Soda Springs, CA to SAN FRANCISCO, CA!!!

7/3/2011

We did it! We made it!

Last night was spent at the Hostel at Tinker’s Station- a little gem in Soda Springs, CA near Lake Tahoe. For $30 a night, it really can’t be beat. It was in this adorable dark wood building across from a train station and a ski mountain, which still had snow of course. It was so cool and refreshing after that long drive through the Nevada desert. The hostel owners were extremely pleasant and had excellent taste in pets- my favorite being the golden retriever puppy, Huckleberry.

We took about 2 hours to leave this morning. we were just waking up slow and chatting with some others staying in the hostel. The drive once we got down from Tahoe, the drive got pretty hot. We also got super lost in Sacramento because the GPS confused left and right…

It was such a relief to drive over the mountains and down into San Francisco. It was so nice and cool. We got into Oakland, where Taylor’s cousin lives. It’s super close to the city. We took a drive in there up to Twin Peaks to get a view of the whole city. It was gorgeous and extremely windy. Then we headed to Haight-Ashburn and did a little second-hand shopping and ate at a delish skewer restaurant.

7/4/2011

Happy 4th of July!! Today was an awesome day in San Francisco. We had an amazing choco chip sourdough french toast brunch. 🙂 After that we rode BART into the city. We got off on the Embarcanado stop first. There was a little craft fair and I bought an alpaca wool teddy bear and a silver handmade ring  from a nice man who told me San Francisco wanted me when I graduate 🙂

After that, we rode BART to the mission district. Thanks to the wonderful Sam Solomon, we found Pancho Villa Taqueria, which is my new favorite place to eat ever and no other taqueria will ever be able to live up to it. We took our time checking out the neighborhood. The architecture was gorgeous and a wonderful mix of southwestern with late 1800s Victorian.

After mission, we took BART to Berkeley, and I think I fell in love there. It’s obviously a college town, but it was gorgeous and hip and looked like a lot of fun. Maybe Berkeley for grad school? haha. But really…

After that Tay and I hopped BART back to West Oakland where I packed up my things and said my said goodbyes to Taylor and got back on the BART, where I proceeded to cry on the train and draw the attention of some surprised train-riders. I can’t believe Taylor is starting on this awesome new adventure- it sucks that I won’t be able to see her as often, but I’m so excited for her. It’s so scary to pick up your entire life and leave everything you know and love behind, but I know she is going to do beautifully. And if not, I’ll just have to fly back out and drive her home 😉

As I write this now, I’m on the plane home. I’m already over Nevada (and as I hit publish, over Utah and almost into Colorado), which is just crazy since I was there 3 days ago and it took us 8 hours to drive across it… I don’t really have the energy to do the whole recap of the trip and how it made me a better person right now- but just wait- it’ll be a doozy.

Colorado to Park City, UT & Park City & Park City to Soda Springs, CA

The past few days have been spectacular. I hardly know where to begin. We left Colorado Thursday morning and took the scenic route over the Rockies to Park City Utah. The journey though the Rockies was, of course, amazing. I think the highest point we hit was near 11,000 ft. Even though it is so high, I couldn’t really believe it was still so cold; there was snow everywhere. The ride itself was the best one yet. Taylor and I were staring at the scenery all day as opposed to reading or doing other stuff to pass the time when we’re in the passenger’s seat.

I am very impressed by the Coloradan people. They are the fittest and most active people I have ever seen. When we were just rounding the peak of the mountain we were driving over, we saw this really old man who was biking up the mountain. I mean he was almost at 11,000 feet and still going strong. About 5 minutes further down the mountain an old woman was following right behind on her bike. I think if I tried to bike up a mountain closer to sea level, I would fail miserably.

Our first stop for the day was in Steamboat Springs, CO. What an adorable town. We only meant to stop for a couple minutes to rest up, but we ended up looking in all the cute stores- one of which we had seen advertised for about 90 miles before we got there. The weather was rainy and cold there, but we had lunch at this FANTASTIC place called the Drunken Onion.  They had all fresh, local food that they make into delicious meals that you can get for take our or for sitting at one of the few tables in there. After that we hit the downtown area and saw some of the ski jumps across the river.

Once we left Steamboat we came upon the inspiration for the line “purple mountain majesties” at a scenic view in a wildlife preserve. Words cannot describe as well as a picture, which does no justice to the actual view. But here’s a shot:

Soon after this wonderful view, we crossed over into Utah. It was kind of a depressing place to start. We passed through a lot of towns that were full of busted up mobile homes and strip malls of fast food chains and weird stores. However, once we saw this terrific rainbow, Utah got better:

We ended up in Park City, UT for two nights. Everyone who lives in Park City is really extreme. They all ski or board at least 100 days a year, rock climb, hike, mountain bike, and do other amazing outdoors stuff… oh and they do it all at a mile’s altitude. I tried to mountain bike and just plain died. I was really terrible.  The little downtown was also really really adorable. We walked around there for most of the day Friday. It had a bunch of touristy shops and a quaint downtown area. We also rode a chairlift right from the center of town up a mountain for some scenic views.  

After that we experienced some Park City night life. Our host (Tay’s friend from high school) was awesome and introduced us to all his friends. We ended up being up until 4am, and it was one awesome night!

After recovering a little in the morning, we headed out. We drove by the Great Salt Lake, which looked really cool, but was a little disappointing because of the salt refineries all around it. The rest of Utah had some cool rock formations, but was pretty bland other than that.

Nevada was hot and sucked pretty bad. Sorry, but it’s true. Actually the most awesome part of Nevada was pulling into a gas station for a little break from the heat and then finding a rack of free romance novels. We have to bring it back next time we go through there or donate another book or just do something nice in the world. Done. We had a pretty entertaining ride after that.

It was such a relief to cross the border into California. It immediately got 10 degrees cooler, and 100 times more awesome and greener. We ended up at this awesome hostel in Soda Springs near Lake Tahoe. It is so nice and cold up here. There is a ski resort across the street with snow all over it still. I love the mountains!! Tay and I are headed out to the only place still open for dinner- the gas station. San Fran tomorrow!