Posted by Tagged with california, family US roadtrip, San francisco Posted in Uncategorized

San Francisco

We arrived in San Francisco on Friday in time to pick up Mark’s sister, Traci from the airport. She flew in from Connecticut to visit us for 4 nights. We stayed at the Wyndham Canterbury Hotel in downtown San Francisco. Our first surprise upon arrival was finding out it would cost between $60-90 per night to park our van in the parking garage. Everything you’ve heard about San Francisco being expensive is true. We ended up finding a different option, but then we were holding our breath every night hoping the van didn’t get broken into. Crime and homelessness are very high and parking anywhere in the open is not recommended. What we learned is that this is a city that is best visited without a car. It is much less stressful and probably the same price to take an Uber or public transportation than to hassle with parking.

The Golden Gate
The Golden Gate Bridge was on the top of our bucket list. We’ve had a thing for bridges this whole trip, so we were excited to both drive and walk on this iconic bridge. As you can see from our sunglasses, we had mostly sunny days.

Grace Cathedral
On Sunday morning, we got a workout trekking up one of San Francisco’s steep hills to Grace Cathedral. This Episcopal church is stunningly beautiful inside and out. On the Sunday we were visiting, Bobby McFerrin happened to be doing some of his circle songs as prelude music. If you don’t know Bobby, he is most famous for his song – Don’t Worry, Be Happy. He is an incredible vocalist and musician. Here’s a short clip of our time with Bobby on Sunday morning.

Chinatown
We visited Chinatown and ate at Yees Restaurant. We ordered 4 dishes to share. The portions were large and we had leftovers. The fried tilapia was brought to the table as a whole fish. After devouring this perfectly cooked dish, drowning in a delicious sauce, we noticed the aquariums of live fish next to the kitchen. This fish was as fresh as it gets.

Another meal I will remember fondly was at Cajun House. Traci was given the task of choosing the restaurant and she found a winner! Everything we ordered was amazing and we cleaned our plates. Traci got the mussels, Mark ordered fried rice, Malia had gumbo, and Ivy and I had garlic noodles with shrimp and crawfish. At the end of the meal, Chef Ben came out to our table to say hi. As we were complimenting him on the amazing flavors, he suggested we look on our phone for “what is best Cajun food in San Francisco?” Traci said, “I would, but my phone is dead.” To that he laughed, “No problem. I have a charger.” He was just great. We visited for awhile longer and he brought out more wine and refilled our glasses on the house. It really felt like going to someone’s home more than going to a restaurant.

Another highlight of our stay was visiting Muir Woods, home of the giant redwood trees. This National Park felt like a picture out of a fairytale. The boardwalk path through the towering trees, beside a bubbling stream was magical. We kept expecting a fairy or a dwarf to emerge.

When we left the park, Traci suggested we take a different route out of the park and drive about 20 minutes to Stinson Beach. The hwy one that led us to the beach had some amazing views. We were squealing with delight the entire drive over the winding mountain road. This video is one of the places we parked and got out to take in the view.

One thing that surprised me (besides the cost of gas and parking) was how green it was in March. The flowers in Golden Gate park were blooming and green grass was plentiful. They have had record rainfall in California this year after a long drought, and it felt like the earth was singing “Thank you!”

Posted by Tagged with california, family US roadtrip, los Angeles, Santa cruz Posted in Uncategorized

California Pacific Coast

There have been a few times over the past 4 months of traveling when I’ve been tempted to turn around and go back to Minnesota, but my daughters have said, “Mom, what about California? We’ve got to make it to California!” Seeing the cliffs towering over the ocean, the giant redwood trees, and the scenic drive up the coast on Hwy 1 have been a long-time dream of ours. After the past 2 weeks on the California coast, I’m so grateful we made it all the way to the west coast.

Our California adventure started and ended in Palm Desert. Sandwiched in between this beginning and ending, we saw Joshua Tree, San Diego, Los Angeles, Pismo Beach, Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and San Francisco. In this post, I’ll focus on LA and Santa Cruz. In my next post, I’ll move on to San Francisco.

Los Angeles

The traffic and cost of parking in large cities has been something I wasn’t prepared for. We got our first taste in LA, but were only there for one day, so it didn’t really sink in until we got to San Francisco. Having a van with a luggage topper makes parking in most parking ramps impossible. We lucked out when our friends Tony and Tiffany had a parking space that fit our vehicle. I am now realizing that free parking is something I’ve taken for granted up to this point.

We met Tony and Tiffany through our mutual friends in St Paul. They moved to LA to pursue Tiffany’s acting career about a year ago. Tony was a great tour guide. He showed us Griffith Park, where we got a good view of the Hollywood sign and did some hiking. Ivy was thrilled about the Hollywood sign and wanted to take a lot of pictures. She kept asking where all the pop stars were? Unfortunately, we didn’t run into anyone famous.

After our hike, Tiffany joined us for a walk through their neighborhood and dinner at a great restaurant. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was living in the moment and completely focused on our conversation.

Santa Cruz

We had two days in Santa Cruz. We spent the night at a hotel in the neighboring town of Watsonville. At the time of our stay, the hotel was a temporary home to those displaced by the recent flooding in Monterrey county. It was the only pet friendly hotel in the area, so almost everyone seeking shelter had a pet. It was sad to see the loss and grief in the faces of the folks sitting in the lobby whose homes had been lost or damaged by the flooding.

We met Mark’s DJ friend, Andy Acker, at a place called Natural Bridges State Beach in time for the sunset. I instantly fell in love with the waves crashing onto the rocky cliffs. We admired the multi-million dollar homes along Cliff Drive and noticed the contrast between those homes and the surfers living in their vans parked across the street. “Van life” was something I’d heard about, but had never seen up close. We saw a lot of groups of 3-4 young people sitting on the rocks overlooking the ocean, playing their guitars and waiting for the sunset.
Andy showed us his favorite taco truck next to the Humble Sea Brewery, and we caught him up on our trip. He and Mark swapped old DJ stories and made us laugh. By the end of our short time together, the girls were calling him “Uncle Andy”.

Here is some video of the waves near Santa Cruz so you can get a better feel for the beauty of the coast.

Posted by Tagged with california, family US roadtrip, San Diego Posted in Uncategorized

San Diego, CA

After less than 24 hours in San Diego, Malia said “I’m moving here!” Ivy has also been enthusiastic about the state, but she wants to live in Hollywood so she can “see pop stars!”

After a 2 1/2 hour drive from Palm Beach that turned into a 4+ hour drive because of traffic, we arrived at our friends’ house in El Cajon (a suburb of San Deigo). Our girls were excited to be back in a house with other kids besides each other. The Larsons have 4 kids. Their youngest was about Ivy’s age and they hit it off almost immediately. Mark had fun catching up with his Bible school buddy, Jeremiah. It was their first time seeing each other in over 20 years and my first time meeting this really awesome family. They were great hosts and we loved getting to know them.

Our family day in San Diego included watching the hundreds of Sea Lions at La Jolla Beach, watching surfers at Pacific Beach, and taking in the views over Sunset Cliffs.

To get the full experience of seeing the pile of sea lions relaxing on the shore, you need a video with the sound on. They really make a lot of noise.

And here is a video of the surfers. It was cool to watch them from up above.

Mark and I had a date (no kids) walking the Coronado Beach and admiring the historic Coronado Hotel. We decided we would like to stay there someday….maybe for a future anniversary.

Thank you, Larson family, for a great weekend in San Diego! We loved it!

Posted by Tagged with california, Joshua Tree, national parks Posted in Uncategorized

Joshua Tree

Part of me thought we would never make it as far West as California, but when my sister said she and her family would be spending spring break at two National Parks in California, it got me to commit. We also remembered at the last minute that Mark’s aunt and uncle live in Palm Desert, which is not far from Joshua Tree. Like I’ve said many times, it’s almost as if God is planning this trip and we are just along for the ride to applaud His brilliance. Every time a seemingly odd coincidence falls into place, it’s as if God is winking at us and saying “I really like that you are taking this trip. You can trust me to take care of you. I’ve got you!”

We arrived at Ron and Kay’s house in Palm Desert to a meal of chicken and rice with apple crisp for dessert. After a few days of fast food, this was a nice treat. The table was set so nicely. The girls had to ask why there were two forks. That made me realize we haven’t done much fine dining yet.

The next morning, we set out early for Joshua Tree. It’s a National Park famous for its unique Joshua Trees. What I didn’t realize was that it is a rock climbers paradise with giant rocks for miles. It also has an incredible cholla cacti garden.

The kids had a blast climbing the rocks and hiking the dusty trails through the the desert plants and lizards.
After our hike and a picnic lunch near skull rock, a stroll through the cholla garden, and contests to see who could climb the highest rocks, we headed back to the Bergen family campsite. Ivy was most excited about boiling water over the fire to make ramen noodles. It’s funny what things the kids look forward to. When we went grocery shopping for our day at Joshua Tree, we filled the cart with sandwich fixings, hotdogs, chips, pre-packaged salad, and ramen noodles. Ivy said as we were checking out, “Wow, we are really going all out!!”
Here are a few more photos and videos of our one awesome day at Joshua Tree. It is a HUGE park and we didn’t explore even half of it, but I loved every minute of the day with some of my favorite people.

Posted by Tagged with Arizona, Family travel, family US roadtrip Posted in Uncategorized

Disco in the Desert

We just finished a month stay in Vail, Arizona at Solquest Retreat. Vail is a small town within driving distance of Tucson. We were able to explore Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon, Madera Canyon, Mount Lemmon, the Desert Museum, Medella Vina horse ranch, and the Tucson rodeo and gem show.

It snowed 3 times during our month stay, which is unheard of in Arizona. Many days were cold enough for us to need our winter coats. It was still much nicer than back in Minnesota though. Our family back home experienced record snowfall and blizzard conditions on and off all month.

I went into this month seeing it as an intentional personal retreat. I joined an online group to go through the book The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. One of the assignments was writing “morning pages”. These handwritten journals entries helped me uncover some harmful thoughts that have been hindering me from living my best life. I was able to recognize and release some fears and forgive myself for things I regret. Mark and I had some good talks that were important in strengthening our marriage.

Lisa Kindle, who we stayed with, is an artist. She supplied us with art supplies and a space to create. One of Lisa’s passions is the power of words through affirmations. You can learn more about Lisa’s work here.

Lisa Kindle Arts

She encouraged me to create my own personal affirmation cards and gave me the cutest little box to put the cards in. The front of the box says: “Give it to God” and the inside says “She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future”. Proverbs 31:25

Here are some examples of my affirmations.
I will speak these aloud to myself until I begin to believe them and live them out.

Being able to walk outside the front door and be surrounded by mountains was a great feeling. We drove up Mount Lemmon and took pictures at a place called Windy Point.
It was spectacular.

Another new experience was walking a giant prayer labyrinth right outside our door.

On our last weekend here, Dean and Lisa hosted a Disco in the Desert with Mark as the DJ. There were costumes, a photo booth, yoga with Kaeli Hines, fondue, and tie dye cookies. It was a fun night!

Mark did an awesome job, as always, bringing the music and lights.

As our time in Arizona comes to a close, we are so grateful. Our next stop is California. We have been on the road traveling for 4 months now! It’s hard to believe that we will be home in St Paul on May 1st. If you’d like to cheer us on toward the finish line, you can join our Patreon. It’s a $6 gift that will go straight to our gas money fund, and we will send you a postcard as a thank you! The Patreon will end when the trip ends so there is just one month left if you’d like a postcard.

Join the Postcard Club

Thanks for following along. We would love to hear from you if you’d like to host us in your state. Especially if you live in Oregon, Idaho, or Colorado.

Posted by Tagged with card games, Family travel, parenting, scavenger hunts, travel games Posted in Uncategorized

Ideas for Rainy (or snowy) Days

When you are traveling, there are bound to be a number of rainy (or snowy) days when your outdoor plans don’t go as planned. Here are a few fun things we have done on the days when we need to be inside.

GAMES

Since we have very limited space in the van, we could only choose a few favorite games to bring. Here are our the top 3.

Scrabble – a timeless word game that never gets old. To be fair, we didn’t bring this game along. We borrowed it from people we stayed with. It’s a game that most people have sitting on a shelf, even if it doesn’t get played.

Quiddler – Another word game involving cards. In round one, players get 3 cards to spell a word. In each round, one card is added. By the end of the game, players have 8 cards to make as many words as possible. A bonus is given for the player with the most words and the longest word during each round.

Monopoly Deal – I always hated monopoly because it took too long and involved too many small pieces. This version of the game can be played in less than 30 minutes and all you need is the deck of cards. Anyone who is able to read can play. No difficult math skills required. It helps to have someone who has played the game before teach it to you. It’s worth learning because once you get the hang of it, you will LOVE it.

Scavenger Hunts

Most kids enjoy scavenger hunts. Especially if there is some type of prize at the end. I created these two and used them with the kids on the trip. One is for the grocery store and the other for the library.
I’ve included links below to the printables I’ve created. If you have trouble getting to them, just send me a message and I can email them to you.
Free downloads below ⬇️

Grocery-Scavenger-Hunt-Download

Library-scavenger-hunt-Download


A few other little activities we have done almost every day rain or shine are:

Wordle – the online daily game put out by the New York Times. You have 5 guesses to figure out the chosen 5 letter word of the day.

Marco Polo – a great free app where you can send videos to family and friends and they can watch them on their own time and return videos back.


License Plate Search – when we are traveling, we are always on the look out for new license plates. When we find a state we haven’t seen before, we take a picture of it. Here are just a few.

Feel free to share your favorite games and travel activities in the comments. We still have 2 months left and could use some fresh ideas!

Posted by Tagged with Arizona, roadtrip Posted in Uncategorized

Tucson, Arizona

As I write this post, our home state of Minnesota is getting dumped with snow and I am thrilled to be missing out on the shoveling. I do miss the feeling of being cozy in the house while the cold wind blows outside, everything is cancelled, and we are forced to hunker down and do a jigsaw puzzle. We have not needed to double layer our socks or wear long underwear at all this winter. We’ve spent our time in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and now Arizona.

We arrived in Vail, a quiet little desert town about 20 minutes South of Tucson on February 7th. We are staying on a gravel road off the beaten path at the home of Dean and Lisa Kindle for about 4 weeks. They have given us new experiences such as learning about our life path color, providing us with art supplies, and introducing us to a cacao ceremony. Dean and Lisa have named their property Solquest Retreat and that is exactly what we were seeking. We craved a few weeks to slow down in one place, center ourselves, and listen to God for direction. Part of this trip’s purpose was to rekindle our marriage and family relationships and re-center our lives for the next season.

There is a labyrinth in the front yard, and each morning we’ve been able to walk the stone-lined path to the center of the 40 foot circle. Before beginning the walk, we remember what we are grateful for. The walk to the middle is a time to release (intentionally let go of the things that are troubling us). In the center, we take time to receive what God wants to give us for that day. The walk back out is a return to our work and play for the day. It is an active form of prayer and reflection.

Some of our daily outings in and around Tucson have been driving up Mount Lemmon, attending a rodeo parade, hiking in Sabino Canyon, studying saguaro cacti, riding horses at Medella Vina Ranch, and playing tennis at Reffkin Tennis Center in Tucson. We will end our month here with a Disco in the Desert on March 4th. If you are in the Tucson area, you are invited!!
Here are some photos of our adventures in the Arizona mountains.

Rocks are all the rage here. We went to a gem show the first weekend and now we can’t stop seeing rocks everywhere.

We watched the Super Bowl at a little restaurant in Vail called Dos Hermanos. We had the place to ourselves and they served the best tacos we have tasted on the trip.

Being so close to mountains has been a highlight from this part of the country. The kids had never seen a mountain before this trip.

The road has become home (for now) and it’s hard to believe we have made it almost 4 whole months.
Next stop, California!

Posted by Tagged with Family travel, family US roadtrip, Theartistsway Posted in Uncategorized

Take a Risk or Play it Safe?

#1. Are you a risk taker?

#2. What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?

My answer to these questions before this year would be

# 1 – NO

#2 – I don’t believe in doing dangerous things!


Then came the decision to travel for 6 months. We moved out of our house of 10 years and hit the road with a rough plan, but many details yet to fill in. I struggled with how people would react to this choice we had made. It seemed reckless and crazy. It was out of character from the play it safe environment I had been raised in. What would people say about us? Would we fail, and come running home to a chorus of “I told you sos”. Would our younger kids resent us for taking them out of school? How would our older kids react to not having a home to come back to on breaks? What if there was a crisis or things didn’t go like we expected?

We packed up our van and hit the road on November 1st, 2022. I felt confident that this was the year to take this trip, and that God would take care of us and take care of our big kids who were not with us.

I had read that when you know that you are meant to do something and you step out and move toward that idea, things begin to work in your favor. That’s exactly what began to happen. People got excited for us and began to give us gifts, introduced us to people they knew, and offered practical suggestions.

“Leap, and the net will appear” is a phrase originally penned by James Burroughs, and re-quoted in countless other places. I clung to this phrase in the days before we left when I felt scared or unsure.

Oftentimes when we take a chance, others respond with help, and circumstances align in our favor. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way calls this synchronicity. The miracles of everything falling into place to support our travel vision cannot be denied or dismissed as luck. Many times during the trip, we have seen God open doors for us to stay in places we weren’t expecting.

If we wait until we are ready to do something that seems big or scary, we may never do it. We will never feel ready to take a risk.
Living this creative life takes faith and trust.

I don’t pretend to have it all figured out. I still struggle with fear and doubt, but taking risks gets easier the more I do it.

I’ve been looking at the life of Jesus lately and have been noticing that He never called his disciples to be safe.
If Jesus were walking with me right now, I believe He would not say be safe, but instead, be brave.

Brave means stepping outside my comfort zone. Brave means doing things that scare me. A few examples for me are

  • saying yes to being a guest on a podcast
  • becoming who I want to be instead of who others expect me to be and
  • calling myself an artist and a leader

What does being brave look like for you right now? Is there something you need to step into, but don’t feel ready? Take a couple steps forward. You can do it!

Posted by Tagged with family US roadtrip, national parks, new mexico, White sands Posted in Uncategorized

White Sands National Park

Our 2nd National Park visited was only 3 hours from Carlsbad Caverns, so these two amazing wonders could be seen in one weekend. They are both in New Mexico. We stayed the night in El Paso and then drove the hour to White Sands in the morning.
Nothing can quite prepare you for this park. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are over 200 miles of white sand. A road winds through the park and there are several places to stop and park.

In the pictures, you will see that the sand can almost be mistaken for snow. Especially since they give out sleds at the visitor center for visitors to slide down the massive sand dunes.
We didn’t see many other people there in January. It was a bit chilly and we needed our winter coats, but the sun shone brightly so it was comfortable. We spent about 2 hours wandering around, just us and the sand…..miles and miles of it. I could see how it would be easy to get lost since there are no paths and everything looks the same. The only landmark is a paved road winding through the center of the park.
The kids said it wasn’t as fun as sledding in snow – of course! We wrote words in the sand, took deep breaths in and out, and just enjoyed the peace of this sacred place. Here are a few videos to give you a glimpse of the grandeur of this magical place that looks like snow in the desert.

It’s nothing like sledding down and icy hill. It’s SAND. At the bottom of the hill Malia yelled, “that was leisurely!”
Posted by Tagged with Carlsbad Caverns, Family travel, family US roadtrip, national parks, new mexico Posted in Uncategorized

Carlsbad Caverns

Three months into our USA road-trip, we finally visited our first National Park.
Carlsbad Caverns is located in New Mexico and is home to an incredible cave that you can walk down into and explore. Millions of bats live in the back of the cave and fly out at sunset. The bats stayed well hidden on our walk through. I watched videos ahead of time, but nothing could prepare me for the massiveness and wonder of this cave.
After reserving an entrance time online and paying your entrance fee (free with a National Parks pass) we took the 1.5 mile path down, down, down into the cave. There is an option to take an elevator down, but we opted to walk down.

The great room on the bottom of the cave is 750 feet below ground, so it is quite trek down. It was not very busy the day we were there, so it was dark, quiet, and eery. Ivy, our 8 year old, was scared and had a hard time enjoying the cave. I can imagine those with high anxiety in dark places may want to take the elevator. It was quite a workout on my leg muscles since the entire path was a steep downward slope. Once you are in the great room at the bottom of the cave, it is well lit and the ground is all flat. To walk through the entire cave it can take about 2.5 hours – it’s HUGE. We skipped the final mile loop so spent about 2 hours total from start to finish with lots of breaks to rest and drink water (bring a water bottle!)
Here are some photos of the cave. I highly recommend visiting this natural wonder. It is truly a work of art that far surpasses the beauty of any church or cathedral I’ve ever visited. It almost felt like a holy place.

The road into this National Park is about 7 miles long. When we arrived it was so foggy we couldn’t see much more than a few feet in front of us. By the time we left the park, the fog had lifted and we were able to see the beautiful landscape leaving the park. As we drove from Carlsbad to El Paso, Texas, we had the most gorgeous views of the Guadalupe Mountains.