Hello there. Personal kind of post coming up, so if this is not your type of thing and you have zero interest in the life of our family, then maybe checking out other content I have on my blog would be more interesting for you.
For anyone who is staying, there will also be at least 2 vlogs about this trip on our YouTube channel and I will link them below if you want to see us get lost, frustrated, tired and sick of each other 😁
I'm Russian. If any of you didn't know. I have been away from my family for over 5 years and at the time was enrolled in a Russian university with an online program. My thesis and my graduation were coming up so we knew that we would have to be in my hometown during this specific summer. We started planning the trip a long time ago. So San Francisco was supposed to be the time when we get Russian visas for Memo and Sofi.
Technically, San Francisco is about 8 hours away from us, so if it were just the two of us, we could cover that distance in a day, but with a toddler, it would have been too much, so we decided to make the best of it and have a 3 days camping trip.
The first camping place took nearly half of the day to get to, but it was gorgeous beyond our expectations.
A little side note: if you are driving for a very long time and you have no extra minute to spare, but your kid obviously needs a break, you could do a little pit stop, get some gasoline, buy yourself a cup of coffee and grab something to eat, make sure everybody goes to the bathroom. That little break from sitting will be just enough. And then when you get back to your car and start munching on the snacks it'll buy you another 30-40 minutes of peace.
Anyways, the campground was amazing. If we had a bit more time, we would have stayed there much longer.
😂 If you want to know what the heck's going on here, let me explain... braiding her hair is nearly impossible without a distraction, so she normally watches her favourite cartoons for these 15 minutes that I need.
And yep, she is totally watching videos of herself.
When you are away from the city and really far away from big, busy roads you can give your child a bit more freedom. That's what I love the most about camping. It's a lot of work to get set up, but you literally have all the time in the world, because your kid will be easily distracted with practically everything. All you have to do is make sure they don't wander off too far from you and that there are no insects or animals near.
She saw a bee here. Reacted exactly like I would.
Early in the morning, we headed out towards the second campground.
Made a long stop to have lunch and play for a bit on the way.
Reached our destination only to realize that we can't go through, because the road requires a 4-wheeler.
With no internet and no way of checking the area around us, we just had to keep driving and see what we find. After checking a few other campsites in the area we found a good one. With a little detour to find a one-day camping permit, we finally settled for the night.
That place felt a bit dicey if I'm being perfectly honest. The other campground had people and Rangers passed through at least twice a day to make sure everything is ok. This one had a few abandoned buildings (at least they looked this way) and absolutely no one. No one to kick us out, but also no one to confirm that this is indeed a campground and not a private land. Also, with no people, it felt like way more animals could have been wandering around.
Anyways, we had no other option so we slept and were on our way early in the morning.
Finally entering the city felt surreal. I've never been to San Francisco, so seeing it with my own eyes was almost overwhelming. The same thing I felt when I saw the Eiffel Tower or the Terracotta Army, or the Great Wall of China. Like you have heard of it a million times, have seen it in movies and pictures, but part of you didn't fully realize that they were real. Well, now there was no denial. It's real. It's a home for many people. Your surreal place is someone else's ordinary. And that's beautiful.
Unfortunately, we got there too late and the consulate was already closed, but hey...there was this awesome city to explore, so that's exactly what we did.
The first thing you notice is its beautiful architecture. 5 minutes of driving and it already became #2 on my 'the most beautiful cities list'.
The second most obvious thing about San Francisco is awful traffic. Busy, busy, busy. My husband was driving the car, but even though I was on a passenger seat, I got very anxious. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be able to drive in there. Anything that involved the car was a very negative experience.
The third most noticeable thing for me was how beautiful and fashionable everybody was. For a small kind of town girl that prefers sweats and hoodies over anything, it felt like every person you see just came from a cover shoot for some magazine. It makes you extremely self-aware, but at the same time very curious. Each person is like a fresh new idea of self-expression.
So, believe it or not, the spot from which we took this picture was actually where we slept that night. It's a large parking lot that oversees the Golden Gate bridge and lets you park overnight. Since there were no campgrounds within an hour of the consulate, we thought it would be best to sleep there and be up super early.
Even though we have a 'bed mode' in our tiny car, we decided to sleep in our front seats inclined back just in case we were asked to move our car. Sofi had the whole back seat to herself.
As you can guess from the title of this post, the next day didn't go as planned. As it turns out, Russian consulate in San Francisco has been closed and all of the ambassadors have left. An office with a few of its employees is still there forwarding documents to Washington and giving visas, only they take up to 10 working days to do so instead of 1-3 like we were hoping for.
We tried to fill in some more documents that they require and getting our pictures done considering the option, but later that day ended up deciding to go back home and apply through the consulate of Mexico City all over again.
I'm not gonna lie, it was one of the most frustrating days in the past few years for us, because our timeline just got much tighter than we anticipated and because of that we actually couldn't get my Schengen visa on time and ended up buying another set of tickets, because the airline wouldn't let me board our plane. 😰
Since we already spent more time than planned on this trip, the decision was made to drive to another campground 4 or 5 hours away to cover as much ground as possible. It took us until approx. 1 a.m. to get to our destination and then god knows how much more time to find a safe place to park for the night.
Forced to practically park by the side of the road, we were not exactly pleased with how the trip was turning out... but it all changed in the morning.
So you know how sometimes in the morning you wake up in an unreasonably great mood and feel like you could conquer the world? Well, that was the case, because there was nothing we could do about our failure and a waste of time, money and effort. And with acceptance came the humour. And with humour, we were ready to make the best of what we had at the moment.
First, we went for a little hike to explore what the place had to offer.
The air was clear, the child was happy and the view was just right.
We had a little lunch.
A very healthy veggie lunch.
Then we decided to go get some coffee and ended up buying another daily pass for camping to stay there for one more night and the hell with all our problems!
Of course, this time we didn't park by the side of the road and found a much better spot.
One of the things we got done in the city was disposing of our trash and some other things that we found by the side of the road and just couldn't leave there. People are filthy.
Accidentally ran into a lovely volunteer and asked for some bigger bags, since we spotted quite a lot of other trash on that mountain. She was absolutely lovely and provided us with encouragement and special tools for picking trash up.
So when we got back, we immediately went trash-seeking and found a disturbing amount of it.
Sofi was such a good helper it melted my heart. You guys, kids are kind by default. Initially, they don't hurt nature and creatures in it, that is one of the things that they learn from us. So please raise them responsible and aware of their impact. It's not as hard as it sounds since they are like that anyway. So basically what I'm saying is don't make them into ignorant and selfish humans like many of existing adults already are. Make your kids proud and they will do the same in return 😉
Later that day my husband even found a way to shower. 👀 Eventually, we will find a more comfortable way of doing it, since we want to take longer road trips and potentially move into a camper, but at the moment I'm not even confident enough to shower in a public bathroom, let alone like this. I'll keep you posted though.
The rest of the day we pretty much enjoyed the nature, hiked and relaxed after the stress of a big city and all of its disappointments. Overall, that's what made this whole thing completely worth it. Quality family time despite everything.
The next day we picked up some more trash along the way and drove straight home.
We have a little tradition of ordering a pizza, opening a bottle of wine for some and a box of juice for others and just watching something for the evening after a camping trip. There is nothing better than relaxing and getting some extra calories after a long road trip. Highly recommend.
Anyways, that is all for this weird, long and somewhat unsuccessful journey of ours.
If you would like to know what exactly do we eat on our camping trips, then tune in for the next post. And if you are interested in following the whole journey with its ups and downs of how we finally got to Russia, then you might want to keep a close eye on this blog as well as our YouTube channel, because we are going to keep them coming.
Have a lovely day, my anonymous reader. I will see you next Thursday.
For anyone who is staying, there will also be at least 2 vlogs about this trip on our YouTube channel and I will link them below if you want to see us get lost, frustrated, tired and sick of each other 😁
I'm Russian. If any of you didn't know. I have been away from my family for over 5 years and at the time was enrolled in a Russian university with an online program. My thesis and my graduation were coming up so we knew that we would have to be in my hometown during this specific summer. We started planning the trip a long time ago. So San Francisco was supposed to be the time when we get Russian visas for Memo and Sofi.
Technically, San Francisco is about 8 hours away from us, so if it were just the two of us, we could cover that distance in a day, but with a toddler, it would have been too much, so we decided to make the best of it and have a 3 days camping trip.
The first camping place took nearly half of the day to get to, but it was gorgeous beyond our expectations.
A little side note: if you are driving for a very long time and you have no extra minute to spare, but your kid obviously needs a break, you could do a little pit stop, get some gasoline, buy yourself a cup of coffee and grab something to eat, make sure everybody goes to the bathroom. That little break from sitting will be just enough. And then when you get back to your car and start munching on the snacks it'll buy you another 30-40 minutes of peace.
Anyways, the campground was amazing. If we had a bit more time, we would have stayed there much longer.
😂 If you want to know what the heck's going on here, let me explain... braiding her hair is nearly impossible without a distraction, so she normally watches her favourite cartoons for these 15 minutes that I need.
And yep, she is totally watching videos of herself.
When you are away from the city and really far away from big, busy roads you can give your child a bit more freedom. That's what I love the most about camping. It's a lot of work to get set up, but you literally have all the time in the world, because your kid will be easily distracted with practically everything. All you have to do is make sure they don't wander off too far from you and that there are no insects or animals near.
She saw a bee here. Reacted exactly like I would.
Early in the morning, we headed out towards the second campground.
Made a long stop to have lunch and play for a bit on the way.
Reached our destination only to realize that we can't go through, because the road requires a 4-wheeler.
With no internet and no way of checking the area around us, we just had to keep driving and see what we find. After checking a few other campsites in the area we found a good one. With a little detour to find a one-day camping permit, we finally settled for the night.
That place felt a bit dicey if I'm being perfectly honest. The other campground had people and Rangers passed through at least twice a day to make sure everything is ok. This one had a few abandoned buildings (at least they looked this way) and absolutely no one. No one to kick us out, but also no one to confirm that this is indeed a campground and not a private land. Also, with no people, it felt like way more animals could have been wandering around.Anyways, we had no other option so we slept and were on our way early in the morning.
Finally entering the city felt surreal. I've never been to San Francisco, so seeing it with my own eyes was almost overwhelming. The same thing I felt when I saw the Eiffel Tower or the Terracotta Army, or the Great Wall of China. Like you have heard of it a million times, have seen it in movies and pictures, but part of you didn't fully realize that they were real. Well, now there was no denial. It's real. It's a home for many people. Your surreal place is someone else's ordinary. And that's beautiful.
Unfortunately, we got there too late and the consulate was already closed, but hey...there was this awesome city to explore, so that's exactly what we did.
The first thing you notice is its beautiful architecture. 5 minutes of driving and it already became #2 on my 'the most beautiful cities list'.
The second most obvious thing about San Francisco is awful traffic. Busy, busy, busy. My husband was driving the car, but even though I was on a passenger seat, I got very anxious. I know for a fact that I wouldn't be able to drive in there. Anything that involved the car was a very negative experience.
The third most noticeable thing for me was how beautiful and fashionable everybody was. For a small kind of town girl that prefers sweats and hoodies over anything, it felt like every person you see just came from a cover shoot for some magazine. It makes you extremely self-aware, but at the same time very curious. Each person is like a fresh new idea of self-expression.
So, believe it or not, the spot from which we took this picture was actually where we slept that night. It's a large parking lot that oversees the Golden Gate bridge and lets you park overnight. Since there were no campgrounds within an hour of the consulate, we thought it would be best to sleep there and be up super early.
Even though we have a 'bed mode' in our tiny car, we decided to sleep in our front seats inclined back just in case we were asked to move our car. Sofi had the whole back seat to herself.
As you can guess from the title of this post, the next day didn't go as planned. As it turns out, Russian consulate in San Francisco has been closed and all of the ambassadors have left. An office with a few of its employees is still there forwarding documents to Washington and giving visas, only they take up to 10 working days to do so instead of 1-3 like we were hoping for.
We tried to fill in some more documents that they require and getting our pictures done considering the option, but later that day ended up deciding to go back home and apply through the consulate of Mexico City all over again.
I'm not gonna lie, it was one of the most frustrating days in the past few years for us, because our timeline just got much tighter than we anticipated and because of that we actually couldn't get my Schengen visa on time and ended up buying another set of tickets, because the airline wouldn't let me board our plane. 😰
Since we already spent more time than planned on this trip, the decision was made to drive to another campground 4 or 5 hours away to cover as much ground as possible. It took us until approx. 1 a.m. to get to our destination and then god knows how much more time to find a safe place to park for the night.
Forced to practically park by the side of the road, we were not exactly pleased with how the trip was turning out... but it all changed in the morning.
So you know how sometimes in the morning you wake up in an unreasonably great mood and feel like you could conquer the world? Well, that was the case, because there was nothing we could do about our failure and a waste of time, money and effort. And with acceptance came the humour. And with humour, we were ready to make the best of what we had at the moment.
First, we went for a little hike to explore what the place had to offer.
The air was clear, the child was happy and the view was just right.
We had a little lunch.
A very healthy veggie lunch.
Then we decided to go get some coffee and ended up buying another daily pass for camping to stay there for one more night and the hell with all our problems!
Of course, this time we didn't park by the side of the road and found a much better spot.
One of the things we got done in the city was disposing of our trash and some other things that we found by the side of the road and just couldn't leave there. People are filthy.
Accidentally ran into a lovely volunteer and asked for some bigger bags, since we spotted quite a lot of other trash on that mountain. She was absolutely lovely and provided us with encouragement and special tools for picking trash up.
So when we got back, we immediately went trash-seeking and found a disturbing amount of it.
Sofi was such a good helper it melted my heart. You guys, kids are kind by default. Initially, they don't hurt nature and creatures in it, that is one of the things that they learn from us. So please raise them responsible and aware of their impact. It's not as hard as it sounds since they are like that anyway. So basically what I'm saying is don't make them into ignorant and selfish humans like many of existing adults already are. Make your kids proud and they will do the same in return 😉
Later that day my husband even found a way to shower. 👀 Eventually, we will find a more comfortable way of doing it, since we want to take longer road trips and potentially move into a camper, but at the moment I'm not even confident enough to shower in a public bathroom, let alone like this. I'll keep you posted though.
The rest of the day we pretty much enjoyed the nature, hiked and relaxed after the stress of a big city and all of its disappointments. Overall, that's what made this whole thing completely worth it. Quality family time despite everything.
The next day we picked up some more trash along the way and drove straight home.
We have a little tradition of ordering a pizza, opening a bottle of wine for some and a box of juice for others and just watching something for the evening after a camping trip. There is nothing better than relaxing and getting some extra calories after a long road trip. Highly recommend.
Anyways, that is all for this weird, long and somewhat unsuccessful journey of ours.
If you would like to know what exactly do we eat on our camping trips, then tune in for the next post. And if you are interested in following the whole journey with its ups and downs of how we finally got to Russia, then you might want to keep a close eye on this blog as well as our YouTube channel, because we are going to keep them coming.
Have a lovely day, my anonymous reader. I will see you next Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment