California Trip! September 16-25, 2014 Part 2: Northern California

Northern California!  Hooray!

So, in northern California, we were able to stay with my Aunt Katherine and Uncle Ron in Ukiah- a little town about 100 miles north of San Francisco.  We were so grateful for a place to stay!  It was perfect!  Plus we got to see them and my cousin Edward and his family as well.  I love seeing family!

So Day 5 (September 20th) was a Sunday, so we went to church.  Kind of weird not going to our own ward, and not having huge responsibilities (teaching, playing organ, that sort of thing).  It did make me grateful for our ward's young men and the adaptations they have made for me and others who are gluten free that we can still take the sacrament.  I didn't even think about it until we got to church and then I was like oops.  Should have brought some of my bread.  I took a super small piece of regular bread, had a slight headache and was super tired that afternoon, but not too bad.  There was a linger longer after, where they had a salad bar.  Fun to get to see them all interact!

That evening we had dinner with my cousin Edward, his wife Laura and their family.  Super cute kids! While at first they were slightly wary, not knowing who we were, but they quickly warmed up to us.  Vivian loves books, Sam just loves playing, as did Elijah!  Wish I was closer to spend more time with them!  Fun to talk and get to know them a little better, since we live in completely different states.

Dan in front of a Redwood

Day 6, Monday September 21st- We got to see the Redwoods!  I had been once in my early college days, but forgot just how impressive and huge they are.  Dan didn't believe me, or ever really have a good idea of their size.  We were both amazed at how simply HUGE they are.  Even trees that had fallen were gigantic!  Unless you see them in person, it is so hard to understand the scope of their size!  Go see them if you can!  Despite dipping my camera in the touch pools at the aquarium, Dan and I got some awesome pictures from the places we went either with the barely working camera or with our phones.  :)

Me in comparison to a fallen
Redwood trunk

Monday we drove to Humboldt Redwoods State Park and saw tons of the redwoods there.  Some of the first redwoods we saw Dan was like- pull over!  I've got to see one up close!  So we did.  And it was one of the smaller ones.  Once we got to the deeper woods and the older growth, they were huge!  I don't think I can really do justice to how big they were!  We drove along the Avenue of the Giants, where the trees are growing right up to the edge of the road, walked a couple smaller paths in the park, and eventually made it to the visitor's center in the middle of the woods.  There is a fairly short trail nearby, between a half mile and a full mile.  We were taking so many pictures as we walked along it though, that it took us a long time to walk it!  More like ambling along, more than walking.

Our tour guide, Joe Joe

Another thing that really struck me as we were walking through was how soft the ground was where the redwoods grew.  Their foliage (not really pine needles, but not leaves) falls as old branches loose the light and die.  This makes the ground around them layered with these cast off foliage, and makes it really soft.  Coming from Utah, were everything is super dry and we have hard ground, it was such a difference to walk through those forests versus our forests.  I loved it!

Tree in Hendy Woods
Reminds me of the
Deku Tree

So after we saw lots of Redwoods, we needed food.  We looked at some of the smaller towns throughout the park, but didn't see anything that really looked good, so we made it up to Eureka.  There we stopped at Applebee's (yum!) and had a really late lunch.  Drove back to Ukiah through lots of mountains and more redwoods.  Beautiful day!


Day 7, Tuesday, September 21st, we went to a smaller state park called Hendy Woods.  It is a little south of all the other parks, and fairly tiny compared to the others but it was gorgeous.  More trees, very green despite a drought in California.  My aunt said that there is usually a lot more fern growth, and lot more green everywhere.  In my mind I was thinking more green?  It can be MORE green???

After Hendy Woods, we drove out towards the coast.  It was a fantastic day for pictures!  Blue sky, some light wispy clouds, and a hint of a breeze.  We drove up the coast to Fort Bragg and saw a friend that used to live in Utah in our ward.  We miss her, her quirky sense of humor, and the entire family!  Glad to see that things are going well for them there.

Point Cabrillo Light House

After that, we went back south a little and stopped at Point Cabrillo to see a light house and the shore there.  It was a long (not that really) walk from the parking lot to the light house, but with all the walking we had been doing all vacation, we were a little tired of walking.  But it was worth seeing the light house and the coastal view was great!  After that we were ready to just drive back.  We did dinner with Edward and Laura and their place, and had steak for dinner!  Yum!

Us by the Golden Gate Bridge

On Day 8 (Wednesday) we decided to drive down to San Francisco, see stuff there, and then stay the night in that area instead of driving back up to Ukiah and then right back down for our flight the next day.  So, we booked a room north of Oakland (since we were flying out of there), and spend a few hours in San Francisco!  We drove down in the morning, and stopped to take a look at the bridge from one of the vantage points just north of it.  Very cool!  HUGE bridge.  (We seemed to been seeing lots of huge things on this leg of the trip.)  In Utah, we don't have very much water, so a big bridge is a couple hundred feet (if that).  This was much bigger than that.  Dan got an awesome video of crossing the bridge, so ask him if you want to see it.

After crossing the bridge, we went to Golden Gate Park in the middle of San Francisco, and went to more gardens.  We wanted to see the Japanese Tea Garden and the Botanical Gardens, but both of them charged admission (grrr....).  Since we had to choose one or the other, we sent to the bigger one, the Botanical Gardens.  They were beautiful!  They had different sections that were themed with various parts of the world.  Everything from the Far East (still saw some Japanese gardens!) to South America to Africa and rain forests!  I loved the succulent garden with cacti and other succulents.  Dan and I both had fun with our cameras!

Because of all the walking we had done over the past week (museums, Aquarium, forests, coast line), we were tired.  We really wanted to see more of San Francisco like the piers and China Town and stuff like that, but we were exhausted.  We drove through part of the city just to see a little of it on the way to our hotel: we saw a Korean, Italian, African and Thai restaurant all right next to each other! Then we crossed one of the other bridges (I think we drove on the biggest three), and drove to our hotel.  We ate at Red Robin for dinner- they have gluten free buns for their burgers and chicken sandwiches!  It was yummy, once it finally got there.  They were short staffed that night, so it took a little while for the food to come out, but once it did, it was great.  I loved filling full!  Sometimes it is the hardest thing for me to fill full eating gluten free.

After spending the night in the hotel, we had an easy morning, drove back to Oakland, returned the rental car, and flew home to Salt Lake.  It was a fantastic trip, even though we didn't get to see everything we had thought we would see.  Once again, we are super grateful for family that let us stay with them, and it was as much fun to visit with family as it was to see all the other stuff.

Click here to see the first half of the trip!

California Trip! September 16-25, 2014 Part 1: Southern California

So, Dan and I got to take an amazing trip this month!  Almost a year ago, Dan won a raffle that had 2 free round-trip airline tickets to anywhere in the lower 48 states.  Initially, we were wanting to do something along the East Coast, either Florida or New York, but due to budget, we had to choose something a little less costly.  So, we ended up going to California!  While there we were able to stay with family, which was a great bonus to the travel.

We flew to LAX on Tuesday the 16th.  Our flight got delayed like three times, but we finally made it!  I got a window seat, which I love!  I watched the sunset from the window, until it was too dark to see much else.  I did see Las Vegas as we flew over it.  So many lights!

After landing, we got our rental car and then drove to my Grandma Wilson's house in South Pasadena.  She was so great to to let us stay with her!  We enjoyed talking with her, eating with her, and just spending time with her.  I have the best memories of her house, spending holidays and vacations there, and reading all the cool books that she has!  Thanks, Grandma!

The first day, we it took kind of easy.  We did a little grocery shopping to get the stuff I needed for eating gluten free (like pasta and bread) for our trip.  We helped my grandma with some stuff in her garden, had lunch and then napped!  Yes, rebellious little kids!  Adults take naps, if they can!

After we woke up, we decided to go to the Griffith Observatory.  I have been there several times as a kid, but hadn't made it in years.  We missed evening traffic (yes!) and got there about 4 o'clock.  The Griffith Observatory is dedicated to science, especially understanding the universe. Upstairs is pretty much as I remembered it- several different exhibits including everything from why we get solar and lunar eclipses to the history of astronomy to a table of elements with examples of each element!  Really cool stuff!  They also have a domed theater where they do light shows and star parties and other fun stuff.  On the roof, they have a few different telescopes for viewing.  We tried to stand in line, but gave up after it looked like they were having technical issues.

Dan and Einstein 

Downstairs was completely new!  To get down there, you follow a sloping, curving ramp.  Along it is a timeline of the universe.  To decorate it, they have a collection of jewelry all related to astronomy. Anything with stars, moon, sun, and even comets!  Two specific places I loved: they had several together that had a cow jumping over a moon, and then one piece that was a woman's head with stars and moons in her hair.  Beautiful!  Once downstairs, you could see models of the planets relatively sized to each other.  So you can see how small earth is compared to Jupiter and Saturn.  It also has a station for each one, including a scale that shows how much you weigh on each planet.  Dan was like 700 lbs on Jupiter!  I rather liked some of the lighter ones!  ;)  All the new stuff was sponsored by Leonard Nemoy. They named the little auditorium down there after him.  I really enjoyed all the new changes they have made!

Leafy Sea Dragons!

Day two!  We woke up and decided to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific located in Long Beach.  Drive down and back wasn't too bad, especially since we purposely timed it to NOT coincide with rush hour.  Only way to drive in L.A.!  The Aquarium was amazing!  Probably one of my favorite things we did this trip!  I loved seeing all the different aquatic life.  They have done such a great job with not only having the creatures, but also staging them in appropriate settings.  There were a few pools that showed off tidal areas, and they actually generated the flow of the water, the push and pull of the water.  Very soothing to stand and watch that.  They also had tunnels you could walk under so you could see various fish and sharks swimming around and above you.

One of my favorite things there was all the touch pools they had.  They had everything from star fish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers to sharks, sting rays and jelly fish!  It was so fascinating to feel the different textures of all the different animals.  I'm used to feeling trout and other fish like that, sharks are a little leathery, but not really rough.  Jelly fish feel like, well, jelly in a zip lock baggie.  Sting rays were the most fun- they felt like wet velvet.  Smooth, not scaly at all.

Dan and I were thinking as we walked through all of it- there is no way that all of this beauty came about randomly- no way that this all happened by chance without some direction.  The more I learn about nature, the more I see around me, the more I understand how vast the universe is, the more I know there must be a God.  And He created such a beautiful world for us to live in!

Getty Gardens and Museum

 So, third day we went to the Getty Museum and Gardens that my Grandma recommended.  We had been thinking about it for day two, but decided to do the aquarium instead.  Short drive past Griffith Park and Hollywood area, just up a canyon is the Getty!  Ended up being a really cool day.  We went to the gardens first, to try and avoid the heat later in the afternoon.  It was beautiful!  It's got a pond in the middle with maze-shaped hedges growing in it, then all sorts of flowers everywhere! While we were there, the Dahlias were in blood.  Gorgeous!  Whenever we have a garden, I think I will grow dahlias.  I got some great pictures of them, at least, to have inside the home.  :)

Enormous bed!

After spending some time in the gardens, we went inside to escape the building heat.  We started with some paintings, but Dan was like, ehh. We found the illuminated books which I loved!  But Dan really enjoyed the area that had furniture from the 1600's through the 1800's.  He likes it because it was useful, not just decorative, not just something to hang on the wall and look at.  His favorite pieces: these super ornate beds!  They were like sleeping on a throne!  One of the notes on the beds talked about how they would put the beds on wheels, except the headboard which would be mounted on the wall, and then when it came time to make the bed, the servants would just wheel the bed out!  So much easier than trying to reach across to do it!

After the museum, we were ready to go back.  Instead of going back directly on the freeway, we decided to take a round about route and see some of the Hollywood houses!  We drove up Beverly Drive through a shopping area (talk about traffic.  Bleh!) and saw the Beverly Hills Hotel and things in that area. Then it changed to Coldwater Canyon through some of the mountainous area with some super spiffy houses.  Took a little longer than the freeway, but worth the time!

Overall, it was a great time in L.A.  Very relaxing, got to sit and talk with my Grandma, see things that we hadn't seen before and just slow down a little.  Very nice!

On Saturday (Day 4), we drove from L.A. to Ukiah, north of San Francisco a couple hours.  Boring drive since we went up the 5 freeway.  Dry land since they're in a drought.  Tried to avoid as much of the madness of the Bay area as possible.  Got a little traffic just north of San Francisco, but other than that, smooth sailing!

Click here for the second half of our trip in Northern California!  Redwoods, coast and San Francisco, here we come!