Leaving California- heading to South Dakota

Aug 15 – 18th – Sunday evening, we said goodbye to Laura and Dave, after a really good 10 days of visiting (it is never enough and it is always hard to say goodbye) and, Monday morning, headed East. Our destination was Murdo, South Dakota, where the Joslin side of the family was having a small family reunion at the South Dakota homestead where my mother and her brothers were born.

But…we had 1,500 miles to cover and 5 days to get there……

Driving from Oakland, CA,  across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, was very scenic…and Lake Tahoe is beautiful! That will have to be a destination stop one day…..perhaps a family get-together on the Lake? Our first night on the road, we stayed at a campground in Winnemucca, Nevada.

Then on past the Utah salt flats (weird, white stretches of landscape that looked like snow or beach sand, but was salt deposits) …..towards Salt Lake City, Utah. Our second night on the road, we stayed about 60 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, at a campground in Evanston, WY.

Our third day of driving took us across much of southern Wyoming and on up to Casper, WY. On these days of driving, we were just trying to cover the miles. We enjoyed the ever- changing landscape as we passed by and marveled at how vast and different the United States is. As we drove, we noted those areas that we would stop at longer when we had a chance…..figuring that Northern California might have to be one of our regular destinations, at least as long as Laura and Dave are there. : )

Our overnight stops were more determined by the miles we needed to drive and convenience to our route, than for the beauty of the campsite. We have gotten good use from the “Trailer Life Campground Directory”.   However, when chance handed us an opportunity…as it did on the road to Casper, WY…..we enjoyed it.

We were traveling on Hwy 220, south of Casper, when we decided that we needed a ‘pit stop’. Seeing the sign for Martin’s Cove Historical Monument and Visitor's Center, we figured “Why not”, surely they had a bathroom, or at least a place to pull off so we could use the camper. What we found was much more interesting.

The first thing that came into view was Devil’s Gate, a rock formation that was used as a very recognizable landmark along the Mormon Trail. The Mormon Trail marked the westward passage of 70,000 Mormon pioneers as they traveled on foot from Iowa City, IA to Salt Lake City, Utah….a journey of 1,300 miles. Lacking sufficient funds to supply their family with a wagon and horses or oxen to pull it, a number of these pioneers purchased a handcart  for just $20 and loaded their meager possessions and joined a guide and others that were similarly equipped to form a ‘company’ heading west.

 

One such company of 600 Mormon settlers, the Martin Handcart Company, got a bit of a late start form Iowa City, and, along the way, encountered a winter storm on October 19, 1856. They endured a difficult last crossing of the North Platte River, near present-day Casper, WY, followed by 9 days of below zero temperatures and wind and snow, before they were rescued by volunteers sent from Salt Lake City by Brigham Young.

The rescued Mormon pioneers were brought to Martin’s Cove, a more sheltered spot, to ride out the storms. Tragically 150 of those pioneers died before reaching Salt Lake City. Their story, one of determination and great faith, is remembered and celebrated at this site. Many present-day faithful Mormon families come to Martin’s Cove Monument to ‘re-create’ a bit of this experience in traditional clothes and pushing a handcart, which one can borrow from the Visitor’s center. These two families,below, had their camping gear loaded in the handcart, and were walking the 6 miles to their campsite for the night.

We watched, in admiration, before getting back into our car and heading on to Casper……

Laura and Dave’s New Apartment

The other exciting news in Laura and Dave’s lives is that they are moving! Their new apartment will be in the Swan’s building, a co-housing unit in a re-modeled warehouse in downtown Oakland. 

The ground floor level has several stores and also houses the Museum of Children’s Art. In the corner of the building is an Indian restaurant – and Indian food is a favorite of Laura and Dave……

Around the back of the building is the garage parking - a luxury in a city to have a place to park their car. However, Laura will be able to catch the BART to work, just 1-2 blocks from their apartment, at the 12th street Oakland station, then ride just two stops, across the Bay, to the Embarcadero Station. And, while she is still in school, she is still just a few miles from Berkeley.

The Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) is located just beside this apartment complex and has a wonderful courtyard, with children playing and happy sounds.

The 20 co-housing apartment units share a garden…….

Where, in addition to flowering plants, herbs, tomatoes, and other vegetables are grown.

Laura and Dave’s apartment has a small ‘Juliette’ balcony overlooking the garden.

Each apartment’s door opens out to this shared patio area……

With plants and greenery and room to sit outside and enjoy the California sunshine…….and a wonderful chance to visit with your neighbors.

The people who are currently living in the apartment are in the process of packing moving boxes, but they let us go through the apartment to get an idea of what will need to be done for moving day.

The new kitchen will be more spacious than they now have….plus, it has windows and a lot of natural light! Actually, the whole apartment, at a little over 900 square feet, it is almost twice as big as they now have. It will be so nice to have more room…..and with 2 bedrooms, they will have room for company. So get ready to visit…. : )

The apartment is a remodeled warehouse,  and the developer retained a number of nice architectural elements……beams, braces, and interesting windows……

The living room is a bit narrow and long……just overlook the current resident’s furniture that is there, now…….The shelves will probably come down and a sectional couch will go along the end wall.

Co-housing is a concept that is new to us, but has been a trend in California for a number of years. The 20 apartment units function as a community. They each have a full apartment, but they share laundry facilities, a communal recreational/dining room and professional kitchen. Three times a week, there are optional dinners in the communal dining room. Each resident takes a turn about once ever 6 weeks, cooking for the group. There is a system to sign up, so one knows how many to expect, and some system of keeping track of the expenses and reimbursing for the cost of the food.

There is even a shared children’s play area. It seems like a lovely way to establish a sense of community in a city that can sometimes seem so impersonal.

This is just across from the apartment….and the street that they will live on……located in Oakland’s financial district.

With tree-lined walks and little street side cafes….it seems safe and clean……

The apartment lies just several blocks from Oakland’s Chinatown. Interesting….and they have nice little produce markets.

And, of course, the beautiful buildings of downtown Oakland…….a short walk away.

Moving date is scheduled for Sept 1st- I know that Laura and Dave will be glad to get settled in their new place. We will send an email with the new address once they get moved in…….

Laura at work -

We had planned this visit to co-ordinate with Laura’s last day of her summer internship. As it turned out, she had a big project that she had to finish and was working late on Friday, so we met up with Dave and went to see Laura at her office and to steal her away for a bite of supper.

This Summer between her 2nd and 3rd year of law school, Laura had been working as a Summer Associate for Cooley – a big law firm located at 101 California Ave in downtown San Francisco, conveniently located just a block from the BART at the Embarcadero station. For those who might be interested, you can look up Cooley at www.cooley.com

This is the building where the Cooley offices are located……in the the building on the right, with the slanted lower glass section.

In this picture, it is the building in the center with the reflection…..

This is the view from Laura’s office window…….

Cooley is listed as one of the top 100 firms in the country. It has 640 lawyers and 9 offices throughout the United States. Cooley’s San Francisco office has about 80 lawyers working there. Cooley represents all kinds of clients from 2 person start-up companies to some major Fortune 500 clients. I was surprised to learn that they represent Facebook and  Google as well as some other large internet companies. Over the Summer, Laura worked in the litigation department, researching particular topics for cases, then writing up her findings for the lawyers who requested them. She even got to sit in on a deposition prep at the Facebook offices in Palo Alto!

We were so excited to be able to be there and to share the excitement, when, in the middle of the week, Laura got a phone call from the Cooley office offering her a position as an Associate when she graduates next year! Yeah Laura!! And what a relief to have a job waiting for you when you get through! I am so glad that we were able to see where you will be working and to share this good news with you and Dave…..

Hanging with Laura and Dave

Aug 5th – 15th - We headed from Morro Bay on up to Emeryville, CA to spend the week visiting with our oldest daughter, Laura and her husband, Dave. We camped at Anthony Chabot Regional Park in Oakland, and were able to drive a fairly easy 30 minutes over to Laura’s apartment each morning, then get back before the park curfew (and ours) at 10 pm. The campground was very nice, and we got to see lots of wildlife on our drives in and out of the park.– raccoons, deer, foxes, even a rattle snake in the middle of the road that the Ranger was protecting (Fred told him that in Louisiana, we just run over them and consider it a bonus.   : )

As I am writing this and looking back over all that we did, it seems like we fit quite a few activities in with our visit.We spent some time just hanging out with Laura and Dave at their apartment.

Dave works on computer programming and had a big project going on and had to work some this week…..while Laura and I worked in the kitchen, making bread or a nice pot of soup. The cats, Patches and Peanut, helped out whenever they could.

Laura and Dave have a new 'addition’ to their household – a mourning dove has nested and is raising her nestlings in a planter on their balcony. This is the second nest for this mourning dove this season. She already successfully hatched and fledged two little doves earlier this summer. The planter, originally had some herbs, but they have ‘bit the dust’ since they could not be watered without disturbing the momma dove.

We did manage to make some time for celebrating Laura’s birthday, a bit belatedly – We went out to one of Laura’s favorite restaurants for dinner, and of course, opened presents.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed into San Francisco for an Aaron Neville Concert in the Park – It was fantastic!

There was quite a crowd, so we had to sit on the hillside. We had a decent view and could hear just fine. And…..we got to do a lot of crowd watching. People sure are ‘interesting’. One group had brought such a grand picnic – wine, complete with wineglass holders, cooked food, plates and real  flatware……I think that we may have to ‘up our game’ a bit.    : )

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Monday morning we again headed into San Francisco (we were getting pretty good at finding our way on the BART) to sit in on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Laura was excited that they were in session……she really likes the appeals litigation. It was quite interesting. You can really follow the case from just hearing the lawyers argue a few of the details. The cases that we watched were “Habeas Corpus” cases where the Lawyer for the defense is asking that the client be released from prison because something or other was wrong in the trial process. The debate occurs purely on the level of “was the law or procedures followed”. I can see Laura doing this…….

Our second Saturday of visiting, Laura and Dave came out to see us at Chabot Campground. It was the first time that they had seen the Airstream, and it met with their approval.  ; )   We enjoyed the beautiful California weather hiking around lake Chabot – Oh, did I say that the temperatures had been in the 50’s at night and warming to the high 70’s…….

After supper, we enjoyed a rousing game of Quiddler where Dave and I each won a round…....

Our last Sunday, we drove to San Jose to tour the Winchester House  -This mansion was built by Sarah Pardee Winchester, the heir to the Winchester fortune (of the Winchester rifle and firearms). After her husband died, Mrs. Winchester consulted a Spiritualist who told her that she must buy a house and continue to build on it and never finish….which she did, until she died…..38 years later.

The house is 24,000 square feet and has 160 rooms, unusual staircases to nowhere, windows that look out to walls, and doors that drop off to the kitchen 12 feet below. It was so  complex and ‘crazy’ that one could get lost……     

Being architecture and construction buffs, we all enjoyed touring the Winchester House. It was noted, however, that this could serve as a ‘cautionary tale’ ….should I ever get too carried away with my remodeling plans!   : )

More adventures to come……too much for one post!