Fall 2024, I stepped away from working as a program social worker at the Pasco School District, to take on a full time position as an associate professor in the newly started Master of Social Work program. Before making that step to full time, as I worked as an adjunct from that first class, I had taught 342 students over 8 different classes, and a total of 42 different class sections. As a full time faculty, those numbers are increasing rapidly. I led lots of groups throughout my career, and taught English when I lived in Peru. These all led me to think that I might like teaching, but after starting I really found out how much I love it. Not just the getting to help shape the students, but also seeing them out in the community making a difference with their clients. It was this, that when I started working on my Ph.D., I asked the school district if I could take a leave of educational absence so I didn’t have to give up all of my classes I taught as an adjunct.

When the position opened for the masters program, I knew that I had to go for it. I also felt very confident, as I had been so ingrained in the university for so many years and have been highly esteemed and valued for my work. I had actually already been helping with the start of the MSW program, and doing some consulting work on a school social work class. But it was also a chance, as the program was not fully accredited yet. I felt confident in the work we would do as a faculty (as Ruby Aguilar, our program chair, described it — the countless hours and hard work our faculty and staff invested in building this program). I am especially thankful to the students who took a chance and started their program when I did, without us being fully accredited.

It is a very proud moment to have our program validated by earning our national accreditation through the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). It has meant going through three site visits, submitting three different benchmarks (extremely large documents describing how we are meeting the accreditation standards). We got notice a couple of weeks ago that we had been approved, but have finally got the official certificate and the university made a formal public statement. It felt so good this week, as we brought our new incoming students for the 2026-27 school year to engage in their orientation, to tell them that we are now completely accredited. This third cohort of MSW students is the largest group we’ve had (containing advanced standing students, and students in both the first and second year of their two year program). I look forward to all of the great things they will do during their education and especially after.

You can find the public statement Heritage University Master of Social Work Program Earns National Accreditation

I learned to give back to my community, doing community service projects. I gained experience being in nature and picked up other skills. Consider the scouting motto,

Be Prepared!

• Scouts BSA Handbook

I do wish that I had gone through and gotten my Eagle Scout, but that would have also meant that my life during my high school years would have been pretty different.

We have been going on family camping trips every year for a number of years. I love being in nature, and always hope to camp a couple of times each summer. There is something so connecting about being in the forest and surrounded by green. This year, we went to Kachess campground. It is actually somewhere that we have wanted to go for a number of years, but we never made reservations early enough. It is near Cle Elum and is a massive campground and lake. It sits at 2,254 ft elevation, which means the water is on the cooler side, but it was still amazing to get in. The campground is nice, and while most of the bathrooms are vault toilets, next to our loop was one with running water. That positioning was nice, though the two campsites we picked across from each other were on the smaller side. Overall, the campground is pretty big. I recorded a 4 mile bike ride going through every loop.

We cooked great food and spent time together (my direct family, our grandbaby, my Cuñado, his kids, and another nephew). We made trips to the lake, I spent time writing and reading, walking through nature, and just being there. I didn’t realize that phones could now take images of the night sky, but they can to some degree.

We actually went to the lakeside one of the evenings to see the stars. While it does feel open, and a bit unnerving (Belinda and the girls started to go down, but got scared and went back to the car), it also was amazing to see the wide open sky without light pollution. You can see some photos from our trip:

On Friday, we also went on a day hike to Mt. Rainier. We did a camping trip there several years ago and have been talking about going back to visit (we want to camp there again too, but this year was just the hiking trip). So, with Friday being the observed holiday, we decided to make a day trip of it. It did make for a long day (we left at about 6:30 AM and got back at 11:30 PM with picking up and dropping off people), but it was worth it. Not just for the dinner at Miners on the way home, but really because of the experience.

There were a couple of minor surprises. First, we hadn’t realized that the entrance would be free, due to the holiday. It was very busy (I’m not sure if that is pretty normal or because of the holiday as well). While it is nice when I’ve been to places where you don’t see many other people, it wasn’t bad to have so many people. I will say, if you stopped on the trail (which we had to do a number of times), you would get passed by a number of other groups every few minutes. The second surprise came as they passed by: so many of the people who passed us were speaking different languages. I will also admit, our group was speaking Spanish most of the time, but it was a bit unexpected how diverse the population visiting this scenic area was. Again, this makes sense. We all can benefit from connecting with nature and being in landscapes that make you want to twirl like you hear The Sound of Music and understand the hills are alive.

via GIPHY

We went to Paradise, and ended up hiking Skyline and Golden Gate Loop. It took us about 3.3 hours to go 4.6 miles (with breaks and a lunch). It was a pretty challenging hike (although listed as Moderate) and had a lot of elevation gain, especially at the start.

After some overpriced ice cream and a rest, we also went to the overlook for Bench Lake. All in all, even though I’m still a bit sore, I’m so glad to have gone. You can see some photos from this as well.

I’m glad to be able to go and do these things, but I hope that getting to take my kids gives me an opportunity to teach them to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent (just like scouting).

One way I manage information is by developing my systems and methods for organizing my data, tasks, and sharing and planning. My systems are sometimes convoluted and complicated. I find it gratifying and valuable to build my tools and systems. Sometimes, these can be quick little things. These little helper tools probably provide me the most return on the investment of time and effort than anything that is a much larger project (as those I might sink hours, days, and even sometimes weeks) into making something work.

It can even be fun to build my own tools out of plastic, like you can see these cardboard construction tools I printed for making things with my daughter (find the file on Makerworld Cardboard Crafting Tools).

This week, I have had a few meetings with students to talk about grades. Our advising views only provide letter grades (e.g., A, A-, B, etc.). At a master’s level, students are expected to maintain a 3.0 or higher, and their graduate-level career GPA must also meet that same standard. Because they only provide letter grades and the average for the GPA, it is hard to discuss how future grades (or retaking a class to improve your grade) might impact a student’s career GPA.

I made a shortcut to be able to provide an input of letter grades, and it will provide a GPA score. It isn’t an overly complicated Shortcut. It does the following:

• Create a dictionary that defines each letter grade with its GPA value
• Asks for me to provide a list of grades, each on a new line
• Converts those to uppercase (if I don’t add the letter grade in the proper format)
• Splits each line of letter grades so they can be reviewed individually
• Gets the value of the letter grade from the dictionary
• Split each line of GPA values so they can be calculated into an average
• Shows the results

It was super simple to create. Because I decided to share this with my colleagues in case they find it useful, I wanted to try to make it error-free (I suppose they could not enter the grades as new lines, but the directions instruct you to do so). But what happens if they enter one and it isn’t uppercase to match the dictionary key? I accounted for that. I thought I would need to do something in case they add something that isn’t a usable letter grade (consider P for pass or I for incomplete). I started to try to have ChatGPT assist me in writing out some complicated regular expressions to do this. Still, I figured out that because I am only getting the values from the dictionary, only letters included in the keys get passed to the next step, so it automatically removes them.

You can find the Calculate GPA from Letter Grades. It does feel gratifying to have a simple tool that I can use to do this.

I got the opportunity to watch the annual parade for Jungapeo. For such a small area, there are so many schools and groups that come to represent during this time. There was great dancing, outfits, and music, and it was just a great time. I took so many photos and videos, I wanted to be able to put together something with them.

📅 March 20 and 21st 2025
🗺️ Jungapeo Mexico
🎶 Caminos de Michoacán by Federico Villa

You can see a picture of me with the hat I got.

I also ended up setting myself up to store my hat in my office and printed a hook for it.

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Make sure to check out the other posts connected this trip tagged 2025 Vejar al Mexico Spring Break

Puerto Vallarta isn’t that busy, but it really can be packed with people. On Monday I wandered around the Malecón. It is really beautiful but also so busy. During the day in the plazas you can hear so much birdsong.

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There are a bunch of large clubs all next door to each other.

The prior night, I had been walking around, thinking I might buy a bottle of tequila. I ended up in a shop that sells bottles, encourages customers to try shots, and then wants to sell you timeshares or tours (or expensive tequila bottles). I’m not a fan of time shares or feel like they are a good idea. While I declined all of the above, he recommended going to Playa Las Gemelas.

Sometimes, talking to random strangers when traveling gives great recommendations (like going to Prague), and other times, I can be a bust. The beach was super pretty I liked it. But it wasn’t my best option. I took the bus (which I have always loved public transport). I checked in through the hotel there, but when I tried to go back from the beach to visit their bar, I was locked out. I just didn’t come prepared. I didn’t stay very long and ended up exploring Playa de Los Muertos. Got a margarita from the the Margarita Grill and then ate a nice dinner at Langostinos, listening to a singer eating and drinking sitting watching the sunset on the beach.

That night, I went to an Irish pub to listen to live music for Saint Patrick’s Day. I ended up making friends and going to a few other places. The next day was more relaxed with time at the beach. Although I had somebody steal $160 out of my wallet (thankfully not cards and all of that). The details are outside of what I’d share in this venue. The following day (e.g., Wednesday) led me to my flight and the start of the second leg of my trip.

My wife is from Jungapeo, and I rode over with my family. It has been a much slower pace, but it has been fun. There are two streets that go all the way through the town. When we arrived, I ate a fantastic Pan Bazo, which is my favorite Mexican food and something I think originated here or nearby. It isn’t really a thing in other parts of Mexico. We went and spent some time at the Jardin (the plaza that is the center of town) and ate ice cream with wine in it (which is really good). The next day, we went to Zitácuaro to do some shopping and wander around their much larger markets. In the evening was a parade of all elementary schools (dressed in various themes such as The Flinstones, Lion King, etc.). The kids were cute. Then, drinking and hanging out on the street, talking with people as they go by. At 530 am, there was another parade (I was asleep but tried to go out and watch the last little bit), and there is another one today (Friday) at 11 AM.

In small Mexican cities and towns, annual celebrations are often called “fiestas patronales” or “ferias” (patron saint festivals or fairs), which are important cultural celebrations for that community. My wife’s family has returned to their hometown during this event for many years. This year, it happens to be the same week as my Spring Break. I knew I wanted to come. The first problem was that they weren’t planning on coming until mid-way through my break, then staying for a week and a half. I didn’t want to make it to Mexico only to be able to spend a few days there and come back for my regular teaching schedule. With how overloaded I feel from my classes, I probably shouldn’t have gone anywhere so I could try to use the time to catch up, and it isn’t necessarily time off. I looked at options and decided to come to first to Puerto Vallarta and spend some days here before to spend more time abroad, and then I will be meeting up with my wife’s family in Mexico City to travel together to her hometown.

I’ve been to Puerto Vallarta twice when I was growing up. On the first trip, we stayed at an all-inclusive resort on the Mismaloya Beach. On the second trip, we stayed north of Puerto Vallarta in a Bucerías. With these trips being so long ago, there is a lot that we did that I don’t remember. The following are some of the things that stood out:

• Being amazed that a hotel can have multiple pools
• Jay’s (our friends we went with) Mom telling us that if we peed in the pool, the water would change colors³
• Spending time in a foreign hospital having my appendix removed ⁴
• Going to a restaurant and having them show a menu by displaying a platter of dead fish and we could point to our selections
• Learning about Leafcutter ants and that they could take all of the grass from a yard in a single day
• Being excited that I had to carry my appendix across the border in a glass jar and wanting to show it to customs officials (I was a strange kid)
• Going Snuba Diving and deciding that when I grew up, I wanted to be an underwater photographer

These experiences and exposure to other cultures and ways of life were formative for me. These trips and some of the summertime traveling I did with my cousin also helped form a love for traveling. As I sit her on my balcony overlooking some worn cobble stone streets, sipping on a Pacifico with my speaker playing and writing on a warm summer evening with the smell of the ocean and view of palm trees I am trying to soak it all in (you can see a post showing the view from the terrace rooftop restaurant)

So far, it has been amazing to be here. I’m staying at Hotel Paloma del Mar. It is reasonably priced, in the Malecón, and simple but seems generally good so far. The staff has also been outstanding. I am making my holiday include the Friday before and the Monday after Spring Break, so I got here Friday evening. I checked into the hotel, found my way to the ocean (about five or six blocks), and then ate some Green Aguachiles at Restaurante El Malecón, sitting on the sand and listening to live music. That night, I ended up at La Bodeguita Del Medio where I got to do some Salsa/Merengue to live music in an atmosphere that is great for social dancing.

The following day, I had to get up early to make my way to Puerto Magico to go on a tour I booked a boat ride to Yelapa and Majahuitas, which was moderately priced.

I posted a few pictures of the boat ride.

You can also see some photos from Yelapa.

Today has been more of a down day sleeping in, hanging out at the hotel, eating a delicious seafood burrito, and spending time at the nearby beach. I think I will put together an album of photos to share.

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One common place I find myself getting lost in the details is preparing content for lectures ¹. I will spend significant time considering what to include, strategizing how to present the material, going back to the sources, and trying to find high-quality sources. One example of my obsessing over what source I should use was for a presentation I did with a few colleagues before the start of the semester. Before each semester, our university faculty spend a day organized around a theme and professional development. My small group’s topic focused on sharing self-care practices we are integrating into our classroom environment and providing some ideas of how other instructors could do the same. I wanted to ground our discussion in the reality of stress and its impact. Readings, training, and discussions have frequently generally discussed the impact that trauma and stress have on our minds, bodies, and social environment throughout my experience in the mental health world. I wanted to share a concise description of what stress looks like. This led me to spend a few hours reading journal articles, returning to some books, and trying to determine the best source. Most sources were not what I wanted to share or were way more technical than I wanted to get into. My message was at its essence: stress causes people problems. In my mind, I felt I needed to have some fancy journal article to cite this. In the end, I moved away from a more formal source and just used the description provided by the American Institute of Stress and their article How Stress Affects your Body and Mind. While it isn’t as strong of an academic source, it is appropriate for what I wanted to share. I was just overthinking what to use and spending more time than I should have.

This type of going down unplanned rabbit trails or obsessing about some of the details does mean that I potentially spent longer than I could have on developing the presentation. But it also makes for an improved final product. I also don’t consider the time wasted, even for the material I didn’t use, as it provided me the opportunity to increase the depth and breadth of my knowledge. Often, doing extra allows me to grow and improve while providing an improved product. That makes the extra effort I put into things often helpful and something I should consider doing. You can see the presentation we did Spring 2025 Faculty Day Breakout Session: Bringing Peace & Ease During Changing Times.

Building My Presentations Website

My ability to embed this above-mentioned presentation is available due to another example of the extra effort I have put into my work. I have a sub-section of my website dedicated to my presentations. When I started sharing papers and writings as academic resources for people, I had some opportunities many years ago to add presentations I had given as an MSW student using SlideShare (now owned by LinkedIn) Directions Program Effectiveness Study Presentations. These were one-off examples and wanted to have a way to easily share the content. I’m always lurking around the internet, seeing how people share information and what they do. I follow a number of technology professionals, and many of them give talks. I remember seeing people have online portfolios of their talks and sharing their slides. In 2019, when I presented at a breakout session for a conference for support staff hosted by OSPI, it seemed the perfect opportunity to develop my own portfolio. You can see Foundational Aspects of Evidence-Based Classrooms: Supporting Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities that I presented at that conference.

I started looking at some of the systems to build a public speaking portfolio and came across Notist. It is an excellent service and worked well for my needs for many years. I started posting and sharing all the presentations, teaching as an adjunct. One of the best aspects was that you could use a custom domain if you have a paid account, which I needed for the number of presentations I posted each year). Fast forward to the summer of 2024. I decided I didn’t want to pay the $100 per year for the service. I also wanted to share my notes more easily. Their service has a way of including my lecture notes, as I do now, but I had to copy and paste each section individually.

So, I decided to make a new Jekyll site to post all of my presentations (you can see all of the code on Github²). I am using the same javascript that Notist had for embedding the slides and CSS they had for using the present feature, but otherwise, I designed my new portfolio the way I wanted it to be. I also built a shortcut so that I could cycle through my previous presentations one at a time and download all of the information I had posted on my Notist account. It took me significant time to develop the shortcut, design the website, and the pattern used to build the presentations. Having well over 100 presentations, just going through them was also a slog.

Posting copies of the PDF of the presentation like an animal.

During the summer, I was able to do the old content part, but I ran out of time to develop a process for converting new presentations. The new school year started as along with my transition to a full-time associate professor. My time became very constrained and I couldn’t actually use my new website to share new presentations. I had to put it back on the shelf, and so I went back to the most straightforward approach–posting copies of the PDF of the presentation in MyHeritage like an animal. Honestly, this approach might have been the best option based on the required effort. However, I wanted to have the satisfaction of using my personally designed tool and continue increasing my skills.

When winter break came and the fall semester ended, I picked the project back up. At first, I wanted to build a text-based user interface using the terminal. This approach felt too cumbersome, and it was hard to get the data. I wanted to make it quick and easy to post my slides. I opted for Shortcuts, and my final implementation was the most complicated workflow I have ever built. I have some actions in it that do some bash and python scripting, which I got a lot of help from ChatGPT on developing and problem solving. The following is the general flow of the Shortcut.

• Select a file (a PDF of a presentation) and convert each page to an image.
• Count the images and ask for input to share the content of the notes for each of the slides
• Confirm there are the same number of headings and images
• Make an ID code for the presentation
• Ask for data needed to build the presentation pages (e.g., title, description, date, tags, etc.)
• Take the converted images and sent them to ChatGPT’s API to generate alt text for each image (Jarrod Blundy’s post Generate Alt Text with OpenAI Vision Shortcut helped me build this)
• Resize images to thumbnail size and export the set of images to the appropriate folder
• Export the PDF renamed to the appropriate folder
• Build text pages for the presentation, embed, present, and slides
• Copy the embed code to include in our content mangagment system
• Open the newly created page so I can verify it worked

Each time I run the script and see it build my site, it makes me happy. I write all of my lecture notes in plain text/markdown and use Sublime Text 3. To try to remove some of the friction, I also created a script (with the help of ChatGPT) that copies the correct text needed to be processed by the shortcut (I also made a similar one for the emails I send out).

Eventually, I want to adapt the same design style to the rest of my website, maybe that will be my summer project this year. Based on the hours I spent creating this, an argument could be made that it wasn’t worth it, but it is something extra that I can do. It adds a high-quality learning material for my students, has increased my development skills, and gives me satisfaction so I am pleased that I have done it. It also has some qualities that are better for students. For example, the slides section now includes my notes and more in-depth content, especially because my slide design tends to be more minimalist. I like sharing the information into the world, and the pages have a lot of traffic that goes to them. It has led to people reaching out and making connections in the world.

Building My Now Page

While I couldn’t finish my presentation website in the fall, I built another entirely different website to provide a service to assist in collaboration. I am primarly based in Toppenish and spend one or two days there a week. It is also over an hour (in my head cannon I have to tell myself it is 1.5 hours so that I can make sure I get places on time). I have an office there, but I also have an office at our Tri-Cities Campus. I sometimes work from my home office or have appointments at agencies or other places. So I’m really all over the place. I have kept my general schedule as consistent as possible; it changes frequently based on my needs. I considered the Outlook Booking with Me Feature, but it doesn’t really give a way to share different locations (only remote or in the office) and I only share all the details of my calendar events with the faculty in my department.

My first thought, and still something I am highly likely to do, was to build an E-Ink display that I could display information on and update from anywhere. I kind of want to build my own, but a pre-created package like Trmnl would be pretty amazing. It is just that I need at least two of whatever I use. I like building my static Jekyll sites, and when your only tool is a hammer, you tend to use it, so that is what I did. I built a pretty simple website.

This website was much less onerous to build. I bought a domain a while back vsp.ink and had the tagline “A place for stuff to spill out from Jacob Campbell.” The VSP is a part of my name (you can see my contact page where I talk about it). I also really like having a website that is a total of six characters. I’m also using it for a few other purposes ³. While what I have created is not a traditional /Now page, I do like the idea of them and have thought about making my own for years. Most people use a now page to share general things they are working on, reading, doing etc. Think maybe in a couple of weeks or a month. Mine updates daily, but I might add a currently page that share more general things I’m doing.

The website takes data from weekly and daily notes to display my current day. I generally update the pages using Obsidian and a few plugins git and periodic notes. Each week I create a weekly note that just includes the week dates (to display on the now page) and frontmatter data for each day. In that frontmatter, I review my calendar for the week and add where I plan to be each day using the following temples:

🏡 Work from Home
🏫 Toppenish Campus
🏫 Kennewick Campus, 🌃🏫 CBC Campus
🫥 by appt only
🚘 Community Appts
🌃🏫 CBC Campus
🛩️ Traveling
🚑 Medical

I have a personal automation that runs each morning at six am to trigger the repo to build and deploy so that the date gets updated and removes the previous day from the now page. Then, each day, I try to add my schedule that day. I open up the note for the day in Obsidian. I often write a short description of what I’m doing that day in general. I have a shortcut that can make a markdown list of my calendar events. I edit anything that shouldn’t be posted publicly and type a few keyboard commands:

⌘P Git: stage current file
⌘P Git: commit staged files
⌘P Git: push

I just have to start typing each of those commands and click some quick returns, and a few minutes later, the website will rebuild with the new information. It is extra and beyond what anybody else does, but I like that I have it. My students look at it and plan talking to me or joining my office hours. Sometimes, I don’t update the daily note, but the weekly note still generally shows where I will be at for each day.

We can’t do the extra all of the time or for everything. But I think it is good for us to look towards what some of the extra is that we can do.

Injustice and inequity are built into the very fabric of our institutions, policies, and culture. The history and impact of this goes beyond the scope of this short essay. The mandate for social workers to promote social change on behalf of oppressed and marginalized populations is at the heart of antiracist practice. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE, 2022) educational policy and accreditation standards includes that social workers are to demonstrate, is to engage in anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) as their third competency.

Policies and practices related to DEI (e.g., only including diversity, equity, and inclusion) might be a more widely used acronym. On the national stage and in many states, the topic of DEI and the concept of critical race theory is considered by some a polarizing topic and there is a great deal of misinformation and rhetoric. I appreciate that social work went beyond espousing DEI to explicitly include a focus on our experience as social workers to combat oppression. In developing this newsletter, our facility determined that each issue we want to discuss the topic of ADEI.

Knowing the concept of anti-racism is not always included in the conversation, spending time defining what it means to be antiracist would be a helpful place to start. If you haven’t read Kendi’s (2023) book How to Be an Antiracist, I highly recommend it. I found his definitions helpful in framing what is racist or antiracist.

(Chapter 1 Definitions, para. 1)

Kendi defines racism and antiracism as a dichotomy. Either you are actively working against racism, or you aren’t (whether through action or inaction). He describes these titles as non-permanent, and they can be placed (like a peelable name tag) and changed based on what we are doing or not doing.

There is no middle ground or space for apathy. In our everyday actions are we doing things that promote racial equality? There is no space or place for apathy or inaction. As laws are passed or policies are implemented, this can be a measuring stick that we use to define whether it is working toward a more just and equitable future or not. Social workers can engage in antiracist work as we go about policy advocacy, clinical practice, community work, and social work in schools and everywhere we practice. How can you keep the antiracist sticker on?

Council on Social Work Education. (2022). 2022 EPAS: Educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master’s social work programs. https://www.cswe.org/accreditation/policies-process/2022epas/

Kendi, I. X. (2023). How to be an antiracist. One World.

One year, I believe it was at their first Christmas party, I was asked to play Santa Claus.

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They have since found a much better Santa Clause.

They are a very worthy cause. Even if you didn’t go to their Benefit Breakfast, they are always accepting/needing donations. You can donate online. They have a good video talking about their Transition to Success Program and some testimonials on their YouTube - EFH, TTS Participant Testimonials November 2021.

My mom talked briefly about starting Elijah Family Homes and a few other organizations during Episode 6: The Right People at the Right Time. At the Breakfast this year, my mom got an award named after her called the “The Judith Dirks Award,” which is meant to be given to people who have shown outstanding service, sacrifice, initiative, and perseverance in the community and towards EFHs. She was the first award recipient, but in future years, it will be given to other worthy candidates.

I am so proud of her, and she is very deserving of having an award named after her. For many years I have wondered what will be carried on after I am dead and gone. I can only hope as I continue my path working in and serving the community, that I can make some of the similar types of impacts she has made.

Belinda and I were talking about our family friend who is also on a family road trip in Texas, and their car broke down. I kept worrying about our car and thought about what a coincidence it would be if something happened to us as well, but we seemed to be ok. We started to see the lights of the Greater Bay area in the distance, and the kids began to ask for one last bathroom stop, so we decided on Castaic and the Mobile Gas station for a pitstop. Pulling up to the stop sign after the exit, I tried to push on the gas, and nothing. When we got out to try to push, we couldn’t make the car move an inch up the slight hill. A couple of guys pulled over and helped push us to the top of the hill.

So we left our car in the gas station parking lot, packed up a few things, and tried getting a Lyft. It took forever to get one, as initially, we wanted a larger car to all go together. Even requesting two smaller cars, it seemed like nobody wanted to drive out of town to pick us up for a like ride into Santa Monica, but eventually, we ended up with two drivers to take us to our hotel.

Before, I get into more of what we have been up to the last couple of days in the city where the stars live (my Lyft driver told me he works in Hollywood, doing set design… maybe it is true that everybody in LA is trying to make it onto the silver screen), I’ll go back to our time in Crescent City.

We spent three nights in Crescent City. When I wrote The First Leg: Sand Dunes and Family Fun, we had been there a couple of days. A lot of this time was spent at the beach. I played with my Luna Sticks and tried to sleep. I also built sand castles with Arianna and hunted for purple shore crabs with Mateo, Alex, and Alexa. With Belinda, we tried to escape unscathed and from poison oak as we took a walk up a beautiful desert hill.

Because we were in the land of the coastal redwoods, we also had to make an excursion for a bit of hike through these massive trees. We didn’t end up going through any of the trees that you can drive through, but we took a little stroll on a trail along Prairie Creek. It was pretty, although getting the kids into hiking is hard.

While in Crescent City, we also visited Ocean World Aquarium for a guided tour and a sea lion show. It’s a nice place with lots of fun photo opportunities and cool stuff to see. You also can pet a shark.

Angel didn’t want to drive down with all of us and has taken over some for Belinda’s business while we have been gone, but he came and met us in San Francisco. Some poor planning a month ago; we planned for him to get to the airport in the morning, not considering the 6.5-hour drive we would have to make so we could pick him up from the airport and that we couldn’t check into the AirBnB. Driving through the redwood forest at 5 am is serene and beautiful.

I love San Francisco and have been lucky to come here quite a few times (see posts written here). There are a few cities over the years that I’ve been to and just really like the vibe and feel of the city and think if I was to move to a metropolitan, it is where I would go (my non-complete list includes Prague, Florence Italy, Portland Oregon, and back to Cusco Peru). I would add SF to that list.

I don’t know if I ever thought I’d say this because of my nerdy love of the company and their products, but while were there, I got tired of visiting the Apple Store. We went three different days. We ended up doing a slight phone musical chairs game and she was able to get a newish phone. On one of the visits, we got to sit in on a session learning to make our own emoji.

We went to China Town, which the kids all enjoyed and were grumpy with all the walking. We spent a day at Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 were we are a crawdad boil at Supreme Crab. The kids loved the Its Sugar store. We took a million photos at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Make sure to check out the photo album I link below for some of our posing with the stars.

One of the days after eating at Alice’s Restaurant, which was delicious, we walked back to our Airbnb. It was a quiet little community, full of their terraced houses. It was so pretty. We did laundry at a laundry mat, and because Angel was with us, Belinda and I got to go out by ourselves and dance.

Before we left The last morning, we explored the Golden Gate Park. It is a giant park often compared to Central Park in New York. It is the kind of place I think I could go to every day, and not get tired of being there. We didn’t see that much of it, but we rented a couple of Surrey Bikes. It was fun, but I must start biking again this summer because it killed my legs. After saying goodbyes to Angel, we started the trek to the city of angels.

The Fourth of July in LA was fun. We spent the day wandering around Venice Beach and watching the fireworks from the pier. Somebody fell off the peer right before the show started. Two lifeguards ran up and jumped in after them, which I assume saved the person’s life. Crazy.

Both after the fireworks and trying to get to Santa Monica from our broken down car, both took an epic amount of time to find drivers. Our kids now have experience waiting hours for Lyft cars. While waiting in a random alleyway a little from the beach, Arianna talked to almost everybody who passed by to wish them a Happy Fourth of July.

It’s taken me a couple of days to finish writing this up. We towed the van to an auto repair place. They said we would likely need a new transmission. Their expected cost is worth more than we still owe on the car, its value, or anything we could reasonably do (plus the at least week they said we’d have to wait). We towed the car about an hour away to where a friend of Belinda’s lives to get some second opinions and have time to figure things out and make a plan. We rented a car and extended our stay a few days to get the least expensive plane tickets to get everybody home. We will have to figure out what to do about the car further down the road.

Don’t be worried about us, and know that with travels always comes trouble. Change is constant, and life seems to be made up of big and small fires. Those happen not only when we are traveling but also at home. The first thing I will do, other than wish for a vacation from the vacation, is fix our irrigation system. Angel called me a couple of days ago, saying that the water wasn’t turning off for one of the lines, and I’m assuming I need to replace one of the pumps.

You can find photos for this trip at 2023 Family Road Trip - Beaches, Parks, and Broken-Down Cars. There are a lot of great shots of the kids in the wax museum and all the other cool activities we have been doing.