Journey to the "Mighty Lungs of the World"

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."
Jacques Cousteau

California. It was where Nate and I developed great careers, were single but searching for each other, where we eventually met through friends at church, and had wonderful adventures hiking, biking, sailing, exploring. It's where we got engaged, started our lives as a married couple in a tiny apartment together and began a family together. It is where we bought our first home and brought our first four amazing offspring into the world. It is where we built a beautiful community of friends who became so close they are still like family. So it just felt right to spend a good chunk of our time at the beginning of our trip retracing some of our early steps and helping the children reconnect with their roots.

Driving across Nevada to California felt so familiar, and brought back so many memories of going back and forth between our home in the Bay Area after visiting family in Idaho and Utah during the eleven years we lived there. We all kind of got into our zen mode of just readin' and chillin'. The anticipation of reconnecting with our old stomping grounds was palpable.

This gal learned to be an incredibly chill traveler

Earlier in March, Nate and I had taken a weekend anniversary trip to San Jose together with the baby to catch up with people and visit some of our old haunts, when we drove past Half Moon Bay. Since we had just bought the RV, the campgrounds there at HMB caught our eye, so we checked to see if there was availability in May, as things fill up quickly. Sure enough, there was a four day stretch just waiting for us! Hence the big push to just get on the road and make it to our rare reservation. The ocean was calling!

Blessed sign! We're on our way to Half Moon Bay!

The only issue was getting over Donner pass as there was snow expected. So we skeedaddled extra hard to beat the weather and found a spot last minute at a state park campground. We did catch some snow on our way but it was thankfully pretty light. The rain down in the valley played to our favor and there were several abandoned spots available. 

Coming over the pass to see all the greenery in the Sacramento valley was SO refreshing. It felt like being back in the Garden of Eden after surviving in the desert for years!

We were so lucky to get a spot on a busy weekend. The trees were amazing, and just a little tricky to navigate around.

 We did the first of many temple visits - our first time inside the Sacramento Temple to do temple work. We had attended the open house many years ago before it was first dedicated.

Wowza, what a pinecone!

This fuzzy friend was a nice part of the welcoming committee

Moisture even makes the rocks burst with life and lichen!

Peekaboo! - exploring the verdant campground

I realized this was the last ward our neighbor Cassidy Jensen had just barely served in a couple months prior, so we had to take pictures with the people who knew and  loved her so much!

Attending the Granite Bay ward on Sunday was also very refreshing. My children kept remarking about how friendly everyone was.  I loved the sacrament meeting talks. The topic - cultural diversity - is one of my all time favorites. I took lots of notes from what the speaker shared and my own thoughts about it. I'll share some of that here:

"What is cultural pluralism and what does it look like? How is it different from diversity? Cultural pluralism is where many cultures thrive together, not just coexisting in cloisters. RV life is such a microcosm of that. What factors make that possible or kill it?

We met in the SF Bay Area, a literal melting pot of cultures and a place where innovation and creativity thrives.

My upbringing was international schools where Americans and Christians were the minority but were treated with much respect. Some of my closest friends in high school were Muslim, and I found I had much in common with their deep personal commitment to their faith. People were open to new ideas and challenging the status quo.

Nate was raised in a more homogenous society, where there is one dominant ethnicity and religion, where people have created a strong sense of stability and tradition.  People seem to find much comfort in the status quo. Change happens more subtly.

Going back to the Bay Area this time has rekindled an interest in “cultural plurality” for us. The issue is not whether either of our cultural paradigms are right or wrong. There are cultural elements in each of our upbringing that don’t lead to happiness in marriage or family or work environment. It’s our job to identify the good and bad, keep what is worth keeping, and “with a breath of kindness blow the rest away” (Arabian Proverb).  It's exciting to think that we - like any couple or family - can create something totally new and unique and special together while still maintaining our individuality. We want very much to pass this mindset on to our children.

What family culture can allow us to be strong and united and yet free to be individuals? This is a question we hope to answer together while we are traveling."

We arrived at the coast! Half Moon Bay State park felt like paradise.

I love how the ocean brings out the open, playful child in just about everyone...especially in our family.

"Then there are caverns full of water, numbing cold, fiercely hot—hotter than any boiling water. From some of these the water cannot get out, and from others it runs in channels as the blood in the body: little veins bring it down from the ice above into the great caverns of the mountain's heart, whence the arteries let it out again, gushing in pipes and clefts and ducts of all shapes and kinds, through and through its bulk, until it springs newborn to the light, and rushes down the mountain side in torrents, and down the valleys in rivers—down, down, rejoicing, to the mighty lungs of the world, that is the sea, where it is tossed in storms and cyclones, heaved up in billows, twisted in waterspouts, dashed to mist upon rocks, beaten by millions of tails, and breathed by millions of gills, whence at last, melted into vapour by the sun, it is lifted up pure into the air, and borne by the servant winds back to the mountain tops and the snow, the solid ice, and the molten stream.”- George MacDonald, The Princess and Curdie

Days 2 and 3: Carlin Canyon, NV to Half Moon Bay, CA, 517 miles

Her first pilgrimage to the ocean!! Welcome, little one to the "lungs of the world"

She loves it!

Homemade clam chowder in the instant pot on a rainy day by the ocean. Ahhhh. Comfort.

Those clouds.

A little rainbow was the perfect sign that we were right where we belonged. Together. Half Moon Bay.