The First Week

We've only been on sabbatical for a week, but it feels more like a month. We took a three day / two night train trip from Chicago to Oakland, through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. We had the fun of staying in a berth or "roommette" and eating, sleeping, and showering on a moving train. We've visited Oakland, Berkeley, Monterey, Carmel, Yosemite, and San Francisco. It's been wonderful and dizzying. But doing so much this first week has created a very different space for us to live in, this first week away from normal life.

Here are some photos of our time, some of which you may have seen on Facebook or Twitter, if you follow me there, too. (I'm also on Instagram, but just with close friends and family.)

One of the best things about our trip - which only Adam got pictures of - was that my old divinity school friend, Alicia, said she'd meet us at the Glenwood Springs CO station to give us a hug! We haven't seen her in years, and we had ten minutes on the platform to hug, shed a few tears, see her girls who are getting so big, and then run back on the train again.

We finally arrived at Emeryville (just south of Oakland), where my Uncle James picked us up.
Then, before long, we were driving with him, my Aunt MC, and cousin Celeste on the way to Monterey, where MC grew up.

In Monterey, we saw the amazing aquarium and the ocean...

... and the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea and its mission church, the first built in California - in 1771.

We had the spiritial experience of dining at Chez Panisse! (More courses to be shown via Adam's pics. Someday.) Also watching the sunset from a house-sized hunk of rock in Berkeley, called Indian Rock.

(Raspberry souffle - like a cloudy creamy essence of raspberries.)

The next day we drove a few hours through California fruit and nut country to Yosemite National Park. We stayed in the tent cabin village founded in 1899 by two schoolteachers, "in the shadow of Half Dome." It was divine, except for a Japanese (?) couple who started talking to one another (OVER one another) at about 3am, probably packing up to head out and catch a flight somewhere. But I loooved Curry Village - you might want to bring ear plugs, but it's a great place to stay right in Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite. Hard to say much. I'll let pics do the talking.

On Sunday, I had planned to go to church at St. Gregory of Nyssa - an innovative and beautiful place in San Francisco. But I was overwhelmed with new sights, tired from hiking, and felt a bit that visiting this particular church would be more like "working" than refreshing my soul, so I went to All Souls, Berkeley, where I knew I would see one friend... and where I was surprised and delighted to hear one of my professors, Ruth Meyers, preach!

Sunday afternoon, my cousin, Celeste, took us on a tour of some of the murals in San Francisco. Amazing! My soul felt fed. We went to Coit Tower, The Beach Chalet, The San Francisco Women's Center (no pics - darn), and Balmy Alley.

And we visited the Trouble Coffee Co., which I heard about on This American Life on public radio this past year. The owner, Giulietta Carrelli, has an amazing life story. The coffee shop is just a tiny storefront, right near the ocean. It serves coffee drinks, cinnamon toast, baked goods, and "young coconut." We got cinnamon toast and it was delicious.

Here's the transcript of the radio story, if you'd like to read it - TAL "No Place Like Home" http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/520/transcript

So, our second week begins today. We'll hike in Muir Woods and then tonight, get on Amtrak for an overnight trip to Seattle.