R and J in the USA

We started our journey into California with a bit of synchronicity. It was bound to happen at some point, but we found it somewhat auspicious that the last state of our westward push before we would turn to head back eastward for good (at east on this trip) was also the first state where its order of statehood into the US of A was also the order of statehood in the R and J in the USA. California was the 31st state to be admitted into the union and the 31st state on our 50 States adventure. There is no real impact of such a confluence other than the fact that it is pretty neat.

Speaking of pretty neat – the state of California. 

On our trip, we have found that there is a trio of states about which people seem to have opinions, sometimes strong ones, whether or not they’ve actually been there. Actually – those that have never been to these states seem to be the more likely to opine strongly about them. This unique podium is populated by New York, our home state, Texas and California. Florida gets an honorable mention. Interestingly, these are also the four states that carry the four highest state populations in the union with California taking the highest spot at almost 40,000,000 residents. So, no matter what someone may or may not appreciate about California, whether they have been there or not, it seems, more people in the United States want to live there than want to live in any other one state. For us, it was not too hard to understand why. 

California is a state that is riddled with both natural beauty and cultural vibrance. It is also a state we have both been to many times. Julie has always felt drawn to California and almost went to college there before her parents’ campaign to keep her east had triumphed. Still, California remains one of her favorite states of the union to visit. Ryan’s favorite spot in the world (well, of the places he’s had the chance to see) is on the eastern side of the state, the infamous desert of Death Valley. Whether you like sparse desert landscapes with stunning geologic formations or snowcapped mountain tops, whether you prefer surfing ocean waves or craning your neck skyward to gaze at the majestic beauty of enchanted forests where Redwoods or Sequoias remind you of how very small you are, whether you prefer open roads that stretch out as far as the eye can see with barely a soul for miles to bask in the confluence of nature’s grandeur with your own peaceful solitude or the excitement and stimulation of sprawling urban centers replete with history, entertainment and cultural vibrance at every turn (somewhere amidst the smog and endless freeways and traffic that goes with some of it), you are sure to find it all in California. California boasts some areas almost untouched by man where nature has been able to evolve in isolation and maintain her pristine beauty and other areas that are about as touched by man as can possibly be – from the engineering marvel of the Shasta Dam that makes the bustling city of San Francisco possible to the sprawling reaches of Los Angeles whose buildings and neighborhoods and freeways seem like an endless seizure of humanity clinging to the ocean’s edge. 

And, if you are a fan of movies (which Julie is), there is perhaps no place in the world that has generated more of them than this spot on the western coast (though New York City has made some serious contributions and there is great entertainment and art coming from all corners of the country and the world.) We found ourselves able to name more songs that mention California than any other state and, when Julie was deciding what movie to watch that would pay homage to the locations we were in, it was an embarrassment of riches, where she had to eliminate options and just choose a few.

And California has the most national parks of any state – nine in total. Like every other state in the western United States, nature’s grandeur is not shy about showing off throughout the state. 

California has a lot to offer anyone that decides to make the trip to visit. Like any state, it’s not for everyone. But, if you find yourself in a part of California feeling like it’s not for you, there is probably another pocket of the state that, if you knew to get yourself to it, might just be.

We started our California journey with just one half of we. Julie was scheduled to cross the border from Oregon to California solo on Thanksgiving Day. Since she had luxuriated a bit on her Thanksgiving adventure on the Oregon Coast, she showed up in California a day behind schedule, which meant her original plans to make it to Lake Tahoe would not make the cut. 

Julie entered California just south of Ashland, OR on I-5 on her way to her first stop in the state, Shasta Lake. Immediately upon crossing the border the mountainous landscape had her giddy with excitement at the beauty and the fact that, once again, she found herself in awe of a different type of landscape than she had yet seen. We had decided not to include the Redwood Forest on our itinerary, despite it being one of the most remarkable and visit-worthy stops in the US only because we had both been to it before. 2 other of California’s natural marvels, Yosemite National Park and Death Valley National Park would see similar fates for the same reason on this particular journey. Julie had gotten the chance to stare in awe at the Redwoods twice in previous trips. And the lure of the Redwoods had always meant that, in prior Northern California experiences, she had never seen Northern California’s interior and there was one site in particular that she had always wanted to see, Mount Shasta.

She had originally wanted to stay her first night in California at the base of Mount Shasta, but for various logistical reasons, had ultimately decided to make it all the way to Shasta Lake and simply enjoy a drive by the famous mountain. Luckily, the mighty peak was magnificently visible right from I-5. As soon as it came into view, Julie was over the moon at the chance to see it. We had seen many mountains on the trip, and each was magnificent in its own way, but there was just something about Mount Shasta that was a little magical. Julie had read how the natives of the area considered it a sacred site and she was overcome by a feeling when driving by it that made her have an inkling of what they might have meant. Just driving by it, she found herself having all sorts of creative insights and inspirations and, that night, as she fell asleep at a pullout near Shasta Dam, with the mountain still visible in the distance, she had the most wonderful night of dreams – dreams that were so pleasant that when she woke up, she tried to go to back to sleep again because she just wanted to stay steeped in the delicious feeling of those Mount Shasta infused dreams. 

In the morning, Julie drove the remaining mile between her home for the night and the Shasta Dam where she got to learn about the engineering journey that brought this behemoth into being during the Second World War. It was a site to behold and an education on how Northern California had managed to become as fruitful as it had.

Julie’s second stop while still solo was to a National Park that Ryan really wanted to see and the first time Julie got to enjoy him being officially jealous of her – Lassen Volcanic National Park. Because it was early December, the road through the park was closed for the season and covered from top to bottom in snow. The visitor’s center at the northern entrance at Manzanita Lake was closed for the season, though one could still snowshoe around the lake, but the visitor’s center at the southern entrance, the Kohm-Yah-mah-nee Visitor’s Center was open. Julie could possibly have made it to both spots, but opted for a more relaxed schedule and pulled into the south entrance mid afternoon with a pair of brand new snowshoes (that she knew she had the perfect place to store in the van where Ryan would never notice them taking up space and have no chance to object to brining a new item in the van for storage reasons – these solo times in the van had a few definite benefits for Julie). She enjoyed a relaxed afternoon and evening in the van amidst the snow covered beauty and peace of Lassen. It was a rarity in our schedule to have a relaxed afternoon and Julie relished every second of it. 

The next morning, Julie was excited to use her new snowshoes to make the 1 mile journey to the mud pots. After a quarter of mile, Julie surrendered to the fact that the snow was packed down enough that snowshoes were definite overkill. She took them off and put on her spikes that were more than enough to get the necessary traction as she hiked the snowy path. The views and the peace were phenomenal and the hike quickly made its way into her top 5 list of the trip. She was hard pressed to stop and turn around and kept hiking past the mud pots to get just a little more of the peace before returning towards the van. She hopped back in the van and, though she had enjoyed her solo time thoroughly, she was more than a little excited for the evenings major event – picking Ryan up at the Sacramento airport.

Julie drove to Sacramento in time to grab an hour and a half at the California State Museum to learn a bit about California’s history. Most visits to state history museums are educational, fascinating and, also mildly devastating. There is no corner of this country that doesn’t have a litany of stories that do not inspire joy nor pride for those who are passionate about the principles that America stands for, at least on paper. While we often stand for them in real time too…history constantly lays bare the human struggle to come to terms with the reality that having principles means having principles even when it does not feed one’s own self interest or prejudices. Each of these stories helps elucidate the modern legacy of these realities. California’s history was no different, accept in the particulars, as each state has been. Julie learned about how California’s early history of having more than 300 tribes of first peoples and then having been the receptors of European conquest and settlement from two very different angles and time periods, from the manifest destiny inspired pioneers coming west and the gold rushers soon to follow, to the Spanish empire and Catholic missions that surged up from the south centuries earlier, resulted in the unique tapestry of landscape and culture that it boasts today. Julie learned that our constitution specifically spells out the concept of “redress” for when a people are done wrong by their own government and that the Japanese-Americans that were unconstitutionally rounded up from their homes and placed in internment camps during the frenzy and paranoia of war had pursued that redress for decades after – and won it – receiving a formal apology from Ronald Reagan for their unfair and terrible treatment, plus a check for $20,000. Julie was happy to see this. Humans are rarely perfect, and groups of humans, even more rarely so – but a human or group of humans that are capable to say, “We were wrong. We are sorry.” That is something that Julie found hopeful. Julie enjoyed learning about California history and left, as usual, hungry to learn more. 

After a stop for boba tea (of course), Julie made her way to the cell phone lot to make dinner and hang out until Ryan’s plane arrived at 8:45. After a joyful reunion, we set out to a nearby rest area that allowed overnight parking and resumed our together travels. 

The next day, we enjoyed an open morning to hang out and work on projects, a luxury that we both relish and then made our way to the capital. Somewhere in this time, Ryan realized he was not feeling great and seemed to have picked up a head cold somewhere on his travels. Julie hopped out of the van for a nice run through Sacramento, soon finding herself in what was likely considered the rougher part of town as she ran past a tent city and some other familiar signs of urban challenges. 

When we got to the capital, it was buzzing with activity and all sorts of folks dressed way better than we were. It was the most happening capitol scene yet, and we soon realized why. This was the ceremonial welcoming of newly elected representatives. If you saw someone dressed nicely, you could take a chance and say “Congratulations”, and likely have it be apropos.

Because of the day’s events, our tour guide was unable to take us to see the two chambers, but we enjoyed the tour nonetheless and loved taking in the architecture, as always.

That night we made our way to Kenwood, just north of San Francisco to park overnight in the driveway of our friends Audrey and John. The last time we had seen them was the year before when we had taken a trip out west to go shopping for the van – so it was a neat full circle to return with it. 

We enjoyed a DELICIOUS chicken and rice concoction that Audrey cooked, delighted in good times and lots of laughs and, of course, got to use them for all sorts of their facilities – garbage, recycling, showers, grey water tank emptying, laundry and they even let us dump our bucket of pee in their wood chips. It’s nice to have friends along the way. 

Audrey and John live on a small homestead and it is so cool to visit. They have cows, dogs, chickens, goats, alpacas, vegetables and pigs. We happened to arrive at just the right time to see something pretty special. The last time we had visited, they had served us breakfast and told us the name of the bacon we were eating. This time, we were going to meet the pigs themselves before the process of them becoming bacon was started. When they first told us that their pigs were getting butchered the morning of our visit, they wondered if we would want to get out of there before seeing it. We were just the opposite. We are on this trip to get a sense of life across the country and how people are living it. There is nothing more elemental a component of life, than death. And, as people that enjoy our fair share of animal products, including of the pork variety, we thought it was a great experience to have – unsettling though it might be – to witness the process that every pork rib we ever eat necessitates. We won’t post the pictures of the butchering process here, just in case some folks who are reading this did not come to see it, but if you want to see them, let us know and we’ll email the pictures along. We weren’t sure if we would be squeamish or sad or disturbed or how we would feel. We were none of those things (Julie did feel a little sad). The process felt natural to watch and we were glad to have the opportunity to see it. 

We bid Audrey and John adieu and made our way to San Franscisco. We had a full day planned. Even though we had both been to California, and each of it’s major cities a handful of times, or more, each offers so many cultural, natural or historical things to do that we both had a list of ones we had never done. it was a no brainer which things we were going to do in San Francisco for this trip. Our first stop would be the Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront Museum and the next would be Alcatraz. And, in the process, we’d cross the Goldengate and Bay Bridges.

Julie had wanted to make it out to this museum as part of her musical writing trip, since this is exactly what her musical is about, but, alas, it just was too far to fit into that trip. And it was everything Julie had hoped for and more. The exhibits were fantastic, the movie was great and, most exciting of all, after talking to the park ranger there, Julie found out that she would be most welcome to come back to perform some or even all of her musical sometime between now and October to an audience that MIGHT be able to include some ACTUAL Rosie the Riveters as part of their celebration of coming into their 25th year of existence as a museum. We left the museum and Julie was brimming with excitement at the opportunity and already starting to think and plan what she would do and how she would pull it off. Ryan was excited too.

As per usual, we left wanting to stay to take in more of it, but we got a pretty good sense of the exhibits and learned about the history of the town of Richmond and all the ships they built and sent “down ways”.

Our next stop was Pier 33 where we would catch our 1:35 ferry to Alcatraz Island. We spent 3 hours on the island, exploring the island, the building, the exhibits (on life in the prison, the 1969 19-month takeover of the island by Native Americans and one on mass incarceration) and taking an audio tour into and through the prison. Julie got deeply absorbed into the exhibit on the mass incarceration phenomenon in America (we have 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s incarcerated) and we had a fun adventure getting off the island and a fun encounter with a park ranger on the island that you can read about in our People Along the Way section. Julie was surprised when leaving the island that she enjoyed the visit so much. “It seems strange to have had such a good time at a place that was filled with so much, well, not good times.” She said to Ryan, hoping that she was not some kind of weird sadist, but there was something about being there that she just loved. For whatever reason, we both really enjoyed our Alcatraz visit.

Julie was still committed to watch movies that had iconic location ties – and, when leaving Alcatraz, she realized she’d have to pick. She’d never seen Escape from Alcatraz, and that would have been a perfect fit. But, instead, she opted for the one from her childhood days that she had already seen a handful of times. It was time to hear Sean Connery say, “Gentleman, welcome to the Rock.” 

We ended the day with a 2+ hour drive south towards one of the national parks that we had not only not been to, but not really heard of, Pinnacles National Park. We arrived at a lovely pull off after dark and woke up to beautfiful brown scenery in the morning. Because Ryan was still feeling a little under the weather and it seemed he could use another couple of hours catching up on rest and Julie was eager to use available time to catch up on some projects, we called an itinerary audible and cancelled our planned jaunt out to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. It was always a lofty plan that included adding an extra 6 hours of driving in one 24 hour period. If we had made the trek, Julie would have been able to leave California having been to all 9 of its national parks. Alas, now we both had a few left on the list to return for (Lassen Volcanic for Ryan, Kings Canyon and Sequoia for Julie). But it was a good call. We had a more relaxed schedule and enjoyed an open morning before heading into the park. 

We headed into Pinnacles where we went on a short hike through a beautiful cave and a new kind of scenery that we hadn’t really seen before. We enjoyed it immensely.

After our hike, we hit the road to get as far as Carpenteria that night within a reasonable driving distance from Venture in the morning to catch our ferry out to the Channel Islands National Park.

We had such a great time at the Channel Islands! We had a super eventful ferry ride both there and back. We saw a gathering of about a hundred sea lions enthusiastically swimming around some great hunting grounds, a pack of dolphins playfully and joyously leaping through the wake of the ferry, reams of ocean birds and, on our way back, two humpback whales. There is nothing quite so magical as the life in the ocean when it reveals itself to you at the surface.

The Channel Islands themselves were just gorgeous. We learned about the history of the natives that had lived there, the ranchers that had moved in and, as modern people tend to do, drastically altered the ecosystems there that had been balanced for millenia prior, and the successful efforts of the National Park Service to restore that balance. We saw Island Foxes that aren’t afraid of humans at all and are one of the many many species that are only found on the Channel Islands – which, like the Galapagos, evolved, largely in isolation from the rest of the world. Julie donned her wetsuit and got her California swim in on the shores of Santa Cruz Island.

After our ferry landed us back in Ventura, we drove an hour and a half to Santa Monica where we took in a little California style holiday festiveness and grabbed some dinner. Then we headed another 45 minutes south to Manhattan Beach. 

In the morning, we met up with our dear friend Tracy, another person we had gotten to see on our van shopping trip the year prior and were excited to show her the fruits of our searches. We took showers, emptied recycling and garbage and enjoyed catching up. Tracy kindly lent us her beach chairs so we could enjoy a chilly November morning beachside in style while we devoured the acai bowl that Julie had been jonesing for and not being able to find the last handful of states.

We had both been to LA more than a handful of times over the years and seen many of the sites. We’d both seen the walk of fame, Grauman’s Chinese theater, a movie studio tour, Disneyland and many beaches. But there was one place we had both long wanted to see but it had never quite worked out. And it was about as iconic an LA thing as we could think of to do. After a lovely morning in Manhattan Beach, we made our way to Griffith Park and the Griffith Observatory. We parked at the base of the hill in the park and enjoyed a 1.7 mile hike uphill to the observatory through Griffith Park. The views were tremendous, the sun was hot and the air was refreshingly cool in the shady pockets. And the observatory was, well, in a word, awesome. 

As we approached the door, Julie was nearly giddy with excitement to go inside and take in a planetarium show. She has yet to see an entire planetarium show from start to finish. She finds them so dang relaxing, she has never once made it through a whole one without falling into a deep, restful sleep. She fought hard to stay awake, but between the comfy chairs, the soothing voice of the narrator and the circle of night sky, she didn’t stand a chance. Ryan dozed off for a minute himself and we enjoyed it immenselvely nonetheless. We saw so many exhibits that caused us to audibly say, “Wow”, we got to see the telescope (that you are allowed to actually look through once it is dark) and learned what sidereal (pronounced sie-DEE-ree-ahl) time is. We left with total confidence that we would make our way back to the observatory someday in the future. 

That night, Julie finished watching The Birds for the first time (that takes place just north of San Francisco) and then watched Rebel Without a Cause as an ode to the observatory. Again, she had plenty of LA movies to choose from (L.A. Story, L.A. Confidential, La La Land, just to name a few), but it seemed the obvious choice after being at the observatory and seeing the James Dean statue there. 

We strategized our evening. We originally were going to see a movie, since LA was an acceptable place to choose that as our evening‘s entertainment, since we considered it a local activity, and then drive the 1 hour east to San Bernadino for the night.

However, Julie had planned the itinerary at 5AM some morning weeks prior, when she first woke up. This is a time when google maps will tell you it takes about 1:15 minutes to get to San Bernadino, it being only about 70 miles from where we were. But now it was a quarter to 5 on a Friday. Now this was going to be a 2.5 hour drive. Right. We are in a massive city that has freeways and cars as far as the eye can see. 

Even though it meant a cumulative extra hour plus of drive time to leave tonight rather than do the whole drive to Palm Springs in teh morning before our race, we decided to do it. 

We parked that night with a great view of the starlight that is overlooking the city (and also the source of the light pollution that kept the actual stars from being visible here) and then headed out at 6:30 the next morning to Palm Springs, where we would run our Santa Paws 5K. You can read about our 5K in our 5K section.

After the race, we hopped in the van and made our way to our last national park of the trip, Joshua Tree. It is also the first national park visit on this trip to a park that we have both been to before. 

It is dry and brown and rocky, and as we have learned over and over on this trip, though those are not adjectives that, at first glance, sound beautiful, they most certainly are. 

With that, we will bid a fond adieu to a state we both have a fondness for and are certain we will be in someday again.