The trip down the OR coast was obviously not made without stops for delicious meals.
Here you go, for the glutton in everyone. Let your inner fat kid out and enjoy the photos. They are in no particular order
Food Glorious Food
After hours of research…
I still can’t make puns about trees. You’d think everything I’ve Redwood help.
Some day, I’ll hit all the National Parks. So far, I have been to a bunch, but I obviously have a lot to go, and I’m not sure if the Grand Canyon and Acadia count, since I was so little and barely remember them.
On this road trip, I hit two, and the first of them was the Redwoods. While I would have loved to take a few days to hike and see the truly old growth (that was old back when Return of the Jedi was filmed), time was ticking so I was only able to spend a day. However, it did not disappoint and it’s just like I thought it would be. Gorgeous and huge, but there were no Ewoks and I was sad.
However, the majesty of the trees was not lost on me, and I am very thankful I got any time at all in this park. It’s one I’d definitely return to if I had a chance.
The trees have shallow roots but grow in clusters and the roots entangle themselves so they are stronger together. They are also fire-resistant and natural fires help activate the seeds and distribute for natural planting. While forest fires can be devastating, they are also a very natural part of death, rebirth, growth, and protection for trees. (It’s those darn humans that have messed up the delicate ecosystem balance!)
What is a car’s favorite fashion accessory?
A clutch!
Okay fine, yes it’s corny. But I bet you chuckled.
The route was simple, or so I thought. Go down the 101, cut over to SF to see a friend, take PCH down to Santa Barbara. However, PCH was closed for a good stretch south of Big Sur, and that detour to SF took up a lot more time than I anticipated.
Here is the final route down to California. Cannon Beach (duh), the Oregon Coast, Tillamook for ice cream, the Redwoods, and San Francisco. Then to the PCH!
Unfortunately, because the PCH was closed for a long way south of Big Sur, it meant I had to stay on the 101 for longer than I’d like. However, once I got to Pismo Beach, I got to see the Pacific Ocean again. And I got to replay this scene in my head over and over:
Unfortunately, it was only a short stint on Highway 1, and then I landed in Santa Barbara. I spent many minutes and miles, and a few gas tanks driving around the city and being stuck in traffic, but overall it’s a lovely place. I don’t know that I’d want to live there, as the temperature is fairly nuclear, but otherwise, a nice place.
On the way home, with only 24 hours to get there, my trusty truck Rocky took a more or less direct route. I did stop in Fresno for In-N-Out (more on the food later), and took a short detour to Crater Lake (again, will discuss later), and made it home in just two days. It was a long drive, but I love road trips so it was at least enjoyable.
California is big, it’s diverse, and it’s very nice to drive through. It’s very, very different from the crazy politics and Hollywood hotties we see on TV.
Oregon Trail
No, not THAT Oregon Trail. Instead, it’s this one, along Highway 101, that travels along the coast. It’s miles and miles of lovely scenery, tiny towns, and no cell service. But it was worth every single minute.
Obviously, because I am between the ages of Gen X and young millennials, I had to stop at Cannon Beach. Alas, there is no pirate ship and no Sloth crying, “HEY YOU GUYS!” And there was no opera serenading by the Fratelli brothers, but there were a ton of people around my age, probably reliving that moment from the movie.
The nice thing about Oregon is that all beaches are state beaches, and all beaches (or at least parts of them) are dog-friendly. Ew, you say? Dog poop everywhere, you say? When you make everyone responsible for things, they tend to be more ok. And when you have a healthy respect for people and land, you do your due diligence and your assigned tasks, like picking up after yourself and your dog. It was incredibly pleasant to not worry about hypodermic needles and dirty diapers buried in the sand (I’m looking at YOU, Hammonasset), or having to pay $30 to park for an hour (Now I’m looking at YOU, Narragansett).
Preppy
The first part of any trip is the planning and I think I like this part more than any other.
I usually have color coded itineraries, scope out the food scenes, get my hotels in order, and pack the exact clothing I want to wear. I also might treat myself to other little toiletries, because who doesn’t love when things are travel sized for your convenience?
However, road trips with only a start and finish location, and “I think I’ll just meander” give me a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit of anxiety since there is no planning. I needed a way to scratch that itch so I went a little overboard on the packing.
I packed some some outfits, including my lovely embroidered and beaded dress for this wedding, but made sure I had some sort of outfit for nearly every situation I could think up. I also bought myself a new duffel bag that I HIGHLY recommend. I fit 7 days of clothing, a jean jacket, a hoodie, 5″ wedges, flip flops, and sneakers, and a pretty big bag of toilettes, AND my dress in the garment pocket. Yes, I am travel-size, so my things are smaller, but for a normal-size person I bet you could fit at least 4 days’ worth and two pairs of shoes.
The other thing I planned was seeing some truly wonderful friends in Portland and San Francisco that I haven’t seen in a few years. They picked the restaurant and we broke bread, talked, laughed, and shared the wonderful new things in our lives.
California Dreams
When I received an invitation to a wedding in Santa Barbara, I had to make sure my dog was cared for.
Unfortunately, most dog sitters and friends were going to said wedding, so instead I decided to take the week before and road trip (with her) from my NW WA home down the Oregon coast, and then hustle back when it was over.
While I will expand on this further in future posts, here are some thoughts, in no particular order:
- Somehow, I only ever want Chick-Fil-A on Sundays
- SoCal water is TERRIBLE
- SoCal at the end of July is HOT
- In-N-Out is good, but still overrated
- The Oregon Coast is incredible
- There is NO SERVICE AT ALL for most of the 101
- The Redwoods are stunning
- So is Crater Lake
- I need to wear heels more
- Cannon Beach is a lie – there is no pirate ship and no Sloth to greet you
- Parts of California should be their own states
- I really love where I live
Liquid Hot Magma
Go ahead and judge me, but ten years ago, Taco Bell discontinued the Volcano Menu and part of me died.
Last Thursday, June 29, is now a day that will always remind me that a broken heart can be slowly pieced back together, as they brought back the Volcano Burrito and the Volcano Taco. And now you can get the Lava Sauce (yes it deserves capital letters) to add onto anything you want.
I have not gone back yet because someone accidentally told me the calorie counts, but I feel compelled to get it at least once more – who knows when it will disappear again? I should load up while I can. I can always run more miles, but I can’t always get extra Lava Sauce.
You Can’t Go Home Again
Thomas Wolfe was severely mistaken.
Of course you can go home. You just can’t expect it to be the way you remembered it. For better or for worse, you can go home with managed expectations.
A bit ago, I trekked home to Rhode Island for a parental Christmas gift. Of course, being the wonderful humans that they are, my parents wanted this homecoming to be a Jenna Trip, instead of an “Our Christmas Gift.” While I don’t go back to New England often (because of COVID and then the sheer bliss of waking up in your own bed at 11am on Christmas Day), this was a trip that I will not soon forget.
In no particular order:
- My mom and I got to use my CVS Employee Discount. It’s the first time I’ve used it and I helped her choose an absolutely perfect lip stain;
- My mom and I went to an antique jewelry shop and we got to try on jewelry and it was SPECTACULAR;
- I got to see my “Dad’s side” cousins and aunt/uncle, which I am so thankful for. We always just pick up right where we left off. I really love them;
- I got to see my Mom’s sisters and my Uncle, with whom we bonded over books and intellectual pursuits;
- the freaking food: Real Am/Chinese, Northeast Italian, and home cooking;
- I got to meet some of my parents’ new friends, and see some family friends that have really taken a good part in our lives;
- Being able to meet a direct report and a mentee;
- Seeing the people in CT that have been essential in my life since….2008?
In case you’ve not read prior to this, PIZZA is an art form in the Northeast. Which is to say that it’s freaking terrible where I live. I was blessed enough to meet five friends in New Haven, CT for a delicious lunch. Even better is that we got the best ones on the menu. Anywhere else, take note. See that char? THAT IS HOW PIZZA SHOULD BE COOKED!!!!!!!!!
I’ve worked remotely for the last 7 years, have been on multiple teams in various divisions, and switched companies. That means I’ve never met my coworkers in person. Now that I have direct reports, I figured it was kind of important to take the time to meet one of them. Big D is one of my favorite people ever, and he lives in the PVD. He introduced me to JT and she is my new mentee. We all met for lunch, and it was joyous and delicious. There is so much to be gained from breaking bread in person.
I’m used to exercising every day, so I felt the need to go for a little walk. There’s a wildlife refuge area near my parents’ house, and I decided to explore. Yes, it was getting dark. Yes, it was cold. Yes, I was alone. Yes, I was listening to a true crime podcast. Yes, I have listened to enough of them to scare me. It was totally fine until I got to the “oh this happened in a peaceful little town where it could NEVER happen, and since no one knew where she went walking, her body wasn’t found for weeks.” All that being said, I’m far more concerned about Native American hauntings in this area than a mass murderer. I couldn’t get close enough, but there is a big rock commemorating a massacre in the 1700s, and then I started to see faces in trees. Watching me. I figured enough is enough, and I hightailed it home. (Plus, my fingers were numb.)
If it weren’t for the pesky traveling part, I’d go home a lot more often. Flying is quite possibly one of the worst tortures known to man, especially if by “man” you mean a tiny Asian girl for whom personal space becomes an option on a crowded plane. Just because I don’t take up the whole seat doesn’t mean you get the leftover space! Otherwise, you totally CAN go home again, and you should.
I Wanna Be Sedated
My first post back in over a year isn’t super happy, though it is kind of funny.
One thing about getting old is that there’s always something new to hurt. Whether it’s pulling your back while getting up off the couch, or taking seventeen days to recover from a night out, it’s never a dull moment.
Recently, my doctor thinks I have something called trigeminal neuralgia. The TLDR is that it’s a nerve condition that hurts like a mofo, and is always a roulette wheel of when it will strike. It feels like an electric shock from my teeth through my eyeball. It lasts anywhere from a second or two to over a minute. It’s debilitating and sucks. Otherwise, it feels like you had a cavity filled and the lidocaine has worn off.
I have a neurology appointment in a few weeks, but in the meantime, I have a prescription for pregabalin, or as it’s more commonly known, Lyrica. It’s generally used for people with seizures, all sorts of nerve pain, and is an anticonvulsant. The thing about meds that try to deaden nerves is that they have some nasty side effects – my favorites are below:
- seizures
- blistering, peeling, or loosening of the skin
- bloating or swelling of the face, arms, hands, lower legs, or feet
- joint or muscle pain
- accidental injury
- false beliefs that cannot be changed by facts
- stabbing pain
- trouble recognizing objects
- trouble thinking and planning
- excess air or gas in the stomach or bowels
- false or unusual sense of well-being
- increased hunger
- loss of appetite
- loss of bladder control
- nightmares
- pain
- passing gas
- Breast enlargement
- swelling of the breasts or breast soreness in both females and males
So….I’m sure YOU have a fantastic visual from those symptoms, because I certainly do.
I will be a hungry (but not hungry?) delusional person with even bigger knockers that pees herself and farts uncontrollably. I will have nightmares, won’t be able to figure out what I’m looking at, and I will also have horrible skin that looks like it’s falling off me. I’ll also continue to be in pain. But hey, at least I’ll be happy go lucky?
Why Was The Mushroom a Hit at the Party?
BECAUSE HE WAS A FUNGI!!!!
Bwahahahaha, but no ok really.
One of my most favorite memories with my grandmother was taking a walk from my childhood home, and just about half a mile in, we came across what I now know was a massive hen-of-the-woods on the side of a tree. My grandmother ripped the mushroom off the tree and we turned around to go back home. She washed them and cooked the gigantic leafy fungus in a magical sauce, and we ate it on Italian bread.
She was a mushroom genius – this was a frequent occurrence, when walking with her. She knew the right ones to pick and eat, the ones to leave alone, and the ones that would be ok if we just cooked them long enough. She would sneak into people’s yards to take them out of the grass and off trees. And we’d always make them in the same secret sauce, and eat them on Italian bread.
I am truly adopted because I have literally 0 of this talent. But when my good friend, the Mermaid, asked me to go mushroom foraging in a local park near my house….sure! She is just getting really into mushrooming, and fall is the ideal time to go in the PNW. Despite the ominous weather forecast, we grabbed the pooch, what is considered the premier guidebook for mushroom hunting in Washington (below) and headed out into the woods.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com
Let me tell you some things about hunting for mushrooms.
- First of all, you might have better luck getting the nuclear codes than finding hotspots for mushrooms, especially chanterelles. A few hours of searching online left me with little more than a lot of “f you find your own spot!” and “you might want to try somewhere along the 54 mile stretch from your town to the local ski resort.” The good thing is that there are hundreds of parks, trails, and wooded areas, so you can pretty much find them anywhere.
- Second, there are about seventy bajillion types of mushrooms, including LBMs (little brown mushrooms) that are so infinite in number, you never know if you actually have the right one. Books and apps can only get you so far.
- Mushrooms come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some even look like rocks, until you break them open.
- You are not as good at color identification as you think you are. What you think is purple, someone else sees as grey, and what you see as tangerine might actually be more fire-orange to someone else. All of these make a difference in trying to identiify them.
- You are not as good at shapes as you think you are. Sure, it might be sort of this way or that, but when you’re trying to pick between campanulate and ovate, but it also sort of looks like umbontae, and that will be the determining factor between edible and death, you wish you had paid more attention in kindergarten.
Needless to say, while finding shrooms might be easy, identifying them is certainly not. Nonetheless, the Mermaid and I worked to pick a bunch, and it was quite the experience. It might be due to the rain in the fall in Washington, but these were SLIMY mothereffers. And yes, dirt gets everywhere. It didn’t help that it started to rain (a lot) and we got soaked and covered in mud, but it certainly made for an adventure.
There’s a lot of different fungi out there, and this was one of the cooler ones. In this photo, you can see what sort of looks like cake frosting and the Mermaid trying to scrape some off. There were just so many interesting things – we went about a mile it and took almost two hours, but it was fascinating to see the babies and the big ones, to see how they grow and live off the land, and how different animals use them as food.
Speaking of food, you probably shouldn’t eat them without being absolutely positively positive you can….and even then…
After several hours of traipsing in the rain, and after some very strong hard cider from a delicious local place, we went back to my house to sort, identify, and potentially eat our haul.
It didn’t take too long to discover that we had about 20 different types of mushrooms, and we were only able to identify a handful of them. Most were inedible, or we weren’t willing to take the chance.
Because we had found some edible ones (or so the guidebook and app said), we figured we would eat them. Yes, I can see you rolling your eyes and saying “No Jenna, noooooo” and like this was a bad idea. But what’s the worst that could happen? So the Mermaid washed them off while I heated the pan, and I suspect part of why it was so interesting is that we didn’t clean them as well as we should have. You never know what animal peed on your mushroom…
One was ok. In fact, it’s the big parasol one that the Mermaid is licking in an above picture. The other two types were…..slimy? Spongy? I’ve never been a texture person but these were so bad that I spit them out. I can’t say they turned me off of mushrooms, but until I level up to Grandma, I’m not going to be eating things I find in the woods again any time soon. Both the Mermaid and I had the same reaction to them, both during consumption and after. While we didn’t get sick, things weren’t completely right for a bit, and I’m glad we scrapped all the other ones.
I had a great time doing it and definitely would go again, but the eating would take a lot of convincing. Like a seasoned forager will say, “Every mushroom is edible….once.”
And all the roads we have to walk are winding... 