Northern California and San Francisco

Road Trip Day 21-22 (July 3-4): Northern California and San Francisco

The California coast in the summer has possibly some of the oddest weather in the world. One moment, you’re entirely engulfed in a thick sea of fog, temperature in the 60s. 30 miles down the road, the temperature is 110, the sun fiercely beating down and the sea water shining brightly. It’s also amazing how much the weather patterns affect my mood. In Crescent City, for instance, I groggily stumbled to my car, put on Bon Iver, and sulked over how I wouldn’t even be able to glimpse a redwood in this maddening fog. Forty-five minutes later, I was zooming along, right arm out the top of the sunroof, blasting Daft Punk’s new album Random Access Memories. This is pretty much how my day through Northern California went. The weather was bizarre, the towns (Crescent City, Eureka, etc.) quite terrible, but the redwoods stunning. My first experience with a redwood, however, was not entirely agreeable. I decided to stop for the Tour through the Tree in Klamath, about an hour south of Crescent City (-->) 

. For $5, I was allowed to drive my car through a living redwood tree that had been hollowed out and take a picture. Very touristy, but considering that I’m driving my car across the country, a cool landmark at which to take a picture. “Watch your mirrors,” the gatekeeper told me as she happily took my money. “Of course,” I replied, although I had no idea what she was talking about. Because there was another car behind me, I hurried to drive my car into the tree so that I could run out and snap a quick pic. As I pulled in, however, I realized that my car was slightly too large and that I needed to pull in its side mirrors. Crunch…too late. Ahhh, that’s what the gatekeeper was talking about.. Even though I paid the $5, it is the tree that took home a souvenir from Rohrick Toyota of Pittsburgh, PA, rather than me taking one from Klamath, CA. Redwoods 1, Arjun 0.

After driving along for another hour or so, I decided to pull off the main road to take what was marked as a scenic path through one of the redwood forests, and it was spectacular. I went for a 2-mile hike, thankfully in a sunny section along the coast, passing by trees that were probably 10 times times as wide as I am (-->)

, until I reached the trail’s landmark “Big Tree.”

After I got back on the road, I continued on, stopping along the sea a few times, and as I came closer to San Francisco and the weather began to creep over 100, passed by miles of vineyards. Unfortunately, I reached this area around 4:45 pm and for some reason, every vineyard wine tasting ends at 5 pm. I was able to find a shop called Sip Mendocino that was still open and featured wines from all over Mendocino County for tasting, which was fantastic. As I came closer to San Francisco, I realized that I would be traveling into the city over the famed Golden Gate Bridge, which was one of the highlights of my entire trip. The majestic, deep orange structure that connected San Francisco to the northern suburbs was so spectacular that I decided that I needed to get a good view of it for the upcoming sunset. My friend Zach, a fellow Penn alum with whom I played on the club tennis team and worked on the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project’s executive board, was just returning from work in the Googleplex, or Google’s Mountain View campus, so I had a bit of time, anyway. I entered The Presidio and drove down to Crissy Field, a park that to my amazement, offered stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the city (-->)

. I think Oregon still holds the #1 spot, but seeing the sunset from Crissy Field was also breathtaking. An interesting thing about the San Francisco skyline is that it doesn’t really exist. Because the city has strict zoning laws, the skyscrapers and highrise apartment buildings that dot the skyline of most major American cities are absent here. This gives San Francisco a unique charm, but also helps to inflate housing prices to nearly unrivaled levels. Additionally, apartments and houses that were built before 1979 are subject to serious rent control. Coupled with the small size of the city and huge demand for housing, looking for an apartment is, I would imagine, a lot like trying to reach an apartment a mile away without being trampled in a stampede of wild animals. Like someone who has survived a stampede, my friend Zach (-->)

has a distinctly thankful and grateful look when talking about how he managed to find a place in the Mission, one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city for young people, for a reasonable price. Months earlier, Zach and I had planned to travel down the coastal route from San Francisco to Los Angeles over the course of the next few days and even though we didn’t have each day planned out, we did have a long list of attractions we wanted to see (or to be more precise, I trusted Zach to do so for both of us). After a refreshing night of sleep at Zach’s, it was time to set out on the last leg of my road trip!


San Francisco Bay Area on Dwellable

Portland and the Oregon Coast

Road Trip Days 19-20 (July 1-2): Portland and the Oregon Coast

After being totally enchanted by Seattle, I made the three-hour drive south to Portland. When I was in Seattle, Anish complained that my blogs only talk about the positive aspects of the places I’ve been. I told him that honestly, every place I’ve visited has been unique and I’ve really enjoyed each place. So, Anish, here’s something negative for you – Portland was very underwhelming. For starters, Portland’s downtown area is miniscule – it’s more a city of neighborhoods that you have to drive between – something like Denver. I stayed in an neighborhood called Boise (in a house I found through air bnb), which is on the other side of the river from downtown. I walked all through Boise and then the Mississippi neighborhood and yes, they were fun, but they basically reminded me of any other hipster neighborhood, like Northern Liberties or the Clark Park area in Philadelphia or Lawrenceville in Pittsburgh. I drove through a couple other neighborhoods and again, they looked like places I would like to explore, but they seemed unoriginal to me. Portland does have a lot of really good restaurants, a huge food truck scene, and beautiful surrounding areas like the Columbia River Gorge, but within Portland itself, I didn’t see anything that I couldn’t find in other cities I’ve been to. I was only in Portland for a day and a half so obviously I wasn’t able to see everything the city has to offer, but my impression of it is that it is very much a little brother to Seattle. All that said, Por Que No? had some amazing tacos and I very much enjoyed brunch at Tasty n Sons (bacon-wrapped, honey-glazed date with an almond in the center for $2 and an egg scramble – yum) -->

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The Oregon Coast, on the other hand, was phenomenal. After I ate some delicious clam chowder and battered fish and clams at Fishermen's Seafood Market in Coos Bay (-->) 

, I took in the sunset over the Pacific Ocean as I made my way down the coast. I stopped several times and walked down to the beach. I can’t even put the beauty of the
Pacific Ocean that lines the Oregon Coast into words and the white-sand beaches were very relaxing to walk on. Sorry Iowa, Colorado, and Yellowstone, but Oregon is now the proud owner of my favorite sunset drive. Finally, I passed into California and settled into a Crescent City motel, just outside the famed Redwood Forests of California. Here are a couple more pictures of the Oregon Coast:

 


Coos Bay on Dwellable

Seattle

Road Trip Days 15 - 19 (June 27 - July 1): Seattle, WA

On June 27, I reached Bellevue, a city just outside Seattle where Anish lives, around midday. The Seattle area is dominated by technology – it is the headquarters for companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, and Expedia – as well as home to the Pac 12’s University of Washington undergraduate campus and medical school, which is one of the nation’s top 10 medical schools. Despite the influx of technology, which has lured some of the nation’s top minds, the city still retains a bit of its blue collar past. Having traveled to the west coast a few times now, I have to say I find the major cities more laid back, progressive, and forward thinking than the rest of the country (besides maybe Denver). Even though I had been to Seattle to visit Anish before, it was not until this visit that I was able to see all that the area has to offer (we actually racked our brains and could hardly think of anything we actually did last visit haha). Nearby, there are mountains, lakes, beautiful hiking trails, and of course, the Puget Sound, and Pacific Ocean, not too far. Anish and I went for a seven-mile hike one day that led us to the Bridal Veil Waterfall and Lake Serene, both breathtakingly beautiful.

The city itself is comprised of vastly different neighborhoods, each with its own charm. Perhaps best of all, it has fantastic food, and Anish took me to try quite a bit of it. I sampled a “dork” (duck/pork) burger at the Lunchbox Laboratory, truffle mushroom dumplings at Din Tai Fung with Anish’s sister Ashima and Neel on my birthday (-->)

, smoked salmon crostinis at Spur, oysters at the Walrus and the Carpenter, fresh cheese at Beecher’s, and maybe the best ceviche I’ve ever had, along the Puget Sound. We sampled beer at the Red Hook Brewery one night, found our way to a disguised speakeasy another, and met up with my high school friend Trevor at Vonn Trapp’s, a local bar where patrons can actually play full games of bocce (-->)

. We also took the Boeing Future of Flight tour, where we marveled at how the company constructs the world’s commercial jets inside the largest building on the planet. Honestly, the building is so large that my own eyes betrayed me – I was not truly able to fully comprehend the vastness of the building, as odd as that sounds. You just have to see it for yourself!

Considering that Seattle loves its Seahawks (NFL) and Sounders (MLS), tolerate its Mariners (MLB), and is planning to regain an NBA team and maybe an NHL team, this northwest spot is somewhere I could see myself living someday. Oh, and one myth to dispel now that I’ve been to Seattle in the winter and the summer. In the winter, yes, Seattle is rainy and cloudy, but it basically just drizzles and even though it is cloudy, the sky is still bright. In the summer, from what I’ve been told and experienced for a few days, the sun is out on most days. And year-round highs are in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Actually, there was a major heat warning the weekend I was there because temperatures were predicted to “climb into the upper 70s and 80s.” The report advised us not to jump into cold rivers or lakes to “escape the heat, which could result in death.” Moreover, Seattle is a three-hour drive from Vancouver, Portland, and Eastern Washington, which can be much warmer and boasts lakes that are not "potentially fatal."


Seattle on Dwellable

Yellowstone --> Spokane, WA

Road Trip Day 14 (June 26): Yellowstone, Beartooth Highway, Montana, Idaho, & Spokane, WA

Before leaving Philadelphia, I would often bump into a friend who would ask me what I was planning to do with my summer before beginning med school. Most would light up when I would tell them I was going to be roadtripping across the US and would begin giving me helpful suggestions for parts of the country where they had been. Logically, their next question would be, “who are you doing it with?” When I would tell them that I was going to be traveling alone, many simply could not hide a puzzled, almost troubled expression. To be sure, I have been doing the driving alone (which I actually enjoy), but one of my major motivations for doing this trip was to see some of my closest relatives and friends who are scattered across the US in cities that I most likely will not be able to visit very often once I begin school. I’ve already blogged about visiting my Aunty Malini, Uncle Pankaj, and cousin Sangeeta in Chicago and my sister Anjeli and her husband Avash in Denver. The next person I had planned to visit was Anish, one of my oldest friends (we’ve known each other since before I was able to form memories) and a program manager at Microsoft just outside Seattle. I was also hoping to meet another high school friend Trevor, whom I had not seen in quite some time. My plan was to reach Seattle on my 25th birthday, Thursday, June 27, so that I could spend the day with Anish, his sister Ashima, and her husband Neel, and then stay the rest of the weekend. Considering that today was June 26th and I was in northwest Wyoming, it wouldn’t be that hard to make it to Spokane tonight and then over to Seattle by midday on June 27. However, as I have learned on this trip, when roadtripping, nothing goes according to plan, and I think that is absolutely the best thing about it.

After grabbing breakfast and chatting with the cashier, a fellow Penguin fan, about whether Norris Trophy nominee Kris Letang deserves the type of money he was demanding, I drove north from Yellowstone Lake, climbing to altitudes of 9 or 10 thousand feet as I passed Roosevelt Tower, then turned east, descending into Lamar Valley, where I was able to view the local wildlife. Soon after leaving Yellowstone Park and entering Montana, I came to the beginning of the Beartooth Highway. I really had no idea what to expect, particularly because I was not able to look anything up about it since I had no internet access. I had met a guy at Yellowstone who had told me that he had traveled down through the Beartooth Mountains and raved about the banks of snow and beautiful views. Seeing the genuine wonder in his eyes, I decided this was something I could not pass up, even though it was out of my way.

The Beartooth Highway, which I later found out is considered one of the most picturesque drives in America, is unlike anything I’ve driven before. A road is carved out that winds up the side of a mountain, with banks of snow higher than my car on the side of the road. I later read that the road is only open from May until October because of dangerous conditions and that snow and lightning storms are not uncommon even in the summer months. When I got out of the car near the top of the mountain, the wind chill was probably about 40 degrees F and the air was so dry and the cold wind so strong that my upper lip began to bleed. When I got back into my car and started the engine, my car stalled, stuck on a rock. Ohhh no. I was stuck up here, with no cell phone service, and even if I could call one, it would take a tow truck forever to get up here. I got out and pushed a little, then started the car up again and phhhew, thank goodness I got it to budge.

From what I have heard, the Dakotas and eastern Montana are some of the most boring parts of the country. The same cannot be said for traveling on I-80 northwest from the Wyoming border through Montana. Traveling up and down the beautiful rolling hills, I passed by several mountain ranges and lakes. Additionally, because we were at such a high altitude, the clouds and sky also provided natural beauty. Sadly, the camera was not able to authentically capture this beauty. Finally, I reached Bozeman, a relatively large town by Mountain West standards, lined with shops and restaurants. I stopped for lunch at MacKenzie River Pizza Co (-->)

, where I met Chris, a Montana State grad who was waiting tables while he set up his company that planned to provide Americans a web application through which we can learn about worldwide history on a parallel timeline to American history (chronterra.com). Chris and I talked while I ate and after I was done eating, he gave me a cookie and a Coke for the road on his own dime. I hit the road, driving through northwest Montana and across Idaho. Northern Idaho is interesting because it is pretty much straight downward. Once I got to C’oeur d’Alene, which is about 30 minutes from Spokane, I was at only about 2,000 feet above sea level. Since it would be my birthday at midnight, I had decided that Spokane would be the one place where I would stay in luxury – the Davenport Hotel. Because it was in Spokane, it wasn’t very expensive, and it was well worth it!


Spokane on Dwellable