Scrapbook: Tooling Around San Francisco Bay, the Seattle Area, and Victoria, BC
/I built a monthlong trip around a Thanksgiving visit to my son in the Bay Area and a nonprofit board retreat on Whidbey Island in Washington. Plus a weekend trip by ferry to Victoria, BC. Flying less and being in places more—it’s a planet-friendly way to travel. Come along with me.
Grateful to have mentors who so generously share their hard-earned wisdom, favorite places, and good eats with me.
Love it when I can support a friend’s new book launch and an independent bookstore at the same time.
Congrats, Tanya! Maybe I can get you to sign it.
California Coastal Highway 1 from Point Reyes to San Francisco. It’s narrow, curvy, and intense, with hairpin turns and steep dropoffs. In other words, it’s a wonderful section of a classic drive.
A still-in-use radio telescope built for the U.S. government during the Cold War gives name to the popular Stanford Dish loop trail in the heart of Silicon Valley.
One of Sonoma Valley’s famous residents was the writer and adventurer Jack London (Call of the Wild), who with his wife Charmian (a fascinating character in her own right) lived on a property here, in the birthplace of wine and the California Republic. The ranch is now a California State Historical Park, a place to explore nature, adventure, writing, and sustainability. Though a flawed human in some respects, he could write a good yarn, and was ahead of his time when it came to sustaining the land and appreciating wild places.
As early as 1910, he said, “I realize that much of California’s romance is passing away, and I intend to see to it that I, at least, shall preserve as much of that romance as is possible for me.”
Thanks to Laurie for taking me to this fascinating place full of beauty, stories, and insights. One visit is not enough.
Lunch at Carmel-by-the-Sea, a famously cute village on California's Monterey Peninsula. Late November is a great time to visit.
The segment of coastal road from Carmel to Big Sur on Highway 1 is a wispy marvel, hugging the cliff edges, sometimes just barely. Tides and weather lead to erosion, and have caused some road collapses. The scenery is spectacular, even through dirt-specked car windows. California.
Despite the encroaching pressures of the real world, Big Sur somehow manages to maintain its sense of rugged remoteness. Writers, including John Steinbeck, Lilian Bos Ross, Jack Kerouac, Deborah Miranda, and Nancy Hopkins, lived or spent time here. “It was here in Big Sur that I first learned to say Amen,”Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer) wrote. A namesake bookstore and cultural space tucked in the redwoods channels Big Sur’s special energy.
A no-turkey Philippine/Indian fusion Thanksgiving. Grateful to spend a beautiful day with my son, his girlfriend, and her family in San Jose. Missing my other son, my parents, and other family and friends not here. There was a lot to be thankful for this year. Wishing you all a day of peace and love.
Located on the Monterey Peninsula, Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is one of the jewels of the California park system. It’s named for the sea lions that laze and bark on the rocks. You can see and hear then from the lookouts on the cliffs above. The reserve also protects a gnarly beauty called the Monterey cypress, a native species currently only found here and nearby at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach.
Launched the holiday season with an evening visit to Filoli, in San Mateo County. It’s one of the finest remaining examples of an early 20th century country estate, an enormous Georgian-style mansion built in 1917 and acres of manicured English gardens. Thanks for the recommendation, Kevin and Tiffany!
I’m on a short hike around Pillar Point, near Half Moon Bay on the San Francisco Peninsula. This land was not empty when the Spanish Portolá expedition arrived in 1769. The Ramaytush Ohlone had foraged and hunted and lived her for many hundreds of years before.
According to a plaque on the trail, the expedition were desperately looking for their ship to replenish their supplies. “As the men continued their search through Ohlone territory, villagers went out to meet them and provided much needed food, tirewood, and guidance.”
This trail is part of a longer one that follows trade routes that linked Ohlone villages. It’s worth quoting the rest of the informative plaque: “In 1769, a Spanish expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá followed these routes and became the first Europeans to explore Alta Calfornia by land and to encounter the San Francisco Bay. Portolá’s sighting of the San Francisco Bay was the catalyst for the future development of the state of California. The Spanish, on Alta California, built a string of missions and presidios, or military posts, north along the coast from San Diego. Unfortunately, the native peoples brought into the missions lost their land and their way of life.”
Every place has a story to tell. Leave it to my friend Leslie—a five-time Jeopardy champion—to uncover fascinating finds in the middle of Santa Clara suburbia. First, we snuck into a gated community to see the remnants of a mid-19th century flour mill built by James Lick (at the time of his death the richest man in California and whose name survives on local streets and parks). Ot eventually was converted into a paper mill to supply the growing fruit industry in the fertile Santa Clara Valley.
Then, a visit to Oracle’s Santa Clara campus, from the 1880s to to the 1970s the grounds of a state hospital for people with neuropsychiatric disorders. After it was closed, Agnews Hospital was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In the 1990s, Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) purchased some of the surplus land for offices, and restored historical buildings on the property. The project was an early example in which a city, community and corporation share a work and public space.
Enough Black-Friday-ing and Cyber-Monday-ing already. It’s Giving Tuesday, and for you travelers, time to give back to the places that have given you so much. One worthy organization is the nonprofit Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, which funds nature and cultural community projects and other initiatives around the world (full disclosure: I’m on the board). You can donate directly (https://adventuretravelconservationfund.org/donate) or through the Barbara Banks Vision Fund (https://gofund.me/2a1ed59d), which honors the memory of a protector of beautiful places and a friend to many of us in the adventure travel community. Thank you to Barbara’s husband Charlie and their sons Ben and Jeremy for establishing the fund. If you’ve already given, thank you!! (And friends of Barbara, feel free to share the donation page on your social media.)
Hiking the cool canyons and ridges of the Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve, a natural area protected from development near San Carlos and Redwood City. The area was once the site of a tuberculosis sanatorium. Nearby residents contributed to the land’s protection by approving a special assessment to help fund the purchase.
Santa Cruz, a classic California seaside resort town with solid surfing bonafides and a 115-year-old boardwalk on the National Register of Historic Places. The sport was reportedly introduced to North America here in the summer of 1885 by three teenaged Hawaiian princes—students on summer break from a military school in San Mateo.
A beautiful walk with Nadia in Tilden Park, high the hills above Berkeley, with expansive views of the area’s water reservoirs and Mount Diablo in the distance. Later, tea and cake on Nadia and Leo’s patio as the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge on the Bay.
It was a fascinating hour with Leo Le Bon, one of the pioneers of adventure travel, who in 1969 helped found what may have been the world’s first adventure travel outfitter (Mountain Travel) and who led the first commercial trek to Nepal and later Tibet, the Andes, and other remote places around the world.
More than 50 years later, the indefatigable adventurer (he’s an avid cyclist these days) muses, “In the early days we knew we were providing money and employment to places that needed it. But so much has changed. There are now eight billion people in the world and many can and do travel.”
What started as a light footprint on Everest and the other “majestic mountains” has over the decades become an unsustainable burden, largely on the backs of residents and the environment in lower-income countries.
It’s a challenge travelers and the travel industry—in fact the collective world—must solve if we want the mountain majesties that so inspired Leo to inspire future generations.
A park and cultural arts center in the town of Saratoga in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Montalvo features an early 20th century Mediterranean Revival mansion once owned by James Duval Phelan, a three-term mayor of San Francisco and later U.S. senator. There’s a lot here, including hiking trails, concerts, exhibits, and an artists-in-residence program.
Two-and-a-half weeks goes by fast, even when you are taking it slow. Great spending time with family and friends in California’s great outdoors. Thanks to all for sharing your local faves with me. If I missed you this time, I will catch up with you the next.
Built for the 1962 World’s Fair, the beloved Space Needle defines Seattle’s skyline. This enduring symbol, at once futuristic and classic, famously started as a doodle on a napkin and was constructed in only 400 days.
How lucky I am to have an unimpeded view of it where I’m staying (my sister’s house in Queen Anne).
Pups, pals, and panoramas in the Pacific Northwest.
“Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.” – Pablo Picasso
Much to plumb at the Robert Venturi-designed Seattle Art Museum.
Enjoyed reconnecting and spending time with Kris, whose own artistic vision uses photography in non traditional ways to tell stories and reveal truths.
French chateau? Not exactly. This handsome building is a 100-plus-year-old public high school in Tacoma, Washington. Stadium High was also the filming location for many of the scenes of the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You, a teen rom-com with a cult following.
The night before, my sister made me re-watch the fun film (with Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and also Allison Janney).
A time to regroup, re-imagine, and recommit at the nonprofit Adventure Travel Conservation Fund board retreat on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. These people in puffy jackets provided monetary support and volunteered countless hours to guide this scrappy nonprofit through a difficult year. Since its founding five years ago the ATCF has awarded half a million dollars to 33 projects in 27 countries. Missed those board members who couldn’t make it! And thankful to new and renewing member companies and individuals and generous donors who will help power next year’s programs to protect places, people, and the planet. If you haven’t yet, join us!
Mid-century mod holiday vibes in Seattle’s Olympic Manor neighborhood.
Easy, breezy 2 hour-and-45-minute fast ferry from downtown Seattle, Washington, USA, to downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Blustery winter hike, with dogs, at Island View Beach Park, on land of the Tsawout First Nation, with its expansive beach along the eastern shore of the Saanich Peninsula, with views of Haro Strait, James Island and Mount Baker. Some of British Columbia’s most threatened shorebirds, such as oystercatchers, nest on rocky islets, spits and shorelines.
The delights of the pedestrian-friendly Fairfield neighborhood—with right-scaled houses—that supports its small, local businesses. Victoria, British Columbia.
Friends, nature, dogs—a perfect weekend in Victoria.
Thanks to friends and fam for more than a month of mostly outdoor fun in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest. What a privilege to slow down travel and be able to connect with loved ones in wonderful places! Special thanks to those who made room for me in their homes: Ned, Mercy, and Deirdre.
Photos © Norie Quintos.