Adventures
Why we wonāt visit San Francisco again
Last week we made a weekend trip to San Francisco. It was sort of a bust.
Thatās unexpected, as SF has traditionally been my most favorite city to visit in the United States. But itāll probably be the last time we plan such a trip.
Thatās not due to San Francisco being a some sort of hellscapeāwe didnāt notice anything different than what you can find in any large US city. We didnāt witness any crime whatsoever (well, except perhaps for the prices at some Pier 39 shops).
San Francisco has always fascinated me. Thatās probably because my mom loved living there, and my dad loved it there too. They met in SF, living there for much of the 70s, so I heard all about their heydays together in the city. Its cosmopolitan vibe was so different than my life in Arizona, especially the edge of rural Tucson where I spent my early childhood. It was urban in a way I hadnāt experienced before, and everywhere you looked, there were cool things like cable cars(!) and crazy ass hills(!) and Lombard Street(!) and sea lions(!) and Alcatraz(!) and Golden Gate Park(!) and Ghirardelli Chocolate(!), and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge(!!). Everything about it seemed cool, countercultural, and just foreign enough to be uniquely interesting. Oh, and it was home to my favorite team, the 49ersāso it also meant seeing lots of fellow fans, and picking up a shirt or hat that was not available anywhere in Arizona.
We had family in the Bay Area, our closest in both geography and relationship, and so it was a common destination for family trips. In fact, it was among the few places we ever traveled to.
So youād imagine that Iād have really enjoyed the weekend there. Itās been ages since Iāve seriously visited the cityāweāre talking at least a decade and a half, perhaps even two, by this point. What magical little spots might we find in the neighborhood we were staying? What interesting museums could we peruse? What lost history could we uncover? What street scenes would conjure up those romantic notions of urban culture? We arrived without a set plan, hoping to find our way through a place that was familiar yet still quite foreign.
Iāll admit that this was a much different trip than our normal travel weekends. It was actually the first time that we flew into the city, sans car, and stayed in the city as a couple.
I usually stay in Palo Alto with other family, opting to jet around the metro area, usually avoiding the high traffic and lack of affordable/easy parking options in the city itselfāwhich is why I hadnāt been to any of the touristy spots in so long. We were primarily there to visit Jenās good travel friend, visit my uncle and aunt, and check out the urban core of the city. We had also hoped to visit the immigration museum on Angel Island (the āEllis Island of the Westā), the GLBT Historical Society Museum, the Counterculture Museum, and check out the local beer scene. Oh, and weād stop by a game watching party for the ASU football game. And of course, weād see whatever else there was to see along the way.
Well, that plan did not work too well. We quickly rediscovered why we dislike urban life so much.
Walkability is great when youāre mostly staying in your own neighborhood. Otherwise, it can be incredibly inconvenient. We walked quite a bit during the weekend, which Iām sure my cardiologist appreciates. But half of the time we needed to get a ride to our destinationāand boy, do those add up. We spent more than $250 on rides during the weekend, never at any sort of special rush hour, and that doesnāt include getting to or from the airport (though it was fun to finally take a self-driving Waymo, especially since one of its major training areas was right down the street from our Phoenix home). But a rental car, of course, would have been much cheaperāthough entirely impossible to park.
Nothing speaks to that more than the street sweeping tango we witnessed, whereby local residents had to take time out of their day to stage themselves in their vehicles during a particular window of time, waiting to briefly dance their vehicles out of the way as the street sweepers passed by, reclaiming a space generally convenient to their abode before anyone else could. Our friendās landlord, who lives in the floor above her, keeps his car at a completely different house across town, just so he doesnāt have to move it three times a week for street sweepers. Thatā¦that seems crazy to me. He has to uber from his home to where he keeps his car to then use said car. What?
But beyond the annoyance of the whole parking situation, it was also apparent that Iām just not especially interested in urban landscapes. Iām just not inspired by trendy restaurants, hip nightlife, or avant garde art scenes. Sure, I enjoyed wandering around to a number of street art hotspots, but itās not something Iād opt to do regularly. I donāt need to see that colorful alley more than once. We enjoyed people watching, especially around the Castro, which seemed extra ālively,ā but itās not something Iād travel for.
And I think thatās really the crux of the issue for me. Iāve never been a big city guy, and as I visit more and more places, the intrigue of any particular city declines. By and large, cities in the US are mostly the same; thereās very few that fundamentally feel different, at least to me. And so each of them is less and less interesting or appealing the more I visit.
But perhaps we would have felt differently about the weekend had more of it worked out better. We didnāt get as much with Jenās friend as expected, my aunt had a fall and required surgery which canceled our visit, and the museums were overpriced and underwhelming. And due to logistical challenges, we didnāt make it to the immigration museum either. We found some good beer, but it was a struggle. The timing couldnāt quite work for getting to the Niners game, who happened to beat the Cardinals that Sunday. We saw some interesting things, of course, and enjoyed not being at home. But the overall ROI for the weekend was well below what we had expected. Like plenty of the places we visit, we gave it shot and are happy we donāt need to go back.
Let me rephrase. Weāll be back to San Francisco, but I doubt weāll do a San Francisco trip againāitāll be a Bay Area trip instead. Weāll have wheels, and perhaps weāll spend a day in the city to see something or someone in particular, but it wonāt be the basis of the weekend. Weāll pop on out to Muir Woods, or check out a new brewery in the East Bay, or pay an ungodly sum to park and tailgate at Levi Stadium.
And thatās just fine. Iām much more intrigued by a campsite in the mountains than the burrito place with the line out the door anyway.
Our weekend trip to central Nebraska
A weekend trip to Grand Island, Nebraska, to explore the Sand Hills region and visit attractions like Carhenge, with the possibility of “tanking” a local river.
We booked a ridiculous trip last night
Some recent health challenges (and the resulting physical restrictions) forced us to cancel our big Canadian Rockies road trip this month.
I would have been traveling and camping for nearly a month, with Jen joining me for the middle two weeks, opting to fly in/out to maximize her vacation time. I was really excited about the trip, and was due to head off early next week. But alas, weāll have to wait until next year to see those gorgeous mountain views.
Thatās left us with some unscheduled vacation days that we need to fill in August or September, as weāre already generally booked for the remainder of the year. There arenāt many good options, given the temps and avoiding elevation (one of those pesky health restrictions). To fill some of the time, we ended up building out an 8-day trip to Ohio and Pennsylvania for Jen to mark off a bunch of national park units. Of course, you may remember that I just did an extended Ohio-Pennsylvania road trip in May, so alas, there will be few new things for me to see. Thatās ok, I always enjoy traveling with Jen no matter what we do or see.
That shorter trip left us with an additional three day weekend to utilize. Weekend camping trips are out, as itās either too hot in the low lands, or Iām restricted from higher elevations.
And so we started checking Google Flights to see if there was a cheap ticket somewhere. Welp, nope, not many options other than LA and SF, which we are already visiting in the next 6 weeks.
Except one destination, that is.
$88 roundtrip, nonstop, with flight times that seem optimized for our schedule.
Whatās that destination? A place improbably named Grand Island. Where is Grand Island? In Nebraska. The middle of Nebraska.
So we booked it.
Whatās there to see in the middle of Nebraska? No fucking clue. Iāve never been there, as my mostly blank counties map shows. But weāre going to go explore and see what we find.
And letās be honest here; weāll be happy enough marking off a bunch of these counties, whether we find anything interesting there or not. After all, the whole point of our quest to visit all 3144 counties in the US is to mark off those blank spots on the map. And right now, Nebraska is the blankest state on my county mapāIāve only been to a paltry 29% of the state, all along the edges.
So, weāre flying to Grand Island, Nebraska for a long weekend to visit some random, cornfield- and/or sandhill-filled counties. A somewhat ridiculous trip by most sane standards, but a trip weāre doing anyway. After all, we always have a blast exploring new places together, so Iām sure weāll have a good time on this trip, too.
And at least Iāll finally make it to Carhenge.
EDIT to add:
One challenge for this trip is that the rental car situation sucks. Not only are the cars generally expensive (about $100/day), but they inexplicably come with a 100-mile per day limit. I havenāt seen mileage limits from major rental car companies in more than a decade, and never for such a rural place where you have to drive long distances to get anywhere of note.
But we found a work around. Because weāre flying in after work, we donāt technically need the car until the following morning, since weāre simply grabbing a late dinner and heading straight to bed. So we searched the local area for an offsite location. Itās half the price and has unlimited miles, which is crucial for a trip like this. Guess which one we booked.
Another minor challenge is that the cheap flight does not include any bagsācarry-on or checkedāeven though it clearly shows that it does when you search in Google Flights. Take note when booking! Weāre okay with that, as itās only a 3.5 day trip and we should be able to fit everything we need into a personal item.
Burr Oak Cemetery. š
On our way to Chicago OāHare, we detoured to visit the gravesites of Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley. We also stopped by the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the site of Emmettās open-casket funeral in 1955.
Last year, we visited all of the known sites in Mississippi associated with Emmettās murder and mutilation. The church, along two related sites in Mississippi, were designated as a national monument in 2023.
I finally wrote about my visit to Cabinetlandia, which was five years ago yesterday. And in doing so, I fell down a rabbit hole of research about this fun projectāstuff I really wish I had known when I first visited out of a whim. This has Web 1.0 feels all over it.
A runway that changed the world
On this day 79 years ago, this runway on the small island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands changed the world. It was from this stretch of remote pavement that the Enola Gay took to the air with a ferocious new weapon, headed to Hiroshima to inflict unbelievable damage.
We visited the then-abandoned site in 2017 as part of our travel quest to visit all the major sites associated with the Manhattan Project.
One of the highlights of our visit to Halifax was the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, housed in the same dock building that served as the port of entry for immigrants. I was surprised at many of the similarities between the histories of immigration in Canada and the United States.
OTD in 2018, I hiked to Exit Glacier, my first experience with a glacier. It’s iconic for the signs showing the previous extent of the glacier in various years, clearly demonstrating how quickly the ice has receded.
I’ve been to every national park unit in the US, and this remains my most favorite park sign anywhere. It’s located on the back side of the entrance sign for the Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska.
Love this ācloud shadowā around Mt Edgecumbe, from five years ago today.
Here’s a short video of our flight back from Aniakchak, taken near Upper Ugashik Lake looking southeast towards the Aleutians. Just gorgeous terrain down there.
Visiting Aniakchak Crater
Five years ago today, I finally made it to the least visited national park unit in the country, Aniakchak National Monument, a collapsed volcanic caldera in the Aleutian Range in Alaska. I really need to blog about the whole story about this.
This park is very remote, requiring a bush flight to access, and the unpredictability of the weather means you might be waiting many days for even a short flight window. It took six days of nervous waiting for us to make it there, constantly checking the weather and in contact with the pilot every couple hours. Many folks get skunked; a fellow park quester had waited ten days just prior to our arrival and never got an opportunity. We got ours on the very last day we had committed to the endeavor. This might be the best text message I’ve ever received, sent by the pilot.
I’ll write and post more about this on rscottjones.com, but for now, here are some photos of our time there.
Visiting Aniakchak was the lynchpin for me completing my quest to visit all 400+ national park units, which happened a few days later in Glacier Bay National Park.
On this day in 2018, we stopped at Edge of the World Brewing in the remote and infamous polygamist town of Colorado City near the Arizona/Utah border. I’m still surprised that this place ever opened, let alone stayed in business.
