Hungover.

Well, Turkey and Greece are, for all intents and purposes of that specific trip, done.  Of course, I could continue to write ad nauseum about the trip, but I need to move on because I have other great things to share and well, I need to leave some hope that I will return to both places someday.

To me, it is always bittersweet writing about a particular place that you’ve only visited once.  When you write about someplace that you live or have lived or visit frequently, there is always a sense of nostalgia for what is familiar and what is comfortable.  And when you write about someplace you haven’t been, it is with a sense of excitement and enthusiasm.  But these in-between places that you just pass through are–for me–the most difficult to write about because once your story is told, it’s done.  It gets put into a box and you may revisit your pictures or your stories about it, but the likelihood you’ll actually return to that place is fleeting.  Or, even worse, that you’ll go back to visit and it won’t be as magical.

As such, wrapping up a big trip (like Turkey & Greece) leaves me feeling a bit lost–a bit hungover, if you will.  Drunk off reminiscing about 3 amazing weeks in such an astonishingly beautiful place and how could I ever find beauty elsewhere in the world?!?!?  Which of course, is ridiculous because beauty is everywhere and sounding like an angsty-emo teen is not going to win friends or influence people…

With some inspiration from Uncle Spike’s Adventures, who has been posting pics of Hawaii in the 80s, I started perusing through some of my older pictures that I have on my computer and came across a few of my first vacation to California to visit my friend Matt.  Since it’s been 10 years, I think it’s definitely time to share!

As I wasn’t there for very long, we hung around in Matt’s ‘hood: the Palo Alto/San Jose area.  If you’re unfamiliar with California geography, it is about an hour-ish drive south of San Francisco.  We did get one day to drive north, but Matt made me pick between Napa Valley and San Francisco–as if that was a choice (no offense, San Fran!).  Of course, since San Francisco is in between Palo Alto and Napa Valley, I still got to see some of the sites 🙂

And with that, off to Cali we go!