You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'adventure' tag.
I climb into the back of my Dad’s beloved Jeepster, ready to set off on a 4-wheelin’ adventure. Hints of summer warmth still in the air, sunscreen on, ponytale in place.
Me: Dad, where’s my seat-belt?
Dad: Oh, there isn’t one back there.
Me: What if I fall out?? I could actually die from 4-wheelin’!!
Dad: [hands me a bottle of water] Well, at least you won’t die of thirst!
This was the beginning of our day-long journey to Iron Lakes (Cali). Dad driving, stepmom in the passenger seat (both with seat-belts) and me in the back. Per the Backcountry Adventures Northern California Guide, the trail has “moguls and moderately steep grades” and is touted as “steep and rocky.” Perfect terrain to travel without something strapping me into an open-aired Jeep.
Luckily, though there was definitely a bit of grab-seat-and-hold-on-for-dear-life (clearly I’m not very dramatic), I survived.
And enjoyed every single minute of it.
It was amazing to go, over the course of a week, from this (business trip to NYC):
To this:
It was much needed, this contrast. To go from Uptown to Small Town is what this blog is all about, and let me tell you, it saves me– if I didn’t have a small town to return home to, the uptown side of things would make me one wonky woman. (well, more so than I am now!)
So the big obstacle in NYC is people. Weaving in and out (which I’ve become quite an expert in…seriously…it’s the race-car driver’s daughter in me…), anticipating movements, passing, etc. The big obstacle en route to Iron Lakes was this. And his movements were not difficult to anticipate. (He stood still and stared.)
So with Dad at the wheel, away we went, up and over steep grades, and rocky moguls. Me with water in one hand and a camera in the other, it was one of those Good Days. The kind that makes one sit back (without a seat-belt) and appreciate life. And family. And nature. And adventure.
Left or right?
4x’ing!
Iron Lakes (one of them).
See all those crazy people rushing around? Me either!
Love these Swirly Roots.
And these rocks with so much color (iron!).
And I love Nature’s Graffiti.
And the texture that surrounds stillness.
And I love this giant magical tree.
And this magical swimming nook.
And my adventurous Stepmom who decided to step in and investigate a fish.
And I love seeing how much my dad love’s nature. He’s so in his element.
And I love my dad.
I just received a note from a dear family friend in the hometown that is, quite truly, one of the best emails I’ve ever received (and I’m not just saying that because it’s complimentary to me! Or wait…maybe I am…). Anyway, this note is WHY I am writing this blog ~ to inspire in myself (and hopefully in others!?) an appreciation for adventure, exploration and those simple moments that make life worth living and laughing about.
With permission by the writer of this note, here it is:
Hi… I so enjoyed reading your comments about your trip. It is such a beautiful place to visit. I’ve never been to Nice, but Avignon is also in the south of France, and it was amazingly beautiful. You were very brave to go all alone, but you younger women have grown up in such a different world.
When I was your age, my “big adventure” when I separated from my husband was to go, by myself, to Monterey and check into a motel. In my whole life, I had only stayed in motels selected by my parents or my husband. My hand shook as I registered! The really funny thing was that, the next morning, there was a big earthquake centered in that area. Do you think God was displeased with me? Somehow I don’t think so, but the thought definitely crossed my mind as I held on tight to the bathroom sink! My second big adventure was to drive the “Bloody Bayshore” from Milpitas to near the SFO airport, with no mishaps! Now I want to take either a cruise by myself or maybe go to Seattle by myself. You are a model for me to emulate!
Continue to be you… we can all learn from you and live vicariously through your exciting experiences. Love, AD
Here’s to inspiring each other through our exciting experiences!
xo
Uptown Small Town
Over the next few posts, I’ve decided to share a sort of series of travelogue entries from my trip to the South of France. I make no promises to stay in chronological order, but I’ll try!
Also good to note here that, as I’ll speak more to soon, the over-arching goal of my trip was to reconnect with the light of my simple, humble, human center that can sometimes be overshadowed by the day-to-day deadline driven, career stress most of us encounter, so my travelogue entries will be mostly feeling in nature rather than a presentation of factual travel tips. Not to imply a void of facts… but rather that my trip did not contain any contrived factual focus and instead was more of a sweeping meander along the Mediterranean at a speed determined by mood, curiosity, and the distance between gelato/sorbet shops.
Cheers to bon cote des choses! (sunny side of things)
I traveled, I explored, I took pictures (coming soon!), I ate delicious food, I swam in the Mediterranean, I got lost in Monaco, I ate gelato and went on walks at dusk along the shore, I listened to little French children singing little French songs, I sipped wine from Provence, wandered through a medieval village, laid in the warm riviera sunshine, read books, drank delicious coffee, I let a bikini and sundresses be my official ensemble, I breathed in life.
But the best part? Returning Home to the Hometown.
Home to coffee in the morning on mom’s deck surrounded by grape-leaves, BBQ at dad’s, s’mores by a campfire with a friend.
As much as I love adventures, I love coming home from them even more.
As I’ve mentioned before, my mother tells me I have the “courage to interrogate reality.” As much as one’s personality can be described in a statement, this one is fairly undeniable for me.
Last weekend I met my father and step-mother in Half Moon Bay as they began their week-long Harley ride “wherever they feel like riding to on any given day” and it got me thinking ~ my adventurous side (err… middle) is not only ingrained in my lil’ self, but most decidedly, inherited. I was basically born with a paradoxical sense of knowingness and curiosity which propels me to places I’ve never been and yet places in which I feel very much at home.
While there are vast variations on my adventurous roots, here’s a glimpse at a few that I’m sincerely grateful for:
Adventure of the Imagination: This comes from both parents. What I love though is that they are both very grounded individuals ~ I wouldn’t label either of them “dreamers” but I would certainly say that they make their dreams happen in their lives. And this ventures fairly far back in the family trees: My mother’s grandfather was an inventor ~ he had an airplane/landing strip at his home and apparently had Charles Lindbergh as a buddy. My grandfather on my father’s side had a mine in the mountains outside of Yosemite then purchased an entire railroad and community because he liked it there (so did I! This is where I grew up.). My mom was accepted into the San Francisco Ballet at the age of 16 (she politely declined) and my father became a race-car driver. I come from a long line of practical dreamers.
Adventures in Travel: Again, this comes from both parents. Mom is more of the “hotel in Paris/Nice/London/Tuscany” type and dad is more “ride the Harley and stop at an Inn on the coast whenever we feel like stopping” kind of traveler. I have heaping doses of both approaches… though that’s not to imply I ride a Harley when I travel. I’m a spontaneous planner, I suppose.
Adventures in People: I love people’s stories. Adore them. Why are they the way they are? Where have they been? What have they seen? What shaped them? Influenced them? I think my mom is a people explorer but she’s not really one to ask questions. She’d rather have people share whatever it is they want to share. My dad is a bit more of a “I’ll join you wherever you’re coming from” sort of story-listener. Both are empathetic listeners in their own way… I am straight out an empathic, curious, and voracious listener of people stories.
Any way you look at it, I’ve got Adventurous Roots. How can I not with a father who looks like this?
Let’s face it, business travel doesn’t exactly set the stage for truly experiencing WHERE you are. For example, a recent expedition I set out on went as follows:
Woke up in San Francisco. Flew to Minneapolis. Had meetings. Next day flew to Chicago. Had meetings. Next day flew to Los Angeles. Had meetings. Had more meetings. Flew back to San Francisco. By Friday– I could have been in a moon crater and I would only have about a 50% chance of knowing where I was.
And this is a dilemma for someone who actually likes to travel, such as myself.
So this week I had a wake-up-fly-to-Boston-have-meeting-have-another-meeting-then-fly-back-to-New York-in-one-day experience. Business, of course, plays center stage of the theatre production called My Crazy City Career, but here’s the supporting character in this performance: Adventure.
I’d never been to Boston! I really wanted to experience Boston!! New Place!!! New People!!!! New Adventure!!!!!
Was I able to do any of this?
No. Not really.
But I did what I could in the small windows (um. literally.) I had. Here are my tips to experiencing a new place when you have little time to do so:
1. When entering the New Place, open your eyes! If you’re flying, look up from your laptop or away from the tv screen and check out this New Place. An aerial view is a great way to get a sense of a New Place. (Boston! My face was basically glued to the little oval window soaking in the amazing historic-looking estates in the outskirts of the city, the white or brick church steeples, the purposeful boats in the harbor, the crazy zig-zagged streets of the city, etc.) If you don’t get to this New Place by air and you’re on a train, in a car, or perhaps arrive via beaming mechanism, my advice stands. Open your eyes and look around! (especially if you’re driving. good tip.)
2. In this New Place, be on the lookout for at least one detail that is A. unique to the location B. unique for you (something you see for the first time?). Really. Challenge yourself to spot just one thing, ONE THING, that is different from what you see in your “usual” day to day. And yes, I know, you’ve got a lot to do…very important things…blah blah blah. But…ONE THING. That’s all I’m asking for here. (In the Boston Logan airport I saw a row of white rocking chairs. So cool! Bringing a little bit of New England feel into the airport… well done!)
(photo by Matt Walker)
3. Take five minutes to relax yourself enough to receive this New Place. The architecture, the rhythms, the dialect, the food, the smell– receive it. Look, I know… you’ve got a Very Important Presentation you need to prepare for in your mind or a Very Important Meeting that needs to go “your way”… but to that I say this: relaxing enough to get yourself grounded where you are could actually help you to achieve success with whatever you’re there to accomplish. And taking a few deep breaths and noticing the life of a New Place can help you feel more alive in yourself (as opposed to feeling like a walking, flying, taxiing, laptop toting, smart phone addicted, Crazy City Career Zombie). (En route back to the Boston Logan airport, the taxi driver drove us along Newbury Street. Newbury Street!! Charming and astute architecture, trees lining the street, great feeling.) (*Sigh*) (*Smile*) (*return to checking emails*)
(This photo is not mine and doesn’t really capture what the street felt like to me…but it’s what I could find for now and shows a bit of the charm. Well, sort-of-but-not-really. Look, I don’t have time take an actual picture. Very Important Emails to be checked…)
4. Be Grateful. You have a job! You’re exploring new land! You’re getting out and about when otherwise you’d be cooped up in an office with office air and office chairs and office desks and office colors. While biz travel may add stress to your already stressful day, feel gratitude for at least one small moment. You’re alive. You’re doing your thing. You’re experiencing a New Place.
Safe travels and remember to (at least try to!) enjoy the show!
While I sip a Dirty Grey Goose martini and try my hardest to not let it drool out of my numb lips, I thought I’d write about my dentist.
Yes, my dentist.
For anyone who knows me– I love people and to take it even further, I love people’s stories. LOVE them. People fascinate me. The intent inside of people. The story. The choices. The loves. The losses…
As a friend of mine would say, I’m “ridiculously observant” of people.
So, today, as I sat in the dentist chair and waited for my mouth to go numb, I asked my new dentist a few surface questions (how’s your baby? etc.) and she offered some great answers that were not generic (!) so I dove in. (As my mother would say, I have the “courage to interrogate reality”). Here’s what I learned:
She’s fron Iran (ee-rawn not eye-ran) and she moved to the US to be a dentist at the age of 27. In Iran, women don’t work. And people don’t move anywhere, especially away from home as a single woman in search of a career.
People don’t move? I asked.
She feels this is unique to America. People move a lot here. I told her I’ve moved to Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, etc., and she said, yes, exactly. People don’t do that in Iran.
So I asked her, (because I’m quite pre-occupied with “purpose” “career” and “service”), how did you know you wanted to be a dentist?
She said that she knew she was good with her hands (she is!), she didn’t want to sit at a desk all day (she get’s bored easily), and she likes people (let’s hope she likes people who ask life questions seeing that I’m the one asking and she’s the one with the sharp dental tools), and she likes that every patient is different– her days are never the same.
Love it! I wanted to dive in more– where did she get the confidence to leave even though her entire family was still in Iran? Did she feel that having a singular goal helped her to survive in a country by herself without knowing one person? How did she meet her husband? Etc, etc., etc.
But instead my mouth went numb and the drilling began… but honestly, I didn’t mind. I trusted this woman. And (I know this sounds crazy but) I enjoyed the time away from work to have this human moment. And while the high pitched wheeeeeeeeeee sounded, I got to think about life and the life of others.
How did she know she was good with her hands? Was there a moment? Did someone point it out? How did she connect this to dentistry?
And…
What am I good at? How do I contribute to the world, or my community, or a person?
Anyway– the martini is working and I’m starting to feel my lips again. (Of course if I drink another martini, I may not be able to feel my lips again.)
Here’s to all the independent women out there– doing it their way (and giving fillings to patients who have the courage to interrogate reality).
A friend of mine LOVES the game Never have I ever. For those who have never played, it’s generally a game played at a bar: The first person says “Never have I ever… taken off all my clothes and frolicked in a public fountain.” And then if anyone has actually done this, they drink. Then the next person says “Never have I ever…” Well, you get the idea. I guess the conclusion is that the more “adventurous” one is, consequently the more drunk one will get. (which makes sense… “drunk” and “adventure” can be rather synonymous.)
So, I’ve decided that, because I spend most of my time working the good city girl job, on the weekends I will do something I’ve never done, go somewhere I’ve never been, try something I’ve never tried. Big or small. Complex or simple. And most likely completely sober (much to my friend’s chagrin).
In short, I’ve decided to challenge myself to a game of “Never have I ever.”
Two weekends ago was when I first started this, I had never been to Half Moon Bay so I got in my car and drove there. First off, how great is the name? Half Moon Bay. So sensual and delectable. Second, it’s a small town– even the thought was reprieve from city stress. And even though it was a foggy, drizzly day, I decided to go anyway. I was in the mood for a peaceful journey and the impending rain would most likely keep people in the comforts of the indoors.
So, true to style, I headed outdoors.
And it was lovely. Calm. Misty. Cool. And Perfect for my first entry of Never Have I Ever…
