California Road Trip in the Summer of 2018 | Day 4

In the summer of 2018 I took my daughter on a 9-day road trip through California. Here is our little story.

Day 4

This morning I also slept in a little. I got up at around 8am. Katie woke up not too much later and we loaded the car. We drove to a new Starbucks in Strawberry Village because I longed for a good large latte. I ordered "A big latte" because I never know whether it's a venti or a grande or a magnificus.

On my phone I searched for a laundromat closest to Hidden Springs Campground in the Humboldt Redwoods and asked for directions. It was going to be three and a half hours. It was an easy straightforward drive with almost no traffic just on the 101. We arrived at the laundromat and I stuck our clothes in the washer. While that was running we walked to a local bakery to get some lunch. That took a while and was not worried that the laundry wouldn't be ready yet. It was indeed ready when we got back and started the dryer. During that time we bought some water and more s'more ingredients. Now we were ready to go to the campground and hopefully they had available spots.

Our campsite

At the campground kiosk two state park ladies were talking and it turned out that a tree had fallen over the Avenue of the Giants. She said they had availability and that we could drive around and write down two spots. We found one spot that was closest to a trailhead and another one we liked that was close to bathrooms. We picked the latter as it was also still close to the trailhead. The lady gave us a hand drawn map of a good swimming spot in the South Fork Eel River. She also mentioned that nearby, but not in the campground, there are mountain lions and bears. Occasionally if you go hike here (pointing at a map) you may see bear butts. Their butts because they will walk away from you. She also emphasized we should put anything edible and stuff with smells (like tooth paste), in the bear locker.

Redwoods

Bear safety always reminds me of my first trip - and hearing about bear safety - to Canada. In 2002 I participated in a biomechanics conference in Calgary. We had a day off and with a big  group we rented a van and headed off to Banff National Park. One of the professors was driving and I was sitting next to him reading about bears. Among many things it said that you should never allow a bear in your tent. That is your territory and you have to keep them out. "How do you keep a bear out of your tent?" I asked. The professor responded "By closing the zipper."

After we had set up our tent, we left for the Fork Eel River. We found it pretty easily. I brought my camera and GoPro too. The water felt great as the air temperature was above ninety. We swam around and jumped off a rock a couple of times that stuck out of the water. We also climbed a log that was half on land and half under water. It was very slippery under water as it was covered with algae. After a couple of hours we sat down in our chairs for a while and enjoyed our surroundings. Three vulture-like birds came floating down right in front of us.

The log half submerged in the river

I started a camp fire when we arrived back at the campground. This time it was a little harder to get a decent fire and we ate lukewarm hotdogs. Suddenly the fire got a lot better and our s'mores were good. After our dinner Katie did some coloring on her iPad and I downloaded my GoPro videos and photos onto my iPhone. It was almost 9pm now and getting dark. We put all our food and other stuff in the bear locker. We went inside the tent and I closed the zipper.

California Road Trip in the Summer of 2018 | Day 3

In the summer of 2018 I took my daughter on a 9-day road trip through California. Here is our little story.

Day 3

I slept all through the night without waking up, despite being next to the freeway. Katie was again still asleep, so carefully and quietly I started getting ready for another day in San Francisco. She woke up around 8:30 am. We took an Uber to Sausalito to have some breakfast near the water. I ordered a stack of Frooty-tooty pancakes with bacon and shared it with Katie. She had a water and I had a double latte. It was pretty good. Now we were ready to go to a bike rental near the Golden Gate Bridge so we could cycle across it.

Our second Uber arrived. He started driving and I noticed he took the on-ramp to 101 North. I could see his phone with directions on the map and it said to go clockwise around the Bay to go to San Francisco. It said it was over 100 miles and we would arrive at around 2 pm. So I said, "Uh, excuse me, sir, we are going to San Francisco, which is the other way". "Oh yes", he replied, "GPS error". So he exited and drove south.

We arrived at the Sports Basement at the Presidio. We found our way to the Rental Department and, after I filled out an information form, I took a bike with a tandem attachment for Katie. I considered getting a bike for her, but I remembered that the bridge can be busy with pedestrians and bicyclists, especially since only the east side was open.

We hit the road. The ride was smooth and flat going towards the bridge. "I think we need to turn left here, daddy", Katie said at one point. "No, this way also leads to the bridge", I said. We ended up at Fort Point. Dead end. "I told you so daddy". Here we have a 9-year old who knows the way better than I do in a place she's never been, I thought. However, the universe led us here. In the distance we saw a whale popping up out of the water, and, a few minutes later, a yellow VW bus pulled up and parked in a spot so I could take a picture of it with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Perfect. "Now we can go", I told her.

The Volkswagen Bus at Fort Point

We rode back and took a right turn which led up a steep hill that was unavoidable no matter which route you took. In first gear, we slowly gained altitude. The bridge was getting closer. After one last steep road we entered the bridge. Fortunately it was not that busy. Yet. At about a quarter of the way across we stopped. We saw two dolphins in the Bay. I took some pics of the San Francisco skyline and we continued our ride. Halfway across we stopped again. This is where the giant cables are at their lowest. We rode on until we reached the other side. "We did it! High five!" For a short time we looked at the bridge from the vista point and drank some water. "Now we're going back and you can say you've crossed the bridge by bike twice ", I told her.

Kate at the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge

The way back was challenging as the bridge was getting crowded with pedestrians and cyclists. Some of them were in locations where they were not supposed to be. An older guy almost fell and bumped into the railing. He was quite startled. I felt bad for him as he and his wife had decided, just like us, to rent bikes to cross the bridge and have a fun time, but then this little incident happened. I hope the rest of the way was more fortunate for them.

Back on the SF side, we had a look at an exhibit which consisted of a steel pillar that was compressed to buckle at the University of California, Berkeley. This was done a few years ago to get more insight into the effects of earthquakes that were unknown at the time when the bridge was built. With this knowledge, parts of the bridge had been retrofitted to better withstand earthquakes. 

The ride back was mostly downhill. While riding towards the rental place I must have taken another wrong turn (Katie didn't notice either) because we ended up at the Palace of Fine Arts, the only building left from the World Exhibition from 1915. I took some pictures.Katie suddenly asked, "Are those swans?" There, for sure, were two swans in the pond. She said she had never seen swans before and asked if we could go around the pond to get a closer look at them. Of course. As we walked to the other side she asked, "Is that a willow tree?" It indeed was. Turns out she had never seen one of those either. We got pretty close to the swans and when they left I snapped some shots of them with the Palace in the background.

The Palace of the Fine Arts in San Francisco, California

We were on our way back to the rental place when Katie asked if we would have arrived by now if the Uber driver from this morning would have driven us around the Bay. "No, we wouldn't have", I told her. After we returned the bikes we had lunch at Pier 23 on the Embarcadero and I helped Katie find hidden words on her kids menu.

Next stop: the Exploratorium at Pier 15 on the Embarcadero. I told her that this is a science museum where you can touch stuff. "I don't know ", Katie said. "I'm sure it will be fun", I said. The other option was to climb Telegraph Hill, so we bought two tickets to the Exploratorium. It was a lot of fun. We spent almost 2.5 hours there, which was not enough time with so many exhibits to play with. Some of Katie's favorites were making sine waves with sand, answering questions by just using your eyes, and making a tornado. One of mine was experiencing gyroscopic forces with a quickly turning bicycle wheel. We both spent time keeping balls suspended with blowing air. Unfortunately we were told to leave because the museum was closing, which was too early, in our opinion. Katie asked again if we would have arrived by now at the bike rental if we would have ridden in this morning's Uber. "Yes, we would have, but we wouldn't have returned yet from our bike ride".

We took a ferry back to Sausalito where we had a simple dinner (soup and salad for me and spaghetti for Katie). We had a nice view and watched the fog come over the hills into the bay with the setting sun shining on it. After that we headed back to the hotel where we Facetimed Marie to tell her about our experiences that day.

Sausalito with the fog coming in

California Road Trip in the Summer of 2018 | Day 2

In the summer of 2018 I took my daughter on a 9-day road trip through California. Here is our little story.

Day 2

Today I woke up in the morning at 5:30. It was starting to get lighter outside. I heard some birds flapping over our tent. Katie was still fast asleep. I was planning for the day. I got up half an hour later and started cleaning up a few things so we could be on the road quickly after Katie woke up.

She got up at 7 and said she was still tired. I told her she could nap in the car as it was going to be quite the ride to San Francisco. I didn't know exactly how long it was going to take as we still didn't have any reception. We had a simple breakfast and then we were on our way. We stopped at Grant Cove to get some coffee for me, a muffin for Katie, and some ice for our cooler. I had two bars on my phone so we called Marie to keep her up to date.

According to Google Maps it was just over 4 hours to San Francisco. Not too bad. Now I thought it was time for a hotel or motel. So I went back to Hotel Tonight which was a big disappointment. The cheapest room in or outside SF was around $300. So I went to Priceline and that was much better. I found a room for $107 per night in Mill Valley. A quick look on street view also revealed it didn't look too bad. It was only 10 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We were on our way again. We were enjoying some magnificent views coming down from King's Canyon National Park on the CA-180. Traffic was also pretty good, except that in the Bay Area I-580 was a little busy in Berkeley. Driving through the San Joaquin Valley Katie looked out the window and said the surroundings reminded her of "... for amber waves of grain" from "America the Beautiful "; and this morning we were at "...for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain"!

Later Katie asked how much longer and I answered: “5 minutes. Also, you can see the motel on the other side of the freeway". She looked and said "What? It's next to the freeway? How loud is that going to be? I'd like a room furthest away from the freeway. You know which room also would be furthest from the freeway, daddy? A room in a hotel not next to the freeway". Yeah, yeah, it's all going to be fine. We checked in and it turned out, with the windows closed, you could barely hear the traffic. I told her I wanted to charge my iPad and got it from the car. When I got back in the room I looked in the bag with all the different cables and realized the iPad cable was not in it. "Oh no I think I forgot to pack the iPad cable", I said. "Are you looking for this?", she said with a big smile, and pulled out the cable from behind her back. She knew exactly which one to hide (it was the wider one from earlier generations).

"Who wants to go to San Francisco?" I said enthusiastically. Katie was on her iPad after she got access to the WiFi and just mumbled something. "Are you kidding? Put that iPad away, we're going!"  I didn't want to drive again or deal with parking so I summoned my first Uber. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and at that moment Katie texted Marie that we were on the bridge.

The driver dropped us off at Fisherman's Wharf. It was very windy. We walked onto Pier 39 and in front of us somebody's hat blew off her head. An astonishing amount of 2 sea lions were sitting on the docks. Walking back over the pier I told Katie that in the past ships would unload their goods here and that now it's a big tourist trap.

From my last visit I remembered that there was a cable car turnaround nearby, at an easy walking distance. I looked it up and it was only a 10 minute walk. We bought tickets and we had to wait a little bit in line. "I think we will get the third car", Katie said. She was right. I asked her if she wanted to hang on the outside of the car and with some hesitation she said yes. "Well, that is the best way to ride a cable car", I said. The bell rang and there we went! You should have seen the look of excitement on her face. Initially we were joking that the car would only go a block or so, but it turned out we rode all the way to Market and Powell. I recorded some videos of the passing buildings, and of course of Katie. She loved it.

Kate waiting for the cable car

In this video you can see how Kate and I hand colored a b&w photo of a cable car with pastels:

Roy and Kate Kerckhoffs hand color a cable car with pastels

We walked to Union Square and entered the Apple Store. I was considering a larger iPad with a keyboard. Katie discovered a pen that goes with it and in her mind she had already confiscated my future iPad after playing with a coloring app. An apple sales dude said I should probably wait a little longer as a new iPad was probably coming onto the market soon. So we left the store empty handed with a disappointed Katie.

It was time for some dinner and I saw a Cheesecake Factory on the other side of Union Square. It was on the 7th (according to the sign downstairs) or 8th (according to the button inside the elevator) floor. When we got there the sight of a line of an estimated thousand people discouraged us. "There is a burger bar on the 6th floor, daddy", Katie said. Okay, let's try that. No line, and not many patrons either, but we gave it a shot as we were quite hungry. We were placed at a table right next to the window with a view of the square.

Kate overlooking Union Square in San Francisco, California

After our dinner we walked back to the cable car turnaround. No long line this time and we hopped on - of course on the outside again - after a 5 minute wait. At some point the car stopped at the top of Lombard Street so we could have a look at the crookedest street. Unfortunately for Katie we were on the other side of the car so she couldn't see. We arrived at a different end point than where we had started from at the beginning of the day. After we enjoyed a dessert consisting of a mixed fruit crepe we summoned another Uber.

This turned out to be the most enthusiastic Uber driver in the history of mankind. He asked us some questions and told us he works for the city and loves to show off his city. I mentioned Katie's disappointment of not seeing Lombard Street. The driver took us right there and drove down the street. He parked the car and took our picture with Lombard in the background. Then he took us to the steepest street, followed by the Palace of Fine Arts and left instructions with us as to how to get to the Golden Gate Bridge by bike, which we planned to do the next day. Later he dropped us back off at our hotel.

Kate and I at Lombard Street

Katie and I were looking forward to our second day in The City.

California Road Trip in the Summer of 2018 | Day 1

In the summer of 2018 I took my daughter on a 9-day road trip through California. Here is our little story.

Day 1

My phone alarm woke me up at 4am. I got up 7 minutes later and made coffee with our French press. I put half of it in a little thermos bottle. There were still a few things to load in the car (most of the luggage was loaded the previous day). After this I went back upstairs to get my daughter. My wife picked her up and put her in the backseat of the car where she was able to continue to sleep.

I wanted to leave early to beat the LA traffic. The plan was to have breakfast at the Black Bear Diner behind the mountain pass near Grapevine. We were finally leaving at 4:45am. Of course, after Anaheim, traffic slowed. Katie was still snoozing. In the Valley speed picked up again and the trip through the mountains went fast. We arrived at the Diner at 7:45am. Katie had a fruit bowl and was a little upset that there was only one grape among dozens of pieces of cantaloupe. As for my choice, I'm not sure whether I like it that now restaurants post the amount of calories for each dish. I think it helps though, because for an average healthy daily calorie intake of 2000, 1500 seems to be somewhat on the high side for breakfast, considering lunch and dinner are still in the future for that day. So I ordered a lighter omelette that was under one thousand calories. While waiting, I looked for hotels near Sequoia National Park on Hotel Tonight and chose one in Visalia.

In Google Maps I scrolled to Sequoia National Park looking for General Sherman, the largest (in volume) tree in the world. I wanted Katie to see these enormous trees because a couple of weeks ago when we were in Idyllwild, she asked if that big pine tree she saw was a Sequoia. "Not even close", I said, "Let's go see them on our trip". So here we are. "ETA 3 hours", it said. Wow, that seemed further than I expected. When we entered the park a sign said that due to road work in the park delays can be one hour. Shoot. Oh well, we'll just deal with it. It turned out only one lane was open and cars were directed intermittently in one direction each time.

This whole time Katie was asleep. When we arrived at the General Sherman Parking Lot, I woke her up. I put my face close to hers and called her name. She opened her eyes, smiled and pushed my face away. First we had some lunch. Just plain rolls with either nothing on them (for her) and cookies for me (hey, my breakfast was under 1000 calories). I had forgotten the cheese and butter in the fridge at home.

The hike was only 0.4 miles, but with a large altitude difference, so the way back could be rough, especially at 87 degrees. Katie looked around and said the trees look quite normal to her. I explained that these are regular pine trees but the Sequoias are near. I had seen them along the road coming into the park. We started walking and there was her first Sequoia. She stopped, her mouth dropped and she exclaimed, "Wow, they are big".

Kate impressed by and taking photographs of Sequoia Trees

She took some pictures and videos. We continued on our way to General Sherman. "I wonder if it's a Mr. or Miss Sherman", she said. In the distance we saw it. A big tree indeed. When we arrived at the fence around the tree a ranger was giving a little talk. "You could fill an x amount of pools with the volume of General Sherman", she said. (I don't remember the value of x). "I see that there are not many swimmers among you",she stated while looking at the audience. "There are 20,000 pints of beer in General Sherman". "Ohh" went several men.

General Sherman and its neighbors

The way back to the car was indeed a little rough, but not too bad. We had brought enough water in my backpack. Next stop was King's Canyon. We went towards Hume Lake, where we shared an ice cream together. There was no cellular service on my phone so I was not sure how long it would take to get to our hotel, but it was probably something like 2 hours at least. It was already 4:30pm. While continuing on that road we passed a sign that said "Princess Camp Ground" and thought I was just going to try it and hope for somebody's reservation cancellation. Too bad about the nonrefundable Visalia hotel reservation.

A couple of days before I had checked tons of campgrounds and all were fully booked. Marie told me: "Who knew that in the high summer season all campgrounds would be booked?" We drove onto the grounds and found the camp host. He said that we could drive around and look for spots that may have a "Free" sign on them. I was not convinced to find one but yes!, there was one! We had brought our tent and other camping gear, too. The plan for the trip was to do a mix of hotels and campgrounds. Very excited, we set up our tent. After that we went back to Hume Lake to get cash to pay for the camp ground, hot dogs and buns, s'mores ingredients, wood logs and water.

Hot dogs on sticks

The fire got started easily and Katie put the hot dogs on sticks. We ate them and after we finished the s'mores, we sat down in our little fold-up seats and read our books. At around 7 pm we went inside the tent and continued reading there. I picked up my iPad and started writing down our adventures for that day when Katie asked "Daddy, will you also write down that you wrote down what we did today?"

Arriving in California

I remember clearly the day I arrived in San Diego, California. That day was Wednesday, October 15th, 2003. I came here to start post-doctoral training at the University of California San Diego for two or three years. One of the requirements of becoming a university professor in the Netherlands is to perform research for at least a year in another country. Plus, I thought, San Diego doesn't sound too bad to do some research at the bioengineering department of UCSD. Although I had visited the USA a couple of times before, I had not yet had the pleasure to visit California. It was to some extent a leap into the unknown. But I was ready for the adventure because I had done some reading about San Diego and I knew the professor of the Cardiac Mechanics Research Group I was going to work for.

It was around 6 pm when I got to retrieve my luggage at the carousel while the sky was turning a nice deep orange. I stepped outside to get a taxi and the first thought that popped into my mind was: "They have palm trees here!". After a short ride the taxi dropped me off at the rental car agency. I started driving with the directions to my apartment printed on a piece of paper which lay on the passenger seat. Taking the I-5 North, I was heading for Del Mar. By now it was dark. The directions said that I had to take the exit "S6" for Via de la Valle. But here was a freeway approaching called 56. Was that "S" a "5"? I decided that it was an S so I kept on going. One may understand my excitement when I saw signs for Via de la Valle appear very soon thereafter.

Extremely tired, I arrived at the home that had a little apartment attached to it in the neighborhood of Rancho Del Mar. My landlords were the nicest and most helpful people you can wish for when you arrive on your own in a new country. I was going to do most of the unpacking the next day because I needed a bed first.

Roy unpacking his suitcases in his new Del Mar apartment

The next day, I found my way to UCSD first. After saying hi to the people of my new lab I explored the beautiful campus and checked in at the International Center. When I walked back to my car I heard a buzzing noise near a blooming flower and saw this giant flying insect. I thought, "Wait, that's not an insect, it's a bird." My first hummingbird. The rest of the day I filled with pleasantries such as visiting a Social Security Office and the DMV.

The Bioengineering building at the University of California San Diego in 2003

On the third day, I took my Nikon film camera with me to explore the coast. The weather was overcast and foggy along the coast. My landlords had informed me that this was called a marine layer. My route, planned on a paper map, led me to Highway 101 from Del Mar Heights Road. On Hwy 101 I went south and saw some cars parked on the right. I parked mine there, too. According to my map the ocean was near and I could hear the waves. Climbing down some bluffs I got to a train track and I saw some people go across it. "Oh, these must be abandoned", I thought. So I took my camera out, put it right on one of the rails and lay down on them to get a good view. I got up and traveled further.

The Coaster tracks in Del Mar, California

Arriving at the beach I noticed a lifeguard tower with a number 7 on it. I got two shots of it.

My first image of a lifeguard tower on film

've mentioned that my "Tower #3", taken in 2011, was my first beach-themed shot. That's true as a professional photographer and for a beach-themed photo that sold. But "Tower #7" on film was my first lifeguard tower photo. Recently I scanned the negative, printed it in black and white, and hand colored it with oils.

I walked up to the water line, enjoyed the cool weather, the breeze, the sound of the waves, the muted colors of the ocean under this "marine layer" and thought to myself,

"I really like it here".

Bodie

"We should turn here and see Bodie, it's an amazing ghost town", my wife said. We were driving north on the California 395 on our way to Lake Tahoe, for a little vacation back in November 2006. It was the first day I've heard of and saw Bodie, the State Historic Park that's being kept in an "arrested state of decay".

She was right, it is an amazing ghost town. As it has captured the hearts of many visitors, it did so with mine, and I have visited many times since.

In February 2009 I went back, wondering if I could get some photographs of Bodie against a backdrop of snow. I was staying with my in-laws in Paradise, a neighborhood of Bishop, California, located between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes. My brother-in-law Bob told me that Bodie Road, the road my wife said to take, is a pass that isn't cleared of snow. So he offered to take me there with his four-wheel-drive.

On our way we took a little detour to a ski rental shop in Mammoth Lakes. We wanted to rent cross country skis, for if we still would get stuck with the car in the snow, we would still be able to ski into Bodie. In addition, Bob wanted to go on a little cross country ski trip while I was taking pictures. Even though the snow was piled up quite high in some places, we made it all the way to Bodie.

View of Bodie with the Methodist Church and the Bodie Hills in the background

The sight of the town was as I was hoping for, with the browns of the structures contrasting with the white of the snow on the rooftops and in the surrounding landscape. We were making our way to the Ranger's office on Green Street, so I could pay for a photography permit. We ran into a ranger before we arrived there: he introduced himself as ranger Mark. He was very pleased to meet us, explaining that we were the first visitors he'd met in many days. Not surprisingly, we were the only ones there that day. After I paid for the permit, he walked out with us towards Main Street and told Bob that there are great views of Mono Lake to the south, easily accessible with skis. Then Mark turned to me and said "Would like to go into the General Store?"

The majority of buildings in Bodie are locked, especially the ones with authentic relics inside. It's possible though to look and take pictures through the glass of the windows, as many people do. I had done so too for the Boone and Wright Store and Warehouse. That store is filled with wares to the brim, with shelves fully stocked as if Mr. Boone is about to return from a break and reopen for daily business. Mark's offer sounded like music to my ears, how could I say no? Was he perhaps kidding? "Uh, of course!" I stuttered, fearing he would exclaim that he was indeed just doing that, kidding, and explain that it's against policy to let people in. He took out his keys, opened the door at the side of the building and turned off the alarm.

"Can I take pictures?", I asked still in disbelief, walking over the creaking wooden floor. "Of course", he answered. I followed him towards the front, into the part that has the large windows in the storefront. I looked to my left and was amused by an old sign that was posted behind the counter that said "Let's be friends. Please do not ask for credit". I pointed my camera, held it as still as possible and took a picture of the shelves loaded with merchandise - bottles, boxes, cans, all kinds of stuff - making the sign the focus of the composition. Mark pointed out his favorite objects in the store: one of them was a can of Hills Bros. coffee.  He explained he liked the illustration.

Lots of merchandise on the shelves in the Bodie General Store

He took me to the next room, which served as storage for little iron cast furnaces. He pointed to a particular one that was shaped as a little house. "This is where we keep most of the furnaces from around Bodie" he said. When we returned to the storefront he directed my attention to the lights which were hanging from the ceiling. He mentioned that these lights had been turned on uninterrupted for about 60 years now.

One of the lights that have been turned on uninterrupted

When I asked whether everything in this store is authentic from when it was closed he confirmed that indeed most of it is. When the town was turned into a State Historic Park in the 1960’s, they found the General Store boarded up shut. When they opened it up, the state you see it in now, is how it looked back then. Sometimes though the town gets donated artifacts and research is performed whether the item is from the right era.

I took a few more pictures and we left the store. I thanked Mark and continued walking around the town. Later, after getting back home, I’d emailed him some pictures I took that day. I wondered if there was a way of being able to take photographs in some of the other buildings too - and perhaps also include the General Store again. It turns out there is, but that’s for another story.

Old medicine bottles and packages. Check out what’s in the left-most package!

Official website of Bodie State Historic Park.

A time-lapse video on my YouTube channel of how I hand tinted a 36x24 inch "No Credit"