Day 5: we finally reach “vacation speed”

This morning we had a luxurious lie-in, as they say in England, sleeping in until 8am. Being girly-girls it took us two hours to get out the door after once again having breakfast of, you guessed it, hard boiled eggs and rice cakes with peanut butter, though at least we ate at a table like civilized people this time. It is amazingly, perfectly beautifully sunny and warm today—not a cloud in the sky. We drove first to a little Dutch village called Solvang. We were pleasantly surprised to learn they were having a festival called Danish Days today. We wondered through the town to see,, tranditional dancing (see video) and many people in Viking costumes, including this lovely gentleman who graciously posed for the above picture with us. Sabrina got to hold his axe, and he provided the charming hats. We also saw some amazing chainsaw wood carvings, including this lovely nome and eagles. On the way out of town, we also passed an ostrich farm but they charged $4 to take a picture so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

On we drove to Santa Barbara, one of Sabrina’s favorite places in the entire world. We decided to just hang out there for the afternoon, to avoid the worst of LA traffic. We sauntered casually up and down the main street of town and in and out of little shops. We found a fabulous restaurant called The Natural Cafe where we dined on dairy free nachos (still good, I swear) and salad with carrot-beet-celery juice on the side. It was delicious and surpisingly way too much food even though we were both starving when we got there. We spent several hours just walking slowly around Santa Barbara, and absorbing some much needed vitamin D. We also took a tour through the art museum, where they had an exhibition of old Hollywood photography and some Picassos. Afterwards, we headed back to our new favorite restaurant, where we had spotted a vegan, gluten-free brownie earlier, which was approximately the size of a human baby’s head, which we shared it it was delicious—and turned out to be dinner. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, and definitely our best so far.

We left SB at around 6, hoping to get to Malibu before sunset, but we got stuck behind some excruciatingly slow motorcycles and realized that was not going to happen. So instead, we pulled off at Ventura and watched the sunset from the beach. It was lovely to put our toes in the sand, even if we were somewhat distracted by a desperate need to pee, with all of the park bathrooms locked up for the night. Thankfully we found a nearby gas station quickly.

Tonight we will stay with Laura’s childhood friend Stephanie in Los Angeles, and once again try and pack too many things in one day tomorrow before heading off to San Diego.

Notes on the side

A few things we forgot to mention:

1. In Oregon, and parts of Northern California, we passed:
23 hitchhikers and countless crazy bike riders, riding up steep hills in groups with all of their camping gear strapped to their bikes and bodies. WHY?! WHY? Is that fun? We don't think the hitchhikers got very far because we saw the same ones something like 10 miles down the road from the first time we saw them-- maybe they smelled bad.

2. In case you are wondering who mainly writes this blog, given that we kind of switch back and forth between 1st and 3rd person, the answer is, we sit side by side and whenever someone has a good story she writes it. So it is definitely a group effort-- see if you can guess who writes which parts and which ones we really write together.

3. Hopefully you find this blog entertaining...but if not, we understand. Most people just do not get it. It's quit ok though because we constantly crack each other up.

4. We have seen some very interesting signage along the way, the best being "Victorian Treasures, We Do Taxes Right". Now what do you imagine this store being like? Really, we want to know.

5. We have enjoyed laughing over the district names in San Francisco. Our favorites being Cow Palace and Tenderloin. These are really the names, really.

6. Notes From the Car:
a. I dare you to find something you might need in it! For example, we were determined to drink wine, but could not find the opener. Yes, eventually we found it, but seriously.
b. The car now smells like homemade Kombucha. The bottles are sealed, no leaks in site, but smelly non the less.
c. The passenger is required to: drive with the computer on the lap whenever directions are needed. (Sabrina unfortunately, has a problem with this because of car sickness issues, so far, so good). Secondly, the passenger seat is filled with many items that might be needed by the driver at any moment, such as ipods, cameras, water, food, maps, etc...The passenger must also feed the driver whenever needed, with handfuls of trail mix, crackers and hummus and the occasional fork full of noodles.

Day 4: Having fun in a disaster sort of way

This morning we woke up happy to be sleeping indoors on carpet, but sad we had to get up at all. By the time we got out the door in search of wireless internet, we were starting to get nervous about the time. We prepared a quick breakfast on the roof of the car-- a single hard boiled egg each and 2 rice cakes and peanut butter (yes again). We managed to find UCSF without too much difficulty, except for the rogue road construction worker who yelled at us because he was in the middle of the road and we thought he was directing traffic and really confused us. We have New York plates on our car, what do you expect? We did manage to get to UCSF on time (barely) and met with the internship director, who was nice, if a bit distracted. Afterwards, we stopped at the bathroom and then walked to Starbucks on campus to get some work done. Sabrina was waiting in line when she realized she had set down her work notebook somewhere. Panicked, she hurried back to the bathroom at the hospital, 2 blocks away, but it was no longer there. After a frustrating 10 minutes waiting to ask the security office if they had seen it, she realized it was gone for good. Since it has basically everything she needs to do her job in it, it was rather devastating to lose. We went and sat in the meditation room at the hospital (yes they have one) to gather strength (i.e. stop crying) before Sabrina called her boss to tell her what happened. Kathy was of course lovely and understanding, so we were able to put it behind us and move on to the next catastrophe. Which was finding a health food store, but now we didn't have a map because the map was in Sabrina's binder. All we could do was laugh because it was a repeat of our Vancouver experience (see post 2).

We hadn't eaten since our sad breakfast and were delirious with hunger. We gathered directions from 2 sources to find our store--Rainbow Grocery. We got on the road and with much circling and "where do I go" from Laura, we managed to find it. It probably took us 45 minutes or more to find the place...a bit ridiculous. We entered, weary from the road, hungry and dressed in our professional clothes. When we entered, we immediately began to feel better. This place was AMAZING! Ok, so it didn't have any meat, but there were so many other treasures that we didn't feel deprived. The bulk section alone would be something that Bastyrians only dream about. They had Natto for God's sake! Oh and the spice section, spectacular. Seven different kinds of olive oil, any kind of bean or tea you could imagine. It was a feast for the senses.

Going to a store while hungry is never a good idea, but by this time it was 3pm and we hadn't eaten since our meager breakfast around 10, so we were starving. At the time, things like gluten-free noodles and spring rolls sounded delicious. We also got gluten-free cookies, apples and some seaweed rice chips to try. When we got back to the car, we realized that noodles and spring rolls were ridiculous foods to try eating in a moving car. The spring rolls had sauce which we both managed to spill on our skirts. We were laughing hysterically as Sabrina tried to feed Laura noodles while she drove. Not our best idea. We also found ourselves on the freeway during San Francisco rush hour which was no fun at all. It took close to two hours to finally get out of the traffic and relax again.

Despite our late start, we drove all the way to San Luis Obisbo and were unwilling to put up a tent in the dark, so we are staying in a Econolodge (now called "America's Best Value" or something ridiculous). We first stopped at a Super 8 where the man laughed at us when we told him we wanted a hotel room for less than $60 a night, but who's laughing now? Bargain price of $55 and well worth it. After a lovely sushi and miso dinner we are drinking wine and watching What Not to Wear on TLC-- and are glad to be warm, not have to walk far for the bathroom and to be out of the car.

Day 3: Have you hugged a tree today?

Today was a bit of a tiring day. We got up extra early to make up for lost time because we played around too much yesterday. Oh, and as a side note from yesterday, the man at the KOA campground has been nicknamed “Mr. Kranky Pants” because of his extreme defensiveness about the prices of his high class cabins. Laura told him she thought it was usually cheaper and he gave us a lecture on how if we signed up for the “KOA kard” which we had just declined purchasing, it would be $4 cheaper. (Since she had in mind a price more than $15 cheaper this was not helpful). He didn’t really tell us where anything was or how to check out, etc. He just handed us the key and sent us on our way. Very charming man, really.

But back to today. We really did get on the road by 9am, after a breakfast of hard boiled eggs, rice cakes with peanut butter and fresh mango—with a side of vitamin D and fish oil tablets. With minimal stopping—once in the redwoods to hug a giant tree and at a co-op for some lunch (thanks for the tip Irene!) and many many more construction zones, which we only seem to hit when Sabrina is driving. But of course we take this opportunity to dance it out.

The redwoods were spectacular, but we didn’t have time to take it all in so upon our arrival we were all business. We walked into the gift shop/visitor center and demanded to know where the big trees were. The lady pointed us to a part of the park where we would find the “Big Tree”. Literally, that is what it is named. When we got there, the place was surrounded by many tourists and Laura was disappointed that she couldn’t hop the fence and wrap her arms around the giant, so instead she had to settle for a lesser specimen.

Driving this part of 101 was beautiful but totally exhausting. The road went back and forth between 1 and 2 lanes and up and down and around curves, so total concentration was required to drive it. Sabrina drove about 100 miles and it completely wiped her out.

We’ve decided that the trip planner program we have does not understand the concept of “Chaos time”—it thinks that by leaving at 9am we should have arrived in San Francisco by 5pm. We did make it by 9:30 pm, after an absolutely harrowing drive on 4 different highways to get here. Why we had to drive on 3 highways to get back to the one we were already on is a mystery to us but that is what our directions required, so it’s what we did. Driving on an 8 lane freeway in the dark in a strange city was not our idea of fun. But we arrived at Marc’s aunt’s place safe and sound, if 90 minutes later than we told her we’d be here. The conversation in the car during the highway fiasco was of a frantic speed. Laura in the driver’s seat demanding Sabrina tell her what came next, Sabrina saying exactly what the directions said, but not making sense. Laura became increasingly more frantic, as you might imagine, while Sabrina was desperately trying to make sense of the impossible directions. A miracle can only explain that we did not get lost.

So now we are sleeping somewhere without bugs flying around our heads and for that I know we are grateful.

Day 2: Where the sand meets the trees

After a night of lying awake freezing with intermittent naps, we could not get out of Cindy's Kitty Campsite fast enough. We sought refuge in a little restaurant in Cannon Beach were an enormous man made us fantastic soy lattes and we ate veggie omelets and hash browns (no cheese of course). We got almost warm and full and then braved the chilly beach, where Laura finally got to see the Pacific up close and personal. And cold. After a brief walk down the beach we were on the road again. We had a couple failed attempts to find some wireless internet-- the first Starbucks we came to had no wireless (how can this be?) and we even braved McDonalds (eek!) because they had wireless, but it was not free so we got away from the scary fried smell as quickly as possible. After the McDonalds nightmare, we had a short stop at a camping store in some town we can't remember the name of-- not so exciting but for some reason had really bad traffic. We decided to get some metal skewer sticks after our sad limp sticks from the previous night and also bought some more ice. Unfortunately, the ice freezer at the store must have had a power outage or something because the bags were frozen TO the freezer. We took turns battling with the ice, until Laura emerged victorious, minus part of the bag.

We got stuck at a road block where some construction/tree cutting stuff was happening and the construction guy holding the traffic direction sign was incompetent and confused. We sat there for probably 10 minutes before it was our turn again. At first we were annoyed, but then decided to take the opportunity for a dance break, which no doubt entertained the cars around us and the confused construction guy. We shook our groove things for a good 2 songs.

We finally found a wireless equipped Starbucks in Lincoln City and spent too much time there drinking green tea lemonade (highly recommended) and updating our blog as well as doing some work.

I would like to take this moment, to congratulate Laura on passing the Biostats competency exam. Now she doesn't have to suffer through biostats-- pretty good for a week of cramming, yes? Anyway, in celebration of that news we ate rice cakes and peanut butter with banana slices for lunch, which I prepared in the moving car on my lap. Laura helpfully held the peanut butter jar while she drove. I swear it was all much safer than it sounded, and I managed to avoid getting peanut butter all over me which was nearly as impressive as Laura passing her test. Really. Okay not really, but I had a couple close calls with the peanut butter.

It was 3:30 when we finally left Lincoln City-- we were very behind schedule as we had initially planned to drive all the way to Crescent City in California today. Obviously that did not happen. We did make it to see the sand dunes, which were outrageous. We found one spot on the side of the road with access to the dunes. Initially, it looked like we would never make it up the mountain of sand before us, but we found an alternate route through the forest. We still had to climb a pretty steep sand hill, but nothing like the initial one where would take one step forward and then slide down! At the top of the dune, it wasn't surprising that more sand lay before us. Every time we got to the top of a hill to see over it, there was just another even bigger hill ahead. We eventually just turned around. I couldn't get over the sand being IN the forest-- I have no idea how those trees grow in sand!

We noticed that Oregon likes to be very concise with their road signage. Signs such as "elk", "rocks" and "deer" are favored. No messing around with, "watch out for..." or "crossing" just a single word-- take from it what you will.

We still had another two and a half hour drive to Bandon, where we had decided to stay. Along the way we found a little co-op where we got some more sausage and found kombucha-- yay! Definitely our official beverage this trip.

We were determined to sleep in a KOA (Kampground of America) where they have cabins you can rent rather than pitching a tent. The cabin has lights, heat and wireless internet (also an office cat-- it seems every where we stay has kitties). It is 9pm and we are still cooking dinner since we didn't get here until after 8pm. We are dining on lots of veggies and cut up sausage wrapped in foil. I think it will be an early night for us-- we have a long drive to San Francisco tomorrow, where we will be staying with Marc's aunt and then meeting with the UCSF internship director on Friday morning. Always an adventure.

Day 1: The Adventure Begins

Ah, the first day on the road. Feeling good and ready for adventure. Well first of all, Sabrina got off to an excellent start last night by stubbing her little toe so hard she thought it was broken. This morning she could barely walk, and was so slow that Laura had to leave her in the corner at two different grocery stores rather than wait for her to hobble all over and back. Fortunately it is getting better and appears to be just badly bruised, not broken. Well, plans never go as planned. We were on the road by 11:40, better than the predicted 12:00, only 3 ½ hours after Laura arrived to pick Sabrina up. Why you ask? Food. We spent all morning at three different stores trying to find what we needed and some stuff we didn’t need. Needless to say, we are not going to go hungry.

So after trips to Trader Joes, Whole Foods, QFC and Laura’s apartment, it was lunch time, so we had to stop for that, then we finally got on the road. We drove along happily until South of Olympia when we got confused about how to get to 101. Much confusion ensued. Mainly because Sabrina doesn’t know the difference between East and West, specifically which way the ocean might be. (She can see her mom and Marc rolling their eyes right now as they read this). Laura just went along with Sabrina’s directionally challenged ideas—rooky mistake. Everyone knows to go the opposite way of the way Sabrina says to go 98% of the time, or so she says. Anyway, after that little excursion, and another one to check voicemail at work we finally found 101.

We stopped for a snack at Safeway in Astoria, where we sat at their tables eating the food we bought at Whole Foods in Seattle, naturally. Since we know you were wondering, we had Laura’s homemade hummus and Mary’s gone crackers, steamed string beans (no I’m not joking) and 2 fresh plums.

We arrived at Cannon beach around 5pm, and could not for the life of us find our campsite, and ended up driving up and down 101 for about 20 minutes before finally finding what we have re-named, Cindy’s Kitty Campground. Cindy is the manger of this lovely establishment which is located about 30 feet from 101 over a very rickety bridge. It is approximately 60% mobile homes (not RVs, people LIVE here), and the rest campsites. There are many cats in residence here, including one that chased our car about 50 yards before giving up. Upon entering the campsite, we were greeted by an older gentleman, who could have only assumed we were lost. I mean, we get out of the car, lip gloss and all, clearly not belonging there and ask for a campsite. He directed us to Cindy “house” (see picture of here lovely knick knack garden) and told us to pay her.

We walk up to the trailer, chilled to the bone (it is now 60 something degrees and we are in summer clothes), knock on the door, but scared of what we may find. The door clearly posts “Beware of Dog”. Cindy, turned out to be a middle aged woman in bright blue Capri pants and a gravity defying blond ponytail, so high it looked like it should hurt. She demanded to see both our IDs, thinking perhaps we were highschool runaways? She then lead us to a campsite a good 100 yards from where we had parked the car, even though the campsite IS TOTALLY EMPTY. Why we couldn’t have the site we were already parked, we’ll never know. Cindy did not appear to be a woman you want to mess with. After taking our $20 and reiterating the 5 mile per hour speed limit and strict 10pm silence policy, we were off to yet another grocery store, this time for wood.

We managed to erect our tent and build a fire without incident. Dinner, however, was interesting. The fire has no grill, and we didn’t feel like busting out the camp stove, so we attempted to roast chicken sausages on sad, wimpy, droopy sticks. The result was rather charbroiled shall we say, and one sad sausage was forever lost to the flames. (See attached picture our Laura’s lovely stick just prior to the sausage’s untimely demise.) Needless to say they were delicious. Or something. This was followed by many gluten free smores (thank you Health Valley company for making graham crackers out of rice. We salute you!) Topped off by wine consumed in giant soup mugs, I think you’ll agree it is a meal nutritionists everywhere would approve of.

So as you can see, we are off to a great start! And no, we did not consume large amounts of wine while writing this. We are just naturally this amusing.

A little more chaos.

So, I figured I take the background a little further. Chaos happens so often that we have to make time allowances for the inevitable. "So how much Chaos Time do you think we need today?" is the question often asked. The thing is, we are reasonable, intelligent people, capable of finding our way around, but we get distracted too easily.

Our last road trip was to Vancouver, B.C. back in April. I was disappointed in my spring break and it was almost done. I called up Sabrina and expressed to her my need to do something. She asked what I wanted to do and I mentioned Vancouver, not thinking she would just get up and go tomorrow like I wanted to. Sure, she said and I picked up a map on the way to get her and then we were on our way. The arrival was fairly uneventful, we managed to make our way into the city, find a place to park and started walking around. Of course the first thing we wanted to do was eat. We ask some locals at a coffee shop the best place to get some sushi. We had a major craving. They directed us and we started walking in that direction. We walk a couple of blocks and didn't see much. I reach in my bag to grab the map. To my surprise it was gone. How did we lose the map within 5 minutes of our arrival? Who knows. We turned around to head back to the coffee shop in hopes of recovering it. Nope. It was gone. Ah, what were we gonna do, we didn't really need it anyway, but it was typical. We headed back into the direction of supposed sushi. In a new city for 10 minutes and we had already discovered the seedy side. We obviously didn't belong, but kept walking anyway. Ok, we ended up in China town. Interesting (crazy looking mushrooms, dried fish, hanging meat and a very unusual odor) but not what we were looking for. So after indulging our curiosity a bit we turn around.

When we got back to our original downtown location we discovered that all the restaurants had closed after the initial lunch hour. Being Americans we would have never imagined that this would happen, but it did and now we were STARVING! Desperate, we headed back to the car to eat some delicious avocado chocolate pudding and Mary's gone crackers to tide us over. Yes, we finally did get our sushi (see the pics) and had a great time the rest of the day. Though I must comment of the crazy drivers. Seriously. I don't think it helps that I have NY plates. I'm convinced it creates aggression in others. We also got to see the amazing cherry blossoms in bloom that day. It was a really fun day and of course we got a bit turned around going home...all we could do was laugh.

I told this story to sometime after I had gotten home and the response I got from the individual I was talking to was "and that was fun?!" Yes, it was fun, very fun! Things never go as planned, but who cares! I think sometimes we all get caught up in our expectations of what something will be, but if you just expect to have a good time no matter what, you won't be disappointed.