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.