California, Day 4

On the fourth day of our trip we visited Yosemite National Park, about 3 ½ hours from San Fran. It was a lovely day to be traveling and the scenery just kept getting better! The hills, the valleys. The cows, the squirrels. 

The lakes, the streams....

 Below was our first good view of the dazzling rocks. Does that ground look easy to walk on? Welp, it wasn't. I'm thankful I didn't turn an ankle!

Elisabeth took this one.   : )

See the little seed flying away?

 The trees are sooo tall!!!

 Since California is in a three year drought, the creek was not full.

 And the poor waterfall was rather tiny compared to what it usually is. This was our first glimpse.

Finally, after about 800 steps, we got to the top!

There was a pool at the top (as well as the bottom). The water is SO clear! It was freezing cold. So cold it hurt.

 Going back down, the sun had passed one of the peeks and was finally shining on this portion of the trail. It was gorgeous!

  After that hike, we walked down so see the Giant Sequoias. All along the way we saw the scared and damaged trees from the last fire in September. BTW, By this point in the day, almost every part of me was protesting the extended walking. "Can't you please give your body a rest?!" But it was all worth it!

The path we walked on was actually a road way back in the day. I think it was built in the late 1800's.

 Aren't they HUGE?!

 So way back in the 1880's some people in CA wanted to attract tourists, so they carved an opening in this dead tree (yes, it was dead way back then and yes, it is still standing, dead as it may be) big enough for a buggy to fit through. It's still attracting tourists! Though now we have to walk through it instead of driving. :)

That's it! I'm sure I missed something though. Oh well! You won't know the difference!    : )

California, Day 3

Monday we spent in San Francisco. And Y'all are just gonna have to deal with the annoying splotches on some of the pictures.... They bug me. 

I've never been to a city with so many suburbs! And yet there are places in this huge city that feel like the country! I love the country. I love people. (there are a lot of them in San Fran...) But I love the quiet country too.

So many hills!!

There is a block on Lombard St. that has eight curves!

A man in a condo window.

There were two places that I desperately wanted to go to while in CA: Yosemite and Alcatraz. I went to Yosemite (see my next post... when I get a chance to post it...) but I never got to go to Alcatraz... But I did get to see it! Next time, right?

Ok y'all. This kid was the cutest. I could have taken him home. Though he was pretty attached to his Dad. Hmm. He might wouldn't have liked that too much... But isn't he adorable?!

I toured San Fran. in my Dallas shirt. :)

 The only problem with leaning against the bridge was that the points on top kinda hurt my arm.... ;)

 So, I have not only been across the Golden Gate Bridge, but also under it! That was one of the scariest things I did the whole trip! Not even crossing a waterfall was as scary! There was some kind of metal thing that the cars above were crossing over and it was SOOOOOO loud that even though I knew it wasn't going to, I felt like the bridge was gonna collapse! But it didn't. or else I'd probably be dead. And I wouldn't be writing this.

After touring San Fran, we went across the mountains to visit the beach. So beautiful, though hard to enjoy when I had a headache and the sun was sooo bright!

California, Day 2

I woke up to a banging outside my window and found these guests lounging outside. We saw them almost every day after that. 

We rented a house for our stay in CA. This was our gorgeous yard. 

 You can see part of our driveway below. It was soooo steep!!

 Flowers in our yard...

 There are palm trees in CA!! I didn't know that before. :) Learn something new every day! They are huge. too!

We went to church with Josiah and Cindy and then we went out to eat at a Chinese place called the Mayflower. No, not a seafood place. Chinese. :) And since Cindy lives in CA, Sunday was the first time I ever met her in person! At the restaurant I got to meet her family. We became fast friends. They wanted us to get an authentic taste of Chinese, so they ordered chicken feet... Among other things. The chicken feet.. tasted.. kinda like... chicken feet... But I liked everything else, and loved using chopsticks, a thing I don't do very often at home.

 There we are!

 After saying goodbye for the day, we headed over to a park they suggested.

 So many houses.

I think these are persimmons, but Dad is skeptical. He is used to NC's tiny ones. What do you think?

California, Day 1

My brother Josiah got engaged to Cindy in July and that was when I first knew we'd be going farther across the country than I'd ever been: California. The time flew and finally the day cam when we had to leave. It was Lydia's first flight!

She had fun. :)

 We flew so high in the sky that beautiful crystals formed on the plane windows.

 Because there was a "small" problem (the brakes and steering not working) on the first plane, we missed our connecting flight and had several hours to spend in MN. Airport floors aren't very comfortable to sleep on, but it is fun to watch the people hurry by as I tried to rest. :)

 Our next plane was the biggest I'd ever been on: two aisles with eight seats across.

Apparently they have earthquakes in Seattle. :p I'm glad there weren't any while we were there or while in CA....

 We traveled about 19 hours total that day. I was exhausted, but happy to finally be there!