Among Giants in Sequoia (Plus a Quick Dip)

It's not that easy to get to Sequoia National Park (only two roads in, both from the west), but it's well worth a visit. Only a few hours from Yosemite, but far less crowded, it boasts scores of magnificent Giant Sequoia trees, some of the biggest trees on Earth. General Sherman, while not the widest or tallest, is the largest living tree (by volume) in the world.

General Sherman, largest tree in the world (giant sequoia)

Their bark is fibrous, thick and fire-resistant. And their pinecones are amazing. According to the internet, a mature giant sequoia has about 11,000 cones at any given time, and can disperse 300,000–400,000 seeds per year!

Giant Sequoia Pinecone

Camping at Dorst Creek Campground was absolutely perfect. The spot in which we chose to settle down happened to start a trail leading down into the forest. At the end of the 5-minute hike was a magical oasis: a peaceful creek consisting of waterfalls trickling over smooth rock and a large wading pool.

Sequoia - Dorst Creek

The next morning, we awoke early and ate a quick breakfast before heading back to paradise for a bath (it had been 3 days without a shower!). It was bitter cold but wonderfully refreshing!

P.S. Can you name the only tree that has all five vowels?

Two Nights Camping in Yosemite

On our way back to New Mexico from a Palo Alto wedding in July, we decided to stop off and see one of the most epic national parks in the states: Yosemite. Known the world over as a superb destination for climbers, the vast valley surrounded with mountains is home to the granite giants Half Dome and El Capitan, two of the most famous rock climbing challenges.

During the summer months, the campsites down in the valley are mostly reserved ahead of time, so we camped one night at Tamarack Flat, on the north side, and then one night at Bridalveil Creek, south of the valley. The first morning, at Tamarack Flat, we spotted two chipmunks kissing on a boulder just behind our tent.

We got moving pretty early so we could stake out our second campsite before spending the day down in the valley. We were happy to find a sprawling site equipped with boulders and much-needed shady trees, where we were even able to set up our camping hammock! Since we knew we had a campsite to come back to, we headed to the valley.

For us, a highlight of the valley was Yosemite Falls. We followed a path to a viewing area, then scrambled our way through the woods and over boulders, ending at the place where the tallest waterfall in North America pounds the boulders and creates a gorgeous (swimmable) pool.

While driving back to our campsite, somewhat dazed from the awesomeness of nature, a confident coyote trotted up right next to our car for a brief photo op! I grabbed my iPhone and Kristen grabbed the Canon 7D, but neither of us were quick enough to get a crisp shot.

The next morning, we packed up our campsite with the intention of getting to our next destination, Sequoia, as soon as possible. We'd only driven 15 minutes from our campsite before we couldn't resist the urge anymore and to stopped off at a serene and colorful meadow. We spent a half hour exploring the native insects and flowers, but easily could have stayed all day.

Next time, we're bringing our climbing gear!

Redwoods (Last Hurrah in California)

About 4 hours or so from San Francisco, we retreated into the quiet, fragrant woods of northern California. We opted to drive the Avenue of the Giants, a scenic byway within Humboldt Redwoods State Park that basically parallels the main road and offers a free glimpse at these huge trees. If you’re in the area and passing through, absolutely do the Ave of Giants; it’s worth the extra time (and, again, it’s free). We explored a grove near a turnout, then went straight to the campground, with fingers crossed that we didn’t need a reservation. Our timing couldn’t have been better, because the campground would be closed for the season in just a few more days. We lucked out yet again, finding a great campsite that was tucked away, a short walk into the woods from the parking spot. It was almost like backcountry camping, a bit different than the normal tent/RV city. Also, we had the feeling that we were actually surrounded by nature. Yep, we awarded Humboldt the title of best state park.

The next morning, we stopped at the visitors center, which was surprisingly informative and entertaining. One draw was the incredible taxidermy exhibit, showcasing the variety of animals to be found in the area. Also, the eager-to-help volunteers gave us some great tips on what to do in the park with only a couple of hours to spare. Humboldt houses a bunch of the world’s tallest trees, and the trees exist in their natural glory (with the exception of Giant Tree, which had a bit of a walkway around it). It is incredibly humbling to stand next to a living thing so large, and with such a vast history.

Coyote taxidermy at Humboldt Visitor Center

Frog at Humboldt

Hugging Giant Tree (Humboldt)

Kristen and Loren are both lovers of trees, and Redwoods especially, after having read the fantastic book “The Wild Trees.” If you’re at all interested in climbing, trees, and/or biology, you should definitely read this book. The book details the recent attempts at finding and measuring the world’s tallest trees, and the ecosystems that exist at all levels of the tree - especially in the sky-high canopy. We both wished we had the book on hand to turn to pages mentioning the specific trees we were admiring. Unfortunately, the State Park has trouble keeping the book on its shelves, it sells out so quickly; it’s been backordered for months now (though the National Park had it...).

Not too much further north lies the Redwood National Park. Since we spent a bit longer than expected in the state park, our timing was a bit off: we arrived too late to grab a backcountry camping permit, which basically meant we needed to make it out of the park for camping. So, with limited time, we tried to explore what we could of the park in and not too far from the car. That left us a few options, and we did a couple of short hikes that gave us a taste of the park. Circle trail and Cathedral Tree trail were two favorites.

We couldn't resist stopping to take a photo of the giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe, at the Trees of Mystery tourist trap, just off 101 near the National Park.

Paul Bunyan and Babe (Loren in front for scale)

We also paid a visit to a small grocery inside the park and bought a few essential items, including veggies, eggs, avocados, sausages (for that night), and the best camping food choice yet: yams (more on that in a later post). A bit sad we were already leaving the park, we kept moving and arrived at Patrick Creek Campground, about 45 minutes north of the National Park.

Despite having beautifully mild weather, we had to bundle up because the campground was home to thousands of mosquitos, and we were being eaten alive. Every 10 seconds or so, one of us would say “hold still... got one.” Overcoming that slight annoyance, we made a delicious dinner of grilled sausages and fire-roasted veggies (red bell peppers, onion, and zucchini). We also made friends with our campground neighbor’s dog, a small little black dog (keeping in line with the all-black small animal theme) which we were told was a Chihuahua - Papillon mix. We almost stole her she was so cute.

Sausage, veggies and sriracha

That was our last night in the great State of California. We’d stayed a whopping 15 nights, and it was time to move on. Thanks, California! It’s been great. We can’t wait to come back.

Farewell, San Francisco!

Tuesday, our last morning in San Fran, we found ourselves in yet another beautiful, sunny, warm day. We were itching for just one more culinary treat to satisfy our SF sampling, so we drove over to the Marina district for one lunch at Umami Burger.

Umami Burger

This preppy burger establishment is known for its use of savory flavors on its burgers, and for dressing them up a bit more than your average burger joint. They also recommend you not alter any of the burger toppings for each menu option. We split a burger and splurged a bit to split some truffled cheese skinny fries. It was a great lunch, not too much, not too little, though also not too memorable.

From there, we left San Francisco behind, stopping at the Golden Gate Bridge overlook and Marin Headlands for one last look at the city, the bay, and all of the greatness contained on that peninsula.

More Cool Spots in SanFran

One of the must-sees in San Francisco is the City Lights bookstore. Again limited by our parking meter, but this time with only 30 minutes of time. We stepped into the literary landmark independent bookstore, famous for progressive politics and beatnik-era poetry flourishing. The store felt like stepping into a sort of functional museum, with photos documenting much of the historically significant figures and events, and their relation to the bookstore. Transfixed by the thousands of book titles, which in this age of post-Borders Bankruptcy seemed like such a treat, we could’ve stayed for hours. But, our dinner date across town beckoned us. We left with only mental notes about the next books we want to read.

The dinner date which was the last on our agenda for the day was with Loren’s RISD classmate and fellow graphic designer, Jared, and his fiancee Shannon (also a RISD alum), in the super hip Mission District. Once we met up, we set off on what was to become a great night of long walks and good food. Ironically, it seems that we walk more when we’re in cities than even in National Parks.

The Mission

Dinner was near the Castro district, at a place called Starbelly, where Loren and Kristen shared a tomato soup and chicken dish - still a bit full from the ramen from the afternoon, but never able to pass up good food.

Tomato soup and grilled ham and cheese at Starbelly

Chicken at Starbelly

We even paid a visit to Hot Cookie, steps from the famous Castro Theater, for some cookie dessert. (Though, let it be known that the cookies were not, in fact, hot.)

San Francisco's Ferry Building

Our next mission was to visit the famous Ferry Building, which is an enormous indoor market filled with incredible vendors of all kinds. It is really quite impressive and we short-changed ourselves by limiting our visit to the amount of time our parking meter dictated: 1 hour.

A bit overwhelmed at first, we ordered drinks at Blue Bottle Coffee company, and then were set to see the sights.

Blue Bottle cappuccino and iced americano

The place is teeming with beautiful objects, some natural, some man-made, all photo-worthy. From Mushrooms, cheeses, charcuterie, breads, teas, coffees, ceramics, gelato, you name it, you can find it at the Ferry Building.

By the end of our parking meter hour, we'd only scratched the surface, but hurried back to avoid parking ticket number 2.

Ramen in San Francisco

Monday, Kristen did some much-needed laundry while Loren researched a bit for San Francisco’s best ramen houses. You see, we’ve recently become mildly obsessed with good ramen, the kind with homemade noodles and complex broth with flavor depth that keeps going and going... So, with a name in mind, we set out for Katana-ya Ramen, rumored to be representative of authentic ramen. We were totally stoked.

Fried chicken ramen at Katana-ya

Katana-ya is a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, with no frills. They had slightly more options on the menu than we were expecting, including different kinds of broth bases (soy, miso, salt) which we could order Light, Regular or Rich. Loren ordered the salt broth, rich, with bbq pork; Kristen ordered the miso broth, rich, with fried chicken.

While we were happy to eat the warm, cozy soup, it didn’t quite live up to our expectations. The biggest disappointment was the broth, which didn’t have the same kind of oomph we were used to. What can we say? Chef Erik’s ramen at Toki Underground in DC has set the bar high.

Brunch Village Sunday

We were all a bit slow to rise on Sunday morning, and by noon had barely gotten our names onto the Outerlands multi-page brunch wait list before they stopped accepting names. Knowing we’d have quite a wait ahead of us but not quite sure what we’d gotten ourselves into, we paid a visit to the nearby Trouble Coffee Company. (They didn’t allow Kristen to photograph the place... boo!) Not only with delicious coffee, Trouble has delicious-looking pastries, cookies, and the mother of all, texas toast.

Cinnamon Texas Toast and Coffee from Trouble Coffee Company

We sipped our gourmet blends and nibbled on buttery cinnamon toast just outside of Trouble at one of San Francisco’s Parklets, a section of parallel parking spots that have been converted into a mini-park. We love this idea: stores/cafes/bars/etc can petition for the city to purchase parking spots outside of their storefronts to turning the spaces into public mini-park. This one had beautiful natural wood benches, and was a perfect spot to enjoy our pre-brunch snack.

Mini-park in reclaimed parallel parking spot (aka Parklet)

That is, until we stepped into the General Store, which is possibly the coolest store we’d ever seen, with handmade knick knacks, letterpress cards, ceramics, terrariums, knitted goods, books, architectural magazines... it was so easy to get lost in the store, feeling inspired by all of the amazing objects on the display shelves. Kristen ached for her knitting needles, taking mental note of some of the excellent ideas on display at the store.

The General Store

Eventually snapping out of it and leaving without actually purchasing anything, which was a feat in itself, we perched just outside of the cafe for another hour or so, until we were finally called. It was sometime in the mid-afternoon by that point, and we’d probably waited about 3 hours, which was not unlike the “brunch village” skit from Portlandia. At least it was sunny and warm outside!

We sat down with reinvigorated appetites as the menus slid before us. Rather than OD on caffeine, Kristen opted for the hot ginger cider spiked with bourbon, which tasted like fall and got her feeling ready for the seasons to change already. She ordered the fried egg an open-faced sandwich with gruyere with a nice little salad as well. For Loren, eggs in jail (aka frog in a hole). Everything was yummy, and the we marveled at the decor, which included an indulgent woodsy touch and a fabulous swirly driftwood bar. It was dreamy.

Brunch table

Outerlands interior

After brunch, we continued to revel in the good weather, and drove down the street to the shore. We’re not sure how this could be possible, but it actually seemed warmer on the San Francisco beach than it did on San Diego’s beach. Maybe this SanFran beach was special: it was, after all, the site of the original Burning Man festival... so maybe the ghosts of burning man’s past keep the sands extra warm?

Is this San Francisco?

Sean and Ellen dropped us at the DeYoung museum, with about 20 minutes to spare before the museum closed (Sunday...). We were able to ride the elevator up to see the beautiful 360 degree views of the Golden Gate Park and surrounds on the upper deck – free and open to the public. Once we were kicked out, we decided to set off on what ended up being a pretty long walk through the park and out to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

DeYoung observation deck

While museums may have been closing prematurely on that Sunday afternoon, Haight-Ashbury was coming to life. We joined the crowds of people slowly moving past the flamboyant storefronts, adding to the traffic jams here and there to snap a few photos. When we realized we were short on time, we hopped a bus to head back toward Russian Hill, where we’d again meet with our hosts for dinner.

But first, we made a mistake and hopped off the bus a bit too early and found ourselves in the exact wrong part of the SOMA neighborhood, alongside junkies and homeless people babbling nonsense. Kristen was in full blinder mode and we walked with purpose to get the heck out of there. What can we say? San Francisco is a big city, so it’s bound to have some riffraff.

We made it home in time for the dinner party, which Chef Ellen (she’s a chef) had prepared for a group which all knows each other courtesy of the Pappas Group (Loren’s former employer). After catching up, we enjoyed a veg risotto with stone fruit salad, topped off with bread pudding and washed down with some beer and wine. We are still kicking ourselves that we didn't take any photos....

The Great City of Fog and Hills

Having driven from sunny Sonoma Valley, we were struck by two things upon our arrival into San Francisco: first, it was freezing; second, it is damned hilly! But few things could shake us of our excitement. We were, after all, in the city for which Kristen has felt a certain mangetic pull (despite never having actually visited).

Our friends Sean and Ellen have an apartment in Russian Hill, a super hilly neighborhood where parallel parking seems like such a gamble (do you over compensate for the hill and slam into the car up the hill from you, or are you too slow to accelerate and roll into the car downhill?) that the city has allowed for perpendicular parking in the hilliest sections. This perpendicular parking thing is a little strange; it seems like the car will just tumble over onto its side and then roll down the rest of the hill. Also, there’s the danger that when you open the door, everything in the car will just spill out, including you. Once we remembered how gravity works, we were fine, and we soon learned that the great hills offer great views of the city. As an added bonus, the hills also act as a buffer to keep riffraff out of the neighborhood (shopping carts packed full of personal belongings don’t fare well going uphill).

After we’d unpacked, the four of us set off on the bus to head over to the Marina, where festivities were under way in celebration of the America’s Cup, a set of world-class sailing regattas to be hosted in San Fran through 2013. Part of the celebration included a free concert by Dr. Dog, a music group with such a classic sound that they’ve been compared to The Beatles, and who Kristen and Loren have seen both at Bonnaroo and the 930 club. The music was great, and the people-watching was even better; armed with some sweet potato fries, we were set to enjoy both shows.

Free Dr Dog Concert

Our hosts, Sean and Ellen

By the end of the music, we were all a bit shivery - it had to be in the low 50s, no sun, full fog, cold breeze. (As a quick sidenote, we learned that the Fog of San Francisco has a name, Karl, and a twitter feed. Apparently, Karl can be kind of snarky and a bit flamboyant, and most city dwellers both love and hate Karl. Thought that was cute and funny.)

Foggy marina

It was time for a hot meal. After attempting but failing to get a table at not one but two different German restaurants, each separated by a ten-minute taxi ride, we decided German food was conspiring against us. So we walked to the nearby restaurant Absinthe, and enjoyed a very delicious dinner. We shared a French onion soup, stonefruit salad, and a duo of pork, and were lucky enough to sample some of our hosts’ dishes as well.

Dinner at Absinthe

Sampling Some of Sonoma's Best

Since we needed to delay our arrival into San Francisco by a day in order to be able to meet the schedules of our hosts, we chose to pass the time in the Napa/Sonoma areas. As expected, we drove by countless vineyards, with their perfect rows of ripening white and red grapes.

Deciding we were allowed to spend more money than usual on the super-high-quality food in the area, we limited our lodging to tent camping, and again lucked out with the last spot in Sugarloaf Ridge state park, on the Sonoma side.

Campsite at Sugarloaf Ridge SP

After setting up our tent as a way of staking our claim to the spot, we drove down the windy mountain road into downtown Sonoma, and landed at the El Dorado Kitchen, which soon became tastebud heaven.

For starters, we both sampled some local wines: Loren opted for a Sonoma white and Kristen a Napa red. Kristen again ordered the duck, this time served two ways: seared duck breast and duck leg confit. The mix of all the flavors - the duck jus, apple puree, turnips, pickled cherries and shitakes, and rich duck - made for an incredible palate pleaser.

Duo of duck

But, Loren’s roasted Petaluma chicken dish - simple as it sounds - was a home run, winning best plate of the night (at our table). It was the most complex-tasting roast chicken we’d ever sampled, with crispy skin, squash puree, chanterelles, piquillo peppers, romesco and chicken jus.

Roast chicken at El Dorado Kitchen

As if we couldn’t indulge anymore, we ordered the molten chocolate cake with sweet corn ice cream. Delectable.

Dessert

We were both exhausted as we pulled up to our campsite, and despite the renowned conditions for stargazing that the State Park boasts, we beelined for the sleeping bags. We didn’t even make a fire that night! Instead, we entertained ourselves by finishing up the Netflix movie we’d had since early July.

The sun woke us up around 8am as it rose over the ridge, and we battled a swarm of yellow jackets that really wanted to share in our fried egg breakfast. Eventually, we gave up and ate in the car.

Morning eggs, tortilla espanola style

Plated, with sriracha and hungry yellow jackets

We also paid to shower at the park’s facilities, 40 seconds of water for 25 cents. Kristen used 3 quarters, and came out of that experience thinking about how indulgent we are with our normal showers. Loren only used 2 quarters, and owing to the cold he’d picked up somewhere after LA, he wasn’t as thoughtful post-shower. With both of us nonetheless revived from our showers, we headed into wine country to sample some of the local sips.

Vineyards everywhere

Red grapes

We ended up arriving rather early - 11am - and were the first patrons at Audelssa, a fancy wine tasting shop in Glen Ellen, near Sonoma. With Loren under the weather, Kristen took one for the team and sampled for both. Audelssa ended up being a great place to start, because it is a small operation: all grapes are handpicked, and the vintner only makes 3,000 barrels a year. Apparently they don’t distribute, and sell only to their wine club members and whatever bottles are bought by happy tasters. It was a nice experience, and in talking to the server, we picked up a tip for a future camping meal pairing: canned sardines supposedly go perfectly with chardonnay. After the 6 large sips Kristen had sampled, she was a bit giggly and ready for caffeine, so we headed into downtown Sonoma.

Sonoma city center

After a cappuccino at a shop near the square, we started back towards the vineyards but were captivated by another establishment at a scooter importer. So we got round 2, this time chai instead of coffee.

Sonoma Coffeeshop

Coffee cart

Gelato bike

Next we drove to another vineyard, this time a very big operation, Gloria Ferrer. It wasn’t quite the experience we were hoping for, as they “didn’t do wine tastings, per se.” We had to order half-glasses of the five wines that we could, and therefore missed out on the sparkling wines for which the vintner is known.

Gloria Ferrer

Le Menu

Olives at Gloria Ferrer

Despite the less than tasty wines, the patio where we sat offered gorgeous views of the Sonoma Valley and the estate. By that point, we’d had our fill of the grapes and were eager to make the quick drive into San Francisco. After all, we plan to return to wine country, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Gloria Ferrer's tasting patio