This past weekend I traveled to San Francisco to attend my boyfriend’s cousin’s wedding.  Although it was a very hurried trip (we left on Friday and returned on Sunday), it still was a great experience.  This marked the first time I traveled to northern California by car since I moved to southern California.  Although I had gotten recommendations to take the scenic route along the coast, we were a little pressed for time so we took the straighter, flatter route on the I-5 through the Central Valley.

I finally got to see, firsthand, the long drive my roommate and friends take up to the Bay Area when they are on their way home for Thanksgiving or winter break.  It was relatively straight (except the mountainous section of the I-405 before it meets the I-5), and we made good time both heading there and back.  It gave me a chance to sit back from the daily bustle of my final quarter at UCLA (!) and take in the view of the Coastal Range as we coasted down the I-5.

One day, I hope to make the same trip again, this time on the coastal scenic drive, and this time all the way up to visit my mom and sister in Vancouver, Canada.  Although that trip will not cross any time zones, I will traverse three states and one province, and hopefully many cities (and some national parks) along the way.

Eleanor Fang