Snow drift danced along the quiet streets of a quaint American town. Illuminated by the orange glow of the street lights and holiday lights under the cover of night, we meandered, traversed, and aimlessly explored our new surrounding environment.
Welcome to Bend, Oregon. A town known for its craft beer from the taps of Deschutes Brewery, but nothing much else. Imelda, Sam, Serge and I made a pit stop here after a long drive from Vancouver in a Honda Civic. Bend looked different under daylight after emerging from our hotel room. A walking tour of the Old Bend Neighbourhood revealed a lot of history about this place and opportunities for scenic winterscape. Turn of the century heritage homes, Bend High School, and the Bend Public Library were just some of the tell-tele signs of the early days here.
2009.12.28
Crater Lake was our next destination, and quite frankly, the highlight of Oregon. After coming across a spectacular picture of Crater Lake while browsing the webbernet, I was really looking forward to seeing this place with my own eyes. I had high expectations going in, and my expectations were met. As history goes, this crater was formed as a result of a volcanic eruption. When all the magma spewed out of the mountain, it left a hollow void underneath causing the tip of the mountain to collapse under its own weight. But as it did so, it formed a perfect bowl and over time, rain water and snow melt filled the crater forming a lake that is now 8 by 10km in area and 594m deep.
Following our feast for eyes at Crater Lake National Park, we motored down Highway 97 heading straight for San Francisco through the night and into the wee hours of the morning. After coming across a strange and out of place fruit checkpoint at the Oregon/California State Border which was nothing more than a run down shanty with a dude sitting on a folding lawn chair, we made it to a place called Weed. We stopped in to the Hi-Lo Motel Cafe & RV Park on Weed Boulevard for a very late dinner. On the back of the menu, I learned about the mystery surrounding Mt. Shasta and the Lemurians who are said to live deep inside the mountain. The lenticular clouds that commonly form around the peak is said to mask a UFO for which the mountain is used as a landing spot. This small town sure knew how to market and brand itself, playing on its namesake with all things Weed. I should have picked up an “I <3 WEED” pin along with the “I DID WEED” mug.
2009.12.29
We were dead tired by the time we arrived in San Francisco in the wee hours of the morning. We couldn’t check into our hotel until 11 in the morning so we killed the hours at a Denny’s. I stayed in the back seat of the Honda Civic to catch some much needed snoozing before watching the sunrise from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. To see the sunset rise over the bay was worth the wait and endurance in the cold. We had breakfast in Sausalito, we checked into our hotel at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue.
Since making plans to go on a road-trip to SF and back, I was looking forward to meeting up with Elle again, a friend I hadn’t seen since leaving Beijing. She studies and lives in the Bay Area with her boyfriend and when we met up at her place, I just had to give her my warmest hug!
2009.12.30
The next day after getting sufficient sleep, we went for a drive to Monterey Bay and Carmel-By-The-Sea. These were areas we didn’t get around to seeing when we were in SF just ten months earlier. We made a pit-stop at an IN-N-OUT burger stand before continuing on through the rolling hills of California.
Prior to arriving in Monterey Bay, I had little to no idea about the history of the area, so it came as a pleasant surprise when I learned that John Steinbeck grew up here. The streets were lined with banners with quotes and passages from Steinbeck’s literary works, most notably from Cannery Row.
Among others, Custom House Plaza was of historical interest in the area that defined the State of California. The Mexican styled building in the plaza built by the Mexican government was once occupied by the Mexicans as a Custom House where taxes were collected on foreign merchants until an American flag was raised on July 7th, 1846, declaring California as part of the United States of America. It’s California’s first historic landmark and its oldest public building.
We had just enough day-light to see Carmel-By-The-Sea after spending the majority of our time in lovely Monterey. We went straight to the beach after driving past a boutique of local restaurants, cafes, bookstores, and art galleries of Carmel. We had spent a lot of time down at the beach long after the sun went down getting creative with long-exposure shots of us posing and painting with light. The results turned out beautifully and we kept taking shot after shot. People started to notice what we were doing and had approached us to observe closely and make small talk. Soon enough, we got to use their children to pose for us to everyone’s delight!
2009.12.31
All refreshed from the beautiful cinderella night before, we left our hotel and took the trolley to Telegraph Hill. We met up with Elle again and did some shopping in Chinatown for fish balls, beef balls, enoki mushrooms, and vegetables in preparation for one of my favourite dishes: spicy hot pot! I was salivating until the time I got to put these tasty morsels into my mouth and taste the flavourful juices that burst inside. It triggered a memory of our time in Beijing.
We visited the remains of the Sutro Baths on the west coast later in the day and eventually found ourselves in the Castro district to ring in the new year by bar-hopping. While on the bus to Castro, Serge got hit on by a flamboyant African American man in his mid 30s who locked eyes with him as he said “Hello” in that unmistakable tone of flirtation. Sam, Mel, and I thought it was funny but Serge didn’t want to entertain.
We all started off with a martini at the first establishment we walked into and after downing that drink, we moved on to the next for more drinks. After visiting a number of different establishments along the main strip ordering up different drinks each time, I was over my limit. That realisation came a bit too late for me, however, when it really started to set in. I couldn’t even finish my beer. Elle and her bf Justin joined us for dinner at a sushi restaurant as I was craving for sushi earlier, but my memory from this point on gets a little fuzzy. I do remember having to politely excuse myself several times from the table to make my way to the loo to purge. Staring down the porcelain bowl was not the way I wanted to end the night and ring in the new year.
Fortunately, I made it out of the restaurant on my own two feet, but not without leaving a bad first impression on Justin to whom I have yet to formally introduce myself in the un-inebreated state. I vow never to mix drinks in quick succession. I also left the sushi place still hungry and craving for sushi.
Under the cover of night and through the illuminated streets of SF, we walked towards The Embarcadero to celebrate with hoardes of others with the same idea. We’re all suckers for beautiful displays of fireworks. The countdown. The text messages. The fireworks. The cheers. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2010.01.01
Lombard Street had Mel all excited as a new driver. This photogenic zig-zag down a steep hill draws a great number of tourists every year and this was the last thing we did before saying good-bye to San Francisco.
Highway 101 hugged the coastline of the Pacific and offered spectacular scenic spots along the way to Portland. We pulled over after a long drive north to admire the long pebble beach and watch the waves crashing in. We loved playing tag with the ebb and flow of the cascading tides, chasing it when it recedes and running away from it when we see a wave coming in. Surge got tagged really bad as he was taking a photo and didn’t notice what was coming for him. We laughed for a moment but he later showed the ocean that he didn’t care anymore as he went right in - shoes, socks, trousers - with the water level knee high! Now here’s a dedicated photographer.
2010.01.02
Checking into the Hotel Fifty turned out to be a good pick when I used Hotwire.com. It was chic, ultra-modern, and dare-I-say sexy. Recently renovated only months ago, the small attention to detail caught my eyes. In tradition of Keeping Portland Weird, we stumbled upon a doughnut shop called Voodoo Doughnuts. This hole in a wall establishment served all sorts of funky doughnuts with interesting names. I myself went for the signature Voodoo Doll which was a raspberry jelly filled doughnut shaped as a voodoo doll with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake right through the heart. For giggles, I also went for the Gay Bar which was more-or-less like a cream frosted long-john but stuffed with cream and all the colours of a Fruit Loop cereal on top. Other weird things we found in Portland was the 24-hour coin operated art gallery on street level and a ginormous squid trying to break free from a corner of a building. I like weird.
Much to our delight, we went over to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum to see the Spruce Goose, a heavy transport aircraft built almost entirely of birch wood. With the largest wingspan and height of any aircraft in history, the Spruce Goose took up the entire hanger. From helicopters to DCs and other flying machines in between, there was much to see and learn at this museum that we didn’t even have time to set foot inside the Space Museum!
2010.01.03
Homeward bound. We checked out of the hotel and made our way to Seattle to see one last thing. I’m not even sure if it was on our list of things to see, but I’m glad we saw the troll under the north end of the Aurora Avenue Bridge. Keep Seattle Weird, too!
