Santa Cruz California is a cute place. Lots of little coastal towns, surfers, liberals. A lot like our old home of Charlottesville, Va but with a beach and more hippies.

Lots of McGrath family was gathered here in Santa Cruz for the weekend wedding of my cousins and so it has been quite an event leading up to the BIG DAY for the bride and groom. We shopped for drinks and beer, made place-cards, enjoyed the rehearsal dinner at Shadowbrook in Capitola and really had a delightful time helping with the wedding preparations, and getting to visit with cousins we never get much time given all of their various jobs and cities. Saturday morning there was a McGrath family brunch and we celebrated my dad�s 60th birthday, which is this coming Tuesday, July 19, 2005. We also had a nice time at the wedding itself which was in the hills, in a county park and historic house. The day was sunny and warm, with clear blue skies. The bride and groom looked lovely, and it was a great event.

Today we are off to who-knows-where, all we know is that we are surely stopping for an In-N-Out Burger along the way (our favorite burger joint) and probably camping for a few nights this week as we slowly make our way from California to Denver, Colorado, in time for next weekend, to visit with our friends Bret and Sarah.

Here's a photo of Karin talking to our friend Jill Klinger. She is also the person who bought our house in Charlottesville, and funny enough was a good friend of the bride so here she is reporting on how she likes the house in Charlottesville. She likes it! We miss it! 

Heading to dinner the night before the wedding. 

Karin kayaking in Elkhorn Slough, just outside of Monterey Bay. We saw seals, sea otters and pelicans, and had a nice lunch together on the water before Scott's wedding. 

Roller coaster in Santa Cruz, California 

Mike and Christy on the roller coaster!!! 

Karin and Emma McCain (Cousin Christy's daughter) in Santa Cruz. 

Everyone thinks my Uncle Bill isn't doing anything in his retirement, but we know better. He chopped a tree that came down in his yard into teeny tiny pieces and fit the whole thing in this can. He also made macadamia nut brittle for his son's wedding, which was REALLY GOOD!!! We loved visiting with he and Shirley at their goregous home in Walnut Creek. 

Even the laundry is cooler in California! 

Mike visiting with our friend Scott Connors at his and Christine's GORGEOUS and HUGE new apartment in the Marina district of San Francisco. We had a brief but great visit! Photo taken on July 10, 2005 

Mike in Wine Country, Sonoma County - July 9, 2005 

Off to Santa Cruz, California 

California Update

We just spent a few great days in the Bay Area.

• Saw our friends Scott and Christine's new apartment in the Marina District of San Francisco.
• Craft time! We created the table namecards for the upcoming wedding in Santa Cruz.
• Ate fish tacos with Brock and Diana in a group-home in Crockett - the last frontier in the San Fran area. Brock is considering running for mayor.
• Brought out our grime covered beauty with facials in Walnut Creek.
• Re-discovered the wonders of California Trader Joe's "two buck chuck". Red and White.
• Scheduled an auto service appt. to investigate the mysterious Check Engine Light that recently has graced us with its presence.
  

We'll update with all the pictures when we get to Santa Cruz.

"Bests"

Some “Bests” (We had a long car drive yesterday)

1. Best Tent: The Mountain Hardwear Hammerhead-3
2. Best Flavor of Ramen Noodles: Blue
3. Best National Park reservation system: Badlands, SD
4. Best national Park, Scenery: Glacier National Park, Montana
5. Best Consistently clean bathrooms: Starbucks
6. Best Gas Stations: BP
7. Best State rest stops: Montana, by a long shot
8. Best in-the-car snack: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, cheddar flavor
9. Best in-the-car gadget: Karin’s I-pod Mini with short stories and NPR clips downloaded for easy listening
10. Best thing to anticipate: The new Harry Potter book on tape will be available to listen to on our way home
11. Best thing about the Northwest: The amazing amount of drive-thru espresso stands everywhere.

 

 

Here is the basic route we took today. We started in Southern Oregon, drove South on 101 until we hit Highway 1. Then we got on Highway 1 and drive for 22 miles on the twisty-est roads you have ever seen, over a mountain and then back to the coastline. Mendocino was a delightful; stop!!! 

We love the beaches!!!! After visiting Trinidad for lunch, we continued down highway 101, then took a turn off to go down the AVENUE OF THE GIANTS, which takes you through a Redwood forest. Then we got on highway 1, which hugs the coast and drove South...We had dinner at the wonderful Mendocino Cafe, (in Mendocino of course) with a gorgeous view of the pacific, and a delicious organic and free range dinner!

Trinidad, California (Where we stopped for lunch) on July 7, 2005 

Also saw a Seal today in Trinidad, California! 

Today we saw a herd of Elk, along with many ENORMOUS Redwood trees, gorgeous beaches and beautiful vineyards.  

Train near our campsite on July 6, 2005...Southern Oregon Coast. 

Me and the dunes. July 6 2005 

Oregon Coast

So after we left Gerry Martin in Portland yesterday morning, we made our way to the Great Sand Dunes, on the Southern Coast of Oregon. What a beautiful place. The dunes go on forever, and the beach was gorgeous. Imagine the dunes on New Jersey beaches, but only ten times higher and longer, and no development anywhere. Its serene and peaceful and free of houses. Peaceful. The one non-peaceful difference, is the dune buggy course -- we saw all kinds of folks getting their dune buggies ready and riding around having fun on their buggies. I personally don’t really understand why you would buy a dune buggy and all the gear just to ride around on sand, but these people were serious about their sport of choice!

After a little hike and nap on the beach at the Dunes, we kept driving. We finally stopped and got the last campsite at Harris Beach State Park, which is six miles above the California Border, and then walked to the beach and we watched a gorgeous sunset. Afterwards, we ate a delicious meal of fresh avocados and tomatoes and sourdough bread, and watched our campfire and read our books.

Right now, I am reading a book called Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. It was written in 1983 and is a tale of one man’s journey across the country on the backroads of our nation. It took me a while to get into it, but is a really neat book, and it is making me want to get off the big roads and see what’s tucked into the forgotten corners of the country… but alas, that is another trip!

Mike is engrossed in a book called The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, and he can’t seem to put it down. It’s a fiction novel of a Japanese man in his early 30s who has left his job in Tokyo and who is also searching for his wife’s missing cat… and all of the adventures that go along with that.

Portland Visit

Karin and Gerry Martin, outide of Gerry's house in Portland, Oregon. July 6, 2005

One Big Tree

Big Spruce in Olympic National Park, Washington State.
Olympic National Park was gorgeous and wet…(well where we camped is a rainforest) and we spent on night camping there among the banana slugs and then started to make our way down the coast on 101. Wow did we see some pretty beaches! We cut in and stopped for the night in Portland, where we visited Gerry Martin, (the mom of my Aunt Shirley and sort of a surrogate grandmother of sorts). Gerry has a gorgeous home in Portland and it was a restful stopping point after all that driving!

This was our lovely campsite in Olympic National Park, in the HOH Rainforest, which is the only Rainforest in the area.  

Mike checking out a wadepool at Ruby Beach on the Southern Washington Coast on our way from Olympic National Park to Portland. This was an AMAZING beach and scenery, despite the rain!

Rainy Day in Olympic National Park, Washington State

Driving to Portland

We’ve been offline – had a fabulous visit to Seattle, and had a great visit and lots of GREAT FOOD and GREAT COMPANY. Now we are on our way to Portland after visiting Olympic National Park where we camped last night. We’ll catch up with photos and stories in the next day or two!

Here is John Martin playing a little after dinner piano for us - he recently decided to take up piano, and he really inspired Mike to start playing again. I think we may get a piano when we move into our new house!

Salmon in Seattle!

We left Vancouver and were searched by customs. Apparently two cross country travelers with no jobs are suspicious, and we were interrogated. The whole way to Seattle, Mike was nervous because in his words "I dont really like Salmon" and we were heading to the Martin's where John is a "big mahoff" in the fishing industry and so he knew Salmon was surely going to be on the menu and he was stressed. I told him not to worry and that he had never had salmon like John's Salmon...but he was worried.

So we arrived to Seattle around 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 2, 2005 and were greeted at the door by John Martin, ready to pour us a glass of wine and help us to chill our heels. It was a great arrival! We caught up on all the Martin goings-on, got a tour of their lovely house right off Lake Washington, and had a few glasses of very nice red wine. Then came the King Salmon! John threw the Salmon on the grill and took some time to explain to Mike the different varieties. He told us that it was likely that Mike had never had King Salmon, especially really fresh King Salmon because it was a California and Alaska variety mostly, and most of the Salmon we have had on the east is a more oily variety. Anyhow, Mike took on taste of the Salmon and said "well that isn't like any other Salmon I have had". Through the course of dinner, he went back for seconds, and then thirds. John was happy that he had added another Salmon eater to the planet, and Mike was happy to finally taste for himself and understand how good Salmon can be. I am happy because now I know that Mike will be attempting to recreate that delicious salmon someday soon.

The next day, we went to see the neighborhood of Fremont and the fish ladders and locks and ran into so many farmers markets and little festivals. We had a ball. We finished the visit with a gorgeous dinner at John's Country Club and then departed on Monday (the 4th) for the Olympic National Park. This is a photo of Mike and John Martin after dinner, at John and Robin's home in Seattle.

Missing Live 8, but loving the Northwest

So it is Saturday, July 02, 2005 and we called home today to check in and hear about Live 8, which we watched on TV this morning from our hotel room.

My parents have a spectacular view from their penthouse apartment which is located almost right in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and as I talked to my dad, I could hear the crowd going wild for Will Smith, as he got the event started. Pretty neat… and while we are kind of sad to be missing such a big event in our hometown, it is also kind of fun to see their apartment building on TV, and the swarming crowds below, and think about how much fun they are having and how neat it is that they live there and are having the biggest concert right in their front yard! Pretty cool! I will post pictures if they send any!