San Francisco and N. California to Oakland

Friday:
Whew! Friday was an absolute whirlwind! I woke up in the teardrop trailer outside of Mike and Dani's house in Cloverdale. We took the 3 dogs to a wonderful coffeeshop/breakfast place downtown. After saying our goodbyes, I headed straight to the airport over the Golden Gate Bridge to pick up mom and pop! After gathering them, we headed to our hotel in downtown San Francisco (the White Swan) and got our bearings before heading out to Chinatown. We walked up some crazy hills throughout the town and ate some delicious pork buns from a little Chinese restaurant.

We eventually walked all the way to Fisherman's Wharf where Pop discovered where to rent some bikes, of course. He immediately signed us up to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and take a ferry back to town. It was a VERY windy ride, straight into the wind, but very fun. We eventually got up to the bridge, Mom may have been freaking out a bit. The bike lane was on the side of the bridge, so you had huge buses whizzing past on one side and the side of the bridge/bay on the other. Plus, you had these serious bike riders riding past who would not tolerate any slow riding or wavering. On top of that, the wind was CRAZY. I think we may have taken a few years off of Mom's life, but it was very fun for Pop and I.

Once we got to the other side, Mom and I rode down through Sausalito to the ferry while Pop rode back across the bridge to meet us at Fisherman's Wharf again. Mom did NOT like riding on the road, so we had a nice bike walk through town.

By the time we got back to the wharf after a beautiful ferry ride past Alcatraz, it was chilly and windy and 6pm! We wandered around and waited on a tram as Mom REALLY wanted to ride one. So, we finally got a ride on a retro F-train towards

Union Station. It was a pretty good ride, Mom. Totally worth it.

We were pretty exhausted by this time but popped into Tacorea for some Korean Tacos to-go and took them to the hotel room. It was a great evening eating tacos from a really cool hotel room!

Saturday:
We had a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then had some time to kill in San Francisco before check out. So, naturally, Pop went on a long walk and Mom and I went on a cable car ride. We hopped on the cable car and rode it for 4 stops before it ended, haha. It was enough for Mom to get her cable car fix and we wandered our way back towards the hotel.

Mom had started noticing these cute boxes that people were holding from a place called Mr. Holmes. We decided to head over there and figure out what Mr. Holmes was! We got in line not knowing what it exactly was, but knew it was good enough for a line. We got to the front and found out it was the most fantastic bakery with a wonderful assortment of goods. We picked out our favorites and may have scarfed a few out front of Mr. Holmes before heading to meet Pop at the hotel.

We packed up, got the car out of valet (Ms. Subie got a fancy spot!), and navigated ourselves to the piers where there was a BEAUTIFUL and extensive farmer's market. We all walked through, ate delicious cheese, bought incredible fruit, and then drove to Saulsalito to see some houseboats. Don't worry, we also made a little drive down Lombard Street to enjoy a drive down the crooked street.

After walking through the cool houseboats, we drove to Mill Valley for the AirBnB. The hills around here are crazy! We settled in, had a glass of wine from Dani's vines and enjoyed a beautiful view and evening. We walked downtown and ate at Playa and had a great people watching view right on the window. Mom and I went to the Mill Valley Market for some snacks, then we all walked back up the hill towards home. We settled into a funny evening of SNL!

Sunday October 1: Mom, Pop and I woke up in a lower level AirBnB in Mill Valley. Pop and I were just going along for the ride as Mom had a very large agenda that she had planned! We walked down to the Depot for a delicious breakfast and coffee. It was warming up quite a bit by mid-morning, we’ve had wonderful weather. We headed back up to the house to get ready for a day heading towards Mount Tamalpais, Stinson Beach and on up to Point Reyes. Mom had some tidepools in her sights and wanted to check them out at Point Reyes. We had a WONDERFUL hike on Mt. Tam. We got a great view of San Francisco and really enjoyed a great “saunter” in

the woods.
I think we may have lessened Mom’s life a bit on those roads around Mt. Tam, she didn’t like it. I didn’t really like driving them, either! But I decided that being a passenger would have been worse. We drove around Mt. Tam after our hike and down to Stinson Beach for a quick dip into the Pacific. Afterwards, we set towards Point Reyes and were looking for some oyster houses to eat! Didn’t find the oysters but we did find Point Reyes! And the tidepools were not going to be visible, which nearly broke Mom’s heart. We had a loooonnnnggg drive back to Mill Valley and enjoyed a fantastic grill out of steaks at our house afterwards. The AirBnB also had a bathtub on the back porch to act as a sort of hottub, which was fantastic!

Monday October 2: We enjoyed some delicious scones and jam with our coffee and set out for Muir Woods and Muir Beach. Mom had planned it perfectly to get to the VERY popular Muir Woods early in the morning on a Monday to reduce the crowds. It was perfect. There were groves and groves of huge redwoods and it was so nice to walk through them with other people! I loved talking about the trees and asking questions, which I hadn’t gotten to do when I was up in Redwoods NP.
After our saunter through Muir Woods, we went towards Muir Beach and ate lunch at the Pelican Inn. Mom had her first real raw oyster, which she was not a fan of. The Pelican Inn was a great little English cottage that was somehow transported to outside of Mill Valley. It was from the 16th century? I still don’t really know how it was possible.
Muir Beach was next on the to-do list and it was fantastic. A beautiful day on the ocean and Mom finally got to see her tidepools. We enjoyed a really nice afternoon here, poking around the beach and looking for cool beach things. Afterwards, we went right back to Mill Valley. We explored quite a bit around town and headed back up to the house for dinner. We ordered takeout pizza (best idea ever!) and enjoyed it on the back porch. I took a dip in the bathtub/hottub and swear I was in heaven.

Tuesday October 3: Ugh, the day came to drop Mom and Pop off at the airport. We left around 9am and got them to their flight on time. I was feeling a bit scattered, tired, and aimless at this point. I knew I had to do laundry and restock up on some groceries, while heading towards Oakland to see my friend Shannon for the night. However, these tasks just made me feel bummed. I kept thinking about how wonderful it would be to NOT have to do those things and to just sit down and take a nap. However, if I had done that, I wouldn’t be able to do the next steps of the trip, which I wanted to do. It is sometimes so difficult to have to really pull myself together and get everything done. I think THAT is where I am really learning.
Sometimes I have to pull myself together in places where I don’t know what’s next or where I’m heading and I think that’s so out of my regular comfort zone. Typically at home, I can fall apart. I can put off the task for another day and just lay on the couch and watch a movie. I can cry to Jamie (I can still do that!) about life being hard. It’s usually the meaningless tasks that add up and exhaust me. However, out here, I just can’t. I don’t have my usual coping tools, so I’ve been developing new ones. I’ve found that mapping out my destinations and making specific task lists for myself on specific days has helped to keep the blues at bay. I can still cry to Jamie about life being hard, but he doesn’t have as MUCH sympathy as I am typically falling apart in one of the most beautiful places.
On this specific day, I slowly completed my tasks. I even did my laundry! And then realized the laundry soap wasn’t good enough to clean my clothes! So then I gave up a bit and did my

homework at a little sandwich place in Berkeley. It was lovely. I calmed down, called my bfffff Ella, laughed, and headed to Shannon’s house. I just put the laundry off for another day.
Shannon used to live in Asheville about 3-4 years ago and we were buddies in the same circle. Shannon moved out of town to be with Kyle (her husband, now) and we typically catch up about once or twice a year. They live in a little cottage in the woods in Oakland and it was a perfect place to be. Kyle is a somalier (I know!) so we drank delicious wine and hung out while Shannon cooked. Later, Kyle really showed us how to play Black Jack as I told him that Vegas is in the plans and I plan to win REALLY BIG. Thanks to the tips, I am SURE I will!

Wednesday October 4: Shannon took the day off work to hang out with me this day, which was SO awesome. We had breakfast tacos and set off for Tiburon for a ferry to Angel Island with our bikes. It was an UNBELIEVABLE day, perfectly blue skies and sunny. We had a fantastic ride around Angel Island which is a really odd place. It has old abandoned bunkers and houses and used to be a military base. We sat on the beach and hung out for a bit before catching the ferry back to Tiburon.
We arrived back in Oakland for a quick little snack, got Kyle, and then caught the BART train into San Francisco to meet our friend Theo for dinner. Theo is also an Asheville guy who moved out to San Fran and is soon to be married. We ate a fantastic Thai dinner in the city. I had such a great time with them, catching up and talking about the Bay Area. I loved being with friends from Asheville and also getting to spend time with Kyle, who I’ve never met. It feels so great to meet a friend’s spouse and see the exact reasons for the match.