much need of a shower. Forrest said it was for the best, because apparently there was a giant nasty spider in the shower stall that I wouldn't have wanted to see. D:

Anyway, I went back to the front desk to pay for the room. It was ₡15,000 for the room. They didn't take credit cards, but had no trouble with American dollars. I only had twenties, so I gave him $40 and he gave me back ₡5,000.

During our entire trip, we never came across anywhere that did not as readily accept dollars as colones. What's more, all but two or three places gave us colones in charge at the actual exchange rate (₡500 for $1) without charging any fees at all. There is absolutely no reason to exchange money in Costa Rica; they either take credit cards or American dollars, and if you overpay with the latter you magically get local currency at the best possible rate. It was pretty cool.

I asked whether there was a curfew. The employee told us there wasn't; we could come and go as we pleased, we'd just have to ring the bell to get the front desk's attention. With that, we said good night and headed out to dinner.

Delicious, delicious steak

So Ciudad Quesada is in the middle of cattle country. And when in the cattle country, it's my philosophy that one should eat steak for dinner. I had researched (via Foursquare! hehe) a steakhouse with good reviews beforehand, so we headed straight for the Coca Loca Steakhouse on the western edge of the central plaza.

The restaurant looked a little hole-in-the-wall-ish and Forrest was a little reluctant to go in. But he was even less interested in searching for a new place to eat, so we went in. Like in every single restaurant during our trip, the waiter said we could sit wherever we wanted; we were never seated by a waiter.

Forrest had heard somewhere that ordering things rare or medium-rare was unusual, so we braced ourselves for getting medium or well-done steaks. But thankfully either Forrest's information was bad or the waiter knew to ask foreigners about steak done-ness, because we got into a discussion with the waiter about the Spanish words for it! Apparently it's rojo, medio, y bien cocido (IIRC).

I ordered a filet mignon and Forrest ordered a ... T-bone? (I'll have to ask him if he remembers.) But the cut of meat isn't the interesting thing; the size of the steaks was the interesting thing. They were both huge. I stuffed myself but was only able to eat half my steak, despite it being delicious. Forrest managed to eat all of his steak, which turned out to be his favorite meal of the trip, but he was very full. When a Tico* family of four sat down at the table next to us, we noticed they ordered "family style", which seemed much more sensible to us now that we'd seen the portion size.

"Tico" is the word for a Costa Rican.

Possessed TV

Possessed TV

We walked waddled back to the hotel, counting blocks as well as double-checking landmarks. (I'd also recorded the location as a pin on my phone, just in case we somehow got turned around or lost.)

We slept well enough despite the warm evening, except for a very sudden, loud noise jerking us away in the middle of the night. We leapt out of bed, hearts pounding from the adrenaline of surprise. The noise was the TV, which had decided to turn itself on at full volume. I fumbled at the remote buttons in the dark until Forrest reached up to turn it off directly. We have no idea what possessed the TV to pull such a stunt, but we did not appreciate it.

---

See also my Flickr set for all my photos, and my Foursquare list of the places we visited.

Going to Costa Rica!

Forrest and I decided to go to Costa Rica in 2 weeks! There is a lot of stuff to decide on and reserve!

Another (backdated) blog post, another travel adventure! (Yes, yes, I know that both our Zurich/Munich and honeymoon trips aren't written up. Quiet, you.)

Why Costa Rica?

Google is very generous with its paid holidays. For the fourth of July, they not only gave us Wednesday, July 4th, but also the following Thursday and Friday. Which of course meant that pretty much everyone took Monday and Tuesday off to get nine days off for the cost of two vacation days. It's a good thing no serious bugs or outages happened then, because I'm pretty sure there were no (American) Googlers at the office to fix anything. ;)

So Forrest (also a Googler) and I had this big block of time, and we knew we wanted to go on an adventure. We thought about going to Alaska for a while, but the plane tickets were surprisingly expensive. So we started looking at Latin America. South America was expensive, presumably 'cause it's just so far away. And then we looked at the average July temperatures for Central America; Costa Rica seemed "less hot" than other Central American places, and that seemed as good a reason as any.

So we decided to just do it: we picked Costa Rica and bought the tickets on the very same day, just two weeks before we'd be leaving! That didn't leave a whole lot of time to plan a ten-day vacation to a country neither of us knew, but honestly, that was part of the excitement. (Both Forrest and I have always thought it would be exciting ... and maybe a little scary ... to do that clichéd thing of going to the airport and buying a ticket for the next plane flying to an "exotic" destination.)

Pretending to be a travel agent

I took point on doing the bulk of the research and reservations. Forrest looked up what was up with the cell phone situation and determined that we should be able to buy a local SIM card in-country to get internet. But pretty much everything else about our trip, I figured out for us. It was crazy-intense: there are so many moving parts to a ten-day trip in a foreign country! I can definitely believe that travel agents earn their fees.

So I did lots of googling, lots of travel book reading, lots of forum-reading and -posting. For pretty much the entire two weeks, I lived and breathed Costa-Rica-trip-planning. I took notes on what sounded interesting and gradually (but not too gradually! I only had two weeks!) formed an idea for what we might do while in Costa Rica. I sent the list over to Forrest for comment, and we were both pretty much on the same page. (We really travel well together, because we're both into the same sorts of things and like the same pace.)

(Here's where I'm going to plug TripIt as a great resource for not only storing your travel documents but also planning and coordinating a trip with others. It was super helpful!)

I made reservations mostly by email, but I did have to call one hotel via Skype because they only had a local Costa Rican phone number and no website or email address at all. And of course the phone call was entirely in Spanish, so that was challenging and exciting! (This was a non-tourist hotel in a non-tourist town.)

The woman on the phone at first spoke at me like I was fluent, but I quickly got her to ask simpler questions (and by simple, I mean simple: ¿Uno o dos personas?, hehe). She asked me for a local phone number, but I didn't have one yet. She didn't seemed bothered by this. Then she confirmed the date, how many people, that the room had a private bathroom, the rate, and ... hung up. Without taking any contact or payment information from me. So I was like, "Um, I think we have a reservation for the first night..." :P

Dinner & Closed Shops

Chinese... Thai... Swiss? Restaurant

After I finally got Forrest up from his nap, we walked 15 minutes down Bederstraße (that's a street name, FYI ;)) to look for a supermarket to buy some snacks. The place ended up being closed, so we wandered into the Suan Long China Restaurant to eat. The waiter didn't speak English, so we got by on my smattering of beginner's German, pointing at the menu, and gesturing. We got the beef fried rice and lemon chicken that we wanted, though!

The fried rice's flavor was quite different than we expected — distinctly pad-thai-esque. Then we noticed the statues in the entry looked far more Thai than Chinese... And the waitresses looked more ethnically Thai than Chinese, now that we stopped to think about it. So we ended up at some Thai-Chinese fusion plase, I guess. It's good tho'. :)

Wandering around closed stores

We took the tram back from dinner (Forrest's feet were bothering him) and we checked out the hours of the Starbucks and other stores nearby. Everything seems to close on Sunday, so we're not quite sure what we'll be doing tomorrow. Besides checking out the Grossmünster cathedral, that is. (They're open after mass.)

There is a small mall right next to our hotel, but all the shops had already closed for the evening. Despite this, the main door into the mall was open and there were a handful of people strolling around. So we wandered around there a little bit, found a supermarket and a bookstore to investigate later, then headed back to our room.

Google Voice & Skype work, kinda

we tried giving our parents a call over Google Voice. It had terrible echo and lag, though, so we gave up on that method. I called my parents back via Skype, but there wasn't enough bandwidth to do video and the audio wasn't all that great either. Forrest finally bought a cheap phone card and called his parents on a (gasp) phone, which actually worked.

I'll try Skype again from work on Monday, to see if it was just a bandwidth issue like I suspect.

Nach Zürich!

I'm writing this blog post from my hotel room in Zurich, Switzerland! In case you were asleep during that last sentence, let me reiterate: I'm in Europe! A week (working) in Zurich, then a 4-day vacation to Munich.

My team at YouTube works closely with another YouTube team in Zurich, and so here we are (are will be, as teammates arrive over the weekend) to visit with them face to face. Forrest has tagged along for the ride (out of pocket). This is going to be so awesome.

Language on the Non-Stop Flight

The plane ride over was a direct flight on Swiss air from SFO to ZRH. We flew in coach, which worked out okay for 5'2" me, less so for 6'2" Forrest. The on-board dinner, chicken and gravy-goopy and rice, was actually edible, so that was nice. And the wine was free! The stewardess was like, "Um, also, everything else is free to," just in case I was uncertain. :P

I was expecting to hear a lot of German on the plane, but I wasn't expecting there to be so many French-speaking passengers on the flight too. I know that the eastern part of Switzerland speaks French, but Zurich is in the western, German-speaking part of the country. There was an elderly couple seated next to me who clearly didn't speak English. I couldn't hear them as they talked quietly together, but it didn't sound like German, so I figured it was probably French like the passengers behind me.

Throughout the flight, the elderly man and I communicated wordlessly. He tapped me on the shoulder for help when he had somehow gotten the entire cradle for the funky remote control to pop loose, and again when he needed help with the retracto-cord for said remote. We gestured and "spoke" with facial expressions when he needed to get up to use the bathroom or stretch his legs. Every single time I got something from my backpack in the carry-on compartment above the seats, he reached out to help lift it (ineffectually, but I know he was trying to help out a stranger).

It wasn't until we were descending for landing that I clearly heard the old man tap on the seat-back display and say to his wife, "Un grado," referring to the temperature. I assumed that they spoke Italian, the third* official language of Switzerland and screwed up the courage to see how far my Spanish would go with an Italian-speaking Swiss man.

I was shocked to discover I had been sitting next to a Spanish-speaking madrideño the entire flight! I wish I had tried asking him what languages he spoke at the beginning of the flight. I'll try to take this as a reprimand/lesson to be bolder in approaching people on this trip!

We remarked on the snow in the distance out the airplane window and commented on how San Francisco had no snow and was in fact very sunny, warm, and springlike in comparison. The couple had been in California for the past month (treinta días rather than un mes) visiting their daughter who lives in Burlingame. I told him I lived in Los Gatos, near San Jose, and we chuckled about all the city names in California being Spanish names. He told me that they had visited a mission while they were there, and I told him that all California school kids have to do school reports on the missions. And then it was time to disembark. But it was awesome to see that my Spanish really is good enough to have a conversation, at least a simple one with a willing partner. :)

Zombies

Forrest and I didn't really get much sleep to speak of on the plane. So we were the zombies, trudging through the airport. The customs agent didn't ask us a single question, just stamped our passports with an indulgent smile when I specifically requested it. Unlike the customs agent in Madrid (eleven years ago!), who had haphazardly opened to a page at random and faintly stamped my passport crookedly, the Swiss agent made a neat, crisp stamp aligned with the margins on the first page. We extrapolate from our single data point that all Swiss must be neat and orderly. :P

We met up with my manager, who had been on the same flight (business class), picked up our checked bags, and zombied out to buy train tickets. The automated tellers require credit cards with smart chips in them, so we had to buy the tickets from a person at the window. This turned out to be necessary anyway, because there were like 20 different ticket options plus a "more options" button, so we really didn't have a clue which ticket we needed to buy from the machine anyway. The woman at the counter was very friendly and helpful (and English-speaking) and we ended up with the tickets we needed for the week.

We took the S2 train from the airport to our hotel. We checked in, intending to fight off the jetlag and wait until it was actually bedtime to sleep. But Forrest sat on the bed and we were doomed. I set an alarm for 2 hours and we napped. Well, I napped. I'm up writing this blog post now while Forrest continues to sleep. At first I tried to reason/cajole him out of bed, but after half an hour I gave up. He's not gonna be happy about messing up his sleep schedule... :(

But anyway, we're here, we'll eventually get our internal time clocks straighten out, and I'm looking forward to being a new place with new languages and new experiences!

The fourth and final official language is Romansch, spoken by about 1% of the population.

South Coast Ridge Road

We camped overnight near Big Sur and did a couple-hour drive on a "4x4" dirt road along a ridge between the Pacific Ocean and some valleys. We enjoyed some great weather and gorgeous views.

See all the photos of this trip. (To see photos that include people in them, you have to be my "Friend" on Flickr.)

View from camp

Before the Trip

Last weekend, we went on an "offroad adventure." But because we'd never actually gone offroading before, we picked out one of the easiest roads from the book we bought, and we talked my parents (who have gone on other easy 4x4 roads), Forrest's dad Dennis, and our mutual friend Ben, into going along with us. Our destination was the South Coast Ridge Road, in the Ventana Wilderness in the Santa Lucia mountain range.

Forrest and I went up to Walnut Creek the night before. Yes, this is an hour's drive in the wrong direction, which we then had to backtrack. We did this because the truck's power steering had died a while ago, and Forrest hadn't yet fixed it. The parking space at our house is a narrow, sloped patch of chunky gravel with poor lighting, so I don't blame him at all for not having worked on the cars. My dad, on the other hand, has a nice, flat, well-lighted working area with even more tools than Forrest has. So off to my parents' house we went.

This did have the side benefit of forcing us to be completely packed and ready to go the night before. Left to our own procrastinatory devices, we probably would have been doing last-minute packing right up until it was the agreed-upon time to leave.

Forrest stayed up late fixing the truck and continued the next morning, but he got it done. I went food- and supply-shopping while he worked. My parents left ahead of us, so that someone could get to the camp while it was still daylight and set up.

We ended up getting to Ben's house exactly at the agreed-upon 3 PM, but there was a slight hitch: we had discovered that one of the shocks had sheered off completely. Sorta important for an offroad trip. So I rode with Ben to the campsite while Forrest picked up his dad in Santa Cruz and repaired the truck with Dennis' help. Luckily, the job was as quick as Forrest had thought it would be, and they ended up only ~20 minutes behind me and Ben.

Camp

Camping at Bottcher's Gap

We stayed the night at Bottcher's Gap, which as windy as only a gap can be. Although, to be fair, even when the wind gusted and flared the campfire, it wasn't that cold. And once we got into bed and out of the on-again off-again wind, it was downright warm (for a January night). I even took off my long johns, and Forrest unzipped his sleeping bag completely. It was probably somewhere in the 40's.

Forrest cooked us all dinner, with help from Dennis. They cooked up some delicious steak on the camp grill, accompanied by maple carrots in the dutch oven and sweet rolls from Safeway. We had a near-incident with the table when Dennis sat on the unsupported end of the bench and nearly tipped the whole thing over, but otherwise dinner was good. :)

After dinner, we sat or stood around the campfire. Ben doesn't drink much, but one thing he does is Tullamore Dew, a tasty yet reasonably-priced Irish whiskey. So Forrest and I made sure to bring a small bottle of it. Between the six of us, we managed to polish off the entire bottle. What's camping without the drinking around the fire, I ask you? Not camping, that's what. :P

A Late Start

Ben and Dennis, both being early risers and/or directly in the path of the morning sun, got up sometime around 7 or so. I'm not exactly sure when they got up, because I was definitely still dozing. Forrest and I slept in the back of our truck, with the same setup that we used for our cross-country honeymoon trip. Unfortunately, the curtains' sticking-back velcro had un-stuck itself, so we had no curtains to block the sun. Which meant that I got to see the sunrise and only dozed off and on until I finally got up around 8. My parents slept in longer.

Eventually my parents got up too, and my dad started cooking his famous Mountain Man breakfast in the dutch oven. It was delicious, as always. How can you go wrong with an omelette with bacon and potatoes and melted cheese on top?

View from the road

We finally got on the road around noon. We got slowed down by two slow-moving drivers along Highway 1 on our way to the start of the road, so we didn't even start heading out into the offroad part of things until past 1 PM. The offroad book had said to allot 3-4 hours for the road, and with it being winter and short days, I was a little worried about having enough light. But we headed off anyway, starting on the south of the Coast Ridge Road and heading for the northern end, where it T's into the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road.

South Coast Ridge Road

We turned onto Los Burros Rd / Forest Road 23S01, just south of Plaskett. We were immediately greeted by a sign warning us, "Impassable when wet." But despite it being January and thus supposedly winter, it hadn't rained in a while and the ground was completely dry. We headed up the road, quickly climbing into the coastal mountain range. We stopped at the first good vied of the ocean and took its picture. But I got the sense that the rest of the group didn't really want to make photo-opportunity stops, so that and the lunchtime photo were the only two I got of the South Coast Ridge Road itself.

We drove past a small section of houses. Like, normal, primary residence houses, not rustic cabins or camps. I can only imagine what their pantries look like, given that whenever it rains there's no getting in or out on anything motorized...

Once we got on the ridge, it was gorgeous views of the oak-covered canyons leading to the Pacific Ocean to the west, and equally gorgeous views out over the ridges and down into the Salinas Valley. We speculated about whether you could see the Sierra Nevadas themselves on a clear day, or just the thunderheads over them. But as it wasn't a particularly clear day, we could see neither. Even so, the views were great.

The road was surprisingly well-maintained and easy to drive. It was plenty wide, totally dry, and so long as you had an automatic or low gears, even the "steep" sections were totally navegable by noob 4x4 drivers. It was almost disappointing, except for the fact that I would not have rather had the conditions end up being to hard and get us stuck with no one being truly experienced at leading an offroad party. The only "exciting" thing that happened was when a group of three dirtbikers nearly ran into us as they came flying around the corner.

View from lunch

We stopped for lunch on a narrow section of the ridge with a pull-out space large enough for our vehicles to get off the road. We had a tailgate make-your-own-sandwich lunch. We stood around, eating our sandwiches, drinking iced tea. When the western view of the ocean got boring, you could just turn around and look out over the valleys, then back at the ocean, etc. It was a beautiful day, warm without being hot. It was hard to remember that it was January!

We headed onward and eventually made it to the paved Nacimiento-Furgesson Road, the only road that cuts east-west through the Santa Lucia Mountains. Rather than head back the way we came, north up Highway 1, we headed east toward the much faster Highway 101. The road took us through the Hunter Liggett Military Reservation. It was predominantly empty landscape, full of old oak trees and rolling hills. It was sunset by then and rather picturesque, except for imagining unexploded ordinance lurking just off the road. :P

It was full dark when we finally got to Soledad (where it's happening!). We stopped at the traditional Soledad attractions: Las Delicias bakery and Starbucks. Unlike in years' past where I was super nervous about ordering in Spanish at the bakery, this time I was much more confident and just ordered. Like a boss.

From there, we went our separate ways. I had a good time and look forward to our next adventure!

Complete Honeymoon Series

Full disclosure: I shamelessly backdate my posts. I want the date posted to reflect the date I wrote the post, even if it ends up being weeks before I have the time to upload them. So you can see what's been uploaded and get back to them easily, I will update and linkify this list as the posts go live:

1. Best Laid Plans...
   (Walnut Creek, CA → Sonora, CA)
2. Not Abducted By Aliens
   (Sonora, CA → Rachel, NV)
3. Fossils, Basin & Range Geography, and Zion National Park
   (Rachel, NV → Zion National Park, UT)
4. (Zion National Park, UT → Mesa Verde National Park, CO)
5. (Mesa Verde National Park, CO → Gunnison, CO)
6. (Gunnison, CO → Wichita, KS)
7. (Wichita, KS → St. Louis, MO)
8. (St. Louis, MO → Mammoth Cave National Park, KY)
9. (stayed at Mammoth Cave National Park, KY)
10. (Mammoth Cave National Park, KY → Lexington, KY)
11. (Lexington, KY → Lexington, VA)
12. (Lexington, VA → Williamsburg, VA)
13. (Williamsburg, VA → Salisbury, MD)
14. (Salisbury, MD → Lakewood, NJ)
15. (Lakewood, NJ → Westerly, RI)
16. (Westerly, RI → Old Orchard Beach, ME)
17. (Old Orchard Beach, ME → St John, NB, Canada)
18. (St John, NB, Canada → Waterville, ME)
19. (Waterville, ME → Conway, NH)
20. (Conway, NH → Sidney, NY)
21. (Sidney, NY → Pittsburgh, PA)
22. (Pittsburgh, PA → Springfield, OH)
23. (Springfield, OH → Champaign, IL)
24. (Champaign, IL → Council Bluffs, IA)
25. (Council Bluffs, IA → Murdo, SD)
26. (Murdo, SD → Moorcourt, WY)
27. (Moorcourt, WY → St Regis, MT)
28. (St Regis, MT → Seattle, WA)
29. (Seattle, WA → Halsey, OR)
30. (Halsey, OR → Arcata, CA)
31. (Arcata, CA → Walnut Creek, CA)
32. (Walnut Creek, CA → Los Gatos, CA)

I'm also going to be updating the date of this post to keep it as the most recent one until the trip is over (in case, by some miracle, I manage to catch up during the trip itself).

Honeymoon Photos

We haven't had much internet (or downtime) for proper blog posting so far. The parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado we'e driven through haven't even had much cell pone coverage. But I'm taking copious notes (are there any other kind?) in the travel journal our family friend Angie got us, so posts will be written eventually.

We are also taking lots of photos with Forrest's nice new micro four thirds camera, but again, that requires internet and time, too.

So in the meantime, I've started uploading my iPhone photos whenever we do hit a spot of 3G coverage. See them on our Flickr honeymoon set.