Some thoughts on California

Well, I've officially been here about a week and a half. I thought I'd post some thoughts on my first bit of time here.

Driving:
I've been learning how to get around here and there with the help of David, my British Garmin voice. He has trouble saying Boulevard. There happen to be a lot of Boulevards that I've driven on lately. Its a bit amusing. And he has not yet directed me to drive into the ocean, which is probably a good thing. Hehe. (that's for all you "The Office" fans out there) Unfortunately, I don't listen well sometimes. Or perhaps its more like I don't judge distance well sometimes, and make lots of wrong turns too early, so David has done a lot of recalculating. However, I can now make it to the grocery store and home again without David's assistance, so that's progress! There's a really funny story about how I missed the car wash and how I managed to drive back again, but you might have to ask for that one. :)

Driving really isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps it is because I've done most of my outings during the day, when people are at work, but the freeways don't freak me out like I thought they might. I don't really go very far, so I'm doing okay with normal streets as well. Especially now that I'm getting the hang of which ones I actually want to be on. :) I think I've pulled more U turns in the last 2 weeks than in the last several years combined. Although, in some areas, the lanes are small. We all fit, but sometimes I'm just not sure if I want to try. I like my mirrors. . .

Parking:
Parking, on the other hand, is ridiculous. Parking lots do kind of freak me out. They are all very full and very small. And the parking spots are even smaller than midwestern parking spots. Narrow little spaces you are supposed to be able to navigate into. . . I think it takes some getting used to.

And the parallel parking. Because you might not have a lot to park in, or find a space in a lot, so every bit of the side of the road that can be parallel parked on is. (so many cars! so many people!). And that is probably where a spot will be found, so I've been honing my parallel parking skills. Its exciting (sarcasm). I still need to get a bit better.

The weather:
I arrived in June. Sounds like a great month right? well apparently they have this "May Grey - June Gloom" thing. So since La Jolla is so near the ocean, this marine layer comes up in June in the AM and PM and it is more chilly than you might think. I think it struggled to reach 74 some of the days when I first got here. Days which I hear were 90 in Iowa! So it was only sunny some afternoons. And everyone apologizes. But June Gloom is better than -20 degree February and hot humid August in Iowa any day! But now it is getting warmer and sunnier as the month ends. But since La Jolla isn't inland, it should not get too hot, even during the summer.

The ocean:
So I'm a few blocks from the beach (only for a little while longer - I can't afford an apartment over here, I'm still staying with a friend). So I've gotten to take a few jogs down by the beach. And sit on the rocks and watch the ocean and the surfers - we have quite a few on this beach. (yes, I'm trying to make you jealous). However, with the marine layer stuff, it has looked more grey and cold. Not so inviting for a swim. And there is quite a bit of seaweed. And honestly, sometimes it just smells funny. But all in all pretty nice.

Tomomi has been showing me around on the weekends, and this weekend we went to visit Old Town and Coronado Island. Coronado Island has a nice beach! Less seaweed, long sandy shores. Someone needs to come visit so I have an excuse to go back! Additionally, you have to drive across this really awesome bridge to get there and on the bridge is a great view of the city scape of San Diego! Here is a really cool sandcastle someone was building there this weekend!

California!

Here is the last post of Christy's and my journey to California!

We were excited that the last day of car riding had come. We had been having a great adventure, but man, we were both ready to be done driving. In addition, we had not done a good job of our last leg of the journey homework, and we thought we had only about 3 hours to go. Turns out it was 5 and half. That was a bummer. It was hot when we left Las Vegas (prob in the 90's in the AM and to be 100+ later that day) and hot through the desert, although temps in La Jolla were supposed to be about 67 degrees! Talk about a change! 

Anyway, we were happy to be in California! Although this is where it really began to hit that this wasn't a roadtrip that had an "on the way back" as Christy and I kept joking about. I was far from home, and I wasn't going back. A sobering thought. A bit of a scary thought.

The drive was pretty uneventful, although once we got out of the desert there were some really pretty mountainous areas with tons of trees! The only real event was that Christy almost got herself left in California, a little over two hours from the destination :). So she held out days past the prediction of getting left in Colorado! The story is that she called me a nerd at lunch. Perhaps it was deserved. . . but still! I told her I was leaving her there. She said it was okay, she would just go back to Zion. :) 

Anyway, we moved on closer toward the outskirts of LA and San Diego out of the lonely desert. Let me tell you, there are a lot of lanes of traffic! This is something I'm just going to have to get used to.

But we arrived safe and sound, just a little nerve-wracked after the traffic that I'm not used to, and reunited with our friend Tomomi in San Diego. She showed us around La Jolla, and we all went to the beach so Christy could put her feet in the Pacific Ocean. It was cold. Both the weather and the ocean :). But it was a good end to a great journey! Thanks Christy, for going along!

Zion and I-15

Well - we've actually arrived safely in La Jolla, but that story is for the next post (but just in case you were wondering. . . )

First of all - Christy and I had an AMAZING time (albeit a short time) at Zion National Park in Utah. All I can say is. . . I'm going back. If you'd like to sign up for that trip, please let my secretary know and we'll get planning! (um, yeah, I am my secretary).
Here is Christy and I in the canyon, and some shots of the canyon.  Really, these pictures don't even come close to capturing this sight. Here you drive into the park and you are in this canyon with majestic rock walls (made of layers of sand) towering above in reds and tans and dotted with green from vegetation. A river runs through the canyon - here is a small waterfall we hiked to along the river and some views of the canyon walls. It is Breathtaking. And there are areas where the water has seeped through the pores in the rock walls and it drips down the sides of the walls near the bottom, and plants (like columbine flowers) literally grow right out the rock wall. They call them hanging gardens. So cool.

 

 Sadly, we had to leave. If we had realized how cool it was, we would have skipped Vegas and stayed! The Narrows is begging to be hiked (or waded through - as we hear there are creek crossings)! Nevertheless, we proceeded on toward Las Vegas. We got to travel through both Arizona and Nevada to get there adding two more states to the list. And I just have to say - Nevada - not the prettiest state ever. I think Iowa beats it. At least Iowa has rolling hills of green farmland. Nevada is just piles of sand. And not even pretty sand like Utah. Ugly piles of sand.

 We stayed in Henderson, so not really in Vegas, as it was on the way to our next sightseeing spot -the Hoover Dam. It was pretty cool - a marvel of civil engineering right?  But really - it was huge! Amazing to think about how they built it. You can see the Colorado River behind Christy and I. The upper right picture is of Lake Mead on the other side of the dam. And the panoramic at the bottom shows only the top portion of the dam. It is too huge for one photograph and extends further down where at the bottom is the power plant and the Colorado River.

Stay tuned for the arrival at our destination!  (sorry I'm so far behind - we just had way too much fun to keep up)

Fun and scenery on I-70

Well, after we left Denver on Sunday we traveled along I-70 through Colorado to Utah. Man! We saw some awesome scenery! I've been through Colorado before, so that was expected, but this was my first trip to Utah besides being at Four Corners. I didn't expect it to be so beautiful!

Here are a few pictures of the scenery from Colorado. A beautiful mountain peak with green trees and some panoramic scenery from a scenic stop by a little mountain stream.

We stayed Sunday night in Fruita, Colorado. Mostly because we wanted to check out this local statue of Mike the headless chicken.  You can check out the story online - there is even a festival and a 5k for Mike, but we missed it by several weeks. We got our picture taken with Mike, and decided to not let him be headless alone!

After staying in Fruita, we continued on I-70 to Utah!

Utah was pretty awesome. There were a number of overlooks in the beginning of the state. Christy was driving and I kept telling her that we probably wouldn't need to stop at most of them, but then I would catch sight of some amazing views at the last minute and I had to change my mind!
Here is the view of Black Dragon Canyon (top one) and some other views of scenery along I-70.

And here's Christy and I to prove we were really there!!  Next time I'll have to post some pictures from our adventures in Zion National Park!

California or Bust

Well, I meant to put up some stuff each night, but our days have been packed with driving and our few little adventures! So here's our adventures since Friday.

On Friday afternoon, I finished saying goodbye (sniff, sniff) and packed up the car, picked up Christy and we hit the road. We stopped for dinner in Des Moines with our friend Erin before heading out to my parents for the night.  The car isn't as packed as I thought, but I still feel like I did really bring everything but the kitchen sink!
Here's us all ready for traveling!

Saturday was the longest day of driving! We had to drive across the lovely state of Nebraska along I-80. For all those of you who have done that, you know how boring it can be. So to break up the trip we stopped at the Great Platte River Road Archway to go through the museum. This archway looks pretty cool. It spans I-80 near Kearney. We actually enjoyed the museum and learned some cool info about transportation across the United States over the years.  Makes me so thankful for interstates and cars and that I'm not heading to California in a covered wagon or on a dirt road! We got our picture taken with this pioneer man at the arch.

The other highlight of the trip was entering Colorado. The motto is Colorful Colorado. We got an awesome picture taken with the sign!  However, the highlight for me was Christy's first take on entering Colorado.  She thought it was rather brown, and that it was flatter than Iowa!!!  But she perked up once we spotted mountains in the distance.

So I only sort of hurt my foot walking into a metal framed teepee, and we only sort of got directionally confused once. Overall, a pretty good day :)

We stayed Saturday night near Denver with my good college friend Cari and her family and so we got to enjoy a bit of downtown Boulder for lunch today (Sunday). The crazy things they have down there. This couple below (with the digery -do like instruments) would give you a "brain massage" if you wanted it. This involved them play into a microphone and you putting on earphones to listen.  Hmmm. Really??

 I would also like to report that I successfully made it through Colorado without wanting to open the door and push Christy out of the car. . . but we still have three more states to go! We'll see what the next days bring. :)

The last Hawaii pictures

Okay, I'm going to post the last set of Hawaii pictures, and then I can get on with other life stuff! Like the fact that tomorrow afternoon I leave for California! Stay tuned for those adventures :).

One of the other great parts was the Napali Coast boat tour/whale watching. We got to go snorkeling  in maybe 20-30ft of water.  Swimming with fish! Awesome.  There were some amazingly colorful and beautiful fish out there.  I want to snorkel again!

We saw some humpback whales and dolphins (spinner and bottlenose) on the boat which was really neat to see!  I think both pictures might the the spinner dolphins. The top and bottom left whale pictures are of the back fin, but the one in the right corner is of the mouth! 

Here is some of the beautiful Napali coast scenery from the boat.  Gorgeous, sparkling blue water, endless green cliffs, and quite a few waterfalls along the way. 

We saw a couple waterfalls that were not on the Napali coast as well. One we saw from afar (Opaekaa waterfall - on left), but the other we got to swim in the pool beneath (Secret Falls - on right). It was awesome. We did this kayaking adventure where we kayaked up the wailua river (shown in pic on bottom) then parked the kayaks, and did a little hike to the falls where we enjoyed lunch and swimming (although it was really really cold!), then went back.  Great little adventure. 

And Lastly, a few more flowers from Kauai. I won't bore you with the tens of different hibiscus pictures I took, but these were pretty. 

The first is the Lilikoi  flower - or the flower for the passion fruit. So very different looking! Then another hibiscus, and a bunch of plumeria. They make the leis out of these flowers, and they smell so good!  And the only one I can name from  the bottom row is the very right flower - these are african tulips. they grow on these big trees and then have bunches of these bright orange flowers. It is really a neat tree. 

Well, that concludes the pictures of the family trip! If you are dying to see more, I guess you'll have to visit me in San Diego!

(or ask the rest of the family if you visit Nebraska, I suppose. Although, really, visiting me is the more fun option right?)

The last few days

And it came much more quickly than I anticipated!  The last few days. How quickly the end of almost 6 years living in one place comes. Seems like one will never see the end of grad school, and then suddenly, its over. And suddenly time to move on. Christy and I leave in less than a week.  Today was my last Sunday at my church, and I did not make it out without tears. Every goodbye is hard. And I still have quite a few more goodbye's to say. It could be a long week.

But, I'm pretty close to being packed. My family came this weekend to help me out and we made some good progress, but I will still have more work to do this week!

Also, I finally had a bit of time to put together some of the family vacation pics from Kauai, so I thought I should share those too!

Here's the best part  - the Kauai coffee plantation!!!! We got to walk among some coffee plants and sample all the coffee blends.  Heaven! Oh and by the way. It was good coffee. :)

Here's some pics  - coffee plants, the coffee plant berries (the beans are inside) and some coffee plant flowers. They are very small but really really fragrant! (and the tiny cup I'm holding is the coffee sample cup - one of our sets of tour guides told us to go and bring our own mugs!)

Kauai was really beautiful. We went up a few times to the east side of the island to Waimea Canyon State Park and Koke'e State Park. Here you can see the Waimea River and the Canyon. Beautiful!

We drove to the Kalalau lookout and then hiked the Awa'awa'puhi trail so that we could see some Napali coast scenery.  There aren't a lot of roads that get you close to the Napali coast as it is pretty rugged, people do a lot of helicopter tours or boat tours to see it. So we did a 3.25 mile hike (1 way) with a pretty good drop in elevation from the beginning to the end lookout to see it. And then climbed back out. I keep seeing different numbers, but the difference in elevation was somewhere around 1500ft. Like I said in a previous post, I needed to get in shape for vacation!  But the water is so blue and beautiful and it was worth it!

 

And then we tried surfing lessons at Hanalei on the north coast of Kauai. The top pic shows the beautiful scenery this beach! mountains! can't beat that. 

The lessons consisted of us (and another lady) learning how to stand up and balance on our boards. (In the sand.) And then we followed our instructor out in the water and would wait for our turn, where he would wait for a good wave, let us go, and then we would put that standing into practice to surf our wave. (well, that's the way it was supposed to work anyway).

What I learned about surfing:  you are supposed to look at the shore while you stand up. If you don't, you will watch the front of your board go under water, then you will fly off your board and get crashed by the wave you were trying to surf. Kinda crazy to know you are in about waist deep water and you can't find the top. (See the picture of the blue board and a portion of someones head for demonstration - that's how I spent most of my lesson). So surfing wasn't my forte, but it was fun, although quite exhausting. :)

We also learned that in our family the saying is true, the old guy does rule! My dad made it up and caught the wave all the way to the shore (see the bottom right pic!)