Linnea & Pascal Wedding
Friday, July 7th - we drove up to Northern California along The Five. Of note, i thought The 5 was remarkably wide near home where it's six lanes on a side, but they're actually expanding it to eight per side.
Anyway so the drive takes one through the urban sprawl of OC and then LA, then up into the mountains north of LA until finally abruptly one descends into the broad flat Central Valley. Which is the bread basket of California and much of the US, but most of the south half is just a flat plain of tumbleweeds.
As is tradition we stopped at Kettleman City for In N Out for lunch. Place was a madhouse with a line out the door (it was 13:30 though, so still in lunch rush) but our food actually came pretty quickly. Faster than we could cycle ourselves through the bathroom line. Place needs to double in size.
Anyway the In N Out double double burger is a divine thing, it's only downside being that while eating it one is haunted by the bittersweet knowledge that one will not always be eating it. Also it's just slightly too small to thoroughly satisfy me. In N Out being endlessly customizable you can order a "3×3" which i did on this occasion but i think the divine proportions are off with that. It's still a damn good burger but you don't hear the angels singing while eating it.
I've been up the Five countless times but usually I'm headed all the way up to the Davis/Sacramento area or beyond. On this occasion we exited the central valley towards the south end of the Bay Area via the 152, through rolling golden hills. Little valleys of garlic farms gave way to the South Bay town of San Jose, we proceeded to the western edge of it, a cute little (expensively cute looking!) town called Saratoga, where we had a hotel for the night as it's the last civilization before the Santa Cruz forests.
Most of the restaurants in town were extremely pricey but we found an affordable fish and chips place and had a very nice meal. I had shrimp tacos and sangria :d
I remarked that it seemed like 60-70% of the cars driving by or that we'd seen parked were electric cars, and dad pointed out we were literally in "Silicon Valley," just beside Cupertino in fact. Later at the somewhat scarce parking around the wedding venue picnic site in the red woods i notice two of two illegally parked cars were teslas (i don't think they belonged to anyone attending the wedding).
Amusingly a historical plaque said this town was once a notoriously rough logging town noted for its drunken brawls at its many saloons. Now it seems mainly a place to drive your trophy wife date in your tesla to casually drop $100 per plate on a meal in a cute leafy place with quaint village charm just outside of the big city.
Saturday, July 8th - "continental breakfast" at our hotel was the better sort of individually wrapped mass produced pastries and yogurt cups. Then we drove up into the mountains, the road immediately becoming very curvy.
For all our collective lifelong interests in hiking in California wilderness areas neither my parents nor i really knew much about this immediate area so we were looking with avid interest at the forest valleys we passed and taking note of the busy trailheads.
The wedding location was seemingly as deep into the forest as one could get. In about the middle of it, and yet at the end of the long winding road so one felt not in the middle but at the far end of the back and beyond. The road finally descending deep into a narrow valley full on the giant redwoods. I had assumed Linnea and Pascal, the betrothed, had chosen this place because they'd become familiar with it while students at nearby Santa Cruz and knew this was the specific best redwood grove for a wedding -- but i learned they actually hadn't been here yet when they booked it (six months ago)!
Apparently there's a bit of a general grumble about the current booking system for national parks in California -- because there's no cost and no penalty for not showing up and intense competition for sites, people book up sites quickly six months in advance, then there plans change but they don't unbook and the site goes unused. We saw this first hand as we (my parents and i) almost couldn't get a spot. Finally got one at the furthest end of the campground due to either a last minute cancelation or some finagling amongst other family members with bookings, but then on arrival we found heaps of empty spots. (But you can't just take one because for all you know the rightful owners will show up at 9pm righteously irate at your squatting)
Pictured: Pascal attempts unsuccessfully to get through his vows without sentimental tears
Wedding ceremony was delightful. Aunty Bev (my aunt as well as the bride's aunt) officiated in her capacity as someone who had also married her highschool sweetheart. Linnea and Pascal had met in junior high, begun dating in high school. Ten years later now they've survived periods of attendance at different grad schools and all the other trials and tribulations of the first decade of adulthood. Linnea recently got her doctorate in neuro biology and Pascal in climatology.
In the evening "the younger crowd" of the bride and grooms college friends and us cousins who don't yet have small children wiled away the time around a big campfire. All their friends are climatologists, oceanographers, geologists and such so there were many interesting conversations and certainly a generally conservation minded world-view pervaded among all (incidentally my brother Eric, who was a Trump supporter, along with his immediate family, was not in attendance. He has cut all ties with me and a number of other family members).
I had turned off my phone when it got dark, having 10% left of the battery at that point. Even though there was no reception I'd been using it to take pictures until then, but wanted to save some to get back to the camp site. Just after midnight the group began to break up so i started heading back, turned on my shoes .. it displayed 0% for a moment before shutting off. Tried turning it on again in case that was a fluke but it immediately died!
I thought I'd see if i could find my way via what distant campfire and moonlight might exist, and got about 50 meters until i got to an area between the group camp where the wedding party's friends were and the main campground, and here there was no campfire light, and essentially no light from the moon or stars filtered down through the towering trees. Even after standing there for my eyes to adjust until i imagine they were round as saucers and entirely dilated, there was literally nothing to be seen. Literally not my hands in front of me. There was no way I'd be able to proceed like this no matter how persevering and can-do my attitude might be. My only hope would be maybe someone would loan me a flashlight or something if i returned whence I'd come. There was the faintest flickering of the distant dying campfire so i was able to shuffle back that way, bouncing off the burbs of the road like a ping pong ball.
As luck would have it i ran into my cousin Sylvan (literarily one night note his name means "of the forest" so he's the most appropriate rescue in the situation), brother of the bride, who was just getting water before bed with his girlfriend Marlee and they volunteered to walk me all the way back to my campsite. During the walk we reflected that it really was a long and convoluted way and i never would have made it. And i was lucky i suppose, my phone had died immediately when i could still return to the start, if it had died halfway it would have been a real pickle!
When we arrived at the campsite, where i had a tent and my parents were sleeping in the car, i was anticipating just quietly skulking into my tent but the light came on in the car and my parents greeted me. As i would find out later, to hear my mom tell it it sounds like she suffered more than i did, unable to sleep in anticipation that i might get lost on the way back, at one point suggesting they go look for me though dad was sure i was fine.
Sunday, July 9th - after a rather tasty camp breakfast prepared by my cousin Chelsea and her mom Aunty Bev, we headed out. Once again this took us through winding mountain forest roads before we entered the Bay Area urban expanse. Did you know there's a town in the bay area called "Alameda de las Pulgas," sounds all well and good until you've been studying Spanish and see that and realize it is "Grove of Fleas." 😳😳😳😳
Arrived at my brother Tobin's place on the island of Alameda (this grove unrelated to fleas). His wife had gone home early, not spending the night camping, to prepare a birthday party for their 3 year old Kestrel (I will once again note this name was shamelessly stolen as the name I've been saying for many years i intended to use). I had only met Kestrel for the first time at the wedding yesterday. So there was a pinata and several other young couples with similarly aged children came. I mostly read my book because I'm boring like that. (Currently the Flashman book where he participates in the 1868 British expedition into Ethiopia -- i had picked it up from the library)
Monday, July 10th - having just missed a ferry and Kestrel being asleep in the back, my parents decided to give me a bit of a tour of the former Alameda Naval Air Station. It was a weird mix of revitalized and derelict, a checkerboard of boarded up barracks and hangers which have turned into trendy breweries. It was a funny vibe, looking like a run down industrial area, you see people in front of a building expecting riffraff and it's invariably successful looking tech bros. We saw the former location of the Google X project Tobin had worked on --Makani, giant kites to generate electricity. That project had closed down as not quite economically viable. It had been based in the air base air traffic control building and they'd used some of the hangers for construction of their kites.
Just offshore off the airbase several fully autonomous drone sailboats bobbed at anchor.
Then we caught the ferry across the bay to San Francisco, which was quick and easy and fun. Spent two or three hours tooling around the embarcadero, had some delicious Mexican food at a recommended place, and returned on the ferry.
And now we're about to depart Tobin's place and head to Davis. My uncle Ben (Bev's husband, my mom's brother) was going to prepare us dinner but i interjected into the plans that much as i love a home cooked meal, and Ben is very good, there's several restaurants in Davis I've literally been day dreaming salivatorily of eating at for years. So i think we'll get Woodstocks Pizza :d