It's not always sunshine: Day 1 and half of two

I was planning to do a short update each day but never really got the chance to because sitting in a car for endless hours is actually more tiring than you think. I actually typed most of this thing up during an excruciating part of the drive on the second day. Anyway, here it goes

After 2 and a half states worth of bugs on the wind shield, multiple sightings of road kill including but not limited to: squirrels, mostly racoons, occasional birds, and one baby dear, endless hours of (lum chi churn, mui yeen fong and all the other oldie Chinese songs/singers), almost a chapter from Dancing with a ghost, some family bonding, some good old nostalgia and of course, the inevitable arguments.

The start of the trip was a bit rocky and cranky as usual. Waking up early and leaving by 8 of course was just the plan, it never happens. Lack of sleep and having to wait for other people to get ready is the best recipe for a good old argument. My dad, being the driver, of course wants to leave as early as possible so we can get to our destination before it gets too dark. Usually my mom or sister is the slowest, today being mom. My dad hates driving in the dark just because it is a totally new place for him. Plus, I do agree with him in saying that it isn’t really the safest thing ever. Sometimes, it is pretty creepy and scary if you are the only car on the road with only your tiny headlights to guide your way. By the way, I honestly think that my dad is one of the best drivers in the world. He actually puts a lot of effort and concentrates really hard to keep the car steady. Sometimes, if you close your eyes, you’ll just think he’s driving a straight road because he controls the car so well that it feels like we’re gliding on the road. With him at the steering wheel, I have no worries and can fall asleep no problem. Quite quickly if I might add, which he complains about a lot haha. He always says that we all fall asleep leaving him to drive by himself so I tried my best to stay awake this time to keep him company. So Kudos to dad for being an awesome driver! Yea, we’re a Chinese family so there are no complements to each other lol but we do appreciate each other, just not done through the typical verbal complements.
Well, we did take a looong time to get moving, we actually got out of the house around 9:15 I believe, and headed for the border. Of course there had to a wait (1/2 hour – 45 min.) which made the cranky and sleep deprived dad into a grouchy old man. “I told you to come out earlier!” The more we waited the more annoyed he was. Let’s just say sleep deprivation can make people angry. It wasn’t only him though.

Not going to bore you with the details so I’ll just give some highlights.

During one part of the car ride, we started talking about the good old days and one of the funniest things came up, something that I wasn’t even aware of myself. Apparently when I was about 1 or 2? I’m not quite sure on the details but our family was planning to move and was looking for a new apartment, this was way back when we still lived in Hong Kong. The 4 of us went plus my mom’s friend and my grandparents from my dad’s side. We were with the real estate agent who was going to show us around. On our way up, the elevator broken down and we were stuck there for a looong while. Being the miniature versions of ourselves, my sister and I obviously cried. We waited soooo long for someone to rescue us that we couldn’t hold it in anymore and had to pee in the corner of the elevator. LOL! That’s not even the most epic part! We were stuck in the elevator for 2 to 3 hours and before we even got rescued, the corner was all dry already! LoL Pretty gross I think, but also pretty funny.

The next day, the second day, we planned to leave the hotel by 8 and leave for some national monument in a city called Cave Junction. It sounds pretty cool though, it’s not quite spelunking, it’s a guided tour in which they show you the cave and apparently it’s really really nice inside. It’s famous for it’s marble. We brought our good old GPS, we don’t quite have a name for it, I was going to do a little video of it and post it here for you guys to help decide what it should be called haha. Anyways, our good ol’ pal showed us the way. We were kind of skeptical about it because the road signs were telling us a different thing. But, we had faith in her because she led us around so many times even though we doubted her before. Well guess what, she did lead us on the fastest way, but one of the roads was a unpaved and an off road type of road. It’s one of those roads that you need an ATV or at least a 4 by 4 for. So we didn’t end up going, which kind of sucks because the description sounded pretty cool and a friend of ours suggested that we go because it is well worth it.

There's still so many more things that have happened that i'd like to document but like i said, i'm tired. It's been a loooooong day of walking around like crazy. As some of you know, San Francisco is really hill-y so walking isn't exactly fun here, it's more like an intense workout.

Just some random pictures taken along the way