This is another one of those two decades after the fact I’m trying to post whatever bit of information I have about a trip where we have very little to go on. The itinerary is long gone; there are no emails from 1996 still existing that I might have been able to refer to, just our memories. What we do know is that we started in Santa Barbara, California, and have this giant 120-year-old fig tree with Caroline and Jutta to prove it. This was my mother-in-law’s first-ever visit to America, just as she was transitioning into retirement back in Frankfurt, Germany. We never heard the rest of this “mistake” from our great aunt and uncle Ann and Woody Burns as they felt slighted that we were so close but didn’t stop in to visit them. Well, not that this is a good excuse, but I do remember how awkward Caroline felt on her first visit, and I tried considering how difficult this entire trip might have been for Jutta. Thrusting her into social situations with others could have proven uncomfortable for her, so I opted to forego introducing her to family.

From Santa Barbara, we headed north for a quick stop in Solvang as though some fakey “old-world” part of Europe that got dropped into California might have the same impact it had on me when I was six years old. Regarding the previous comment about socializing, you might need to understand that my mother-in-law and I, at this point, had a tenuous relationship due to my bringing her daughter to America. I don’t believe she ever liked me while in Germany as she saw me as some hamburger-eating cowboy who played with computers, and how could that in any way be a serious enough man for her wonderful youngest child?

Continuing our trek north, we stopped at Pismo Beach so she could dip her toes into the Pacific Ocean with Caroline for the first time in her life. Seeing I could drive our rental car onto the beach, that’s just what I did. What’s that lady yelling at us who’s driven up next to us? Can you make it out? As we stopped, we realized she was yelling, “Don’t stop!” We were stuck in the sand. Good thing this ranger was right here to help get us out and back on our way. Great start to the adventure aspect of this epic journey.

A bit further up the road, we pulled into Morro Bay for an overnight stay. I have to admit to no small amount of travel naivety as this was Caroline’s and my first major road trip, and we were certainly greenhorns.

Up Highway 1 we drove until we took a break at a small cafe and motel on the oceanside of the road. This place was at 16420 Pacific Coast Highway which would see us stop at many a time over the years. While at the gift shop, a person at the counter asked if we’d seen the elephant seals back down the road; we had not. We turned around and found the non-descript edge of the road where we could park (illegally) and head over to the beach to get up close and personal with the sunbathing pinnipeds. Our first few visits here were prior to the time when a parking lot and boardwalk that did not allow tourists to disturb these hulking giants was built.

Monterey Bay, California. Caroline and I needed this trip to return us to the place where, back in 1991, my girlfriend (at the time) and I visited Monterey after landing in San Francisco on her first visit to the United States. That girlfriend was obviously Caroline.

While it’s obvious we took a cruise around the bay, it’s difficult to recollect if we ventured into the aquarium but as Caroline points out, “How could we go to Monterey and NOT go to the aquarium?”

After a brief visit the next day to the San Juan Bautista Mission we continued east across California over for our first visit to Yosemite. The cabin we rented just south of the park had this “Bear Food Crockpot” that was busy boiling these softshell bear treats, or so we worried at the time. Our first impression of Yosemite National Park was not a good one as the place was overcrowded, and coming into such mayhem was a bit unnerving. It took years before Caroline and I would return.

Jutta’s first trip to America was a brief one at two weeks as no one had any idea about how we’d tolerate each other. Even though we’d been out on the road for 4 or 5 days after a few days of letting the jet lag settle after she landed, we still had to carve time out to bring her up to the Grand Canyon National Park. Who knew if she’d ever come back to the States? You can’t go to Arizona and not visit the Grand Canyon. Well, this turned out to be the biggest surprise and delight for my mother-in-law as she never dreamed that she’d see this with her own eyes. Because of that enthusiasm, we’d bring her back again and again until we now believe she’s been to the canyon at least a dozen times, and with each visit, she still swoons in the face of such grandeur.