Cute Little Paper Blog

Category: California

  • Gilroy

    Gilroy

    My husband and I have had a fascination with Gilroy ever since we moved here. Apparently, it is the largest exporter of garlic in the world, and if you’re eating garlic, chances are it’s from a farm in Gilroy. Gilroy is just south of San Jose and not considered part of the Bay Area. It’s known for farms, wide open space, and where people from the Bay Area move to when they’re priced out. That, and Modesto, and Sacramento, and Tracy.

    Despite it’s reputation, I quite like going there. The first time I really got to know it was during a birthday party at a winery. I thought to myself, this is a real California event. I’ve made it. I had only been living there for two years and it felt right. It wasn’t Napa, but I liked that even better.

    The second time was for a bachelorette party, and the third time was for my husband’s second Covid shot. The last time I saw Gilroy was during outlet shopping, on one of my last days living in California. It always has a soft spot in my heart. I don care for huge tourist destinations. I love places that others have considered “boring” and low key. It’s probably why my husband and I decided to move to Vermont.

  • Sanborn County Park

    Sanborn County Park

    We had planned a long engagement but with our out-of-state move looming closer, and no end to the pandemic in sight, we decided to have a tiny ceremony. We figured we’d have a larger party later. The most important guests, my grandfather and Uncle Joe, live in California, so it was a good location and time.

    In October, we planned to have the ceremony for December, and later decided to do it in March. All the wedding planning took just a few months – ordering the dress, picking the perfect florist, locating the Georgian food lunch of our dreams, and getting everything settled with the rabbi and Jewish ceremony.

    We took engagement photos in December, with the same photographer we would end up using for the wedding.

    Our wedding announcements were digital, mostly photos used in graphics for the few guests. I am still so happy with the photos. Our photographer, Bay Area-based Tam Duong, was amazing and told us exactly how to pose.

  • Scrapbooking winter break

    Scrapbooking winter break

    I love getting done with a scrapbook! Then it gets to go on my shelf, with all my other travel memories. I create one even for in-town trips. I have been sharing pages from Katie and Casey’s Winter Break Adventure 2020! We were socially distant on all our adventures this winter break.

    More pages to come.

  • Ano Nuevo State Beach

    Ano Nuevo State Beach

    After living in California for over three years, Casey and I realized we had only been to Santa Cruz once! We had never really been to the beaches here.

    We took the beautiful drive along Highway One. One day we started from Santa Cruz. Another day we started from up North, near Palo Alto, then drove down. It’s a picturesque drive.

    Our favorite beach is Ano Nuevo. It is a state park, so you have to pay to get in. The walk down to the shore is a unique environment, part tall grasses, part swamp. Really interesting birds and flowers were there. That alone makes this trip worth it.

    Down at the beach are elephant seals. Casey and I immediately fell in love. They are so lovable! Giant noses, cute barks, sleepy food coma behavior… how can you not love these guys? They are everywhere. We saw three on our short visit to Ano Nuevo.

    Afterwards, we saw Shark Fin Bay and Twin Lakes State Beach after some recommendations from some friends. I am glad I don’t live at the beach, but it’s so close by. Another thing – we actually found Greek food in Santa Cruz. In San Jose, there’s only one Greek chain and it’s not very good. In Santa Cruz, there were a few places to choose from. Gyros always has my heart.

  • Almaden Quicksilver Park

    Almaden Quicksilver Park

    The best part about living in South San Jose is that you are right up along the mountains. It can’t get any better than that! I’d take Northern California landscapes over Southern California beaches any day.

    Alamaden Quicksilver Park is less than fifteen minutes from our house. There is a grueling uphill loop. We did it on New Year’s Eve. However, we went just a few days prior to hang out on a blanket. Is it weird to take a blanket to the forest, lay down, and read? We tried to stay a little bit hidden so that anyone walking by would not be put off by two weirdos on a blanket. It was a great day!

  • Monte Bello Preserve

    Monte Bello Preserve

    Monte Bello is a special hiking spot Casey and I go to near Palo Alto. It is our favorite place because it is never crowded and the loop is just at the appropriate level of difficulty. By the end, I am complaining, and we finish right when Casey gets tired. So it’s a win-win for us non-athletes. It is about a four mile loop. We have found all sorts of mushrooms there, from witches butter to lion’s mane to reishi. Casey even proposed to me there!!! That’s why it’s a such a special place to us. We’ve been back twice since quarantine.

    It’s difficult to catch Monte Bello in the ideal conditions because you have to wait for a rainy season. But when you find it in March or April, it can’t be beat.

  • Nisene Marks State Forest

    Nisene Marks State Forest

    Casey and I visited Nisene Marks at the beginning of our myceulium obsession. We were just learning about mushrooms and getting excited when we could identify basic roussulas. Now, we’ve gotten pretty good and can identify many things!

    We went to Nisene Marks this past week. With Covid, it was crazy the amount of bikers and runners who were maskless. All the walkers were in masks, though. We tried to get off the main trail to be away from people. It’s hard to get away from the crowds wherever you go in California. I heard Mendocino and Humboldt is where you can really be away from people so I think the next time we really want to get away, we will go there instead of a forest nearby. It is still breathtakingly beautiful.

  • Capitola Beach

    Capitola Beach

    We’ve been living in the Bay Area for four years now but we have yet to spend too much time at any of the beaches. This winter break from distance learning, I set out to change all that.

    Capitola is an urban beach with a low-key beach town. It is near Santa Cruz. The drive was quick. We read some books on the beach.

  • Oakland/SF

    Oakland/SF

    Quarantine makes me nostalgic for places I’ve been, even if they’re not my favorite places. I haven’t left the house really, since March. As I clean out my house, I find little snippets of life before quarantine – maps, ticket stubs, flyers, and more.

    Last August, Casey and I saw a comedy show in Oakland. We don’t normally venture this far north from San Jose, but we had a great time at the show. We had the most amazing chicken and waffles just a few blocks away near the dock. Oakland is always eerily empty.

    Last spring, I went to San Francisco for an education conference and yet another comedy show. Instead of chicken and waffles, my friend and I had sushi. Even quarantine makes me miss eating. I don’t like how soup is delivered and in takeout – restaurants use plastic tubs which can be dangerous when hot. I haven’t had pho or restaurant ramen since March. Fresh raw fish is also a toss-up. I miss the Asian classics like tom yum soup.

    Other than missing the mere idea of being able to leave the house, I miss certain dishes that are best served in restaurants. I’m in no rush to meet up with friends, though. Everyone experiences quarantine a little bit differently.

  • Santa Cruz

    Santa Cruz

    Santa Cruz has a cult following around the Bay Area. Everyone has a bumper sticker of The Mystery Spot. Well, it seems that way. I finally got to visit. It definitely reaffirmed that Santa Cruz has a strange energy to it, not in the sense the attraction advocated about, but in the attitude that people living here share about it.

    Since then, I’ve only been back once. It is kooky, laid-back, and I understand why so many people move there for a breath of fresh air.

  • San Luis Obispo

    San Luis Obispo

    My friend was living in LA and I was a new transplant in San Jose. We wanted to meet but didn’t want to drive over nine hours to see each other. We settled on San Luis Obispo, a cute town right in the middle.

    San Luis Obispo was having a poppin’ weekend. They were having a succulent and cactus show, strawberry festival, and a few other events. We checked out the beach, Madonna Inn, and also some natural hot springs.

    The strawberry festival was weirdly sad because there were no strawberries, like at all. And there were a looooot of tents with distributors of MLM products there. Is this more a commentary of “middle America”? It was confusing for us outsiders, to say the least.

    Since visiting, I’ve met a lot of people that went to school here with mixed feelings. Personally, I don’t know if I’d ever be back with the exception of the Madonna Inn. My friend and I had happy hour here but I would love to stay a night in one of their eclectic rooms.

    Sycamore Springs is definitely a gem. It is tucked away on the side of a mountain, with private tubs filled with sulfur water. It was so relaxing.

  • Marin County

    Marin County

    Marin County is the area north of San Francisco, on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. I had heard a lot about that area from fellow mushroom collectors and identifiers. It is moist, mountainous, and has great trails. My boyfriend and I shared a special weekend there this Valentine’s day.

    We liked Mount Tamalpais so much we explored three different trails in the park. It was a dry season but we were able to find some north facing slopes. Some common species of mycelium we found were Turkey Tail and King Alfred’s Cake. We found our first Pink Oyster. We also discovered many Turret Spider nests, mistaking them for mushrooms at first.

    At night, we stayed at The Gables Inn. There are only thirteen rooms on the property. It is homey and cute. They have a great breakfast spread and wine and cheese happy hour in-house every night. Sausalito closes very early at night, so we were lucky to get a table at The Fish Peddler. I had a three pound snow crab.

    Marin County was an idyllic place next to the sea, perfect for hiking. Only a week later, they were one of seven California counties to vote Joe Biden instead of Bernie Sanders. I’ll probably never forgive them but I’ll appreciate the time we spent there.

  • Yosemite National Park

    Yosemite National Park

    I went to Yosemite for the first time in October. I’ll be honest – I don’t like the idea of Yosemite. Apple (and capitalism) has ruined the name for me. The kind of affluent, oblivious Colorado-loving kind of American that I despise – really love going there. Two super cool documentaries were even made this year about El Capitan, a stupidly steep rock mountain in Yosemite. It seems so intentionally unsafe to climb it, why does everyone need to climb this mountain? Can’t we just appreciate it as a natural wonder and not need to prove our human finesse on it? It bewilders as well as irrationally angers me.

    When I’m looking for a hike I love my local parks like Monte Bello Preserve (in Palo Alto) or Big Basin Redwood Forest (in Soquel). I really dislike the idea of using nature as a fitness aspiration. I am unfairly assuming that Yosemite, along with Yellowstone, has been co-opted to represent pure human sport and superiority by the very same people I’ve been generalizing. I’ve let myself associate examples of breathtaking natural beauty with consumption-happy white people who put their lives in danger on purpose while millions of people literally live in danger they cannot escape. In short, I am not inspired by an “against all odds” kind of story when it involves climbing a mountain for reasons other than survival.

    In total, we stayed two nights in a cabin at an RV park. October was already chilly in Northern California.

    I kept both a journal and artifacts while at Yosemite. The journal was nice to have on the trail to write and doodle in, especially at the nightly traffic jam leaving the park. It was the most awful traffic jam of my life and I’m not even joking.

    The first day was a short hike. The second day was a more difficult hike. It wasn’t El Capitan thank god, however. I learned the meaning of gorp. Except I kept calling it glorp and glorb.

    The second day ended with dinner in the nearby small town, Groveland.

    Overall, Yosemite was a great experience. I saw a lot of amazing natural rock formations. No picture could ever do Yosemite justice. However, it was indeed crowded and the trails were lined with speedy college kids in Patagonia carrying wretched conversations loudly with the backdrop of prehistoric trees and rocks. I’m not used to hiking in such crowded places and I typically avoid those kind of trails. It was difficult to contend with.

  • Berkeley/SF

    Berkeley/SF

    I moved to San Jose three years ago. San Jose is an hour south of the world famous San Francisco. Every movie and TV show takes place there, everyone abroad dreams of visiting San Francisco. However, in my three years here, I’ve only managed to visit SF a few times and sort of end up hating it every time. Why? San Francisco is dirty. San Francisco isn’t an easy drive. San Francisco is expensive. The people of San Francisco are all transplants. It doesn’t feel sustainable. And start-up culture is the worst! Just watch HBO’s Silicon Valley or watch any interview of a tech billionaire. They’re the worst.

    I prefer my sleepy town of San Jose. But some times, you just have a perfect day planned out and SF is part of the plan. That was my cousin and me in April of this year. I hadn’t visited the deYoung Museum yet, and there was a Claude Monet exhibit there. She and her boyfriend are plant lovers and artists; we had to catch that exhibit.

    After the museum, we headed to the Conservatory of Flowers. Oh. My. God. It is one of the coolest places I have ever been. It’s a Victorian-style greenhouse filled with the most exotic plants. Each room creates a different ecosystem. There are the most unique plants, many of which I’ve never seen in my life. It was crazy! It also has a corpse flower. That corpse flower is the most starkly alien creature, wondrous and unforgettable. It makes me wonder why I wasn’t taught about something this cool in school.

    It was early in the day but we had enough of SF. We headed to Berkeley and Richmond afterwards. In Berkeley, there is an employee art store called Artist & Craftsman Supply. Aren’t co-ops or union-run companies just better? We lost ourselves there for a bit.

    We ended the night in Richmond with fried Taiwanese snacks, Asian beauty, and bubble tea. While SF is mostly horrible (still), the places around it contain gems and make the trip up worth it.

  • Davis

    Davis

    One of my favorite travel partners is my grandpa. He and I have been to countless places… Brazil, Hong Kong, Canada, Northwestern United States, just to name a few. It had been more than a year since we went to Brazil, our last trip. So it was time for another trip…

    I got the idea to visit a bug museum from Atlas Obscura. That is one of my favorite travel sites and I’ve used it to find recommendations for strange and interesting places all over the world. Davis is less than an hour drive from Sacramento, where my grandpa lives.

    With biology in mind, Davis seemed to match the mood. We saw a giant crane up close in the parking lot. We saw a wild turkey on the road. I don’t know what it was, but Davis had a very conservation-oriented, animal-friendly vibe. We definitely saw it in the museum and just in the space around UC Davis, where the museum was.

    The museum was small but interesting. It’s said to be the largest collection of cataloged insects in the world. Large shelves require wheels to be moved around. Pretty cool. They had tarantulas, stick bugs, and other creepy crawlies they were letting children hold. Our trip was short but sweet.

  • The Bay Area, from South Bay to the Peninsula

    The Bay Area, from South Bay to the Peninsula

    Casey and I just celebrated four years in the Bay. California has been enjoyable, with new experiences, and good memories. We don’t know if it’s the perfect fit for us, though. We are far too kooky for this hyper-capitalist, business-centered state. It’s difficult to afford a house. The weather is perpetually perfect here. Small cities all along the bay have their own flavor. While I don’t set out to visit them all, it is inevitable that you don’t end up at each one for some reason or another while living here.

    Morgan Hill

    Morgan Hill is the town south of San Jose. It is where tons of families are flocking to for more affordable living. I have a great memory of a night with girlfriends here one night. The drive is pretty short now that I live in South San Jose.

    Gilroy

    Gilroy is what most considered the southern most part of the “south bay.” One of my closest friends is from here. Unfortunately it is also the site of a horrific shooting. Apparently all of California’s garlic comes from here. When I’ve passed Gilroy, I know I’m in for a road trip, whether to Southern California, Nevada, or Arizona.

    Sunnyvale

    Sunnyvale is west of San Jose and an outpost for many Asian groceries and neighborhoods. Casey and I come here frequently for food shopping, and when we have a friend in town.

    Mountainview

    The more north you get along the peninsula, the worse it gets. I don’t have any interest in Mountainview, Palo Also, Redwood City, or San Francisco. Everything gets fancy and new-money up here. Unfortunately, you do end up on this side of the peninsula for various reasons while living in the Bay. These cities are the home to many headquarters of many world-reknown companies.

    Palo Alto

    Palo Alto is a place Casey and I go hiking a lot. It is an area of tall trees and hills. It seems to be always at a cooler temperature than the rest of the bay. While Palo Alto downtown is curated and has a rustic feel, and the area near Stanford is woodsy and inviting, like a dreamy area out of a movie.

    Redwood City

    This is the most north I’ll go before calling it San Francisco. My favorite art store closed down it’s San Jose location, so I come up here to get new paints. Redwood City also has a lot of secondhand and thrift shops, like a diamond in the rough.

  • Monterey

    Monterey

    For our four year anniversary, my boyfriend and I spent the weekend in Monterey. We saw the infamous aquarium, went to the beach, had fish and chips, went hiking at Aptos State Park, and even kayaked alongside otters.

    Monterey is a beautiful coastal city only an hour south of San Jose. While driving down, you know you’re near because the air gets salty and you start to see dunes. 

    In a very unpopular opinion, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is underwhelming. And the design of the building was confusing, leading to a disjointed viewing experience. Perhaps the exhibits were in transition, but it didn’t live up to the hype.

    What was amazing, however, was kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. You can rent a kayak for a day and pass by hundreds of cute otters floating around. It’s unbelievable that you can get so close to such majestic animals. There are strict laws about getting too close, which is great. And there are different kinds of boats you can rent if kayaking is not your thing. At a certain point you can also see walruses. 

  • Big Basin State Park

    Big Basin State Park

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    We had our first visitor to in the Bay Area! My boyfriend and I moved here in 2017 and we never miss “home”. For our first visitor, we wanted to welcome him to our California. It wasn’t the theme parks, or bars, or cool restaurants we wanted to take him to. What we define as “our” California are the endless forests and perfect hiking spots.

    We did it right by packing our backpack with tons of Ike’s sandwiches and hiking deep into the forest to eat them. The hike is easy. The sky is practically covered by all the tall trees. At this park, you’ll feel transported to another mystical world.

  • Los Angeles

    Los Angeles

    I’ve visited Los Angeles many times as a kid with my family. I knew it for the beaches and Getty Museum, which was a memorable place for me as a kid. I finally got to go back, as an adult.

    I was in Los Angeles to reconnect with an old friend. She was working at a cool foreigners-only hostel in Venice Beach. The hostel is not on any booking sites and known through word of mouth. I felt like I had insider information staying there, as I was the only American out of thirty or so foreign guests. It’s a two-story house converted into a cozy place for travelers to crash. Smoothie places within walking distance, Nepalese food on the boardwalk, cute bikes and the ocean breeze – Venice Beach was the perfect mix of hip and cozy that I’ve come to love in LA.

    My friend and I visited numerous art museums as she is an artist as well. My favorite one was the Craft and Folk Museum. It was a small, folk-style building across from the LA County Museum of Art and La Brea tar pits. We saw an interesting exhibit, Betye Saar’s solo exhibition. And we got to meet her in person! 

    Since LA was another solo trip for me (one of my favorite ways to travel!) I had some creepy true crime podcasts to listen to along the way, to “set the stage”. Some episodes I had on rotation while there are:

    I definitely do not recommend murder podcasts for the lighthearted. Or the first-time solo traveler.

    One of the perks of having a friend working was that I had a lot of time to myself to explore and hang out. I spent many mornings meandering through the canals, contemplating way too long for which cold pressed juice to get, and doing yoga on the beach.

    Unforgettable place: I had duck confit and hash from Nighthawk Breakfast Bar at Venice Beach. It’s not on the menu anymore but I’ll never forget how delicious it was! It was duck egg, poached, on a beautiful bed of potatoes. How can anything be better than that?!

  • Long Beach

    Long Beach

    Long Beach is one of my favorite places in LA. I love the colorful horticulture and the perpetual ocean breeze. It embodies every idea of the concept of California. With the perfect temperature year-round and the low-key vibe of the entire city – makes it a perfect place to visit. I had an awesome vegan guide that showed me to all the coolest places.

    Fun things to do in Long Beach:

    Aquarium of the Pacific – I think this is one of the best aquariums I have ever visited. I’ve been to many aquariums, all over the world. Notable ones include the world’s largest aquarium in Singapore, New York Aquarium, to name a few. I unironically have some pretty high standards for how I think they should be… At the Long Beach Aquarium, they have extremely rare animals and an amazing penguin exhibit. Everything is academic as well as visually stunning. My favorite are the Japanese Spider Crab. They’re seriously an evolutionary marvel. The aquarium even has free entrance days for teachers.

    Retro Row – A row of cute vintage shops. You can find anything here. The parking is accessible and not in a confusing or expensive downtown kind of area.

    The Parlour – A cool speakeasy with live piano. Cocktails are good and and the time-period decor is so cute!

    Museum of Latin American Art – MOLAA is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin American and Latino art!