we finally got a few hundred miles into California and realized that winter isn't despicable everywhere. We drove around Napa Valley for awhile, but we got there too late for me to be a lush and sample their wines. Beautiful area, with the most terrifying road I've seen in a long time. 
Rather than pay too much to stay the night there we continued to San Fran
and got in late enough to find parking in the ritzy part of the city (on Divisidero St, in front of a mansion like structure). After going down about 5 hills (all steeper than Seattle's) we found a "Bohemian" bar that was still serving food. By bohemian they seemed to mean sponsored by more pricey beer companies... Anywho. After filling Ted's belly and my need for a beer we walked around a while then climber up the hills to our van (his name is Harvey now and will from here on out be referred to as such by me) for sleep. In the morning we got up early and drove over to Haight Ashbury, that intersections where all those hippies did all those drugs, played all that music, and put flowers in their hair while enjoying free love and trying to give peace a chance. It was a neat little part of town, and slightly resembled the counterculture haven it had once been. There were some hippie shops, cafes, bars, music and book stores and an anarchist store..... Nothing was open yet so we walked around more and stumbled upon Buena Vista park, which had awesome trails and trees, cute young men walking their dogs, and supposedly an amazing view of the city (it was foggy still, so we had an amazing view of the fog). After that park came the exploration of another park (Golden Gate Park to be exact) which had an awesome carousel, some ponds, etc. By that time it was almost 10 am so I gave my Aunt who lives in San Fran a call and we found parking (not in a parking deck, Harvey is too tall for parking in city parking decks, proven by the breakage of his small sky light. poor harvey) then made our way to her townhouse. My Aunt gave us an awesome walking tour of the city, taking us up to Telegraph Hill, pointing out along the way San Fran's high pressure hydrant system (one of the country's only such systems. she works for the fire dept so she knows these things). We also went by the house used in Bogart's film Dark Passage(which has metal working on the outside which depicts Atlas and another figure I couldn't place). Then we went to the more touristy waterfront and saw the Sea Lions hanging out at Pier 39. So many tourists.... We spotted Alcatraz from our side of the water and saw some men swimming without wet suits. Our final touristy thing in the city was going to City Lights where we looked at lots of books and where I tried to imagine the Beatniks doing their thing.... Had a nice dinner with the family (lots of tapas and then gelato). Before that we discovered while parking Harvey in front of the townhouse that he does not like going up hills in reverse. He wouldn't do it, so we all had to give him a push to get him out of the way of San Fran's famous trolley. Good times. We left the next morning and drove a very long time until we got to Desert Hot Springs, CA (just outside of Palm Springs). We pit stopped at Pismo Beach 
and walked along the pier and beach. Lots of surfers (in wet suits) and your stereotypical california types. Long hair, hot bodies, etc... Also drove through Santa Barbara but decided not to stop. The sunset clouds covering the valley that the city inhabits were enough for us.
Drove through LA but decided to skip it, though seeing Hollywood things would have been cliche and perhaps fun. Instead we rolled in the New Year while sitting in some natural hot springs. Pancake breakfast in the van. Then Joshua Tree where we are now. We've been hiking around the desert, looking at the odd trees, climbing on some rocks, and getting a slight sunburn. We saw a coyote this morning and lots of stars (some falling) last night while camping out in the park. Now we're going to try to find this odd things called the Integratron, then go about an hour south east-ish to the Salton Sea.
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