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Graphic designer, photographer, front-end developer, and pretty much anything else creative. I am currently working as a Designer at Morsekode in Minneapolis.
I am a designer / illustrator / artist with an extreme love for coffee, chocolate and friendly cats. You can usually find me cruising around on my bike, deep within my sketchbook or shoulder to shoulder with good company. I went on this journey to escape; to take the time to reflect, explore and refresh creatively.
We are two Minneapolis based creatives that decided to adventure westward for ten days. We'll travel the coast from San Francisco, California to Portland, Oregon. After Portland we will head south further inland back to San Francisco. Besides visiting family, friends and National Parks we needed an activity to fuel creative output on a daily basis. Ideally this would be a simple creative collaboration that we could share over social media channels each day. Thus Ten Days West was born, combining three of the most popular social channels into one.
Every day both of us will shoot one Vine video, one Instagram photo and post one Tweet. Each will be hashtagged with the current day and #tendayswest. The Ten Days West microsite assembles the elements; the Instagram photo overlays the Vine video, then a color overlays the video and photo, which is finally topped with the corresponding Twitter post. Instead of thinking of each element individually we envision them together as a single composition that expresses the experiences of each day. These are our stories.
The first day of the adventure. We flew westward to San Francisco from Minneapolis. My buddy Adamme put us up at his awesome pad in Mountain View. We explored downtown Mountain View.
At the California Academy of Sciences we saw a variety of creatures, walked through the rain forrest biosphere and watched galaxies collide in the planetarium. We also experienced the slammer at the Alcatraz night tour.
My friend Adamme works at Google and was able to give us an tour of the Googleplex. At Google we played ping pong and N64, rode Google bikes, and explored the beautiful campus. We then journeyed on to Santa Cruz and enjoyed the sunset on the boardwalk.
We began our day with lunch at the Googleplex. Our journey north began as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge.
After spending a wonderful night in "The Shack" at my cousins place we continued cruising north. A scenic alternative to highway 101, Avenue of the Giants, led us through wonderous groves of redwood trees. We also wandered through the mist and fog of the Arcata redwoods and began our jedi training.
Driving down the 101, Oregon here we come! Mexican inspired bagels from Los Bagels in Arcata fueled our hike through a canyon lined with ferns. About 450 miles were driven mainly along the coast. Various stops were made to soak in and capture the epic vistas. We made sure to get our feet (and shoes) wet.
We crammed as much Portland into one day as possible. Our personal tour guide, Greta, showed us the happening spots including Voodoo donuts, 1 block multilevel bookstores, 30th floor restaurants, and beautiful scenery.
A maple bacon donut eased the pain of saying goodbye to Portland as we began the journey south. A stop at Crator Lake National Park revealed stunning views and showed us the meaning of silence.
The music of the Lord of the Rings resonated through the car as we traveled south. A pit stop at Mount Shasta included a valiant attempt to climb to the summit.
Our final full day of our journey consisted of exploring Yosemite, the first park set aside specifically for preservation and public use by the United State government. The Ten Days West adventure is coming to an end. It has been an experience I will never forget. I am refreshed and recharged.
There is something so exhilarating about flying to a distant destination. Maybe it comes from heading towards the complete unknown or the possibility of getting lost. Whatever the cause, it's something that everyone should experience more often.
Synthesized topical climates, jellyfish, vast expanses of stars, the slamming of 250lbs steel barred doors and the woman in the pink dress. There is such a variety of things to experience in the Bay Area and we only scratched the surface of it all.
Google's take on the work environment truly incubates happy employees. They have the freedom to explore, create, question and be whatever they want. It's a magical place filled with people who love every aspect of what they do and what their colleagues do around them.
Said goodbye to a new friend only to meet more along the way north. Colin's awesome cousin put us up in The Shack for a uniquely Californian couch surfing experience with the only requirements of payment being to sign the guestbook. As a bonus we also gained some insider knowledge for the next leg of the journey.
Today we spent the better part of three hours walking less than one mile through the Redwood Park of Arcata, CA. A gentle mist settled in along the treetops and suddenly I felt very small. There is a poem written by Kallie Markle that has been stuck in my mind for a long time. The title says it all: Growing Is Forever.
The ebb and flow of the crashing water was the only thing that broke through the thick, silent fog the covered our coastal drive. The repeated sound of the waves quickly turned to a soothing white noise. I can't imagine how anyone could become jaded by anything this coast has to offer. This is the reason we travel, to regain a sense of wonder in the world.
Portland, Oregon as proved to be quite the appealing city. Bikes everywhere, donuts made with voodoo magic, perfect double lattes and so much more. There's a different air here and it's lighter. What a place.
Today started off with too much voodoo magic topped off with a very strong cup of coffee. Jitters and an uncontrollable urge to babble on and on filled the morning journey, but upon reaching the crest of Crater Lake's steep walls I found a loss for words. One vast mirror looked back at me. I could see the whole world flipped upside-down in a reflection that went on forever...
I need to listen to more of that silence.
Point A to point B. That was the plan today. Luckily, thanks to a tip from a correspondence in Portland, we found ourselves on as slight detour climbing the rocky slopes of Mount Shasta to a outlook proved to be worth the pain. Luckily Colin brought all his camera lenses. The remainder of the ride was filled with conversation of work, life and things in between. We passed through a lot of mountains on this leg of the journey.
Our mission today was to take in as much of Yosemite National Park as daylight would allow. I could have spent hours hopping around the boulders lining those river beds. We stopped our exploring and photo snapping to lay in the golden fields of the valley, absorb some sun and rest. Slow and simple days are always the most enjoyable. Night falls and so ends our journey. Now, it's time to start planning for the next.