San Francisco!
San Francisco, I'm impressed… it's very nice to meet you. This is an amazing city and our time spent here has been really great. Maybe it's just the fact that I am growing more accustom to life in big cities—I really like Austin, Seattle, and Portland—but this place is proving to be my favorite, by far. Coming from the small towns of northern California and the Oregon coast, our introduction to San Francisco was a bit intense. We slowly funneled into the city amongst a swarm of other vehicles over the bay bridge. Riding on the roof of the bus into the heart of the city on that Friday evening was a pretty memorable experience. The night before was spent on a quiet, dark, secluded mountain pass under the stars—suddenly we found ourselves under towering skyscrapers in a city of about a million. To add to the excitement, San Francisco killed out little trailer within our first hour here. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge—not that we had to get to the other side—simply because it was there and I guess it just felt appropriate. On the north side we got out to enjoy the view and realized that the frame had cracked. It was quite a bummer, but we were extremely lucky that it didn't end in disaster—we could have left a pretty big mess on that bridge. The beginning of our stay here involved a bit of stress as we attempted to figure out the solution to this little hurdle. We determined that our trailer—our shed on wheels that had followed us for 11 months and 14,000 miles—was totaled. After finding a way to get rid of it, our new task was learning to adapt to life with no trailer. Our mini-garage was filled with things like tools, camping gear, and cowboy boots—on top was a rack for our bicycles. Slowly, we began to figure out ways to adapt to our new situation. We simplified life by getting rid of a lot of stuff. We had been hauling around a lot of possessions that just weren't necessary. It took a lot of consolidation, repacking, and reorganizing—we ended up with a big load of Goodwill donations, some garbage, and a very different bus. A new bike-hauling method allows all three bikes to hang vertically of the back of the bus. I think the whole ordeal may have been blessing in disguise—now we are lighter, more efficient, and a lot less clumsy. It feels good to have our house back after those few chaotic days.
We have been blessed to share our experience here in San Francisco with some great people. Our good friend, CJ, from our hometown, lives here in the city and invited us to live with him during our stay. The whole Ellens family came from Holland to spend Thanksgiving with CJ. They invited us to spend the Holiday weekend with them—they took us in and treated us like family. It was so great to spend Thanksgiving with friends… can't that you all enough! Another friend from home, Caitlyn, lives here and we have been able to spend time with her. Andy, from Langlois, OR came down for a visit… Overall, our visit has been filled with friends and familiar faces and good times. It doesn't get much better than that.
A big clumsy school bus is a little out of it's element in a place like this, but we have found ways to make it work. It just takes a little bit of shuffling between the marina during the day and the street at night. We have been exploring this city on foot, bike, and kayak—we're getting to know it pretty well. The bicycles get out everyday as our main mode of transportation. It has been a lot of fun zipping through traffic and maneuvering the crowded streets—two wheels are far more efficient than four in a place like this. The kayaks came down and we explored the San Francisco Bay by boat. It was a great way to see the city and get a unique perspective of the place. We kayaked under piers, around sea lions, and all along the wharf. It was nice to have the water all to ourselves as we watched the hustle and bustle of city life going on up on shore. We managed to avoid all the ferries along with their enormous wakes… a very successful day. A bike trip over the Golden Gate took us up to the hills north of the city for an amazing view and a very exciting ride down.
The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception here in San Francisco. We have had the opportunity to get to know the place and volunteer there for the last couple days. It is an incredibly interesting museum and it was very cool to get the behind-the-scenes tour. There are about 270 employees and lots of volunteers that work together to run the Exploratorium… that makes for a lot of behind-the-scenes. I'm glad we were able to connect with this museum and I'm excited to continue working with them this week. http://www.exploratorium.edu/
We are eleven days from flying home for our Christmas visit… strange how fast the time goes. I must say I'm pretty excited to go visit friends and family in good ole Holland, MI. We have a place in Ontario, CA where we can safely leave the bus during our visit. We're looking forward to conquering a long list of tasks and figuring out what the next chapter of the Lost Bus will look like. Life is good!
