Travel: California

I arrived at my brother’s home in California in the middle of a week. His house was actually really challenging to find because where online maps think it is, it isn’t! I actually turned around in his driveway twice thinking I’d passed it before he wandered out to search for me.

Since I work on the east coast, I spent each morning waking up at 5AM for work and finished each day early. It was such a nice change of pace to still feel like I had the day ahead of me when I was done with office life.

My brother lives in the Lost Gatos hills where there’s a lot of opportunity for quick walks and hikes. The first weekend I arrived, he took me to the place where he and and his wife took their engagement photos. The golden hills did not disappoint.

Most of time there was just daily life. I helped my sister-in-laws sister move into San Francisco during the first full week, enjoyed time with the cat- Boba, and learned how to get used to the groove that my brother & his wife share.

These little house moments were the most special to me. COVID may have warped a lot of things for the bad, but this was tuned to joy. I’d never had had the opportunity to live with my brother if it weren’t for working from home and having all the classes I teach cancelled. I cannot express how grateful I was to have this unique experience as an adult.

Of course it wasn’t pure sunshine. I had quite a few van things to deal with, like leaking and warping rubber on back windows. I spent the afternoons on my second week cleaning, and cleaning and more cleaning the roof and van to near perfection.

Fourth of July weekend, I went on a small solo hike near the house in the morning and caught up with friends on Facetime back east. Then the three of us ran some errands around the valley and got classic cheeseburgers & milkshakes for dinner.

Afternoons my third week were spent doing some more solo exploring (now that the van had been repaired!). I went into the city one day to do a hike along the beaches by Golden Gate Bridge.

I also took the time to walk over to Lombard Street and see the epically winding road I had heard so much about. One of the best parts of exploring during COVID is that no one was there. The road had maybe six cars go down it in the hour I was in the area. I got some beautiful shots of it without being crowded by pedestrians or vehicles.

The next night I took a book over to Half Moon Bay. I read on the beach wearing a sweater and went to Half Moon Brewing to try some sour beers. While there, the server helped direct me to another area to check out.

Not far away was a beautiful walking path filled with sea lions and cypress trees. Again, not a soul was in sight. I had plenty of time to photograph and head back to my brother’s house in time for dinner.

At the end of that week, I packed up to head to Oregon (which I will highlight in its own blog post). On the way north I drove through McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park. It was about 35 minutes extra driving of my way but absolutely worth it.

The air temperature at the falls was almost 25 degrees cooler at the bottom than the top. The water itself is 42 degrees. You better believe I stuck my feet in after a day of driving and exploring to cool down.

I arrived in the nick of time to get a soft serve ice cream for dinner at the little general store. After leaving I ended up driving way longer than expected into Oregon so the sugar held me over.

On the way back down into California, I slept a night under the redwood trees. I also made a point to drive as much as I could on scenic byways through Redwoods National State Park and the Avenue of the Giants. I love this quick snap of me and my van compared to the size of the trees.

I kept pulling off the road for small hikes all day to stretch my legs. The same server that told me about the cyprus trees told me I had to stop in Trinidad. Thank goodness I did. I ended up having a perfect breakfast and took some blueberry scones to go back to my brother.

And while sitting on this overlook, I ran into some folks from the east coast, right next to my house! I also made sure to stop through several of the drive through trees and sights along the road.

On my return to my brother’s house, we spent a day in San Jose playing putt putt. This is seriously one of my favorite past times.

We played two rounds. I got totally crushed on round one. But on the last hole of round two, I got a hole in one clench the win.

The next week, my sister-in-law helped me instal a beautiful “work from van standing desk” in the front panel of a door. We got an Ikea cutting board for the wood and it looks beautiful. She also took me exploring around Stanford’s campus while my brother was golfing.

It was also my brother’s birthday so we had a little picnic out at Half Moon Bay. It was a little colder than anticipated by the time we got to the water but we still had fun. I baked him a chocolate chip cake and we ate it slowly over the next week.

I took him and his wife to the same spot I had found a few weeks prior.

And on the way back home we stopped for some berry picking at a local farm. When we ate the chocolate chip cake later in the night, we paired it with fresh strawberry lemonade. It was both my brother and I’s first time picking.

Here are some more little moments from around the house and area. I got ice cream twice in my last week there for a new tradition “Ice Cream Sunday.” Once was from Salt & Straw and the second time was from Tin Pot. It was fun to try different places that I don’t get on the East Coast and I might have to try to keep up this Sunday pattern.

There was one particularly gorgeous Saturday evening that we spent on the back deck. Later that night though, there was a huge lightning storm that light up the sky and caused tons of fires in the surrounding area.

We were powerless for a few days and even build a gravity shower out back under the deck so we could at least cool off from the heat. Here was the same hill and the fires two days apart. It was one ridge over from the house when we had to evacuate.

The last few days of my time in California were spent in San Francisco itself in the house I had helped my sister-in-laws sister move into earlier in the summer. They graciously hosted us and I left at the end of a week on my trip back east.

While the evacuation pushed up my leaving date, I was still so grateful for the amount of time I shared with family. I hope that now I know how to live with my brother as an adult, we can have more chances to do this again in the future.

You can see photos of my trip out to get to my brother here and shots of my ride back are coming soon!