The final week of freedom

Today is Nik’s final day of freedom before starting his new job, and to celebrate, we are both working on blog posts that document our final week together (you can see Nik’s here: Wine Country & Creepy Drifter Encampment: The last post before I return to the Salt Mines)! I have a feeling that this was the last job-free week we will have together in town for quite a while, and as you will see, we did our best to make the most of it.

One morning, after breakfast, we looked outside and were kind of depressed because the fog San Francisco is known for had taken over our neighborhood. We could barely see the buildings across the street, but decided to take a little road trip anyways. We threw some edible odds and ins into a backpack, and headed north. Muir Woods National Monument (about 12 miles north of town) was our destination.

Once we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, the fog began to dissipate, the temperature started to rise, and by the time we made it to Muir Woods, it was a beautiful day!

We parked the scooter around 10:30am, and the closest parking lot to the entrance still had a few empty spots. By the time we returned around 1:00pm after our 4.1 mile stroll, the two closest parking lots were full and cars were lined up for quite a while along the road leading to the monument. The moral of the story: arrive early!!!

Most of our stroll was in Mt. Tamalpais State Park, which has an extensive hiking trail network with several trailheads off of the Muir Woods Monument boardwalk. So if we go back, we will probably just hike through Mt. Tam…it consists of the same amazing trees and the trails aren’t manicured. My favorite part of the day was seeing the young redwood sprouts everywhere. Sure, I enjoy seeing 100+ year-old trees, but seeing 100+ year-old trees right next to 10-day-old trees is pretty amazing!

As always, we stopped to take photos pretty often, and this photo of Nik next to the scooter with his helmet still on reminded me of the road trips we would take in Chiang Mai. In fact, seeing this photo made me realize how similar the past month has been to the days we had in Thailand. Wake up, have breakfast, browse the internet, go on an adventure, eat lunch, browse the internet some more, walk to the local market to pick up fresh fruit, have an afternoon coffee, go on a walk, make dinner, browse the internet, go to sleep. It sounds pretty boring, but these are the days together that I love most. We have been doing exactly what we want to do on our time. We won’t always have this luxury!!

One day, we had planned to spend the day on Angel Island. To make the first ferry over, we had to wake up at 7:45am. When the alarm went off, we decided not to wake up. So we slept in, and then rented a car to take a drive through Sanoma & Napa Valleys. Again, it was foggy and cold in the city, but as soon as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, the sky cleared and the temperature rose. The drive was beautiful, we had a picnic lunch next to grape vines, we drove up to the Sanoma County Dump and then stopped at a random winery in Napa for a tasting.

We made it home just before sunset and watched as the fog continued to roll in across the bridge.

We did spend a couple days pretty close to home running errands and being domestic. Over the course of the week, we have made meatloaf, french toast, biscuits, butterscotch brownies, strawberry lemonade,  grilled salmon and chicken enchiladas. We have also eaten at least three picnic lunches, brewed at least 10 pots of coffee and eaten at least 4lbs of strawberries. We have also played tennis twice, thrown a frisbee for a couple hours, feather kicked to Nik’s heart’s content and are both nearing the end of our books.

We have also hit up our favorite coffee spots. One being Angelina’s on 24th & California, and the other being the Warming Hut. Our Warming Hut afternoon was especially exciting because a little fisherman caught a huge fish!! There was quite a commotion because his line got tangled with another one while he was reeling his catch in, and the rival fisherman was boisterous and kept telling everyone what to do. Then as soon as the fish was on the beach, the little fisherman scurried away quietly and continued his daily routine!!

Then another day, we drove down to Fort Funston in hopes of seeing hang gliders flying in the wind. The weather conditions were perfect, but I guess there aren’t many people hang gliding on a Thursday afternoon. Oh well. We did get to walk around in the sand dunes while watching dogs play and sea foam fly as the waves crashed in.

Today, Nik requested a low-key day, and we have had a low-key day. We took a walk through the neighborhood to Sutro Heights Park this morning, where Nik discovered a secret garden filled with overgrown plants and hobo possessions. On the way back, we stopped at a Hong Kong-style cafe specializing in dim sum on Balboa & 33rd that transported us back to Shanghai. So really, today we saw the best of both worlds…fantastic Asian food AND fantastic American scenery!!

Now we are home for the evening, enjoying each others company while browsing, writing, playing, eating, drinking, cooking and watching our neighbors.

One note: The table and chairs we are seated at was recently found at the Alameda flea market, and is our very first furniture purchase together!!! It is also the largest furniture purchase either of us has ever made, and even though it has only been ours for a week, I hope that we will have it for a very long time. It is solid teak and marked “Made in Denmark”. The table has built in extensions that come out on either side to seat six or more. The upholstery isn’t in the best shape, but is probably original and will eventually need to be replaced. Regardless, it is fantastic and perfect as our work table that will occasionally be used as a dining table!!

A reminder to go to Nik’s blog post because he takes better photos than me and he writes better than me:

Wine Country & Creepy Drifter Encampment: The last post before I return to the Salt Mines

A typical week in San Francisco

Last Thursday…

On Friday…

Throughout the week…

Then today…

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if this really was a typical week in San Francisco? I would be naive to believe that it will be, because life will catch up to us very soon.

Nik’s account of the week can be found here: Frisbee Golf and More

Welcome to California

Nik and I loaded up everything from our storage unit and drove from Portland to San Francisco on Friday to complete our final step in moving to California. The trip was uneventful, but in true Oregon fashion, it rained for the first third of our journey. Then, all of a sudden, we crossed into California, the rain stopped, and the sun came out! It’s funny how that works.

As dusk approached, we kept thinking about stopping for the night, but what would we do in some random roadside motel for the evening? Nothing. So we drove on. All the way to Mill Valley, which is about 10 miles north of San Francisco in Marin County. We stopped at a Travelodge for the night to avoid parallel parking the 17 foot Uhaul at 11pm. It was a smart move.

Saturday morning, we woke up around 9am to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge, and directly to our new apartment. The weather was perfect without a cloud in the sky!!! We quickly developed a system, and unloaded everything in two hours. TWO HOURS!!!! We couldn’t believe we finished before lunch.

The drive through town to drop off the truck was pretty funny as we spotted several other self-movers doing the same thing. Then as we pulled into the Uhaul lot, an employee came up to the cab to talk to Nik, and casually said, “How’s it goin’ Killer?”. Nik loved that someone called him “killer”!!!

Then it was back to the new homestead for a little unpacking, dinner and much needed sleep. Unfortunately, I slept terribly. I think the cause was the 9pm coffee we made just because we had our own coffee mugs. Oh well.

Since then, we have managed to unpack most of the boxes and functionally arrange the little furniture we have. I often find myself sitting in a room daydreaming of what we could do. I would love to have a big work table in the living room that we can both spread out on. I would love to have a nice vanity/dresser in the bedroom to display the little jewelry I have. I can’t wait to get a nice couch, and maybe some rugs. It will be great to have a bed (right now we’re sleeping on an air mattress). We want to start a little herb garden in the kitchen. And I have tons of little ideas for displaying photos and the few art pieces we have.

The room I am more excited about than I expected is the kitchen. I never thought I would sit in there when I wasn’t eating, cooking or cleaning, but I do. I think the explanation is that this is the first “eat-in” kitchen I have ever had. The room is basically a square with a small table tucked away in a cozy corner with a built-in bench and cafe lamp on one side. In the evenings, it feels like I am in a tiny restaurant alone after everyone else has gone home. It is perfect.

After we settle in a little bit more, I’ll take photos and try my hand at interior photo styling!!