Now that I have been home in Maine for a couple of days, I have had some time to reflect on the trip and everything that we did and saw. Before I get to that however, here is a quick recap of what we accomplished during the 80 hours that Ben, Noreen and I spent with Brian and Candace in San Fran.
We drank mojitos and listened to jazz in the Haight; watched the West Coast version of Sox/Yankees by seeing the Dodgers play the Giants; tasted wine and joined a wine club; rode the cable cars (watch your ass if you are on the street side of the car); went hiking up to the top of Mt. Tamalpais, saw the Golden Grate Bridge; walked through the Redwood Forests in Muir Woods, hung out at Pier 39 watching, listening and smelling the sea lions; we played 100 year old arcade games, found the “Full House” house; saw a submarine; drove through the Golden Gate park and saw bison, a windmill and a beautiful tulip garden; drank beers on the sidewalk in The Mission while watching Brian get kicked out of the burrito restaurant; we saw a giant camera at the Cliff House; made friends with cougars in The View and perhaps most surprisingly watched Noreen try Thai food for the first time and enjoy it! And… all of that was only scratching the surface of what the city has to offer its visitors.
Overall, this was one of the best vacations that I have ever taken. Driving across this country of ours is no small feat. It is an endurance test of your sanity and ability to be in a car of that long. One of the things we have talked about is wishing that we had more time to stop and see more of each city and place where we were. However, I suppose that even if you were fortunate enough to take an entire month off, you would probably still want more time. I am not even sure I could pick out what was my favorite part of the drive across to San Francisco – seeing the great plains and the huge farms which were 1000s of acres; driving through the deserts and seeing the canyons and ravines; watching mountain ranges thousands of feet tall rise out of nothing, seeing the mountains turn from brown to green again and the lush valleys of the west coast give way to the deep blue of the pacific ocean… it was all incredible.
Above all one of my favorite parts of the journey was the daily routine of racing the night sky across the country. As we were driving due west down the interstate with the sun setting in front of us, we could see dark night sky behind us racing to catch up. Ahead of us was the bright sun filled sky of day and behind us the eerie darkness of night. It would slowly envelope us in a rainbow of color – light blue to lavender to pink to orange to red to purple to dark blue to the black of night. We would see this parade of colors overtake us as the night came on and we would then be rewarded us by showering us with more stars than I have ever seen before. All that you would be able to see was total blackness and a star filled sky that seemed to stretch on forever in all directions, punctuated only by the occasional light of a farm house 20 miles off in the distance.
Overall this trip exposed me to areas of the county that I had only dreamed of seeing before. We met some interesting people along the way and were able to get the rare opportunity to see, smell, feel, taste and hear parts of the country in a very up close and personal way.
While I am a little sad that one of my best friends now lives 3000 miles away, I am glad that it is in a city which has so much to offer with a lady who I like a lot. I certainly can not wait to go back and see them again and to visit Alcatraz, go camping, visit wine country, see a museum or two, see the Castro, revisit The Mission (and remember it this time), and to experience everything else that the city and area has to offer!
Who knows… maybe I will have to drive out and see them again!
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