Alex and I have been back in Sacramento since Dec 22nd. I know it is lame we haven't been blogging recently. I was in Huntington Beach the last time I blogged. I'm going to make this one short.
We went to Laguna Beach and that is definitely a place I would love to go back and visit. It rained the entire time we were there and not sprinkles, it was heavy rain. It seemed like a very artsy community. Every store had some type of art gallery along with whatever else they were selling; food, clothes, jewelery, etc. We had coffee at a bohemian-esque place called "The Koffee Klatch." I got an Aztec Mocha, which is basically a mocha with cinnamon added to it. The cinnamon was really peppery. I enjoyed it. Alex and I used an umbrella as we walked around the town and that was quite the experience. It was a rather small umbrella and both Alex and I were under it. Alex was trying to hold it so that the umbrella protected both of us from the rain. Alex is 6'4" and I'm 5'6" so as hard as he is trying to keep both of us from getting wet, he wasn't doing a very good job keeping the rain off of me. I tell him to bring the umbrella close to his head and he says he can't see if he does that. I then tell him that I can still see, so I'll just have to guide the both of us as we walk through the pouring rain. Our walk didn't last very long because the rain was so bad. Our umbrella almost went flying the other direction turning it inside out. We checked the weather and were notified of warnings of flash-flooding and mud slides in the entire area including San Diego area, which was next on our destination list. We spent a lot of time in the bus, taking naps, browsing the internet, and playing games on our phones. There really wasn't much to do aside from trying to occupy ourselves in our van. Laguna Beach seemed like it would be a really fun town to go back to see.
Our last stop before coming back to Sacramento was in Vista, Ca. Vista is about 45min from San Diego and about 15 min from the Amtrak station in Oceanside. Alex and I decided to leave our van with some friends in Vista and then take the train back to Sacramento. That way the whole driving situation wouldn't feel so rushed to get back for the holidays. We stayed with Len and Peggy Marinello and I was so glad that we were able to leave our van with them. They are a couple that I met at a family camp growing up, CFO, which stands for Camps Farthest Out. If you want to know more about it you can google it. I'm trying to make this blog short, so yeah. Anyways, The Marinello's are a very lovely and hospitable couple. Peggy Marinello loves to talk and share all kinds of random stories. She is a great story teller and they are always interesting. There wasn't a dull moment while we were with them.
Our plan was to catch the train the next morning. It poured rain the entire night and at 7am I got a call from Amtrak telling me our train had been canceled due to flooding on the tracks and two reported mud slides. Are you serious??? Canceled?? All trains were canceled from San Diego to San Juan Capistrano. We found out that we could catch the train in San Juan, but that meant our morning was going to be a little more rushed. San Juan was an hour away from Vista. Thankfully, Len Marinello was more than willing to drive us the extra distance. The entire day was just more stress for me. Alex wasn't really that stressed out, which was probably a good thing, because if both of us were stressed that would be a recipe for disaster. Our train in San Juan was an hour late. Then I was worried about missing out bus transfer in LA, but we made it. Then our train in Bakersfield was two hours late. We got back to Sacramento at midnight and I was so glad to finally make it here.
Since we've been in Sac it has been great. We had a wonderful Christmas with family and we have already been able to catch up with friends. Not everyone is reading our blogs, so I've re-told a lot of the stories I've already blogged about to friends and and family, which is fine. Re-telling these stories actually makes me look forward to getting back on the road. After the Holidays we will be headed east. Alex and I leave again on January 2nd. So, I won't be blogging again until after the New Year. Thanks for reading!
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
The big city of LA
Alex and I are now officially in the LA area. I find it to be very over-crowed and too big. It's such a large area that its is hard to find some thing to do. I know that sounds weird, right? Well, after leaving Santa Barbara we went to Ventura, but decided not to stay because it didn't look like that great of a town. We found a 24hr fitness in Oxnard. Have you ever heard of it? I had never heard of it, but it has a population of over 100,000 people and that's a lot of people. We worked out for a bit. It was basically a stopping point before going to Malibu/Santa Monica. We stayed over night at a fairly decent part of town, so it seemed. The houses looked nice, the shopping center was well taken care of, but then I used a bathroom at the Subway Sandwich store and there was a ton of vandalism. I thought, "Wow, I wouldn't have expected the bathroom to look like this in such a nice looking shopping complex." Then later that day I used the bathroom at a Vons store in the same lot and it was even more vandalized than the Subway store bathroom. Graffiti all over the walls and the mirror entirely scratched up, the toilet paper dispenser completely torn off the wall, and the toilet seat cover dispenser burned in some places. I almost took a picture. It looked so out of place compared to the very well kept shopping center.
We drove through Malibu and tried to find a place to park along the beach, but the entire beach front in Malibu is privately owned. So basically no access to the public. We then decided to go straight onto Santa Monica. We rode our bikes along the Santa Monica beach strip and spotted some dolphins playing the water. I was hoping to see a celebrity, but no luck there. I think I might have seen Germaine from the T.V show Flight of the Conchords, but I can't say for sure. I'm like 50% sure. Who knows. Alex suggested we stay at a hotel for the night and I was all for that. We found a Best Western in town and Alex has Best Western points from staying at the hotels while traveling with his old job, so we got to stay at the hotel for free. It was so nice to sleep in a normal bed again and watch T.V. We saw the movie Black Swan that night and it was really good. I don't want to give any of the movie away, but I loved the symbolism. It keeps you thinking after the movie is over and I always like that when a movie is made like that. Anyways, if you don't mind violence and sex then go see it.
Then the rain began. Southern Cal hardly ever gets rain and the rain had to come while we were down here. We still wanted to venture out in the Hollywood and Beverly Hills area even if it was sprinkling. We spontaneously drove to Universal Studios and paid fifteen bucks for parking only to find out that the actual park was going to be $150 for the both of us. Yeah, that's a little too much to be spending. So, we didn't go and I was sad about that. We did take a few pics of Universal City and Hollywood.
It's really all a blur of what we did after Santa Monica because we haven't really done much. It's been raining for the last four days and most of our time has been spent in our bus or at a coffee shop.
Today we are in Huntington and this morning I googled "church" and found the church Calvary Baptist. It was close by to where we were staying and decided to go. It was definitely a good choice. It is a bigger church so I didn't think we would get noticed, but I was wrong. People welcomed us and noticed we were visiting. We met a very friendly couple, Jake and Rachel, and Jake invited us to his house for lunch. We had lunch and chatted for a long while. In the afternoon we went to a church service with Jake and some people from the church. It was in Riverside and we took the church bus over. The church was called Harvest Church. The pastor brought a really good Christmas Story message and I loved the way he told it. The title of his message was "A (messed up) Christmas Story." He started off talking about the genealogy of Jesus and pointed out that Jesus came from a pretty messed up family lineage; full of liars, murderers, prostitutes, and whores. God still blessed those people and sent Jesus to save us from our sins. It was a great message and very biblical. A ton of people accepted Christ into their hearts at the service, too. I was blessed.
On the way back to Huntington a woman from Calvary Baptist started talking to us and we found out her husband used to be Mormon. Mormonism has all kinds of secret stuff, so of course we had to ask her about it. She actually knew a couple who used to be Mormon that worked in the Mormon Temple and before they announced to the church that they no longer believed in the religion they hid microphones in the temple and recorded some of the Mormon ceremonies. She told us about the marriage ceremony and it sounds pretty bizarre, but supposedly the different ceremonies are originally Masonic. Joseph Smith took the Free Mason ceremonies and started using them in his new found religion and the Free Masons didn't like that very much. They then sought out to kill Joseph Smith. The Free Masons have a phrase they call out when they need a fellow "brother" to help them,"My God , My Lord." As Joseph Smith was being shot at by some Masons he called out "My God, My Lord." Interesting, right?
The woman then began to tell us about her husband's conversion story to Christianity. It was an amazing story. Her husband had grown up in the Mormon Church, but she had grown up in a Christian home. His mother had tried converting her, but she wasn't having it. After about three months of marriage he came home upset and depressed. Mormons believe they know the "whole truth" while all other religions only know a smidgin of the truth. He looks at his wife and says, "How come I feel so empty and sad when I'm supposed to know the whole truth and you are always so happy and you only know a little bit of truth?" She looks at him and says, "You just need to ask Jesus into your heart." He looks at her and sarcastically says, "Oh yeah, and how do I do that?" Mormons believe they have more of Jesus in them than any other person. So, her response to him seemed very silly. She was 18 years old at that time and had never led someone to Christ before. She wasn't really sure what say. So, she ran next door to get a neighbor that went to her church to lead her husband in the "sinners prayer." The neighbor tells her husband to repeat the "sinners prayer" after her. As the neighbor starts praying the husband's facial expression gets really weird and he can't repeat any of the words she is saying. His body is thrown to the floor and his wife and the neighbor had no idea what was going on. The wife had grown up in a Penecostal church, so she thought maybe her husband was demon possessed. He had felt like something very dark had come over him and it was pulling him to the ground making it so that he couldn't speak or even breathe. At that point he knew he deserved to go to hell and that God was a just God if he did go to hell. His wife was so scared and she yelled out "Help us Jesus!" Then the husband was able to get out the words, "Jesus save me." At that moment he came out this agonizing physical state of darkness and pain. He ran to his room and started ripping all the pages out of his Mormon bible while laughing. He was a "free" man. Mormonism no longer had a hold over him. He had finally found real truth. From that point on he has been a man who is constantly studying the word of God and that was 30 years ago. After hearing that story both Alex and I were amazed and said, "Wow, that is such an awesome story!" She replied, "Oh, that's actually a common experience for most Mormons who convert to Christianity."
The couple we met earlier invited us to stay at their place for the night. They are so hospitable and it is such a blessing. God has been very good to us today despite the bad weather. We have truly enjoyed good company, good conversation and good food. There is so much more I could write about today, but I'm going to end it here.
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| Malibu |
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| Santa Monica |
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| Taking a break from our bike ride |
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| Universal City Christmas Tree |
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| Universal Studios Globe |
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| Universal City |
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| In Hollywood baby! |
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| Can you see the Hollywood sign? |
It's really all a blur of what we did after Santa Monica because we haven't really done much. It's been raining for the last four days and most of our time has been spent in our bus or at a coffee shop.
Today we are in Huntington and this morning I googled "church" and found the church Calvary Baptist. It was close by to where we were staying and decided to go. It was definitely a good choice. It is a bigger church so I didn't think we would get noticed, but I was wrong. People welcomed us and noticed we were visiting. We met a very friendly couple, Jake and Rachel, and Jake invited us to his house for lunch. We had lunch and chatted for a long while. In the afternoon we went to a church service with Jake and some people from the church. It was in Riverside and we took the church bus over. The church was called Harvest Church. The pastor brought a really good Christmas Story message and I loved the way he told it. The title of his message was "A (messed up) Christmas Story." He started off talking about the genealogy of Jesus and pointed out that Jesus came from a pretty messed up family lineage; full of liars, murderers, prostitutes, and whores. God still blessed those people and sent Jesus to save us from our sins. It was a great message and very biblical. A ton of people accepted Christ into their hearts at the service, too. I was blessed.
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| Harvest Church Sanctuary |
On the way back to Huntington a woman from Calvary Baptist started talking to us and we found out her husband used to be Mormon. Mormonism has all kinds of secret stuff, so of course we had to ask her about it. She actually knew a couple who used to be Mormon that worked in the Mormon Temple and before they announced to the church that they no longer believed in the religion they hid microphones in the temple and recorded some of the Mormon ceremonies. She told us about the marriage ceremony and it sounds pretty bizarre, but supposedly the different ceremonies are originally Masonic. Joseph Smith took the Free Mason ceremonies and started using them in his new found religion and the Free Masons didn't like that very much. They then sought out to kill Joseph Smith. The Free Masons have a phrase they call out when they need a fellow "brother" to help them,"My God , My Lord." As Joseph Smith was being shot at by some Masons he called out "My God, My Lord." Interesting, right?
The woman then began to tell us about her husband's conversion story to Christianity. It was an amazing story. Her husband had grown up in the Mormon Church, but she had grown up in a Christian home. His mother had tried converting her, but she wasn't having it. After about three months of marriage he came home upset and depressed. Mormons believe they know the "whole truth" while all other religions only know a smidgin of the truth. He looks at his wife and says, "How come I feel so empty and sad when I'm supposed to know the whole truth and you are always so happy and you only know a little bit of truth?" She looks at him and says, "You just need to ask Jesus into your heart." He looks at her and sarcastically says, "Oh yeah, and how do I do that?" Mormons believe they have more of Jesus in them than any other person. So, her response to him seemed very silly. She was 18 years old at that time and had never led someone to Christ before. She wasn't really sure what say. So, she ran next door to get a neighbor that went to her church to lead her husband in the "sinners prayer." The neighbor tells her husband to repeat the "sinners prayer" after her. As the neighbor starts praying the husband's facial expression gets really weird and he can't repeat any of the words she is saying. His body is thrown to the floor and his wife and the neighbor had no idea what was going on. The wife had grown up in a Penecostal church, so she thought maybe her husband was demon possessed. He had felt like something very dark had come over him and it was pulling him to the ground making it so that he couldn't speak or even breathe. At that point he knew he deserved to go to hell and that God was a just God if he did go to hell. His wife was so scared and she yelled out "Help us Jesus!" Then the husband was able to get out the words, "Jesus save me." At that moment he came out this agonizing physical state of darkness and pain. He ran to his room and started ripping all the pages out of his Mormon bible while laughing. He was a "free" man. Mormonism no longer had a hold over him. He had finally found real truth. From that point on he has been a man who is constantly studying the word of God and that was 30 years ago. After hearing that story both Alex and I were amazed and said, "Wow, that is such an awesome story!" She replied, "Oh, that's actually a common experience for most Mormons who convert to Christianity."
The couple we met earlier invited us to stay at their place for the night. They are so hospitable and it is such a blessing. God has been very good to us today despite the bad weather. We have truly enjoyed good company, good conversation and good food. There is so much more I could write about today, but I'm going to end it here.
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| Enjoying dinner with some new friends |
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
More on travel with a bit of emotional stuff. Enjoy!
I am going to start off this blog entry with some emotional stuff I've been dealing with. Well, it's kind of emotional, but it depends how you look at it. Anyways, it is emotional for me. Before leaving Sacramento in November I had lost about 30lbs. In August I was the heaviest I had ever been. I felt ugly, fat and I was disgusted with myself for "letting myself go." That is when I set the goal to lose 50lbs. It was August 2nd to be exact. I was very dedicated and strict with my eating habits and exercise. I was losing almost 10lbs a month. That is pretty good for anyone who is trying to lose weight. I wasn't starving myself or exercising at the gym for 5 hrs a day. I simply walked for 4 miles six days a week, which takes about an hour and 15mins to do, and didn't eat over 1500 calories in one day. I never missed a day of walking and I think I might have went over on calories once or twice in a three month time span. I was eating a ton of fruits, vegetables, and nutritious stuff. My clothes started to feel comfortable to wear again and I even was able to get rid of some clothes that were too big. I had a really good routine that worked for me. Well, now that I'm on the road traveling that routine has basically dissolved. I haven't lost any more weight for about a month now. I have been fine on exercise because Alex and I walk or bike ride everyday pretty consistently, but the eating hasn't been so good. We have been eating at cafes and restaurants almost everyday. Eating out is almost always more calories than making your own food. It is hard not to eat out when traveling. I also haven't been as self-controlled when choosing what to eat on the menu. The other day I got fish and chips, that is a horrible thing for someone to order who is trying to lose weight. The entire meal is fried and then the tartar sauce is loaded with more fat. So, I'm feeling very conflicted. I love food so much. Everyone has some sin that they struggle with, whether it be gossip, stealing, lying, lust, or whatever, and mine is gluttony. Food is always on my mind. Alex has really been a nazi when it comes to eating lately. He has lost about 40lbs now. We both started our weight loss venture at around the same time. He is the one putting on the kibosh when I want to get a pastry or a cheeseburger. He makes me feel really bad for wanting to eat out so much and that's where the emotions come in. The other day I suggested going somewhere to eat and he got in a really bad mood. I asked him what was wrong and he was mad at me because he felt like I have given up on losing weight. Then I got upset because he was upset. Ugh. I reassured him that I haven't given up, but that I am struggling. I'm actually glad that he has been there to keep me in check, although it is not always fun. I really hate it that I love food so much. My twin brother is the opposite. He actually forgets to eat sometimes. Obviously food is not always on his mind. Well, that's the end of my food/emotional rant. Now on to more of our traveling adventures....
San Luis Obispo was fun. It was graduation week for the college students. The city was a little more crowded than usual. We headed down to Pismo Beach and that was a ton of fun! The sun was out. It got up to 80 degrees. Alex and I laid out on the beach for a few hours. It was so awesome! It is December and we were able to lay out on the beach in our bathing suits. It makes me wonder if people in SoCal know what its is like to experience different seasons. For the most part the weather is always warm. We watched the sunset on the beach and it was a beautiful thing. Another cool thing about Pismo was we went to a church service and almost everyone in the church went out of their way to introduce themselves to us. They were very friendly. We talked with the pastor for a little bit about our trip and he took us aside after the service to pray for us. I thought that was really neat.
After Pismo we went to the little town of Solvang. My Road Trip book calls it a "Tourist Trap Town." It was established in 1919 by Danish emigrants. The entire town is designed based on Danish architecture. It felt like we weren't in America anymore when we were there. I would definitely recommend going there if you have never been.
Before going into the town we went to Anderson's Pea Soup restaurant. I think that is where the restaurant first originated. They have many restaurants around California. I had to get their famous pea soup and it was good, but not as good as my Mom's pea soup.
When we were in Solvang we went to The Hans Christian Anderson museum and learned a little bit about his personal life. He is famous for all the fairytale stories, like Princess and the Pea, Hansel and Gretal, Cinderella, etc. He had a rather lonely life when it came to romance. He fell in love with three different women during his life and all three of them rejected him. He was a handsome man, but I think he was too subtle in showing his affections. He would write letters and poems to these women that hinted at his love for them, and in the meantime the were off getting ready to be engaged to someone else. Then when it was too late Hans would openly express his love. He died a bachelor, never to be married. By the way, that is a true story, I didn't make this one up:)
We have been in Santa Barbara for the last few days. It is a very beautiful city. It is known as the Red Roof City because most of the buildings are of Spanish architecture. In 1929 there was an earthquake in Santa Barbara that devastated most of the town destroying over 600 buildings. After the earthquake the town decided that the buildings had to be rebuilt in Spanish style Architecture. It give the town a Mediterranean feel. It has been overcast yesterday and today, so that is not fun, but no rain. We met up with an old friend of mine from high school, Sarah Davis. It was really cool seeing her. We went to a lovely Mexican Restaurant. We rode our bikes down the beach trail and went by Ty Warner's house. He is the maker of beanie babies. His house was pretty big. We actually found where he lived from a local, I didn't actually know who Ty Warner was until the local told us about him. We have a week of traveling left until we will be back in Sacramento for Christmas and New Year's. I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends!
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| Soooo sunny |
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| Cool spider webs |
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| Pismo Beach Sunset |
After Pismo we went to the little town of Solvang. My Road Trip book calls it a "Tourist Trap Town." It was established in 1919 by Danish emigrants. The entire town is designed based on Danish architecture. It felt like we weren't in America anymore when we were there. I would definitely recommend going there if you have never been.
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| Danish Architecture church. Built in 1919 |
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| One of many windmills in the town |
Before going into the town we went to Anderson's Pea Soup restaurant. I think that is where the restaurant first originated. They have many restaurants around California. I had to get their famous pea soup and it was good, but not as good as my Mom's pea soup.
When we were in Solvang we went to The Hans Christian Anderson museum and learned a little bit about his personal life. He is famous for all the fairytale stories, like Princess and the Pea, Hansel and Gretal, Cinderella, etc. He had a rather lonely life when it came to romance. He fell in love with three different women during his life and all three of them rejected him. He was a handsome man, but I think he was too subtle in showing his affections. He would write letters and poems to these women that hinted at his love for them, and in the meantime the were off getting ready to be engaged to someone else. Then when it was too late Hans would openly express his love. He died a bachelor, never to be married. By the way, that is a true story, I didn't make this one up:)We have been in Santa Barbara for the last few days. It is a very beautiful city. It is known as the Red Roof City because most of the buildings are of Spanish architecture. In 1929 there was an earthquake in Santa Barbara that devastated most of the town destroying over 600 buildings. After the earthquake the town decided that the buildings had to be rebuilt in Spanish style Architecture. It give the town a Mediterranean feel. It has been overcast yesterday and today, so that is not fun, but no rain. We met up with an old friend of mine from high school, Sarah Davis. It was really cool seeing her. We went to a lovely Mexican Restaurant. We rode our bikes down the beach trail and went by Ty Warner's house. He is the maker of beanie babies. His house was pretty big. We actually found where he lived from a local, I didn't actually know who Ty Warner was until the local told us about him. We have a week of traveling left until we will be back in Sacramento for Christmas and New Year's. I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends!
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| Maander's cousin |
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| On the wharf |
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| You can see some of the red roofs in this pic. |
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Central Coast
Alex and I have done so much traveling since my last post! I’m only going to highlight my favorite parts instead of telling you everywhere we went and everything we did. Okay, here it goes…..I think the last time I wrote we were in Santa Cruz. Well, we went to the Santa Cruz lighthouse, which has been converted into a surfing museum. It was pretty interesting, but there was no information about the lighthouse itself. After looking around the museum, I gathered that the lighthouse was actually built in the 1960s as a memorial for those who have been lost at sea. It was never used as an actual lighthouse. I did notice that there was a large foundation structure right outside the lighthouse next to the cliff. The foundation had mostly been eroded away by the crashing waves. I thought to myself, “I bet that is where the old lighthouse used to be.” I asked the guy at the museum what used to be there and he gave me a blank stare like he didn’t know what I was talking about. I then said, “It looks like a building used to be there because of the brick foundation.” He mumbled a little bit and said, “I think that used to be an out-building for the old lighthouse, but I’m not sure.” He definitely wasn’t very knowledgeable about the history of the lighthouse, but I’m sure he knew a ton about surfing, or at least he should since he works at a surfing museum. Anyways, that got me thinking. At pigeon point lighthouse I learned that 59 lighthouses were built along the California coast and there definitely aren’t that many along the coast today. I think that some of these lighthouses just eventually had to be torn down because of the shore line eroding away. Someday there won’t be any more lighthouses because the waves of the ocean are slowly washing away the land they stand on. It makes me think of that children's song, “Don’t build your house on the sandy land; don’t build it too close near the shore. Well, it might look kind of nice, but you’ll have to build it twice, oh you’ll have to build your house once more.” It makes me feel sad for the lighthouses. |
| Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk |
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| The Lone Cypress along 17-mile drive |
We went onto Monterey and dove down the famous scenic 17-mile drive. I have driven down this road before and I love it every time. On one side you have the beautiful rocky beach and then the other side you have beautiful 20 million dollar homes. Lovely. Alex and I joked about setting up a fund for people to donate money to us so we could buy a house on 17-mile drive and whoever donates to us can vacation at our million dollar home. Sounds like a good idea, right? It costs $9.50 to drive along this road, but you can get your money back if you spend $25 at any of the shops or restaurants along the drive.
Alex and I stopped at a café and I ordered some tea and tea-time food; scones, cucumber sandwiches, fruit and cookies. It was divine. The presentation of the tea and food was very elegant. We enjoyed our tea and crumpets as we watched people play golf.
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| Tea time |
The highlight of this traveling adventure for me so far has been visiting the Carmel Mission. The original name of the mission was Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, but people today refer to it as the Carmel Mission. It was built in 1770 and was actually the first of the California missions to be built. Parts of the building were destroyed, but it was rebuilt in 1884. It still has the original bell tower and is still used as a church to this day. It is beautifully decorated and the cathedral art is amazing. I felt a true sense of love and worship to God when I walked through the Mission. It was a very different feeling from when I saw St. Peter’s Bascillica in Rome. When I went there I felt a sense of darkness and emptiness. It was very beautiful, but the beauty seemed superficial and vain. It was a lot more crowded at St. Peter’s and people were praying to statues; it just didn’t feel like a place of worship. It felt like a museum. The Carmel Mission was different even though parts of it were a museum. I really enjoyed my time there. The Carmel mission is also home to the first California Library; I thought that was neat.
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| The Library |
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| The amazing waterfall |
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| Famous Bridge at Big Sur |
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| Heast Castle Guest quarters |
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| The Castle |
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| Indoor pool |
Monday, December 6, 2010
Half Moon Bay, Pescadero, and some of Santa Cruz
We have now made our way to Hwy 1 and it's been great. No more car problems since I last blogged. It's been good. We stayed in Half Moon Bay for two days. The first night we boon docked at a Safeway parking lot. The parking lot sign said there was a three hour parking limit, but Half Moon Bay is a small town and we didn't think it would really be enforced. I had the hardest time falling asleep. I think I finally fell asleep at around 4am and then I woke up at 7am. A truck rolled up next to us that morning and then we heard someone on an intercom say, "Good morning! Did my truck wake you up?" There was no way I was going to look out the window. I thought, "I wonder if they are coming to kick us out of the parking lot?" I quickly got dressed because I needed to use the bathroom and I said to Alex, "It feels awkward coming out of the van right now because I can see a car parked in front of us with their head lights on." Well, as I looked closer at the car I realized it was a police car and the police man was standing out next to his car. Then another police car rolls up next to him. I said, "Alex I think it's time for us to leave or else the police are going to make us leave." Alex quickly got up and started up the engine. The two police men walked away. I kept my eye on them and saw them chatting for a bit and pointing at our van. They never ended up talking to us. So, who knows if they were coming to kick us out or not, but I don't think we are going to park in a lot over night that has time limited parking anymore.
We took an extremely long walk along Half Moon Bay's coastal bike trail; probably 10 miles total. It was nice. Most of the time it was overcast, but the sun came out for a bit.
After Half Moon Bay, we made our way to Pescadero, but made a short stop in San Gregorio first. At the visitor's center in Half Moon Bay they suggested we stop in San Gregorio to see their General Store. The General Store consisted of a saloon, book store, bakery, clothing and grocery store all rolled in to one. I think it was the only store in the town because I didn't see any other stores around. It was cool and I bought a Mark Twain book consisting of 14 short stories written by him. I haven't started reading it, but I will soon.
On our map I saw that a road called Stage Rd takes you straight to Pescadero instead of getting back onto the Hwy. So, I told Alex to take it. Bad idea. It was a hecka, crazy, scary road. We shot a video of part of the road.
Pescadero was originally a resort town with two hotels and two saloons. It is not a resort town today, but basically that's all that is still there to this day with a few small additions.
We stopped at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, which got it's name from a ship that was wrecked there. The ship was named the Carrier Pigeon and after the shipwreck the lighthouse got it's name. Back in the day when ships sailed more often there were a ton of shipwrecks in that area. At the lighthouse there was a display of some of the shipwrecks that had happened in that area. Most of the wrecks happened because of the dense fog. The captains of the ships would mistake the fog signal at the lighthouse for another ship and they would mistakenly turn toward the rocks to avoid what they thought was a ship, but instead they were headed straight towards doom. Or sometimes they actually would collide with another ship. One ship that sunk within 5 mins of crashing was a passenger ship and a lady on the ship had just sent a letter to relatives in San Fran explaining that she took the ship instead of the train because it was cheaper and her kids needed shoes. Only one child had survived that shipwreck. It is really kind of sad. Since there were so many shipwrecks, 59 lighthouses were built on California's coast. Pigeon Point lighthouse has been converted into a hostel, and the lighthouse itself needs a lot of work. The steel rings are eroding away and it needs a new coat of paint. Point Arena Lighthouse is in much better shape.
We are in Santa Cruz now and we went to the Natural Bridges State park yesterday. Every October Monarch butterflies migrate to this area for the winter. It was amazing. We saw hundreds of butterflies. They are attracted to the eucalyptus trees that are in that area. So, that was neat.
We also went to an awesome Farmer's market and got some pizza by the slice and some persimmons. It was so good.
We then went to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk and played some games at the arcade and I won a ton tickets. I looked at all the stuff at the prize counter, but nothing seemed good enough to buy with my tickets. I had 703 tickets and I saw this girl, who was probably 9 years old, and she only had 180 tickets. She was deciding on what she should spend her tickets on. There wasn't much there you could buy with only 180 tickets. So, I gave her my tickets and she was so happy that she forgot to say thank you, but her mom reminded her to thank me. Alex and I ended up getting too many game tokens; we had $10 of tokens left, it was getting dark, and we still needed to walk back to our van, which was about a mile or more away. I looked around to find some lucky kid to give our tokens to. I saw this little boy, about 5 or 6 years old, and he had a few tokens in his hand. It looked like he wanted to play one of the arcade games, but it cost too many tokens to play. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Do you want $10 worth of tokens?" He looked at me with wide eyes of shock as I held out the tokens. He then gave me an excited smile and nodded his head. He quickly took the tokens. His facial expression was classic and I don't think I will ever forget how excited and happy he looked.
Alex and I went to another Presbyterian church this morning. We parked in front of the church overnight and then one of the regular attenders invited us to attend the Sunday service. It was a very traditional conservative service, except the sermon was preached by a women, but everything else was very structured and conservative. We sang hymnals and the choir was dressed in robes. The majority of the congregation was over the age of 60. They celebrate the Advent season, which I liked because growing up my family always participated in Advent and they still do. After service we chatted with a few people and they were very friendly and welcoming.
We are at a really cool coffee shop right now as a write this blog. It is run by a church called Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. It is really popular with the young folk. If you come to Santa Cruz then check it out!
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| Half Moon Bay Historic Jail |
We took an extremely long walk along Half Moon Bay's coastal bike trail; probably 10 miles total. It was nice. Most of the time it was overcast, but the sun came out for a bit.
After Half Moon Bay, we made our way to Pescadero, but made a short stop in San Gregorio first. At the visitor's center in Half Moon Bay they suggested we stop in San Gregorio to see their General Store. The General Store consisted of a saloon, book store, bakery, clothing and grocery store all rolled in to one. I think it was the only store in the town because I didn't see any other stores around. It was cool and I bought a Mark Twain book consisting of 14 short stories written by him. I haven't started reading it, but I will soon.
On our map I saw that a road called Stage Rd takes you straight to Pescadero instead of getting back onto the Hwy. So, I told Alex to take it. Bad idea. It was a hecka, crazy, scary road. We shot a video of part of the road.
Pescadero was originally a resort town with two hotels and two saloons. It is not a resort town today, but basically that's all that is still there to this day with a few small additions.
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| Oldest standing church in the area |
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| Pescadero Bakery |
We stopped at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, which got it's name from a ship that was wrecked there. The ship was named the Carrier Pigeon and after the shipwreck the lighthouse got it's name. Back in the day when ships sailed more often there were a ton of shipwrecks in that area. At the lighthouse there was a display of some of the shipwrecks that had happened in that area. Most of the wrecks happened because of the dense fog. The captains of the ships would mistake the fog signal at the lighthouse for another ship and they would mistakenly turn toward the rocks to avoid what they thought was a ship, but instead they were headed straight towards doom. Or sometimes they actually would collide with another ship. One ship that sunk within 5 mins of crashing was a passenger ship and a lady on the ship had just sent a letter to relatives in San Fran explaining that she took the ship instead of the train because it was cheaper and her kids needed shoes. Only one child had survived that shipwreck. It is really kind of sad. Since there were so many shipwrecks, 59 lighthouses were built on California's coast. Pigeon Point lighthouse has been converted into a hostel, and the lighthouse itself needs a lot of work. The steel rings are eroding away and it needs a new coat of paint. Point Arena Lighthouse is in much better shape.
 |
| Pigeon Point Lighthouse |
We are in Santa Cruz now and we went to the Natural Bridges State park yesterday. Every October Monarch butterflies migrate to this area for the winter. It was amazing. We saw hundreds of butterflies. They are attracted to the eucalyptus trees that are in that area. So, that was neat.
 |
| The swamp at Natural Bridges SP |
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| A Natural Bridge |
We also went to an awesome Farmer's market and got some pizza by the slice and some persimmons. It was so good.
We then went to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk and played some games at the arcade and I won a ton tickets. I looked at all the stuff at the prize counter, but nothing seemed good enough to buy with my tickets. I had 703 tickets and I saw this girl, who was probably 9 years old, and she only had 180 tickets. She was deciding on what she should spend her tickets on. There wasn't much there you could buy with only 180 tickets. So, I gave her my tickets and she was so happy that she forgot to say thank you, but her mom reminded her to thank me. Alex and I ended up getting too many game tokens; we had $10 of tokens left, it was getting dark, and we still needed to walk back to our van, which was about a mile or more away. I looked around to find some lucky kid to give our tokens to. I saw this little boy, about 5 or 6 years old, and he had a few tokens in his hand. It looked like he wanted to play one of the arcade games, but it cost too many tokens to play. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Do you want $10 worth of tokens?" He looked at me with wide eyes of shock as I held out the tokens. He then gave me an excited smile and nodded his head. He quickly took the tokens. His facial expression was classic and I don't think I will ever forget how excited and happy he looked.
Alex and I went to another Presbyterian church this morning. We parked in front of the church overnight and then one of the regular attenders invited us to attend the Sunday service. It was a very traditional conservative service, except the sermon was preached by a women, but everything else was very structured and conservative. We sang hymnals and the choir was dressed in robes. The majority of the congregation was over the age of 60. They celebrate the Advent season, which I liked because growing up my family always participated in Advent and they still do. After service we chatted with a few people and they were very friendly and welcoming.
We are at a really cool coffee shop right now as a write this blog. It is run by a church called Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz. It is really popular with the young folk. If you come to Santa Cruz then check it out!
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