March 21-29, Santa Cruz to San Francisco

We spent a night up in the redwoods above Santa Cruz, so we could spend some time getting to know Jenna's old college haunt. She always raved about the beauty of Santa Cruz! And it's true. My goodness, the campus of UC Santa Cruz is like a walking through a dreamy forest. I would never have made it to class. I would have been found gaping for hours up at the redwoods. And then the ocean! In one day we stumbled across a surfing competition, folks playing volleyball on the beach, picnickers, kayakers and hikers. A gem of a town.

Seals, as seen from the Santa Cruz Pier.

View across the Santa Cruz shoreline.

San Francisco! The Golden Gate! She has beckoned to us from the very beginning, as if she knew she was calling us home.

We found a ridiculously affordable city park perched east of Oakland and Castro Valley. It was down a long and squirrely road, and if we could have turned around we may have. But it was so worth it! We ended up living here for 2 weeks as we explored the Bay Area.

View, a short hike from our camp site. And imagine, we're actually 6 miles from Castro Valley, where we can easily visit Jenna and her family. This is one of the first things I loved about the Bay, how much nature remains as the fabric of the city.

First things first! We unhitched and drove over to see the Pacific School of Religion. At this point in our journey, Deb had been researching seminaries across the nation, and PSR had always remained a front runner. She wanted the opportunity to see the campus and meet the people there before applying for Fall '10. It turned out that PSR was hosting a weekend shindig for prospective and accepted students while we were in town. I grudgingly agreed to go, imagining myself as a shy and awkward third wheel, pushed into an unwilling group of other shy and awkward significant others who had absolutely nothing in common except for the fact that we weren't the ones actually planning on going to school at PSR. I'm not sure when the turning point happened. Maybe when the Admissions Director raved about the PSR Quidditch team and let us know that anyone could join. Maybe when I found out that I could take a free class every semester. Maybe it was when I got over the shock of how effortlessly safe and accepted I felt in that company. But pretty soon I found a family that I longed to join, and the Admissions Director had Deb feeling the same way. Deb gunned it, wrote all her essays, got in all her letters of recommendation, applied for financial aid, and just shy of a month ago she heard that she was accepted to begin grad school at PSR THIS FALL. That's what I mean when I say that San Francsico seemed to know she was calling us home. We're moving to Berkeley in August. Doesn't that just seem right? Deb gets PSR. I get the town famed for its local food movement. We both get instant community with Jenna, Kelly, Dalynn & Dan. The more I think about it, the more I realize how right this is for us. There are hundreds of reasons.

But we miss our Richmonders. We'll find subtle and not-so-subtle ways to convince you to move to the Bay. :)

Berkeley. We assumed that we would live in the Airstream, but as it turns out, every single trailer park is miles and miles away from campus and more expensive than school housing. So with great sadness we will be putting our beloved Airstream up for sale. Every day I try to commit the experience of living in it to my memory. I don't know where it will go from here, and as a sentimentalist, a part of me will go with it. It symbolizes this journey, this incredible, important journey. Someday, I'll evoke the memory by finding an old antique of an Airstream, perch it in my garden, and convert it into a craft shed.

Idgie, as seen through the Airstream's screen door.

She always takes her bone on her walk. Then, odd bird, she drops it along the way and completely forgets about it.

We had a ball visiting Dalynn! She and Damien took us on a tour of their neighborhood, which includes famed City Lights Books, Coit Tower (pictured above), this gorgeous church (pictured below) and Italian restaurants galore.

Later in the week we met up with Dalynn again and explored the neighborhood around her workplace. This is a shot of San Fran's Chinatown.

Afterward we tried out an Indonesian restaurant. Yum! Can't beat Oma's home cookin' though.

More explorations. A shot of the Golden Gate bridge, which spectacularly rears up into view as you pass through the tunnel south, from Marin.

Famed Grace Cathedral and her labyrinth.

Another labyrinth inside the cathedral.

Visiting Kelly, a fella Hollins alumna, at her apartment in Alameda. The neighborhood is full of gorgeous houses like this one.

Finn! Kelly & Zac's son. He loves, loves, loves to eat. I think this is an avocado. We quickly fell in love with Finn. I took a hundred pictures. Here is my small selection:

Ubiquitous poppies. And now, the promised Calla Lily photos! All of these were taken in Kelly's backyard.

Obviously not a Calla Lily. But I was in a photo mood! I think these two photos capture a cat's personality. Cuddly on the outside, kinda unpredictably crazy on the inside.

Finn says goodnight.

Riley! It was children galore in San Fran. Riley is Jenna & Ryan's daughter, and I ADORE her. Here she is helping Deb prep dinner.

New addition to the family. Jenna's dad bid on him in a charity auction, so he was kinda a surprise. But I think he won everyone over fairly immediately!

Dinner with some of my absolute favorite people.

Making faces, cuteness!

Parting shot.