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California

Adventures in the Golden State

By Michael Flarup

May 23^rd, 2013

We had biked over the Golden Gate bridge through Sausalito and deep into the Richardson Bay area. My time was running out. It was a hot afternoon with an azure sky and a calm sea. I hadn‘t been this nervous in a long time. I had nearly exhausted all of my options and were desperately evaluating every little nook and cranny as we made our way through the landscape. Maria didn‘t suspect a thing and was complaining about the state of her rental bike and the exact degree of butthurt she would get from riding it all day. The bridge had been too loud. The town had been too crowded. Soon we would be on a ferry back to the city and all my planning would have been for nothing.

Right when I thought we had already passed the perfect spot we finally came upon a little grove right by the water. A tiny sloping area protected by bushes and flowers with a little white bench facing the ocean. You could see the skyline of San Francisco in the hazy distance and the Golden Gate bridge looming over the bay to the right. The subtle motion of the waves kissing the rocks and the birds overhead made time move slower. I couldn‘t have planned for a more romantic location. We sat down, had a sip of water and talked about the day. I dived into the SD card pocket of my backpack on the ground and carefully extracted the ring I had secretly transported all the way from Denmark. I slipped it in my pocket and she didn‘t notice a thing. After a few more minutes of just sitting and 10 seconds of heart pounding anxiety, I finally went down on one knee. I was proudly flashing the most expensive piece of jewelry I had ever bought and asked her if she wanted to marry me. She looked at me suspiciously and said: “you‘re joking, right?“.

Smiling at her reaction I spend the next 5 seconds convincing her that I really wasn‘t. I had kept her waiting for 6 years. Once she understood that I wasn‘t pulling some prank on her and that the thing I was holding wasn‘t a plastic ring from a vending machine, she cried a bit and said yes. We sat a long time before we picked up our bikes and made our way back to San Francisco.

What are these photos about?

We had an amazing time in California. To give a chronological account of the many adventures would take too long. We drove from the urban exploration of San Francisco to wine-tasting in the countryside of Napa. We hiked our way through Yosemite Valley and drove down the coast on Highway 1. Walked the pier in Santa Cruz, biked in Santa Barbara, cruised in LA, toured the strip in Las Vegas and flew a helicopter through the Grand Canyon.

The Good & The Bad

☺ Climate. When people think of California they might envision warm days and sunny beaches but the truth is that there‘s a remarkable diversity in climates and landscapes. From the foggy cool of the bay, the subarctic winters of Sierra Nevada to the mediterranean heat of the south coastal cities there‘s a wide enough spectrum so that each time you move around, you feel like you‘re visiting a distinctively different place. Not a lot of areas have you snowboarding in the mountains and then sunbathing by the ocean a few hours drive away.

☺ Nature. I have had the pleasure of visiting some stunning places in the world, but the National parks of California, particularly Yosemite, is otherworldly. There‘s something fantastical about the scope of the place, huge waterfalls, huge boulders, huge trees - there‘s this real sense of awe.

☺ Coming to America. Now, I‘m sure this will sound weird to many americans, but if you‘re from Europe (and probably also the rest of the world) there‘s a certain undefined oddness to visiting the states. In so many ways we europeans are partly raised on a cultural diet of americana. When finally coming face to face with the culture, the people and the places that birthed the majority of TV shows, movies and music we listen to, there‘s a certain je ne sais quoi about it. It‘s like we‘ve felt it all before, but never actually been there. Don‘t get me wrong, how you experience that cultural bridge is as different as the people you encounter, but the very fact that you can get that sense of familiarity in a foreign cocktail is a remarkable by-product of the world we live in today and it‘s worth experiencing no-matter what you take away from it.

☹ Food. There‘s a remarkable amount of shitty food in the states, but luckily there‘s also a remarkable amount of amazing food. The hard part is navigating between the many options, avoiding the processed lowest denominator and experiencing the rich melting pot of american cuisine. San Francisco in particular has more restaurants per citizen than any other city I have ever visited and it‘s entirely possible for people to visit the states and only eat bad food. Research restaurants and choose wisely.

☹ Safety. While I felt quite safe in most of California, there are still parts of cities that you are advised against visiting and places that you shouldn‘t be caught in after dark. Wether real or imagined, crime, poverty and violence feels like more of a factor when visiting USA than many other western countries. Don‘t get me wrong, I‘ve visited far worse, it‘s just sad that the issue of security comes up so much in such a developed nation.

From a travelers perspective, California is really an embodiment of the land of opportunity. There‘s so many things to do and see here, so many vastly different experiences packed into an easily traversed area. The people are as varied as the landscape, and it can be hard to say any one thing about the state. It really is a melting pot of all these different cultures who happen to inhabit one of the most amazing and diverse stretches of land on the planet - and if there‘s one unifying thing, it‘s that they all know it.