A Shorter Trip -- With WAAAAAY Bigger Trees

For two and a half weeks Alison traveled around the West Coast, visiting her friend Anna in Oregon and then driving around parts of California with her Mom. Meanwhile, Benny has been passing his days at the office (sorry Benny!) and enjoying a Beantown summer.

San Diego

We (Alison and her Mom, Donna) arrived to San Diego tired and hungry after a loooong day of sitting on runways and flying. Happily we were staying in Old Town, which boasts an abundance of excellent Mexican restaurants. We settled in at a table next to a woman making tortillas. The heat of the grill felt great in contrast to the cool — yes cool — Southern California air. We enjoyed a delicious meal of tacos and enchiladas and then headed off to sleep.

Ashland

I woke early the next morning to spend another half day on airplanes in order to reach Ashland, Oregon. Donna was staying in San Diego for a conference on systems engineering and I was jaunting off to visit Anna, a good friend from college (Sorry that you got the raw end of that deal, Mom).

Ashland is not an easy place to get to. It is five hours from Portland and three from Eugene, which seem to have the only major airports in the state. I flew into the Medford Airport on a ‘puddle jumper’ (for the upstate New Yorkers: believe it or not, I actually think the Medford Airport is smaller than the Binghamton airport).

It was wonderful to see Anna, to get to know her boyfriend Sean, and to see her beautiful, albeit teeny, hometown of Ashland. Ashland is a lovely, new-agey town. It has a great big park in the center with excellent walking trails through the woods and alongside a creek. The downtown is quaint, yet also has many chic shops and restaurants. The town has a large artist community and hosts a renowned Shakespeare festival every summer.

During the four days I was there, we spent a lot of time walking around the town and the park. I got to attend one of Sean’s tai chi classes (he is the teacher), which was a lot of fun. Anna and I also took a day to drive up into the mountains and walked around a big lake. It was so great to spend time with Anna, and it was sad to leave, but also I was excited to see more of California.

Back to San Diego

I returned to San Diego and had a couple of days to relax while my mom finished up at the conference. We went out for dinner two nights in San Diego with her students and colleagues. One night we went to the Old Town again, this time to the restaurant that is considered “the best” by locals. We drank michelada's — a drink that is hard to come by outside of Mexico, despite its simple recipe. It is beer poured over lime and ice in a salt rimmed glass. Donna's colleague Ricardo grew up in San Diego, and since he was friends with the owners of this restaurant we enjoyed a bit of special treatment including a round of tequila shots. Nothing like tequila to rowdy up a group of engineers! By the end of the night my Mom was dancing on the bar. Just kidding. But it was a fun evening, and it was nice getting to know some of her colleagues and students.

After her conference ended, my mom and I spent one more day in San Diego. First we picked up our ca r— a nice pearl white Toyota Solera convertible. We then enjoyed the breeze and sunshine as we cruised over to the famous zoo, which was really impressive. The highlight was the hippo who hung out underwater in a glass tank that allowed people to get right up close to him. We also saw pandas, gorillas, polar bears and many, many other animals. We headed to La Jolla (a ritzy area on the coast just outside of San Diego) and had a nice lunch there, and then we got on the road toward Bakersfield. It took us nearly 6 hours of driving since we hit a lot of traffic around L.A. But we finally made it to the town about ¾ of the way to the Sequoia National Park, our next destination.

Sequoia National Park

The next morning we got an early start and drove straight to the Sequoia Park. The park is quite big and mountainous. To get to the “Giant Forest” we drove nearly an hour up a steep winding road. Toward the top of the hill loom the enormous Sequoia trees. They are awesome! The biggest trees on earth they grow up to 14 stories high and some have a base as big as a swimming pool. It is breathtaking to stand next to them and stare up their massive trunks (equivalent in scale, according to a sign near one tree, of a mouse looking up at a human). We spent two days hiking among the giants. There are excellent trails there of varying difficulty and each one holds unique sights, such as “General Sherman” tree -- the biggest in the park, the “Ed by Ned” trees -- two trees that had fused together, and fallen trees with their enormous root system exposed. We also took a drive through the park and rode through a fallen tree trunk that had been cut out. Most of the pictures you'll see in the album are from our days in the park.

Up the Coast to Monterey and Carmel

After two days at the Park we headed up Route 1, also known as The Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped at Hearst Castle along the way, and toured the spectacular grounds and buildings. William Randolph Hearst built this complex over a long period (from 1919 to 1947) along with architect Julia Morgan, and based the design on Mediterranean architecture (Hearst and the castle complex were the inspiration for the film Citizen Kane).

The ride from Hearst Castle further up route one takes you on winding, cliffside roads with spectacular Ocean Views. The section from the Big Sur up to Monterey is especially breathtaking with its sweeping views of the Pacific beaches, and somewhat nerve wracking to drive.

From there we headed to Monterey and Carmel. Both were nice towns and we spent a day and a half walking around the ritzy communities, window shopping in the fancy stores, checking out the houses with ocean views, and eating in some great restaurants.

Santa Barbara and Ventura

Our next destination was Santa Barbara, which we arrived in on July 4th in the early afternoon. Crowds of people were already camped out along the water for the fireworks that evening. We wandered around State Street which is the main thoroughfare filled with shops, restaurants, and art galleries. It was especially festive because of the holiday. We stayed until early evening and then headed to Ventura where our hotel was located. That evening we found a great local Italian restaurant -- teeny and simple decor with excellent wood oven pizzas. The next day we went back to Santa Barbara and spent the day again wandering around State Street, and stopping at lunchtime for some delicious Mexican food. Again the downtown was crowded with people and there was live music on the streets for "First Thursday" (where galleries stay open late and local musicians are invited to perform).

The next day it was back to San Diego to catch our red eye flight home. We enjoyed our convertible one more day as we drove back the four hour journey. We spent our last afternoon of the trip exploring Old Town. Many of the old buildings have been preserved and turned into museums, including one home, called the Whaley House, which is considered by some to be haunted. You can also visit San Diego's first school building, and the first restaurant, with sample menus and visitor's reviews posted on the walls.

Well that's all for now. Now its back to work for most of the rest of the summer with a few short trips planned -- a visit to the Cape, travel for weddings in Maine and New York and a family reunion in New Hampshire.