Day 2 - The Path to the Beach

Last Sunday I decided to go on a hike with my friend, Amanda. It was a whimsical move - I had a long to-do list, no clean laundry, and a messy apartment. The logical decision would have been to stay home and get everything done, so that I could start the week fresh. I'd been having a whirlwind past few weeks, which had been stressing me out, and keeping me from getting anything done. Every little thing got to me, whether it was a text I forgot to respond to, or a stain I couldn't get out of a favorite sweater.

Sometimes when I'm at that breaking point, it's not clear if the better choice is to stay home and regroup, or to run away from it all and allow myself to forget about my daunting to-do list. I choose the latter, and decided to join Amanda on a hike with her friends, whom I'd never met.

Amanda came by, and we drove up to Marin with Bill's car. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge as our favorite Lucius song came on the radio. The majestic orange towers passed over us and the beautiful Marin hills peaked out from underneath the fog. "It might actually be a nice day," I said. 

We got to the trail head before anyone else, so we waited in the car. The parking lot sat next to a small horse ranch. While we waited for everyone else, she recalled a dream from the night before where she was walking on a path, and encountered a horse. The horse was beautiful and majestic, but intimidating. She worked up the courage to walk past the horse, and walked down the path to find herself at a beautiful beach. I tried to come up with all the possible hidden meanings in her dream; "the horse represents the challenges you have to face before you can reach your beach in your life!" I said matter-of-factly. "...Or you were just thinking about the hike we're doing today."

Amanda's friends showed up shortly after we got there, and we decided to start trekking to the beach. Her friends were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and I immediately was glad that I made the decision to hike. 

About a half-mile down the path I realized I didn't have the car keys. "You got the car key, yeah?" I asked Amanda. She stopped in her tracks. "No, I thought you did. Did you lock the doors?" I had.

We searched our pockets frantically for a couple minutes before coming to the conclusion that we did, in fact, lock ourselves out of our car. I pulled out my phone to text Bill - maybe he could somehow save us - but realized that I didn't have reception. A kind woman, who still had reception offered to lend me her phone. I thanked her profusely, and texted Bill a slightly frantic message.

Amanda and I decided to just keep hiking. We didn't have reception by the car either, so it was probably smarter to just stick with everyone for now anyway. The hike wasn't long, and before we knew it, we were at the beach. I checked the phone and saw a response: "I'm not Bill, but I have the number for AAA if you need it." I laughed. "I texted the wrong number...and now you don't get reception either," I said as I handed the kind woman back her phone.

Amanda and I decided to let it be. We ate carrots and hummus, drank beer and made new friends. The group grew larger, as more people arrived, and I recognized two of the new arrivals from my college days. We laughed about how small of a world it is, shared memories from college, and talked about what we've been up to since then.

The fog rolled in, and I began wishing I hadn't worn shorts. Just when I began to shiver, someone suggested that we hike up the hill to get a better view of the ocean. I jumped at the idea, and immediately felt warmer. Halfway up, someone mentioned poison oak. I noticed that I had been hiking through the red, oily plant in my shorts this whole time. "I think I'm gonna turn around," I told Amanda, slightly defeated. "This hill is covered in poison oak." She gave me some words of encouragement, and I decided to screw it, and trek on (but to pay more attention).

When we got to the top, everyone took out their phones to take pictures, so I did too. As I snapped away, I noticed something new - "No Service" was no longer sitting mockingly in the upper-left hand corner of my phone. I jumped for joy, and took the moment to call AAA. Although we quickly found out that Bill's AAA did not extend to me, and neither Amanda nor I had a membership. Before I hung up the customer service agent, probably feeling sorry for me, said "you know, if he (Bill) adds you to the plan, we could help you. 

By this time, most people were already hiking down. The wind had picked up, and the sun was slowly sinking behind the hills. I motioned to Amanda that I would stay up here to figure this out, so she waited with me. After a few phone calls, I was added to Bill's plan and a car was coming to help us in 45 minutes or less. "The driver will wait 5 minutes for you, but that it." The customer service agent said. Amanda and I rushed down the hill, said hasty goodbyes, and essentially ran-hiked back to the car. 

Just as the parking lot came into view, we saw a yellow truck pulling out. "No! That's it!" I yelled. We sprinted towards the yellow truck, waving our arms and yelling. Thankfully he saw us, and stopped.

I thanked him profusely and explained why I hadn't answered his calls. "I only have reception on this one hill, a couple of miles away..."

It took him less than a minute to get the car door open, and then we were off. We turned the music up, and drove through the fog, back over the bridge. I stopped at home to scrub my legs, hoping that it wasn't too late to rid myself of any poison oak. Tired and cold, we decided to grab some pho at a nearby restaurant before calling it a night. We ate spicy beef pho and drank cucumber water, as we recounted our day.