we are planning on returning within 2-3 weeks, since we've been on the road now for quite a while. we're both pretty tired - but our stay in LA and week or so with sean had been a nice break to not only just relax, but also to have someone else to hang out with and break up the driving and conversation in the car. we somehow made room in my car for all three of us, which was pretty hilarious with a huge duffel bag strapped to the roof my car. my little corolla has been holding up pretty well - and we hit 100,000 miles on it during our drive to LA from big sur. there haven't been any major issues with the car at all - which i'm so thankful for! hopefully it keeps up for our journey back east.
anyway - i left off last time talking about our drive down to napa valley, wine country! we had such a great time and it was totally unexpected. napa was not in our original route, i just had wanted to visit wine country and get to do a wine tasting somewhere. it turned out that kevin's friend morgan actually works in the wine industry, and lives half of the year in napa and the other half in new zealand. pretty sweet job, i'd say. she works in the lab in napa and tastes wine and runs tests all day. so, she gave us a full tour of wine making and we tasted maybe a dozen or more of red and whites that were still in the fermentation process and still far from the bottle. it was really interesting to actually see the process of how wine today is made, and i didn't realize how technical it really is. when we visited, they were just making whites - and there were HUGE silver barrels full of fermenting chardonnays and sauvignon blancs, and other kinds that i'm not thinking of right now. most of them were not ready for the drinking, and we'd spit out our sip after swishing in the glass, smelling and tasting. we met the head winemaker who was an Aussie, and morgan's cousin is actually the assistant winemaker. they work long and hard hours, but their wine is absolutely delicious. it's an extensive process to get from grapes to bottle - and i have a more robust appreciation for wine making and wine.
from the basement of the winery we went upstairs to look out at the vineyards and then to the bar! we were able to taste many, many glasses of delicious red and white wines - and have some great conversation with other people who were doing a wine tasting. i met a woman who is vegan, and she was giving me tips on eating vegan and websites to check out, as it's something i've been considering. it's been incredibly easy to eat vegetarian on the west coast, especially once we got into california and ate in pacific coast cities and towns. vegan and raw food places have been pretty prevalent as well, especially in LA, and i'm thinking it might be something i will try out once the trip is over. since we're moving so much and not able to buy groceries consistently, it's just too hard to start now. after seeing so many factory farms across the country and thinking about how excessive our consumption patterns are here, i believe that our diets can make a bigger statement and create more change than we realize. the local food movements that are occurring in big and small cities across our nation are inspiring, and testament to the fact that people are supporting their local farmers and building stronger communities in the process.
although WOOFing has not worked out so far in the trip, i still feel as though i'm learning more about our food production and seeing for myself what many of us do not. in northern california we saw huge farms during their harvest, and dozens of pickers out in the fields. many of the workers looked hispanic, and i assume that they are migrant farm workers. this is an issue that is pretty controversial, on many different levels. i interviewed with an organization before i got my job with repower that protected children's labor rights on farms, as migrant families tend to have their children help make money by working on the farm as well. around the same time, i had been reading articles about 'silent raids' on factory farms across the country where immigration officials were deporting farm workers because they were illegally living there. yet, without the illegal immigrants that work on our farms there is no one else picking our food that stock the grocery shelves. these are issues that i really want to explore more and dig into deeper. but back to our travels...
after the wine tasting in napa we took a longer than intended nap before our drive to san francisco! it took us a couple hours to get there, and we arrived after sunset to kevin's friend guy's apartment right in the city. we ended up going on a late night drive to see the city, which was like speed dating but speed touring the city, so funny. we didn't get to spend enough time in san fran, but to sum up: we spent some time frustrated at the confusing and SLOW light rail, saw the end of the now and zen free concert in golden gate park (sarah bareilles), watched the sun go down at the golden gate bridge and took some great photos, ate really good food including a fantastic brunch, and hung out at guy's apartment. it was a fantastic city - and i plan on going back! it wasn't enough time, but we were on somewhat of a schedule to get to LA by the friday so we had a full weekend there, and so that we got to stay in both santa cruz and big sur along the pacific coast after we went to yosemite national park for a couple days.
ALL of those places i just mentioned were fantastic - yosemite was absolutely INCREDIBLE! i actually forgot to post about it when i first wrote this, i can't believe i did! we hiked the half dome which was 12 hours of hiking, we left our campground a little after 6am to drive to the trailhead and start out on the trail by 7am. it was over 16 miles in total, and we climbed 4,800+ feet! the last part of the hike to the top of the half dome was intense, it was 900 feet of rock steps and then 400 feet of straight rock climbing through the use of metal cables. you can't ascend without using the cables! it was insane. i'll post pictures and write more about the hike soon.
we stayed with a mutual friend from PIRG, chase, in santa cruz. he lives in basically a hippie commune and it was wonderful. santa cruz was beautiful although we didn't spend much time there. we got in pretty late and met chase for a couple beers, and then hung out at his place that night. the next day we had a delicious brunch (mine was vegan) downtown, and then headed to monterey for a quick stop and to camp in big sur that night. while in monterey i stopped to visit the institute for international studies, which i found out has only 800 students! there is an international environmental policy program with the peace corps that i had been looking into during my senior year of college, and i thought it would be cool to actually check out a few grad schools on the trip. i think i may apply there - monterey was absolutely beautiful and really quaint. i kept saying 'i think i could live here' to kevin and sean (although i've said that in seattle, portland, san francisco..) but still. it's right on the water and i'd be meeting tons of international students. we'll see!
camping in big sur was really fun - we celebrated sean's 24th birthday there by jumping in the pacific ocean (okay, well - i took video of the guys jumping in, it was like 40 degrees out) and eating a great meal at a restaurant near our campground. the staggering rocks and views of the ocean are amazing out there - and the driving was insane around tight curves and over cliffs. definitely glad we made a stop there overnight, although the drive the next day to LA took almost 10 hours! we didn't wake up early enough to miss traffic (although there's always traffic in LA) and we got stuck in the car for way too long. we finally arrived in santa monica to drop sean off at a friend's place, and then made our way to pasadena to stay with my cousin caitlin and her boyfriend brent. they have a cute apartment right near downtown pasadena, and it was so great to visit and stay with cait. i've missed her and won't see her again til christmas. so it was awesome to spend time with her and brent, and we had a crazy fun weekend. i'll write about it soon - but now it's time for bed and giving up the laptop!
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