In the ongoing effort to figure out how much space we want/need -- and to give ourselves an excuse to take a mini-adventure weekend around town -- we rented a van for a night and pretended like we couldn’t go home. In a move that worked out perfectly but was really only because we were too busy, we didn’t plan any of our van weekend in advance, and only decided what to do from moment to moment. Here’s what happened, and what we learned:

Pick up van from small company on Treasure Island that apparently customizes, builds out, and rents camper vans for a living. The van was a Dodge cargo van, and was big enough to fit a queen mattress but small enough to fit in a normal parking spot. When the inflatable mattress was deflated and stowed, the back was built out to have padded seating for 4 (with storage under each), and a table that folded down from the wall. It included a small generator to help fill up the mattress, but which wasn’t powerful enough to power our stuff overnight without the car running. One useful feature was the custom window shades which attached via magnet -- super easy to put on and take off to provide privacy. Also came with a built-in backup cam, which seems pretty indispensable when not able to see out the back.
Pick up groceries and lunch. Hang out and kill a few hours with our friend Tony while he works at his wine tasting room on TI. Feel generally like badasses. Relaxed badasses.
Sunset time! Take the van over to Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland, watch the sunset and Mike sets up his camera and does a timelapse.
Decide to head to Berkeley, as we almost never hang out there. Even though the van isn’t super long, still pretty hard to find street parking that we can fit in. Makes me appreciate my tiny Fiat, which we’re now calling my Fire Truck (or Fire Hydrant), copycatting the hilarious dude we rented the van from, and which can basically bend time and space to fit into any parking spot that has ever existed. End up getting mediocre fondue and amazingly delicious dessert waffles. (Why aren’t waffle bars a thing yet?)
Sleepy time! After a little bit of asking around and a little bit of internetting, we decide to check out a spot near the Northern base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Said spot turns out to be an incredibly populated rest stop, which, even at midnight, is overflowing with tourists taking pictures and bored teenagers blasting music. The bathrooms are gross but at least there are some available. Challenge 1: blocking visibility from the front windows. The van guy gave us a curtain rod to put up, but a) it’s not staying up, and b) you can still see over the top and around the edges. Must come up with a better way to do that. Challenge 2: the van is so small that you have to get out of it to inflate the mattress, and once you do, it takes up every inch of the entire back space. That means that there’s nowhere to put stuff, including dirty muddy shoes. That also means that come morning, when we discover it’s raining, we have to deflate the mattress while standing outside in the rain. Feels surprisingly secure in the van with the doors closed, despite creepy guy who looks like Ron Jeremy hanging out by himself in the rest stop parking lot. Slept surprisingly well, and felt like we were in some sort of secret club. Would have been difficult/awkward/creepy to get up in the middle of the night to go to the rest area and pee. Woke up, took some pictures, drove north for our favorite French Toast (funnel cake for breakfast? Yes, please), and dropped the van back off.
Onward!

Lessons learned:

Magnetic windows = useful and fast. But find a way to easily block from seeing in front windows.
While the smaller size of the van was really handy for parking and being incognito, it was just too small, especially when the bed was inflated. Need to be able to store things like shoes, cell phones, etc, easily while bed is out; shouldn’t have to set up the bed from the outside; ideally should be able to keep bed out 24/7 because it takes a lot of time to set up and tear down every day.
Need electricity source that works when car isn’t running
Van feels surprisingly secure once inside, but make sure it’s easy to lock/unlock if one person is inside and the other is out, to ensure safety
Needs to be easy to come in/out and set things up if it’s raining
Get a backup cam
Waffle bars should be a thing

So, the quest for a perfect van continues, but now we know a little bit more about what we want (and don’t want) for the trip. The same company we rented from is planning on deploying a bunch of bigger vans soon that will be closer in size to a Sprinter, so our next plan is to test those out in #vanlife Tester Vol.2. And then, if there’s time, Tester Vol.3 in an RV!