made it to San Francisco

Well, we're in San Francisco and we dropped off the rental car yesterday, so the roadtrip is over. Tomorrow Joy will fly back to NYC and I will have a few days in San Francisco on my own before flying to HK late on Tuesday night.

The last few days of driving were also great with only the brief exception of actually driving into SF on the last day. We left St George, UT a bit late, stopping at a vegetarian place called the Health Deli to scope it out. They were closed but the owner saw me taking pictures outside so he came out and we chatted with him and his wife for a bit. They were very nice, but have been forced to recently scale back their hours after losing all three of their employees. Apparently there is a labor shortage in St George due to the rapid economic growth there, or something like that. So these guys have limited hours and get most of their business preparing food for a nearby spa. We bid them farewell and hit the road and wound up in Vegas around lunchtime. We had a fantastic Indian meal...I mean really, really great, and then took a drive down Las Vegas Blvd all the way to the Southern edge of town before getting back on the highway. We were on the Interstate briefly before bailing back to winding desert roads leading us eventually into California. We spent the rest of the day driving through Death Valley National Park and we stayed in a small town called Lone Pine, California on the other side of the park, facing the Sierra Nevada. I even managed to get a vegan burrito in a Mexican/American restaurant there called Bonanza.

The next day was our last day of driving really, and I think we made the most of it. We headed North up another two-lane highway and made a left into Yosemite National Park, actually the first road north of where we were that went through the mountains. The scenery was of course beautiful, though we didn't really stop and explore in detail, just enjoying the scenery on the road. We pulled off a few times to take pictures, but just like all of these places you could spend a lot more time exploring the parks in detail. Getting into the Grand Canyon Park costs $25 per car, and Yosemite cost $20 per car. When we got to Yosemite, we had the option of paying $5 more with our Grand Canyon receipt and getting an annual pass, so I did, just in case, which means for the next year I can get into any National Park for free. $50 is a pretty good deal I think for that access, too bad it doesn't work in China too.

So, we eventually arrived here in SF and spent yesterday walking around. The weather isn't great, it's overcast and kind of chilly. Yesterday we took a walk through Chinatown, which is actually very large here. Joy got a gigantic dimsum feast and then had to go back and take a nap. I met my friend Ian for lunch at a vegetarian place called Golden Era which was very good. We had seen him the night before for a drink at the hotel after our arrival and urgent finding of an Indian restaurant. Yesterday afternoon, Joy and I explored an all-Japanese mall for a while, then took the streetcar down a bit to Haight St and looked around Haight-Ashbury. I must say that each time I come here, I feel the same way, which is that I don't really care for SF. I know a lot of people who live here and love it, but I never feel any attachment to it or desire to come back really. It's ok, but in my opinion doesn't hold a candle to New York. Walking anywhere here is kind of difficult and far, it's not really set up for it. The mass transit isn't particularly useful. It works, but it's nowhere near as simple and accessible to everywhere as New York. I will say that the city is pretty diverse, which is a redeeming quality. There are tons of Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Thai and other restaurants and people. Architecturally it is kind of interesting, but many streets are kind of dull. In New York, you seldom walk for a block without something of interest popping up. There are no 20 minute walks in Manhattan through residential districts without stores, restaurants, museums, bars, and 1000 people. Here, it just feels less lively. Perhaps it is the weather to some extent or the season, but it always seem this way to me everytime I come here: Ok, but not New York.

So last night Joy wasn't feeling great so we decided to do some takeout from a Japanese place near our hotel. It actually worked out ok, I got vegetable udon noodle soup and Joy got the same but with chicken. Pretty tasty. Today we are kind of getting motivated now, but the weather is still very overcast and chilly, so it's kind of a bummer. This has been by far the worst weather of our trip. Every other day until yesterday in SF was at least sunny, and only chilly up in the mountains. Yesterday, the sun was only out here for about 10 minutes. Hopefully today that changes. We may take a trip to Berkeley today which I have usually liked a bit better than SF proper.

I uploaded some pictures to my Flickr page which is linked to the right, or you can get to simply by clicking here. I will add new pictures to the end of that set until I leave for HK and start a new one.

Of mountains and deserts

Let's see if I can remember all the things that have happened in the last few days.

We spent Sunday night in Salida, Colorado. It was a smallish town in the mountains, probably around 9000 ft. We managed to find a Fiesta Mexicana which I have since realized is some kind of local or maybe midwestern Mexican chain restaurant, since we've seen quite a few of them since. It turned out to be really good. I scored some vegetable fajitas with rice and beans and joy enjoyed her food as well. Also the guy who served us was Mexican and kept speaking Spanish to us so I spoke Spanish back, but he was unfazed. The evening was uneventful.

Waking up relatively early we continued through the Rockies. We drove all day, eventually making it to Page, Arizona. The scenery varied wildly from incredible views of snow-capped peaks from a distance and at times up close, small and twisting roads through giant rolling hills, and then only a short distance later, the open desert with tumbleweeds and brush. That day we traveled only on smaller roads, all very scenic, the route being co-50 to Montrose, co-550 to ridgway, co-60 to co-145 which took us right past Telluride, a ski resort I once went to a million years ago and then all the way past Cortez, CO to the Four Corners national monument which I last visited in 2001 on my first roadtrip. It's kind of a novelty but the scenery in all directions is absolutely amazing. From there we shot down through the Arizona desert and nearby Indian reservations on az-160 eventually turning up az-98 into Page, AZ. We just made it there by sundown and in time to try a "Chinese/American" restaurant with both vegetable fried rice and burgers on the menu. They had some tofu, so I was happy and Joy reported her food to be really good, leaving us both pleasantly surprised. The Chinese woman who served us seemed enthused to have an Asian customer, though a few others walked in while we ate.

The next day was my favorite so far I think. As beautiful as the Rockies were, there's something about the desert that has always affected me differently. Maybe it is because I've seen mountains and forests fairly often in my life, but desert is something I've generally only seen on these roadtrips. There is a surreal quality to the Southwest, almost like an alien landscape. The road out of Page towards the North Rim of the Grand Canyon may have been one of the most beautiful on which I've ever driven. It was az-89 to az-89A through something called the Vermilion Cliffs. The road itself rides through a relatively flat area of desert, but miles off the side of the road giant red cliffs rise up out of the desert and follow you for hours. On occasion you pass through a canyon and find yourself looking out over a similar stretch that might as well be infinite. The pictures will never do it justice and if there's anything I still need to see more of in this country after driving in this area already so many times, it would be this. The Grand Canyon was impressive of course. I'd never been to the North Rim before, but in order to get to the Canyon itself, a bit more driving is necessary than the South Rim. There's quite a bit of forest on the way as well, so you drive through treescapes and winding mountain roads as you get up to elevation, then emerge to the impossibly huge views of the Canyon that descend deep to the Colorado River which you can barely make out depending on where you are standing and how willing you are to go closer to the edge. Also, visiting the North Rim, it is necessary ultimately to backtrack and go back on the same road you came in. It's a beautiful road, but not as beautiful as the desert was to get there, so once was probably enough. This is just the access road mind you, one could probably a spend weeks exploring the Canyon itself and not get bored.

Our visit to the Grand Canyon and the drive to get there took out most of our day. We ended up doing some night driving to get to St George, UT where we currently reside. We're just about motivating and our plan for today is unclear. Bryce doesn't look like it will happen, so now I'm kind of thinking about something in the direction of Death Valley as we progress towards San Francisco.

On the road again

I am in Salida, Colorado. Joy and I are safely ensconced at a Comfort Inn, which I have always found to be clean and this one is thankfully no exception.

The flight to Denver and the wedding all went off as planned. Joy's friend Vivien is Taiwanese and her parents flew in from Taipei for the wedding, so I had several opportunities to attempt Chinese conversations which I seized. I'd give myself a C+ on my performance but I was at least understood. Everyone in the groom's (also Dan) family was very nice. Friday evening there was a rehearsal dinner at a place which I believe was called the Crazy Asian Bistro or something to that effect. There were about 40 people in attendance and the drinking really got out of hand very quickly. I hadn't really planned on drinking all that much, but Vivien's father apparently had other plans in mind. The way to toast in Chinese is with the words "gan bei" which means "drain your glass" and it is not just figurative. There was a bigger bottle of Jagermeister than I'd ever seen before, but the real disaster was the rather large glasses of wine he would pour for each person as he moved around the table. Of course it's a tremendous insult to not drink. All things considered, I escaped pretty easy, but the room was definitely spinning by the time I got back there. Don't ask how her dad ended up, but you can probably guess. The food was good, since it is a Chinese restaurant there were plenty of vegetarian things for me to eat, including a really good sweet and spicy tofu and some mixed vegetables. Earlier in the day we'd gone to a vegetarian place in Denver called Watercourse Foods which I'd been to once before on Sarah's US tour and I knew to be good. I had the same thing as last summer, vegan biscuits and gravy with mashed potatoes. It was really great. It's the kind of place that for some reason we don't really have in NYC. Places like it sure, but maybe just because it is Denver it feels much larger and in some way more relaxed. I'm sorry I didn't have room for dessert, they had these insane looking vegan cupcakes but maybe next time.

There were various additional excursions over the weekend. We have a rental car so getting around was easy, though there were shuttle buses from the hotel to the wedding events which was probably a good idea for the above-mentioned reasons. We went to a few different malls pre and post wedding, the latter today with Vivien so she and Joy had some time to hang out before we left. They have known each other since high school and are really funny together, though I'd say I'm only following maybe 50% of the rapid-fire Mandarin. At least I can tell when they are talking about me now. We also went to a Taiwanese bubble tea place afterwards. For lunch we ate at another vegetarian place in Denver called Wholly Tomato which had a really vegan-friendly menu but also serves meat. I had Indian food on Saturday for lunch which was also great. This is the most time I've spent in Denver and I was kind of pleasantly surprised at how multi-cultural it is. I guess I shouldn't be, but my view of the true midwest kind of helped me forget that Denver is a really big and diverse place.

So we finally got out of Denver today around 3:30 or so and I wasn't sure how far we'd make it, but we did really well. We took the interstate down to Colorado Springs and then leaped off onto US-24, a really scenic road west through the Rockies. With some twists and turns and a few hours of driving, we made it here to Salida, one of the larger towns in the area. It was a beautiful drive though I didn't take many pictures. There is a tendency when on these types of roadtrips to want to snap a zillion pictures, but rarely do they capture the feeling of being out in these places that are the polar opposite of somewhere like New York. Tomorrow should be very beautiful and I'll try to take a few more to give some idea of the scenery. The plan for tomorrow is to stick to the local roads and two-lane highways and get as close to the north rim of the Grand Canyon as possible so we can visit that the next morning. I'm excited for a full day of mountain and then desert driving. The cities in the US are great of course, but I have always felt the vast areas between are even more amazing and decidedly under-appreciated and under-visited.

I hope all of you are well. I will be in touch soon.

It has begun...

I will be leaving New York City on 9/21/06 after living here for about 3 years.

The plan so far is to fly to Denver, CO with Joy to attend her and my friend Vivien's wedding. We'll be renting a car there and driving to San Francisco by way of a series of undoubtedly incredible sites in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. The exact route is subject to change, but I'm thinking about the Arches National Park, the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.

From my previous roadtrips I've learned to stick to two-lane highways and avoid interstates. The southwest is all pretty much beautiful, so I think it will be hard to go wrong. Las Vegas is a possible stop as is San Simeon along the California coast. The goal will be to have a few days in San Francisco before Joy flies back to New York and I continue on to Hong Kong. I have a one-way ticket leaving San Francisco on 10/4/06. I'll arrive in HK without a whole lot in terms of a plan. I have some kind of reservation at a guesthouse in the Kowloon area. I'll explore Hong Kong and perhaps Macau a bit and then venture into China. I'll be traveling overland by train, bus, and hopefully yak eventually but let's keep our fingers crossed on that one.

As far as the route from there goes, I don't really know. I'll start with Guangdong and Fujian provinces I think, and then see how I feel. Shanghai is a possibility, but if the weather is too cold as I progress north, I'll take a left and head west and south instead. I will post more information and pictures here as I travel.