Catching up

 

As has been normal these days, when we get back from a trip we have been heading to a concert within the following days.   Coming from Costa Rica, Perrin and I headed to the Rend Collective show at the Arena, which did not disappoint.  I love Rend Collective but honestly, would prefer to see them in their home of N. Ireland - way more atmospheric and charming than downtown Spokane.  Needless to say, it was a great show, followed by Mercy me.  It was a late school night, but Perrin enjoyed it and I think I’ve convinced her to be my live music buddy.

SPRING BREAK ROAD TRIP!!!

With a week in between Costa Rica, Balin’s mom Susie being at our house and our spring break kept me busy getting ready for spring.  But then we got hit with 2” of snow - it was a literal snow storm, in April.  Can I adequately express how thankful I was to be leaving and going to sunshine???  With snow on the ground, the girls and I got in the car and drove through Bend, Weed and made it to Redding, CA by 10pm.  

We can officially cross Klamath Falls off the list of possible places to live.  I’m sure it’s a beautiful place, but was pretty quiet.  Had dinner in a bar…not many options open on a Friday night.

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Waking up in Redding, we drove a couple hours more and were greeted by sunshine and flowers in Sonoma County.  Oh if it weren’t for wild fires, masses of people and high cost of living, I seriously might keep the wine country on my list of places to live.  It was so gorgeous and charming in the town of Healdsburg.  We walked around, had lunch, went shopping (learned a good lesson there) and just enjoyed having to take our coats off.  So great.

From Healdsburg we headed west to the coast at Moro Bay and Sebastopol.   Shocking how going 30 miles away can take you far from the maddening crowds to places almost untouched by modernity.  The coast was practically deserted.  Pleasant and warm off the water, cold and windy on the beach.  Gorgeous in both locations. 

From Sebastopol we headed towards the city and decided to stay in Berkeley for the night.  I had never been to Berkeley and was thinking that a college town would be perfect for two high school girls and I.  It did not disappoint.  We literally stayed next door to the campus which unfortunately was loud in the middle of the night (Saturday night so no surprise) but I would be too if we had such great food options right down the road.  Perrin and Davy scouted out an amazing Indian restaurant for dinner and then we walked a couple of miles to the best dessert place in town.  There was a small line outside the restaurant and we found out the reason why - mango deliciousness!  Unfortunately Balin and I are in the middle of a fasting of sorts from coffee, sugar and alcohol, so I didn’t partake, but it sure looked good!

We arose Easter Sunday morning and snuggled in our beds with some fresh pastries from the local Asian bakery (only thing open that morning) and watched a church service from Bridgetown Church in Portland. It was really good and I was thankful to be able to still be part of the celebration.  Thereafter we packed up and headed to one of the destinations of the trip: Six Flags.

Perrin had wanted to go to Six Flags LA but I said with gas prices at $5.50-6.75 a gallon, we were not going to make it to LA so Vallejo out side of SF would have to do.  The girls wanted to make sure they didn’t have to wait in lines so we all purchased the fast passes, which cost a sweet total of $180 per ticket.  Ouch.  Sadly, or maybe thankfully, Easter was a pretty slow day at the amusement park.  There were literally no crowds.  The extra $120 they spent for the fast passes weren’t needed and I honestly think it took a little wind out of their sails.  Having talked to a fellow park goer, it sounded like the park was normally packed with people, with 1-2 hour waits for rides, but not on this Easter.  Note to future self.  Regardless the girls had a great time and I literally suffered through roller coaster after roller coaster.  I just close my eyes and focus on my breathing.  Sigh.  

From Vallejo, we headed south towards Santa Cruz, where it was rumored to have an amazing outlet for Ripcurl brand clothing.  We were not disappointed.  Santa Cruz was a great stop for overnighting - beautiful beach, boardwalk, food and of course the outlet.  Highlight of the girls time was going shopping.  Perrin was like a walking billboard for Ripcurl the next day.  I think we could have spent another day in Santa Cruz tinkering around but we were headed for Santa Barbara, another 4 hours down the coast.

We got to Santa Barbara in the late afternoon, dropped our stuff and went off looking for some good food.  We found gold on State Street, just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  What a gorgeous town SB is - the beach is gorgeous, the downtown is gorgeous, the people are kind…pretty amazing. (It has made my list of places I could live)

The girls did great not being on their phones.  By the end of the night though, they both just wanted some alone time.  

Most amazing coffee shop and garden in SB.

Everything is so charming here - even the walls

Our hotel had bikes with locks that we could check out.  It was great to ride around town, park and then go explore.  

My favorite activity was to grab a meal, all by myself, and do some art.  So life giving to my soul.

The inspiration for outdoor living just keeps coming in SB.  Everywhere I looked I thought, “I LOVE that!”  Granted it rarely freezes here and the sun shines all the time…just add water and voila! You’ve got beauty!

Our point of going to SB was to check out the school Westmont in the tiny village of Montecido.  Beautiful school, amazing people and it would be a great fit for either Sam or Perrin except that it’s student body is 1300 students.  So stinking small.  But it was seriously a great vibe.  Westmont and Whitworth have traditionally been the two schools that Balin and I would encourage our kids to go to as we’ve seen students come out of the schools with such character and purpose.  We’re adding Baylor to the list of those schools, but we’ll see if the kids want to go to any of them.   If only I could.

Wednesday rolled around and we had finished up most of what we had wanted to see so the girls asked if we could head back early, getting home Thursday instead of Friday.  I said sure but we had to go through Big Sur on the 1 on the way home.  Wow.  What an incredible road and towns.  Davy drove for the first bit (we were in the truck) and she literally went 10 mph around every corner, and there are a lot of corners.  To her credit it’s a huge truck, a very curvy road with a really steep cliff side going to the ocean hundreds of feet below.  After 10 minutes I finally said, “I’ll drive”.  It was a stunning drive but next time I’m bringing down Lola the VW bug. 

The girls were troopers and we made it to Redding by 10pm Wednesday night and back home by 6pm Thursday.  We all agreed that road trips would be much more fun if we didn’t have a deadline to get back to (Davy is playing piano for the spring musical at school and needed to get back for rehearsals) and we had a few more days in towns.  I agree.  Next time I’m going with no schedule and no destinations - go where the wind blows.