babble mix

Northern California Pasyal

It was the best icing on our road-trip cake: staying with Rosie and her bro, Kuya JR for 6 days before we drove to our final destination, Los Angeles.

Hollister was so laid back that the word “stress” was not in their vocabulary. I heard birds chirping for the first time in a very, very long time.

Ang saya to just rest and chill, yung tambay lang, taking your sweet time with everything. Unfortunately (and fortunately) for Nino, he had to go to “work” in his pajamas early until 2:30 PM (Eastern kasi ang time niya) while I read my magazines, or surf the net looking for a job. After his work day is done, we proceeded to do other things – like shopping and pasyal with Rosie and her bro.

Kuya JR would often cook for us, tatay na tatay. Ang sarap, both ng luto niya and ng feeling na alagang-alaga.

We also made new friends, like Rosie’s friend from High School, Aileen, who also went to visit with Rosie. We went together all over Northern CA:

San Juan Bautista

It’s an old town close to Hollister, where I seriously felt like we were in a setting of an old Western movie, complete with a super old chapel. Kulang na lang may lalabas na cowboy tapos magpapa-putok ng gun pag labas sa swinging doors.

San Jose
Here we had some Goldilocks-classic food and ate more dumplings and sweets at Santana Row.
Santana Row reminded me of Greenbelt. Na-miss ko tuloy ang old Greenbelt/Glorietta days, when friends and I would just hang out over dinner and coffee until closing time, literally – when the crew starts to clean up and put the chairs up upside down on the tables, as if saying “hello, sarado na kami, baka gusto niyo na umalis?” Hehehe! It was great to sort of do that again with a couple of Tagalog-speaking friends here in the US.

Monterey
Ito daw ang lugar ng mga rich, close to San Jose. Lapit din niya sa dagat, kaya picture, picture lang kami sa Fisherman’s Wharf, then dinner.

San Francisco
New friends Faust and Irene brought us around (pix here), to try out Faust’s tour-guide business. He’s pretty good and fun to be with, never a dull moment. Kaya ia-advertise ko na ang kanyang services, if any of you plan to go to SF but have no clue about the place. Just let me know, ire-refer ko kayo sa kanya.

Painted Ladies–yung bahay yun sa likod, hindi kami	Painted Ladies behind us
Twin Peaks	Lombard St. a.k.a. Crooked St.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands side
At meron pa kaming flying shots!



Sayang lang kasi towards the end of our trip, nag-mega-acid-attack ang tiyan ni Rosie. Bilib nga ako sa kanya, kahit mamatay-matay na siya, she never complained. We only knew how bad she felt because she was quiet (something really unusual hehehe) and very weak.

Even on our last day, despite still feeling sick, she tried to be her same cheerful self, kahit energy level niya ay nasa -2.

Thank you sooo much Rose Ann and Kuya JR for making us feel like family when we were with you. Totoo yung sabi ko, our stay with you was the best bonus of our trip. Babalik kami, pramis!

posted by meL @ 8:23 PM 0 comments

NYC to California – Day 05, Monday

Day 5 Destination: Rosie’s place at Hollister, Northern CA
States: UT, NV, CA
Highlights: Salt Flats, UT, Lake Tahoe, CA

Nature showcased its mood swings today. It went from all sun in the Salt Flats of Utah, then gray clouds still somewhere in UT, then heavy, 0-visibility pouring rain, then sleet and snow from snow-capped mountains in Nevada (blown by the wind) then back to all sun and then finally cloudy skies in NV, all in a couple of hours. It felt like we were crossing weather boundaries. I was half expecting to pass by a hurricane. That would have completed nature’s weather showdown.

We passed by some pretty nice, wallpaper-material scenery. And when we finally crossed the border to CA, I was amazed. I envisioned California to be all beaches, some mountains and some boring land shared by the other states we crossed. But I later realized that California had much more topography to offer – deserts and valleys, beaches and lakes.

It was so beautiful. Either that, or mababaw lang talaga ako at madaling maaliw – I appreciate things like a cloudless, blue sky, or a calm, peaceful scenery. Maybe because I came from a place so chaotic that seeing a picture like that was a welcome change to me.

We even tried to find that beautiful rock by Lake Tahoe in CA where I went with my relatives last year, but to no avail. Naligaw lang kami, making our supposedly 13-hour trip longer by about an hour and a couple more gallons of gas, so we decided to just make do with what scenery we had and continue on with our journey.

Going to Rosie’s place in Hollister was a feat to accomplish at night, especially for people like us who were unfamiliar with the streets and unused to the local driving practices, a.k.a. speed of traffic. It can get really confusing.

Ang hirap kasi to tell kung alin ang ilaw ng kotse at ilaw pala ng reflector sa gilid ng daan when all the cars were just speeding by us left and right. Even Nino, who, we thought already drove fast, exclaimed, “why is everyone so much faster than me?!” Mukhang dito sa CA, suggestion lang ang speed limit, which if you try to follow, will make you a slow road hazard.

If we didn’t have our GPS, we would definitely have missed MORE turns and exits at the speed we were running. Buti na rin talaga, we had it, because it told us how many more miles to go before making the next turn, or before magbago ang pangalan ng street or road na dadaanan namin.

In the beginning, Nino and I didn’t mind when the GPS said “continue 300 miles…”, but after 4 days of driving, hearing the same thing, and knowing we were getting close to our semi-final destination, it was a relief to hear “continue 10 miles, then turn left”. That is until we realize that there are 50 miles more to go after that turn!

Grabe! “So close yet so far” never felt truer than any other time. So imagine our relief when dear GPS finally said, “Arriving at destination on right.”

Though Hollister is not our last stop – we’re still driving to our final destination, Torrance CA – I feel we have already accomplished something BIG. We made it through 90% of our road trip before we finally start settling down. We drove through 11 states, over 3200 miles, countless weather and landscape changes in 5 days

We finally made it. We’re here!

posted by meL @ 8:04 PM 0 comments

NYC to California – Day 04, Sunday

Day 4 Destination: Tour of Salt Lake City and West Jordan, Utah
States: UT - Rest day eh!
Highlights: Beautiful mountain scenery, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Mormon Temple, The Great Salt Lake

We went ahead to Ate Jeanne’s house in West Jordan from Park City after a sumptuous breakfast at Denny’s. We took the whole morning to rest, had lunch, slept again and by 5PM, left for mass and a quick tour of Salt Lake City. We met up with my cousins and went to check out The Great Salt Lake.



That was the whole attraction of the lake – it’s salted, kaya nga siya tinawag na Salt Lake. Sayang lang kasi makulimlim, but I’m sure on a nice, clear sunset, it would have been a beautiful picture. Pero picture pa rin kami.

Next up was dinner with my other cousin in the same city. We had a lot of fun seeing each other again and getting the chance to bond with them after such a long time apart.

Pag-uwi, pack-up na. We were scheduled to leave early the next day because it was going to be another long trip to Hollister, CA.

posted by meL @ 7:45 PM 0 comments

NYC to California – Day 03, Saturday

Day 3 Destination: Ate Jeanne’s place at West Jordan, Utah
States: Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah
Highlights: Landscape and landscape again; Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles; The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument;

This felt like our longest drive since we started on this trip. Nebraska was such a big state to cross that offered no particular sights to see but land that looked the same all throughout the freeway -

just some interesting sites, like the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles

. That was interesting to me since I’ve never seen an actual military vehicle before (di ako nakapunta sa EDSA noon eh) and tanks transported through the freeway.

It also had the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, a tribute to Americans who walked 2,000 miles from Missouri to the West coast in the 1800s, carrying their belongings in wagons or strapped to burros.

Besides that, there was nothing else to see but THE. SAME. BORING. LANDSCAPE (sure to cure insomnia). One other interesting thing was the smell of the area where we stopped over for gas and lunch. It smelled of cow dung and some other weird smell that was so awful, we had to hold our breaths from the time we got out of the car until we got into Pizza Hut’s door. Buti na lang hindi ganun yung amoy sa loob ng Pizza Hut.

Crossing the border to Wyoming was a relief, because almost immediately, the scenery changed from boring land, to more interesting topography.

Does this look familiar to you?
Soon, we saw mountains, rock formations (even a sculpture) along the freeway. As we approached Utah, we saw more mountains, this time snow-capped with thick bushes of pine trees. It was beautiful.



We arrived at Park City, Utah after over 14 hours of driving and having sore butts. We met with my cousin, Ate Jeanne, and her family, who were spending the night in a nice, upscale resort to supposedly celebrate their wedding anniversary. But since they had Danica, their baby and Kuya Alex’s parents from the Philippines in tow (hindi pa daw sila kasi nakakapasyal doon) get together na lang. And so, nakisingit na lang kami doon and had late dinner with them.

They managed to convince us to rest the whole day tomorrow at their house, since we were just a day’s drive away from California! So we slept like a baby through the whole night, with the relaxing thought that we were going to have a full day of rest ahead. Free accommodation pa.

posted by meL @ 7:03 AM 0 comments

NYC to California – Day 02, Friday

Day 2 Destination: Kung saan maabutan ng dilim (8PM)
States: Illinois, Iowa
Highlights: Downtown Chicago, pretty roadside landscaping and Iowa’s US-44 “scenic route”.

We set off for the 2nd day of our journey a few minutes before noon, after over 8 hours of sleep and having late breakfast with Judy and her Papi. We didn’t exactly consider the whole morning in Chicago “wasted”, because we got to hang with our friend and REST, which was very important to us because we had 4 more days to go.

Plus, we wanted to go at a comfortable pace. Comfortable enough for us to take our time and stop over at one of Iowa’s outlet centers. Nakapag-shopping pa kami (shirt lang naman binili ko)!

We also went a bit off from our I-80 route and decided to take the “scenic route” indicated on our USA road map (US-44 daw). Eto yung “scene”. Scenic daw? Hehehe. Sige na nga.

By the time the sun was ready to set, we’ve been driving for 8 hours, almost reaching the border between Iowa and Nebraska, so we decided to look for lodging where we can spend the night. I was driving then, so Nino was looking out for the next “Lodging” sign on the highway. Unang nakita namin, exit kaagad kami. Big mistake.

The motor lodge looked like a setting for a movie where a killer murders everyone in the entire lodge. Despite the other trucks and cars parked there, it looked abandoned with just one gas station and a small Subway store. We decided against parking or going down to inquire (a stupid thing to do, seeing that there was a big, bald man by one door with his whole back covered with tatoo) and went back to the freeway.

The next lodging sign we found had about 2 lodging choices and 5 or 6 places to eat, with a couple gas stations. We checked it out and saw that it was THE lodging we had in mind. The price for a night was reasonable, and there were a number of choices for dinner.

Lesson learned: when looking for lodging signs, look for those that show at least 2 in one exit, with at least 4 choices to eat and 2 gas stations. Then you won’t have to deal with the stress of a potential real-life horror movie.

posted by meL @ 7:07 PM 0 comments

NYC to California – Day 01, Thursday

It’s the moment of truth!

Woke up early today to pack up our airbed (which we have been sleeping on since we sold our furniture) and to load our car with bags, laptops, pillows, food and all other stuff we did not ship (took us an hour to do that).

We took one final look at our place, before leaving our ex-keys and locking the door. I felt really sentimental looking at our empty apartment for the last time.I tried to imagine how it looked when I first moved here over a year ago, how we transformed it into a nice, cozy, home for both of us and how it slowly became empty.

Dining Area-Before

Dining Area-Now

Bed Area-Before

Bed Area-Now

Living and Study Area-Before

Living and Study Area-Now

Now, we’re closing this chapter and starting another long journey.

Goodbye, Apartment 3C! Goodbye, New York! California, here we come!!!
-----------
Day 1 Destination: Judy’s place at Chicago, IL
Route: The great, seemingly-endless I-80 freeway all the way.
States: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
Highlights: Some nice landscapes, FedEx Ground trucks (to which we screamed, “Stuff?! Are you there?!”), lots of other huge, loaded trucks.




We had the GPS help us towards the end of the day (when we got lost for an hour trying to follow Judy’s dad’s directions, which turned out to be coming from the opposite side of the country), but throughout the day we were just on one freeway: I-80.

After 14 hours of alternate-Nino-me-Nino driving with 4 stops for gas, food and quick restroom breaks, we finally made it to Judy’s place. We had dinner in a Columbian resto with her Mom, Judith, then stayed up almost all night catching up and just chillin’ (as they call it).

We made it through day 1 safe and sound and still energized, after crossing a timezone and almost half of the country!

posted by meL @ 8:57 PM 0 comments