Bay Area to the Berkshires

I’m looking at the weather Friday morning in Monterey, and guess what I see? More rain. And a news article that says the peninsula could become an island! The Salinas River had broken levees and was flooding areas near the two roads that lead onto, and out of, the peninsula. We were supposed to stay another night at Monterey before heading up to Half Moon Bay. After a call with the very nice lady at the RV park in Half Moon Bay, we decided to just head to Kerry’s in Oakland. We were able to cancel our reservation, luckily, so it was nice that every place was considerate with the impact of the storms.

After many hours of searching for places to camp/park the RV (FYI, it’s VERY expensive to RV camp around the Bay area, and definitely NO free spots), we decided just to park it on Kerry’s street and stay with her as she generously offered. I was certain someone in the neighborhood would call the police on us since it’s illegal to park RVs on the street, but no tickets!!

We hung out with Kerry, Rob, and Waverly Saturday night. It was great to catch up with them and see their neighborhood. Kerry was Coast Guard and fun fact – she is the reason Ben and I met! Ben knew her while they were both stationed in Portsmouth, and I played All Navy with her. Ben happened to be hanging out with her when I came down to stay with her while coaching a tournament in Virginia Beach. The rest is history. Huge thanks, Kerry!

On Sunday, Ben and I worked out at the Coast Guard base there in Alameda, and we walked around the base. I got to see another place where Ben was stationed! We then visited our friends Chris and Anne in Palo Alto. Chris went through the Master’s program at William and Mary with Ben, and he and Anne were some of our favorite people there. Ben’s kept in touch through the years. Anne is a world-class linguist and has been courted by several large universities over the years. We didn’t get to see them while they were in Santa Barbara, but I’m happy we got to see them while she’s at Stanford. Fun times with them as always!

The next day I flew back home for work while Ben got to explore the Bay area RV style. He stayed a few days in Petaluma. He had the whole RV park on base to himself. Cody really loves that – no leash!

He then parked overnight at the Golden Gate parking lot. The views he had, amazing! I’m jealous I didn’t get to see it all with him.

Sunset AND sunrise at the bridge.

I did get to stay in a really nice hotel room with a fireplace in Williamstown. I didn’t get to really enjoy it – got there late one night for meetings the next day – but I would love to go back. It was really close to the College campus. It was snowing, and the town was very pretty. I had time to walk around the campus for a little bit in between meetings.

Why does the Inn have the fires going in the snow?

After I flew back, we hung out with Kerry and family a little more before heading north to Redding with a stop at Travis AFB.