California

Last Wednesday we got back from California and it has taken me this long to write about it. So here we go...

• Day one: Plane trip from Ithaca to Detroit. Saw tons of people movers and a cool fountain. Plane trip from Detroit to San Fransisco. Rented a car from Enterprise(not the USS). Saw tons of cool sights from afar including, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Candlestick Park, as we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. (The cool part was that, the Amazing Race had taken place there on the season finale, which we had watched the Sunday before leaving. Pretty cool to see what where all the coolness had taken place.) Drove to Santa Rosa, and went to bed 9:30 CA time(which is 12:30 NY time).
• Day two: California and Oregon have some of the curviest roads in America! I usually don't get car sick, but I was feeling so queasy I had to take motion sickness meds. After we finally got to Fort Bragg(town, not place) we got onto a train called the Skunk Train. The name is a misnomer, which means it was entirely the wrong name. A) It wasn't a train, it was a car that ran on diesel fuel with its own restrooms. B) It didn't smell a bit, but aparently back in the day(late 1800's) it smelled so bad the locals swore they could smell it before they saw it. But anyhow we rode on the non-smelling car for three hours and learned a lot about history and the redwoods via our conductor(who did a super job). At one point in time the trip could be made in 45 minutes, but that was if you went 40 mph and we were only topping out at 15 mph. Anyway we went all the way to a place called Northspur, ate lunch, and turned around and came back. The night was spent at Fort Bragg in a hotel, with our close companion, Mythbusters.
• Day three: Driving north to Crescent City, we saw the Avenue of the Giants. We also saw like 3 bigfoot statues that day alone(5 total for the whole trip), so I kept my eyes peeled. Nothing. After we got to our house that we would be staying in for the next week, we ate at pizza hut and went to bed at 8:30 CA time(although it doesn't much matter, because at this point we had pretty much adjusted).
• Day four: We went to the lighthouse that we could see from our house and toured that for about two hours. It was pretty coool, but after that we didn't really do much else, except hanging around the house.
• Day five: More winding roads, and a trip to Oregon Caves. We saw stactites, stalagmites, columns, soda straws, drapery, cave kisses( and believe me I got kissed more by that cave than by my mother), and other stuff. After we got out of the 44 degree cave, we took a hike through the mountains, which was like 20 degrees warmer that the cave.
• Day six: We went to church at Smith River Baptist, and went place called Indian Sands with mountain lions, fun dunes, and a killer hike.
• Day seven: Trip to Ocean World, which was located in Crescent City. Saw and petted a shark, and watched seals and a sea lion do cool tricks. Also got a cool ball cap, and played Monopoly.
• Day eight: More Monopoly(which ended up being about the only game we played at the house other than two games of Scrabble) and a hike in Jedadiah Smith Redwoods National and State Parks.(P.S. Jedediah Smith was an awesome guy on the Oregon Trail that lead settlers west! Definitely worth reading about some time!) Saw tons of ginormous trees and itty bitty bananna slugs. Then after that, on the way home we stopped at a beach and played the "Driftwood Retrival Sprint Game" and got totally wet and sandy. We then went home, showered and ate dinner at Pizza Hut, and went to bed.
• Day nine: More Monopoly, cool pelicans and movie shoot at the beach. (The movie ended up being kinda lame, because on the desert island there are a few houses and phone poles in the background.)
• Day ten: Left the house and travelled to Sacramento, the state capital of CA.
• Day eleven: Went to Old Sacramento and saw trains at the train museum. We also got free candy samples and took a carriage ride on the cobblestone streets. After that we took off to go minigolfing and had dinner at Golden Corral(which has been discribed by my brother as quote "a museum of food... and you get to eat it!" end quote.
• Day twelve:Most of the day is spent driving to Yosemite, and when we get there it rains. Major downer. But we did get to see Bridal veil falls(which got us soaked since May is peak flow), El Capitan, and Swinging Bridge(which doesn't swing).
• Day thirteen:Devo with Dad and then more Yosemite. We took this killer hike to Inspiration point, which didn't inspire me a bit when we got there, but took us two hours of sweat and pain. But God did a really neat thing. Instead of letting us get caught in a freak snow storm and damaging the rental van, God put the idea of this hike into Mom and Dad's heads, so we would be safe. Pretty neat how God can use something that seems like a waste of time to protect us. Unfortunately though, there was one tunnel to the other half of Yosemite, and it was blocked off, because of the snow storm. So we saw like only half of what we wanted to see there.
• Day fourteen: This was the day we hung out in San Fransisco. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and saw this really cool guy jamming out on his synthesizer. We also went on a bay cruise and saw the Golden Gate Bridge up close, Alcatraz up close, and Coit Tower from a short distance. After that we went to Chinatown and had dinner and saw cool swords and stuff like that.
• Day fifteen: My Dad was telling me that this was the longest trip he had ever taken, and that it was longer that his honeymoon. Of course when you have a honeymoon car accident and neighbors that want to come over and play Skipbo you have a tendancy to want to get home. Anyhow, this day was the day that I had the second worst expirience of my life(the first worst expirience was my tubing trip down the Muskegon River, which is a story in and of itself). This bad experience was walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. "Let's walk to the middle arch," he said. Normally I would be all for this, but today it was foggy, rainy, windy, and miserable. Picture this: Me with my favorite hat on, trying not to lose it in the wind, soaked to the undergarments, walking at a slow steady pace so I don't slip on the slick metal manholes, trying not to blubber. At first this might look rather humorous, but if you put yourself in my soggy shoes, I think you'd be just as, if not more, miserable. To make a long story short, we didn't make it to the middle arch and we were all wet. After that we went to the mall and just chilled for the rest of the day. But when evening rolled around, we went to the airport and got checked in. After sitting in the airport till eleven pm CA time, we got onto the plane.
• Day sixteen: This is where our story goes on to day sixteen, because after the five hour plane trip it was the next day. After we landed in Chicago at like five in the morning IL time, we boarded another plane that was going to Philadelphia. After we landed there at like nine thirty am, we got on another plane going to Ithaca. And after we got off that plane, we got home and that is where our trip ends.

So now you now what I did with myself. Hopefully I'll have videos to show off soon. For now I'll just say "Adios!"