2009 California Vacation

My family and I recently got back from the first real vacation we have taken together in a very long time. We spent time in San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Yosemite and Fresno, California. Unfortunately it was only the 6 of us who still live at home who were able to go, but we had a great time!

Several of us got to see the Bonneville Salt Flats for the first time on our way there. I found it to be unreal, unexpected and beautiful. Celeste and Daniel were the only ones who ventured out much - Daniel was determined to walk to the other side. This first picture shows in it the watery spot where we figured Jack Sparrow's ship sat while they were filming Pirates 3 a couple years ago. (Please don't take that too seriously.)

Daniel - making his way across the Salt Flats. At this point he figured he was about half way, but I thought I read something that said those mountains were about 7 miles in the distance. Perhaps he wasn't quite half way.


For the San Francisco part of our vacation we stayed with my Dad's aunt Marian at her house in San Jose, which is about 40 miles southeast of San Francisco. It was a beautiful area - we arrived sometime around 7:30 in the evening at it was only 65 degrees outside!! I was in heaven, especially since the cool weather was accompanied by sun and clear skies.

Aunt Marian was wonderfully hospitable while we were there. We're very thankful to her for helping to make this trip possible for us.

The morning after we arrived we drove into San Francisco and headed for Fisherman's Wharf for a bay cruise. Above is a picture from the pier of Alcatraz island.

Looking back at the pier from the boat, on which I went straight for the top so that I could see as much as possible. I really love boat rides - at least the few that I've been on. I love the feeling of water underneath, the wind and the spray of the water. This cruise was one of the highlights of that day for me.




This picture and the next - from the boat looking back at San Francisco. Perhaps this is as good a time as any to mention that I was really disappointed with a lot of the pictures I took. I can rarely seem to stand still and hold my arms and hands steady enough to get a decent picture. Luckily the fog was heavy enough that day that we can blame that for the blurriness of some of these pictures.....and on the cruise, I had the added problem of not really having the gift of walking steadily on the deck of a boat in the ocean. Funny how I never learned that skill....



I really loved looking back at the city - I'd never seen anything like it before. I was also intrigued by the fog - I thought it was really cool. I already know that I love the rain and cool weather, but I've wondered a little since getting back whether I would ever get tired of it? I kind of don't think so - at least not if I lived in San Francisco!





Another shot of Alcatraz, or, as I unknowingly referred to it, Azkaban. (Not unknowingly as in I thought it was called Azkaban, but unknowingly as in I didn't notice I had said Azkaban until I got a couple of strange looks)


I don't know why, but I just could not get enough of the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought it was stunning the way the tops were hidden in the fog but would peek out when we were in sunnier areas. I thought it was completely surreal to see it so close when I'd seen it so many times in movies and TV. More than anything I loved the color of the bridge and wish that these pictures could accurately portray it. Very much appreciated are the full time, year round painters that just re-paint and re-paint - so it always looks beautiful.

As we got closer to the bridge, the fog dissipated more and more. It was crazy to see how bright and clear the day actually was as we crossed under the bridge!

Do you have any idea how many times I took pictures of this bridge in an attempt to get some worth looking at???? I don't even know - I'm just glad that I didn't stop with just a couple - I wouldn't have ended up with much! As it is, I did get a few good ones.

In addition to the sunnier skies, obviously the color of the water changed quickly as well. I thought the greenish gray water near the San Francisco coast was pretty, but this bright blue water just made me feel happy!

We originally intended to do the ferry over and tour of Alcatraz, but the tickets were sold out. I think I'm glad - on our way back to the pier we got close to the island and slowed way down while the recording we listened to during the cruise talked about some highlights.

I have no idea why, but Alcatraz had been one of the (albeit many) things I was most looking forward to about this trip. I still remember what I expected it to look like, but I was pretty surprised. I expected it to be fascinating, but I actually thought it was also beautiful. Again, very surreal.

We had a busy day ahead, so we didn't have much more than a few minutes to spend wandering around the pier. We headed to Golden Gate Park, which is HUGE! From looking at a map in a gas station in the city, the park is long and somewhat narrow, and I believe we drove down through most of the length of it. This little spot is where we stopped to eat our picnic lunch. I love those trees!

This is one of a few pictures I actually stole from Rachel's facebook album (ha ha...hope you don't mind...). If you were to turn around from viewing the above picture, this is what you would have seen. It was massive!

As we came out the other end of the park, we parked at this beach. Rachel thought this sign was unnecessarily depressing.

Can you believe that Daniel had never seen the ocean in person before this trip?? I had no idea myself. He and Celeste were the only ones brave enough to get in the water. The two of them were actually up for just about anything during this trip!

I think Daniel wished it was possible to surf without a surf board.

This may be a little random, but we actually told Celeste to do this - it's Ammon's famous gesture that he makes when he's looking for something and can't find it right away. Except for the goofy facial expression.

After the beach, we made our way over to the gate to drive over to the Marin side. This view was so cool as we drove across! Don't mind me - the road wasn't actually crooked - just me.

Cool, huh? Again, I wish my camera could do justice to this color!

On the Marin County side of the bridge, at the viewing area.

While still on the Marin side of the bridge we went looking for the Marin Headlands, which had been highly recommended to me by my boss. We followed signs, but I'm not sure if we actually ended up where he meant for me to go or not. At any rate, it really was beautiful in those hills, and the view was pretty great, although we could have seen more of the city skyline if the fog had burned off.

I think I got this one a little out of order, but at 2:18 AM and after having spent more hours than I care to admit on trying to get these pictures on here in some semblance of order, I refuse to care.

For these pictures viewing the city from across the bay, we were stopped at this old fort thing. All but Rachel and me climbed up this hill to see what they could see from up higher.

I actually thought the fort was really cool, and I was trying to get all these artistic pictures from in and around it. Only a few turned out okay though.

Actually I thought it was great fun during this trip to find Rachel and take a picture of her taking a picture. I don't know why - I guess I'm easily amused. But that's lucky, right? Better than not being amused by anything!

I know this is really blurry - it was windy okay?

That isn't anybody I know sitting up there. They were just in my shot.

When Daniel got back down from the hill, he still hadn't expended enough energy and had to climb up the back of the fort the creative way instead of using the stairs.

Actually, this is the last of my pictures from that day; I think I just forgot to take pictures after that - or didn't have time to stop. After we left the Headlands and went back over the gate, we went to China town, where we didn't get to spend much time, but where I found a cool necklace with a Chinese character signifying my Chinese zodiac sign, which is the dog. Apparently the year of the dog produces people who are great in about every way. Just kidding. I can't remember what the label said except that I'm loyal.

After China town, we saw Wicked at the Orpheum Theater. I saw it in Denver a couple years ago and thought it was completely awesome, but I had forgotten just how awesome until I saw it again! That was way fun - I love going to see plays. I think Daniel had mostly been up for going because he quickly found out that all of his girl friends thought he was amazing because he got to go, but even he and my Dad really like it.

The next day we went to Grand America, which is a theme park in Santa Clara somewhere - about 10 or 15 minutes away from where we were staying. This picture is of Rachel and Celeste, trying to express their excitement in the cheesiest way possible.

All of us except Rachel. Daniel thinks he's the reject of the family because of this picture, but you notice he doesn't seem too happy to be standing anywhere near us! Actually I think smiling just isn't cool right now.

Daniel's charicature - Dad got one too, but I don't seem to have a picture of that one. They both look great though.

Still at Grand America.

I actually had a great time, riding not a single ride, but rather laying on benches and sleeping in the sun. I was so tired! And the weather there was amazing - hot sun, cool breeze. Very nice.

I did, however get this henna tattoo, which I was really excited about. This Chinese character says 'courage' which I meant to be more of a motivation than a description. Most unfortunately however, the people who did it didn't really know what they were doing, and the stain only lasted for 2 days instead of the two weeks they estimated it would be. It was fun while it lasted though!

The following day, we left San Jose and Aunt Marian to go see Yosemite on our way to Fresno. It felt like we drove ALL day! We planned to stop somewhere along the way for lunch, but we continually found ourselves in these little tiny towns that didn't sell food. Finally, at about 3:00 we ran across the 49ers Diner or something like that and finally got some lunch. This is inside the diner.

This picture is actually one of my favorites from the whole vacation! I don't know why really. We were all a little goofy at the time. Dad looks like he's just hating life, but I don't think that was the intention at the time...don't remember. Anyway, I think it's funny.

This is inside Yosemite National Park, but you wouldn't know it. Just me bugging Rachel again.

This mountain/rock is called El Capitan, but that's the only one I know!

The sun was bright, and I'm not a skilled photographer, as I believe I've mentioned, so some of these are a little washed out. Cool places to see though.

Dad and Rachel.

If you look closely here, you can see where the sun is shining on the tops of the trees, way up in the sky.

I don't know if these actually qualify as giant Sequoias or not, as I understand that the REALLY big ones are in Kings Canyon and are several times larger than these, but they were definitely more giant than any tree I'd ever seen before! These next couple of pictures are taken in Mariposa Grove, at the southern entrance of Yosemite.

You can sort of see a fence back behind the tree - they have signs up all over that say that the tree roots are so shallow that to have people get too close can damage the trees. Some of them, like this one, were blocked off in every direction by fences.

We were all just standing around with a bunch of other visitors when a couple of deer came down to see what was going on. They stayed for quite awhile, and though people were careful to maintain their distance (Daniel probably got the closest - he was recording a videa on his phone) the deer didn't seem at intimidated by our presence at all. I'd never seen deer so close before. One of the deer wandered into the parking lot, where my dad and I got pretty close. I'm sure he got some great pictures, but none of mine turned out.

We were all so tired at this point in the day and just wanted to get to where we need to go so we could get out of those cars. We took a few minutes along the road though to stop and dip our feet in this stream. I actually participated this time, though I wasn't about to take a picture of myself.

Once we got to Fresno, we went to my mom's sister Kay's house. It was so beautiful, and such a welcome relief after driving so much! Kay and Marc's house was cool and comfortable, and they had prepared dinner for us with these amazing tri-tip sandwiches and au jus and corn on the cob. We all slept hard that night, in the beautiful suite that Kay and Marc got for us a few minutes away from their house. King sized beds that were by far the most comfortable I've ever slept in....

The next day we went back to Kay and Marc's house, and could see much better their beautiful backyard. It's amazing - it looks just like a Japanese tea garden; very classy and soothing.

They also have this pool, which we spent most of the day in and around. It didn't reach Fresno's usual 100+ degrees that day, but the sun was still hot and the pool felt great. I slept in the sun a little that day too (one of my favorite things to do).

The above is actually a picture that Rachel took - I didn't take any more pictures after we left Yosemite. I was too relaxed! I know my dad took some pictures of the yard, though he hasn't had a chance yet to go through everything. Maybe I'll grab a few and post them later.

Kay and Marc and Kay's daughter Jennifer and granddaughter Riley were all such good company for that short time - and more hospitable than I knew someone could be! It was hard to leave, but leave we did the next morning.

We took the southern route on the way home, since we had already come through Reno on our way in and it was about the same distance from Fresno either way. It was hot that day - as we got closer to Nevada and until we got past St. George, the temperature ranged from 100 to 111 degrees (may have been higher, that's the just highest I happened to notice). I had never before experienced being outside in temperatures like that - it was horrible! As we drove through the little towns in desert I just kept wondering why on earth would anyone LIVE here??? The worst part of that day though, was that the air conditioning broke our last night in Fresno in one of the two cars we drove. No joke. It wasn't nice, but we all made it through, thanks to my mom, who did most of the driving in the hot car.

We got home late Sunday night, where we found our little dog Molly so excited to see us all that she could hardly stand it! My sweet grandma had stayed and taken care of her at the house the whole week, so this was the first time we've left her like this that she didn't have the added stress of going somewhere unfamiliar. She was such a good dog, but I don't think she ate much while we were gone. We all missed her while we were gone!

It was a truly great trip for me. I got to be in a different world for a week, which was very badly needed. I'm so appreciative of my mom and dad for taking us on this trip, and for those who housed us while we were in California. I'll remember it for a very long time!

Please excuse typos or funky formatting. It's late and my fingers are cramping up. Wow. Time to go to bed.