We went somewhere again! Woo hoo! This time, Myung and I went to California. Just two days later, she went to Korea for a couple of weeks to follow up on her post-thyroidectomy and to get worked up for headaches she gets. She passed her thyroid stuff and is doing better on the headaches. Then she came back through SFO and we spent a couple of weeks in the Bay Area and Stockton. She visited her friends and family there but took zero pictures.
I hung out in the East Bay while she was gone, seeing the people I know and going to my old haunts, at least the ones that still exist. That’s been fun every time (well, maybe not the time I got sick and did time in the hospital back in 2007) and it was again. There’s not much to say about it. I did just about everything on my checklist.
When Myung returned from Korea, we went down to the coastal mountains between Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz on the coast. We stayed at a nice airbnb between Felton and Ben Lomond. You’d have to be from the area to know that area. It was Myung’s first time. There are a few coastal redwood parks there, the most famous of which is Big Basin which was the first California State Park. We chilled out and looked at the trees. We have exactly four photos. I might as well show them all. there are a couple of waterfall pictures , but they aren’t good enough to post.
Santa Cruz is close by, so close in fact that Felton and Ben Lomond are basically suburbs of it. Yow! 50 years ago when I first went there, that area was remote, with only a couple of narrow highways into it. Anyway, I took Myung to Santa Cruz. It’s grown up too, of course. 50+ years ago, it was all about surfers. Now it’s many things ‘cuz it’s big, but it has the feel of where to go if you were a surfer or hippie back in the day. There are a lot of Silicon Valley types there, too. Many even commute, which takes about an hour, more during the rush.
The nicest part is along the shoreline. It’s typical of the Northern California coast north of Big Sur. What a nice place to be able to stroll if you live there.
Ice plant flowers all year. It’s invasive, I don’t know where from, but most people like it.
After a few days there we headed back to the Bay Area. Myung has been on Route 1 between Monterrey/Santa Cruz and San Francisco before. It’s strawberry season.
Strawberry farm on the coast with the ocean in the background
We went directly to my niece’s home in San Francisco and had lunch with her sister, Elaine, who came down from near Portland where she lives. Elaine had never met Myung, and had come down mostly just to get to know her a little. With that lunch, the Friday afternoon drive from SF out to Stockton (ugh, the traffic), and the next couple of days in Stockton, she got the chance.
Stockton was good. My brother Bill and his wife Rita still live there. That’s good.Visiting with them and seeing friends of mine there were on the checklist. Nothing exciting, unless you count going to Costco. There’s nothing resembling that in Cuenca, though there is a kind of poor man’s Costco in Guayaquil.
Clockwise from lower left: Myung, my niece Elaine, my sister-in-law Rita, my brother Bill, and me
So, that was about that for our trip. From Stockton, we went back to the East Bay, did some more shopping for things you can’t get back home, go on a plane, and here we are.
There’s a whole long story about what happened while we were gone, but I’ll save it for next time. Until then, be well, all of you.