Thinking we would take a break from hitchhiking and ride sharing, J and I rented a car and spent 2 days driving from Portland to San Francisco. We took route 101 all the way down and drove along the Pacific coast to Humboldt Redwood National Forest- the largest old-growth redwood forest in the world. Anybody who has seen these trees can attest to their great and monumental beauty; this was my first time in Humboldt (I've been to Muir Woods, but that's just a patch of Sequoias, not 52,000 acres of Redwoods looming over the coast and sprawling inland across the state) and it was hard to wrap my head around the notion of these prehistoric creatures- unmoving, undisturbed for centuries, quietly growing for hundreds and hundreds of years up to this very day! They're still alive! We put our hands on a cross section of one of them and felt their rings. I thought, here is when the Moors took control of the Iberian Peninsula. Here is where Jan Van Eyck became the father of the northern renaissance. Here is where we dropped the bombs. Here is where I was born (the very last sliver of wood). It's a strange thing, to conceive of these trees on the timeline of human development; we've been creating and destroying our world like ants on an anthill, and these trees have been there for it all, steadily living through and past all of it. Standing next to one of those big suckers is a very humbling thing.
Upon getting into San Francisco, we met up with our friends Mike and Doug (recent transplants from the east coast) and Joey, who was visiting. We've been crashing with them and exploring the city together, generally enjoying the company of old friends. And on the note of old friends, we left this morning for Lake Tahoe, where we will spend the next few days with my dear friend Marybird! Camping, swimming, bar-be-queing, meeting her people and having fun in the sun.
Looks like Tahoe is going to be our last stop before going west. This weekend we're going to buckle down and purchase a pair of tickets to... Bangkok? Jakarta? Singapore? Da moon??
11:00 AM
Greyhound bus to Truckee, CA
Upon getting into San Francisco, we met up with our friends Mike and Doug (recent transplants from the east coast) and Joey, who was visiting. We've been crashing with them and exploring the city together, generally enjoying the company of old friends. And on the note of old friends, we left this morning for Lake Tahoe, where we will spend the next few days with my dear friend Marybird! Camping, swimming, bar-be-queing, meeting her people and having fun in the sun.
Looks like Tahoe is going to be our last stop before going west. This weekend we're going to buckle down and purchase a pair of tickets to... Bangkok? Jakarta? Singapore? Da moon??
11:00 AM
Greyhound bus to Truckee, CA
The Pacific!
J and some big trees
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