Itchy Feet

Posted on | September 30, 2009 | 7 Comments

Title borrowed from Stacey – as this seems to be how I’m feeling on returning home from our recent trips. Again, I am back from travels – struggling for words – and wanting more! It was a little hard re-integrating into everyday life and web activities after being off-line for almost two weeks – blissful to be so disconnected for a bit, but it is good to be home and (mostly) back in the swing of things.

This will just have to be a post in two parts – Otherwise, I will never finish the thing, and you won’t want to read it unless you have substantial time to kill (who does!) And so, here we go, Part 1!

My brother has lived and worked in some interesting places (Togo, Washington DC, Armenia, now San Francisco), and aside from a visit to DC years ago there has always been some big deterrent keeping us from traveling to see him. This year, we determined we WOULD make it out to San Francisco – knocking furiously on wood, we held our breath and booked the tickets. It was wonderful to spend time together with my brother in HIS environment – and to see where he lives and works. He and his partner Julie were excellent guides and showed us so much during our days in the city. It’s a testament to their skill in this area that we enjoyed ourselves so much while we were there – San Francisco was pretty overwhelming and I don’t know that we would have enjoyed it as much were we on our own as we aren’t city people.  But we sure did pack a lot in – lots of great food, the cable cars and museum, Chinatown, Coit Tower, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Maritime National Park, the Tutankamen exhibit and the Japanese Tea Garden at the de Young Museum, The Palace of Fine Arts  and Marin Headlands and of course the Golden Gate Bridge; The Sutro Baths with the serendipitous didgeridoo-er’s, tons of exercise walking up and down all those hills, I’m sure I am forgetting some things (and am listing them here more for my memory of where we actually went than for your benefit! I have this fantasy that I will marry them up with the San Franscisco photos in time – Marshall please correct me if I mistook any place names)…

One of my favorite moments in SF, the awesome didgeridoo players in a cave at the Sutro Baths!

It was also awesome to travel and see some new things together! Marshall and I haven’t backpacked together since we were teenagers and decided it was time to remedy that with a few days on the Lost Coast, a dream trip of Tad’s (Strangely, I don’t have a concrete hiking life list – just a loose mental one headed up by Kilimanjaro. I plan to remedy that with the help of some friends!) I am learning, as is often said, that there really is nothing like experiencing a place like this for yourself. It was a challenging trek, and jaw-droppingly beautiful. It felt so different from what I’m accustomed to – the forest even smelled different than here in North Carolina or where I grew up hiking in New Hampshire. I’ve hiked bigger mountains, but I haven’t climbed 1000ft up from the ocean, watching it recede beneath us on the way, or being obscured by thick fog and hearing it there over the clif even when we couldn’t see it. So many new experiences.

We went sleep to the sound of roaring waves and wind in the tall trees. We saw elk for the first time (after seeing Rachel’s pictures for so long);

I experienced waves that were much taller than me, felt their spray on my face – and got knocked on my butt!

I was dirty and stinky, my legs and lungs burning, and my brain too, struggling to etch it all permanently into my memory. I felt clear headed the entire time. No junk about work, life, my own creativity, where the hell we are headed or will end up in five years time…. I just breathe and put one foot in front of  the other. And take it all in. This is a big reason that I love hiking in the first place – all my worry and self-judgments fade within the first few steps, and I’m left just… calm. And grateful. For the beauty of the landscape and the trees that made me teary; for breathing, and that my body will carry me to places like this; and for the perspective of my true stature in the universe. I’m sure that sounds crazy/hippie, but I’m sure also that some of you understand quite well. What are my day to day worries in the face of the years that dug out the tunnel in this rock? You know? Awesome.

Or the centuries that those redwoods have seen, even the younger ones, standing in their circles. That grabbed me. As Kat says, they’re sentient. It sure did feel that way.

A few more Lost Coast photos – to attempt to give you a feel. It was so much more amazing than the pictures.

After the Lost Coast, we traveled through Humboldt Redwoods stopping for a night and a little more hiking on our way to southern Oregon, where we rendezvoused with Rachel. And I have too much to say about that, or not enough possibly… Hmm, why is it that I have the most difficult time writing/talking about the things that effect me deeply? I’ve just made the realization that that may have a lot to do with why I don’t post more often as this blog is where I write about alot of things that are very important to me. Well, then. Thanks for reading, doubly so.

Stay tuned for part II – In which we finally meet Rachel, take more pictures, and learn why so many people love Oregon.

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Now playing: Jonsi & Alex – All the Big Trees

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