Erica and I have loved our time in San
Francisco. We moved for jobs, for lifestyle, for a better climate :)
But we found a place that's been more than special, its been our
home. Its where Erica and I met, its where we fell in love, and had
two wonderful children. Its also where we made so many lifelong
friendships, living in San Francisco has shaped who we are,
emotionally, and spiritually to the core. I'm so glad to have lived
there, and we're very sad to see it go.
Life changes though, and not to put too
fine a point on it, but no matter how much support we've gotten from
our friends we miss our family. We want our kids to grow up knowing
their cousins, their grandparents, and to have the opportunities they
deserve. The Bay Area is wonderful in so many ways, but its not
cheap, and if we really want to live in an urban environment SF is
one of the most difficult places to live. Add to that issues like
evolving US politics, health care, and other government services and
ultimately we came to the difficult decision to make the move back to
The Great White North.
YES that/s right, we're not just headed
East, but North. To the Toronto area specifically. The house in SF
is rented out, our stuff is on the way with the movers, and we have
just hit the road! We're driving, nice and slowly across the country
with the kids and a VERY full car.
There are (of course) lots of other
details, including a wonderful goodbye party with our friends, and
yes a few teary farewells with friends here but now we're resolved to
look forward. We are genuinely excited to start this next chapter in
our lives and today is the first step.
Today is Aug 19th, day 1.
We're driving 229 miles today from San Jose, California to South Lake
Tahoe, California.
Logistics first, before I forget them.
We started out this morning headed north on I680, then after the
Martinez Bridge (I think that's what its called), and we hit Fairfield
we took the 80 E up through Sacramento, and onto the 50 in to El
Dorado National Forest and to South Lake Tahoe. Since we didn't start
until midday our timing was a bit skewed today/ Our plans will fall a
bit more into place over the next day or two and I expect we'll be
onto more of a routine so we can break up the driving into as manageable chunks as possible.
Traveling with a 3 and 1 year old will
be a challenge. Even though our boys are great, and honestly very
seasoned travelers Erica and I are both anticipating a few trying
times. So we're doing what we can to mitigate the issue before any
real problems arise. The kids have toys, snacks, and a lot of breaks
planned. With a few exceptions we're planning on driving for around 4
hours a day. That should be totally manageable... right?
We're also planning a lot of stops, or
maybe I should say we're not planning our stops but just letting them
happen. We'll be staying with some of my family along the way at a
few stops, and we've got hotels booked for the first two nights of
this trip but other than that we're panning on playing it by ear as
much as we can. Yes we have to cross the border into Canada on the
31st, and we have a general idea of where we'll stop for
the evenings, but we don't know where we'll be spending our days.
That's all part of the fun here. This is a real world, genuine
adventure!
Our first stop occurred some 20 minutes
in. Despite having been asked before we left, we received a frantic
call of “I have to pee!” from the backseat... This isn't even the
time it would've taken for us to get from San Jose back to our house
in San Francisco. So somewhere around Danville we pulled into a
Denny's parking lot and Alec got his relief. At least it wasn't in
the car. Our younger one Calum was thankfully sleeping, so we decided
to push through.
Our next stop was for a snack. Roadside
fruit stands are always awesome, and today's was no exception. I
think we must've been somewhere near Dixon, California; at least
that's what it said on all the in house dried fruit and candy
packaging. We picked up a few treats, dried pineapple (YUM!), some
Sour Cherries for E, and a basket of strawberries for a snack later
on.
We've decided that the kids need at the
very least a time to run around everyday. They are VERY active boys
and Sacramento seemed like a good idea. If anyone out there knows how
the Yelp mobile app works please let me know cause I am having a
tricky time figuring out what parks and playgrounds rate best (the
full site seems so much better). Something I expect to be looking up
a lot as we drive.
Ultimately I found a CBS Sacramento
listing for their park picks and we took the coolest sounding one for
their word. Rausch park may technically be in Citris Springs, and not
Sacramento, but it really is very nice. The playground is guarded by
these wonderful stone lions and there was some solid play equipment.
The boys climbed and slid, and did exactly what we were hoping for
the next hour. 
Alec has definitely proven that he won't forget his friends in San Francisco quickly. When approached by Spanish speaking kids on the playground he immediately started singing Mandarin songs he had learned with Alyssa at daycare :)
After some playtime we sat down for a
snack of strawberries. The kids love strawberries, and Alec is always considerable of his brother. He specially found all of the smallest
ones in the basket and gave them to his brother. What a guy.
Back in the car and onto the road
again. We had thought to stay in Reno tonight, but changed our mind,
deciding that spending some time at the beach tomorrow morning then
pushing through to Elko would make more sense. I'm glad of it too.
This area is beautiful! Even from the road, as you get in closer to
Tahoe the trees get bigger, the vista more majestic, and everything
just feels cleaner.
We decided that tonight was an
exception to the plan and stopped at a restaurant off the highway for
dinner. That's one of the unfortunate tings we have to deal with here,
these kids operate on their own time frame. When they are hungry they
are hungry. And being stuck in a car with a grouchy 3 and 1 year old
who haven't eaten is not a place I want to be. So into the belly of
the beast we went and supped at one of the great American staples:
Denny's.
To be honest dinner was pretty good.
Its been a long and very hot day out here. It seemed like as soon as
we left the Bay it got hot, REAL hot. Now though the sun is going
down and so is the temperature.
Back in the car and the kids have a spirited game of hide and seek from the car seats. Its pretty adorable. They've both got their blankets and Calum is in his PJs so the only place they have to hide is under their blankets. They think this is hilarious!
Erica and I have just pulled up to
South Lake Tahoe after some more spectacular hills going over the
southern Tahoe mountain summit. We're a few minutes away from the
hotel taking a quick stop at the Safeway for supplies. (We've been so
busy getting ready for the move we didn't have time to even get
groceries for the trip!)
I just saw the lake a minute or two ago
and am certainly happy to be here. On our way. On our adventure. The
kids have as expected fallen fast asleep in the backseat.
I'm looking forward to day 2. This is
going to be fun.
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