Saturday, November 8, 2014

Welcome home!

I was so eager to finally get on the long anticipated flight back to America, and on September 3, it finally happened! I was mostly excited to get to show Dave everything I have been talking his ear off about for the past almost 2 years. Dave and I found each other in the Oslo airport, waited out our eight hour layover, and then finally boarded our flight to Oakland. We thought we were being quite clever purchasing a half bottle of wine for me and some beers for Dave to evade airline prices, but alas the first encounter we had on our flight was the flight attendant politely taking away our drinks from us... Neremind! The highlight of the trip was the Norwegian women whom we sat next to sneaking us glasses of wine under the tray table, and the views of Greenland we saw from the window. But enough about the flight, let's move on to the happenings once we safely landed 10 hours later.
Views of Greenland from the plane window.. wow!
Upon arriving to Oakland and passing through border patrol and customs, we walk out to find not only my dad but also my grandpa anxiously awaiting our arrival! It was a pleasant surprise to see my grandfather as well, which my parents successfully kept a secret from me. Bless Dave's patient soul for having to be bombarded with both Corvins immediately upon setting foot on American soil. The Corvins took us back to the hotel that my dad generously treated us to, which was so nice after sleeping on a couch for well over a week. And then immediately after dropping our bags they humored my request and took us for Mexican food. Dave was immediately amazed by the portion sizes, and managed to have his veggie burrito last him for three meals. Night one in America ended early due to the jet lag, but the next morning before the Corvins departed was already resulting in more amazement on Dave's part of the thoroughness of the complimentary hotel breakfast buffet. After stuffing ourselves at breakfast we drove the Corvins to the airport, and so began the adventure that ensued for the next month. 

I am realizing more and more as I get older how lucky I am to have so many amazing friends. We saw five of my friends within the first weekend of being back. My friend Alison (a fellow Hoosier/introduced to via Jessica Collins), has been living in Oakland for the past few years, and recently had a gorgeous baby girl, Arlene. I was so glad to get to see this lovely mama and her babe. 
Arlene was the most expressive baby I've ever met!
On the Friday after arriving, our good friends Matt and Mel drove up from Long Beach to visit with us for the weekend. We met at China Camp near Sausalito, and despite fighting heavy jet lag, we stayed up for Matt and Mel's arrival, enjoyed a drink and crashed early. Saturday we were eager for a long hike, and so we headed out to Mount Tamalpais, for a good 6ish hour hike through the woods, to Stinson Beach, and back. We then headed to the campsite that we didn't realize ahead of time that we would call 'home' for the following few nights. The Marin Headlands offers free camping at three different sites, for three nights a year, and we took advantage of a night at each. Saturday night, post hike, Dave's classmate from Finland, Daniele, arrived for what would be a week of hanging out before heading back to Italy. Daniele had been living/working in Mammoth Lakes since the summer, and his three month allowance in the U.S. was about to run out, but before flying out of Oakland, he spent his last week with us. Matt and Mel left on Sunday to head back to Long Beach, and Dave, Daniele and myself headed to the city to hang out with my friends Max and Kristen. When living in Portland I met quite a few other people doing AmeriCorps in the area, and Max was one of them. Max and Kristen were both from California, but decided to try out the PNW for a while, and inevitably moved back to California shortly after I left Portland. Kristen showed us around her now home, and we had an awesome time watching roller bladers in Golden Gate Park, checking out a view of the city from an observatory, and rounding out the day with tacos in the Mission. On Monday we said goodbye to the Bay Area for a few days equipped with suggestions from Kristen of where to stop along the way. 
Mt. Tam hike!
Happy to be in San Francisco!
So excited about seeing Mel on our first weekend back!
Portland friends in San Francisco!
We left the Bay area with the idea of heading north a bit. Taking the Highway 1 is insanely beautiful, and we just pulled over whenever something struck our fancy. We were encouraged to stop at the Point Reyes National Seashore, which proved to be both a good place for lunch and also quite entertaining. Dave and Daniele created the beach olympics, and that entertained everyone for quite a while! We eventually found a place to camp for the night somewhere north of there, and made a fire and chatted the night away.
Whacking balls of seaweed against each other..

Posing with their new friend.
The next day as we were driving about taking in the sights, we connected the dots that we weren't far away from Petaluma, California. Dave's parent's neighbors (Ann & Pat), whom I did the internship with this summer on their farm, have family in Petaluma. Pat's brother married an American woman, and moved to Petaluma, opened a vineyard and is a very successful wine maker nowadays. Pat encouraged us to contact his brother if/when we ever found ourselves in the area, and so Dave did just that. Despite the last minute notice, Tom not only offered us to stay on his land, but offered us his impeccable AirStream as a place to lay our heads. Tom was not even to be home for the night but insisted it was fine for us to stay. We had a perfect evening enjoying the sunset from his magnificent property, making food over the grill, and watching the stars. 

We woke up in the morning and upon Tom's suggestion we decided to take a tour of the property. We wandered about taking in the absolutely breathtaking scenery, and ultimately found ourselves in the vineyard, where Tom also encouraged us to try as many grapes as we could stomach. Holy cow, fresh grapes straight from the vine are divine (pun not intended), and as we found ourselves lost in grapes, a gentlemen rolled up behind us in his golf cart with a shotgun and startled all of us. Turns out he knew we weren't intruders, but was instead keen to take us on a tour of the whole property, and that the rifle is to simply scare away the birds. Gilberto took us around all of the Stubbs vineyard, and we had a lovely afternoon seeing the fruits of their labor. Then we drove Daniele back to Oakland to catch his flight to Italy and Dave and I went back to the Marin Headlands.
AirStream on the Stubbs vineyard.
Dusk in Petaluma.
The view at night.
Dave woke up to capture the sunrise.
And again.
Good morning Daniele!
Odd discovery on the property!
Hello grapes!!!!
Can't stop won't stop eating grapes... until approached by a stranger with a rifle!

We spent a final day in San Francisco having lunch with Tom, hanging out with Kristen and Max, and enjoyed more walks through the Mission. Oh and most importantly having an insane meal of Indian/Mexican fusion cuisine, my life was forever changed by having curry in a tortilla! Then it was time to finally say goodbye to the Bay area after a week and a half, and to start making our way to Humboldt. We took the Highway 1 north for more epic views, and ultimately we put the tent up somewhere north of Mendocino.

View from the Marin headlands in the morning.
Cool graffiti in San Francisco.
Dave's artsy capture of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Goodbye breakfast in San Francisco.
Good morning California coast.

We continued our drive north until we finally got to Garberville, the nearest town off the 101 from Dave's dad's land. We found the property, and set up our tent on the meadow, and relaxed until Filbey (Mark's friend/fellow land owner) arrived. Filbey chatted to us about all kinds of stories until the wee hours, and when the fire died down we called it a night. The next morning post breakfast, Filbey took us on a grand tour of the land. The land is absolutely beautiful, filled with forest, streams, and waterfalls. With the heat blazing midday after our hike on the land, Filbey promptly suggested we go to the nearest 'watering hole' for a swim. We grabbed drinks and ice creams from the nearby market and headed down to the lake. We went for a swim and just enjoyed the shade of the trees until there was no more shade, and that's how we knew it was time to go home. Filbey made the drive back to Blue Lake (where he now lives) that evening, but Dave and I spent two more nights there. We spent the next day exploring the land more and enjoying our books, each other, and the phenomenal view of the stars by night. After three nights on the land we decided we would head north for Redwood National Park.

Lunch stop on the way to Garberville.
Wandering the stream on the land, it was beautiful!
Sometimes I smile while hiking.
Fantastic oak tree.
The local 'watering hole'!
Beautiful night skies coupled with Dave's photo skills results in pictures like so.
Filbey insisted that en route to Redwood National Park we stop by his place so that he could show us Blue Lake, which is just east of Eureka and Arcata, the 'hub' of Humboldt County. On the way to his place we passed through the absolutely incredible Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Avenue of the Giants, I was in awe for hours! I had seen redwoods before, but only as a kid, and I forgot how absolutely breathtaking these magical trees truly are. After galavanting through the redwoods for hours, we arrived in Blue Lake for an evening of drinks and conversation. Filbey was also keen to show us his greenhouse full of cacti because he sells them at the local farmers markets, and wow did he have quite the collection! Blue Lake turned out to be a perfect stop on our way to the national park.
Among the giants!
I would love to see one of these beasts fall over.
Dave insisted that if you put your arms out it was like you're on a roller coaster!
Filbey decided to accompany us half way up to Redwood National Park because he was excited to show us some of the nearby beaches. So we followed Filbey and his pup up the coast for two pit stops before we ultimately parted ways. Upon leaving Filbey insisted we stop back by again on our way to Lassen National Park so that we could also see him at work at the farmers market, so we promised we would do that and said our goodbyes. 

We arrived to the park nice and early, asked the rangers for advice on a good day hike, and set out for what proved to be one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever been on. We hiked through what is known as Fern Canyon, and good god was it like nothing I've ever seen before. Ferns literally line the walls of this majestic canyon and I'm a sucker for anything green so I was really into it. Then the hike we chose looped through some more majestic redwood groves, and ultimately wound up along the coast, in what I would have guessed is a prairie. We enjoyed our long hike, and then decided to head to our campsite. Our campsite was near the coastal cliffs, and it was a perfect sunset over the Pacific. Day 2 in Redwood equaled more epic hikes among more beautiful scenery, and ultimately another campsite deep within the Tall Trees Grove, as it was so aptly named. 
Fern Canyon 
Foggy views through the redwoods.
Salamander sighting.
Live elk were a plenty!
Campsite number 1 looked something like this!
I'm shrinking!!!
I could have sat amongst these incredible giants for hours!
We left Redwood National Park knowing that we wouldn't go any further north in 2014, and with eagerness we started slowly going east. We made a stop back in Blue Lake for another night of chatting and drinking, went to bed early, and awoke to go watch Filbey at work at the Arcata Farmer's Market. Filbey's average client is the Humboldt State University student; he claims every college kid has one of his cacti in their window. And after watching Filbey at work Dave and I drove to Lassen National Park just in time for the sun to set. We pitched our tent, watched the stars, and went to bed early so as to have a full day ahead of us.

Lassen National Park was honestly a park I had never even heard of prior to Kristen and Max insisting we stop there on our journey east, and I am ever so glad they did! Lassen is an old volcano, and it was stunning to see the work that has been done by this volcano decades ago. We went on a beautiful hike up to the top of Brokeoff Peak, because unfortunately we were unable to hike Lassen Peak due to trail maintenance. The hike was one of the highest I've ever done, at least in a long while, and I was winded by the time we got to the top, but the views were well worth the energy expelled. We then hiked back down about half way, put our tent up somewhere off the trail and called it a night. The next morning we went for a nice run/hike along another trail where you can see the sulfur bubbling up out of the earth, geothermal energy is pretty neato. Then we ultimately said goodbye to Lassen and headed towards Lake Tahoe. 
Bigfoot Cactus at work!
Views of Lassen Peak from Brokeoff Peak
Lassen Peak!
The colors here were phenomenal!
We naively arrived to Lake Tahoe with grand plans of camping for two nights but foolishly didn't take into account how grave the King Fire was. When we arrived to Lake Tahoe, the entire basin was filled with heavy smoke, and the atmosphere was quite eerie. We were informed that the fire was only a mere 5 miles away, but that despite it being quite unrealistic for it to cross over the mountains and enter Lake Tahoe, it still was unsafe to camp in case such an event did occur. So we put out a last minute request on couchsurfing, and some guys who newly own a hostel in the area said we could come stay at their place for a night. We had such a cool night of hanging out in the hostel and talking to all of the travels, which included a Welshman, a German, and someone from Pennsylvania. 

We awoke the following morning determined to go on a nice hike despite the smoke, and that we did! We went on a gorgeous hike near Tamarack Lake, per the park ranger's suggestion, and it was beautiful! It was nice to do a hike off of Lake Tahoe as well, because it meant it was much less crowded! We decided to go for it and pitch our tent the second night, and we survived to tell the tale. The following morning before heading towards Utah we had to check out the infamous Emerald Bay, and thankfully it was still peaceful as it was so early because supposedly that area gets inundated with people pretty quickly. I was sad to say goodbye to Lake Tahoe because the bajillion crystal clear lakes in the area are enough to melt anyone's heart and make them want to stay forever, but off to Utah it was!
Good morning Lake Tahoe!
Tamarack Lake!
A nice place to rest my skeletor feet!
Morning views of Emerald Bay.
As we finally left California after 3 weeks of adventures, it was with excitement that we started heading east towards Indiana. We passed through Nevada and entered Utah, where the landscape blew Dave's mind. Having never seen desert as such his senses were on overload! I also had never seen the Great Salt Lake, and it was quite beautiful! We also started getting into Salt Lake City near sunset, and it was gorgeous to see the sun set over the desert mountains, this scene has become such a comforting feeling of 'home' for me over the past few years. We spent a really fun evening in SLC with our couchsurfing host, his girlfriend, and their friend who was also staying at their place. They took us out to a cool vegetarian restaurant and we swapped stories over gf/veggie biscuits and gravy mmmmmm! Some pictures of Dave's to show the Utah scenery..
The Great Salt Lake!
Artsy driving photos.
Wide open road.
We left SLC and set out with the end goal of Cheyenne in mind, but in the end the person who offered to host us for a night lived in Laramie, Wyoming. I had admittedly never head of Wyoming's college town, Laramie, and I was quite excited in general to be in Wyoming (a new state for me), so was happy to rest my head anywhere in this foreign land. Our host offered us up some good advice to take a detour off of I-80, and to cut through Saratoga where there is a free hot spring, and then to pass through the Medicine Bow National Forest and ultimately wind up in Laramie. We were so happy for the suggestion because the hot spring was really great, and a nice break from driving! And the drive through the forest was gorgeous as the leaves had already begun to change. We arrived to Laramie happy and decided to spend a night out meeting the locals, Dave finally got to encounter some real cowboys, eager to tell us about working on the ranch! After a long day we crashed in the backyard of our host in our tent, and woke up to the sound of their chickens clucking away!
Wyoming hot springs!
Beautiful stretch of road.
Wild, wild west.
Laramie train tracks.
We woke up in Laramie and per our host's additional suggestion we stopped shortly outside of Laramie to go for a run around Turtle Rock, a stop well worth our time. Dave and I both were fascinated by the landscape of this area. And after a good run/hike, we carried forward to Nebraska! Nebraska was also new to me, and though it didn't top Wyoming in beauty, it is always exciting to see a new state. We arrived to Lincoln quite tired, and thankfully so was our host, so after a brief chat we crashed with the intention of getting up early to complete the drive to Indiana.
Turtle Rock, Wyoming.
Turtle Rock.
Somewhere in Wyoming
We got on the road by 6am and plowed through the remainder of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and finally arrived to Indiana around 8pm! It was a long drive, but so exciting to show up earlier than planned to Indianapolis and surprise everyone! We were tired when we arrived, but not too tired to go out with everyone, and it was so great to be 'home.' The following day my friend Julia was playing music at a winery and we were able to surprise her as well at her gig, and that was so great! And we also found time the day after that to take Dave to my happy place in Indiana, the apple orchard nearby Plainfield. There's something about apple picking in the fall time that makes my heart happy. September was a whirlwind of a month, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but Dave and I were both happy to put our bags down for the next month. October in Indiana was perfect, and I can't wait to find the time to write about it soon!
The Half Step Sisters!
Best friends reunited in the orchard!
Dave's beautiful photo of the pumpkins at the orchard.
Ps. all of the good photos are Dave's, naturally. Bye for now!