Photo-sharing is the one thing I’ve missed since jettisoning myself out of social media about a year ago. To address that loss, I’ve decided to use this space to share some pictures of what I’ve been up to since returning to California in late-November. Of course, this strategy only addresses half the issue. I’m still missing out on other people’s photos, but I don’t know what to do about that besides ask my loved ones to text me everything they post online…which they probably/definitely won’t do.
I’ll start with the big trees:
The dogs say, “What tree? Another dog is approaching!”
I really missed California’s incredible array of trees and pined (ha ha) for them ever since we left in ’09.
Next, the coast:
Daisy’s first Pacific Ocean experience. She approved.
Titus at Point Reyes. He was introduced to mussels and barnacles and thought they were very scary. But the rest of the beach was great.
This is how Titus lets us know we’ve walked far enough.
I’ve done a lot of wandering around outdoors. I’m unemployed and surrounded by beautiful, natural spaces, so what else can I do? 🙂 (Those of you who know me even a tiny bit won’t be surprised by the mushroom portraiture.)
On the Vista Loop at Sugarloaf Ridge. I’d had my first visit to this park the day before and it was a total failure – I ended up trudging uphill on the road in the rain for over a mile – so I had JR go back with me the next day to have a redemptive experience. And we sure did!
Joyous JR on a ridge trail
Raindrops on a spiderweb
This branch/root looks like it’s running.
San Francisco and the bay from the summit of San Bruno Mountain
That hill is made of compressed volcanic ash from millions of years ago!
We got to visit Santa Cruz and reunite with our sea lion pals:
And I got to snap a shot of this place that was right by my first apartment in Santa Cruz. I call it the Watch That First Step House:
Here are some flowers:
😆
Here’s what our Christmas tree looked like:
And here’s a lit-up palm in Sonoma’s downtown plaza:
Here I am with my dear friend Caro, whose birthday we got to celebrate just a week after we arrived:
We’ve been friends for over 20 years ~ I’m so excited we’re back in the same state!
And finally, here’s Mom with Titus:
Both dogs are in love with their Grammy and can’t believe how lucky they are to have her move with them to California. 🥰
Yay, I got to share pictures!! I’m so happy. I really hope you liked them…and that you start texting me yours. 😁
In my adult life, I’ve lived in fifteen homes: one in Key West, Florida; seven in California (six in Santa Cruz and one in Watsonville); two in Portland, Oregon; one on Orcas Island; and four in North Carolina (three in Asheville and one in Black Mountain). Yesterday, I landed at my sixteenth, this one in Sonoma, California.
While my body feels near collapse, well aware of what it just went through, my mind can’t really believe that we traveled for 8 days, crossing North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before reaching the Golden State.
The day we left, we awoke at 6 a.m. and spent the next five hours loading the remainder of our belongings into a PODS container, then making the house look like this:
The dogs had to guard the door to make sure we didn’t forget them.
That was a miserable, exhausting experience, followed by a 7-hour drive. Thankfully, the AirBNB that greeted us in Jackson, Tennessee featured several of these lamps, which was a pleasant consolation for the somewhat miserable day:
Just as he did before our last cross-country move, my husband JR got us walkie talkies for the journey. When I mentioned this to my mom, she said, “Will we have handles? I want to be Eager Beaver.” She chose this moniker in homage to a weekend trip we’d taken with two other families when I was a kid. There had been a CB radio in each family’s vehicle, and the kids in said vehicles had periodically taken turns singing The Beaver Song to each other. [For reference, here is a YouTube lady enthusiastically demonstrating The Beaver Song with wide-eyed glee.] After one particularly rousing version, there’d been a brief pause, and then a grizzled male voice had crackled over the airwaves and asked, in a thick Southern drawl: “What in the HELL was that?” All us kids had laughed about that for the duration of the weekend, and then over the next ten years.
I told Mom that yes, of course we’d have handles, and that JR and I were Joe Rodeo and Chickenhead, respectively. About an hour after we embarked on our journey, Mom heard her walkie talkie crackle and thought one of us was trying to reach her. She picked it up and said, “Eager Beaver, come in!” Unfortunately for her, neither of us had been trying to reach her, nor were we within range, and it was some random man who replied, “Eager Beaver? Hey, y’all, we got ourselves an eager beaver over here. Eager Beaver, I got some wood that needs choppin’ – come on!”
😂
Mom let out a squeak and threw her walkie talkie to the floor. She didn’t change her handle, though. Eager Beaver for life!
Over the 8-day trip, we stayed in six AirBNBs. I learned that there seems to be a rule among AirBNB hosts that their home should feature at least one image of a cow.
Also, a framed version of 1 Corinthians 13:4 is very popular, because all travelers need to remember that love is patient, kind, etc.
Our journey was long, tiring, and really quite wonderful. We got to experience the big skies of Arkansas and Oklahoma:
We got to see family:
And beautiful places…
The Foothills in Albuquerque
Painted Desert National Park
[I used Magic Eraser to edit out Daisy’s leash, and now this photo gives me heart palpitations.]
Heading towards the San Francisco Mountains in Arizona
The dogs slept and snuggled through it all.
In my 2025 calendar, this is the image for November:
Before we embarked on our journey, I sent the photo to Mom and JR, suggesting that we, as a traveling trio, would likely be rotating through the emotional states of the pictured wolves, namely: frenzy, wariness, and irritation. In reality, though, we were more like this:
We stayed positive, kept ourselves and each other sane, and savored each leg of the journey.
And now, though it feels unbelievable and surreal, we have arrived in Sonoma, and we have so much learning and exploring to do, it’s a bit overwhelming. However, I’ll strive to face the task just like our 8-day journey:
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