This past weekend was full of stuff, going out three times is a lot for little introvert me. But I'm glad I did it all. The best outing, hands down, was driving out to Big Basin.
A friend and I had the spontaneous decision to rent a car and go, only to not be able to fill up seats like we had hoped. But that's okay, my roomie hopped in the back seat and off we went!
Just the driving part was an adventure of itself - slowly getting used to it since I haven't done it regularly in years - because roads were twisty, uphill, and narrow. Still, in the little Kia we rented it was fun to hug the corners and wonder just how long a curve ran.
The park was beautiful. I've always wanted to see the redwoods, and unlike Muir Woods near the city Big Basin has some old growth trees. That means these things are larger than those at Muir and that alone made it worth the almost two hour trip to me.
These trees are impressive, we never saw one all the way to the top, and I could easily fit in one. There are stories of frontier cabins being entirely built from one tree. I went around hugging several trees, just for the novelty. Sure, there are some outside of my apartment but they're no where near as wide as 50ft. Or 300 ft tall.
A friend and I had the spontaneous decision to rent a car and go, only to not be able to fill up seats like we had hoped. But that's okay, my roomie hopped in the back seat and off we went!
Just the driving part was an adventure of itself - slowly getting used to it since I haven't done it regularly in years - because roads were twisty, uphill, and narrow. Still, in the little Kia we rented it was fun to hug the corners and wonder just how long a curve ran.
The park was beautiful. I've always wanted to see the redwoods, and unlike Muir Woods near the city Big Basin has some old growth trees. That means these things are larger than those at Muir and that alone made it worth the almost two hour trip to me.These trees are impressive, we never saw one all the way to the top, and I could easily fit in one. There are stories of frontier cabins being entirely built from one tree. I went around hugging several trees, just for the novelty. Sure, there are some outside of my apartment but they're no where near as wide as 50ft. Or 300 ft tall.
After three hours of hiking, up a to an ocean view and then back down, we headed to Santa Cruz twenty minutes away. I was blown away by the boardwalk - rollercoasters, carnival food, games. Downtown SF can get busy during lunch, but this was visually busy thanks to the lights and colors. Still, it was cool to see. I haven't been in any type of carnival setting for years, and while it was a bit overwhelming (but I'm getting used to dealing with that now) it was also a breathe of fresh air. Something new. Something different.
We grabbed food and ate it on the beach and boy was that another novelty. I got some smiles from my travel mates as I wiggled my toes in the sand. My roomie's from Thailand, she sees sand all the time, but I couldn't help but touch it.
Still waiting to see snow since my return.
I'm so glad we got out of the city, even for a day. SF is growing on me, it's true, but nothing refreshes you like a mentally stimulating trip into nature. Just getting away from what I see in a daily basis is nice and doing it with friends is amazing.
