California Adventure!

I am back from California and it was a fabulous week full of fun times and great people. Here's the run down: (Sorry it's so long!)

Saturday (April 26th):
I flew into Oakland and went straight to Menlo Park to Jaimie's aunt and uncle's house for a BBQ and pool party. Jaimie is my friend who is now on her mission and I flew out to go to her farewell. It was fantastic to hang out with her and other friends from freshman year.

Sunday:
Jaimie's farewell was incredible. She is the only member in her family (she was baptized when she was 18) and the strength of her testimony is amazing to me. After her farewell and setting- apart we went to the Oakland Temple and Visitors Center. I had never been to the Oakland temple and the view of Oakland and San Francisco just across the bay was beautiful.

Oakland Temple

View of the Bay from the temple: Oakland is the closer city and San Francisco is in the background.

Abby, Camille, me, Jaimie, Morgan

Josh and Garrett

Me, Camille, and Jaimie right before I left

Together one last time

Monday: Jaimie left Monday morning to go to Provo and head to the MTC, so I went and stayed with my aunt and uncle in Pleasanton. I went on a great run up in the foothills above the city and I've decided I really like northern California. It's green, there are hills, the weather is great, and there's so much to do around San Francisco bay. However, it's still a little too crowded for my liking, though it's a lot better than southern California. I spent Monday doing a lot of reading, I took a nap in the sun, and had a nice relaxing day. In the evening, Krystal, Talya, Ofa, and Ela rolled in from Utah (these are all girls on the rugby team). They came and picked me up from Pleasanton and we proceeded to drive to Krystal's house in Freemont while stopping by a Spanish Mission along the way. But the fun was just beginning....

Tuesday: YOSEMITE!!!! Rachel, the captain of the rugby team, lives in Palo Alto which is about 25 minutes from Freemont, so she met up with us at Krystal's to join in on the Yosemite fun. Sadly, we found out that we couldn't hike Half Dome because they don't put up the cables until late May, but we were still determined to have a fantastic time. After we drove the 4 hours to the park, we pitched our tent, met a crazy man named Steve who spends his life on his motorcycle going wherever he wants, and went on a little-bitty hike in the evening to Mirror Lake. We actually got a little bit lost and didn't get back until after dark, but it was still a party. If you haven't been to Yosemite and you love hiking and camping, Yosemite is a must-see and do. The park itself is massive, but we just went to Yosemite Valley which is on the western side of the park. Here are pictures of our little hike... we wanted to get a warm-up before we did a big one the next day.

View of Yosemite Valley on the drive into the park. That's Half Dome in the background.

Ofa, Rachel, and me. Needless to say we were really happy not to be in school and out in nature!

Really big rock in the middle of the river we couldn't resist climbing
L-R: me, Krystal, Rachel, Ofa

The Crew: Ela managed to set up the camera on the timer so we could take this picture in a really cool tree.

Ofa, me, Krystal, Talya, Rachel

Krystal, me, Ela, Talya, Rachel

View of Half Dome at sun set. Amazing.

Wednesday: After a lovely sleep in a sweet 8-man Northface tent Rachel brought, we packed up our stuff and headed on our hike up Yosemite Falls. I didn't know this, but Yosemite Falls is actually the largest waterfall in North America and the 6th largest waterfall in the world. It beats out Niagara Falls, even. From bottom to top, it is 2,425 feet! Woo-hoo! We decided that this would be a good replacement for Half Dome. It's 3.5 miles up to the top, so round trip of 7 miles... no too shabby. The views of the valley are amazing, the waterfall is fantastic.... all in all just an amazing hike. You should do it too!

View of Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Falls

Long way down....

The Crew

Krystal and Me at the top of the falls

Thursday: We got home late Wednesday night from Yosemite so we slept in a little bit, but then headed up to Berkeley to my cousin's lacrosse game. After that, we took the train into San Francisco and spent the day there. The way I like to experience big cities is by just walking around, doing some touristy things, but not too many. I'm such a people watcher so I'm happy just walking around and observing the many different kinds of people you can find in a big city. We started out in Union Square and went to an outdoor art exhibit of local artists. For Ofa's sake, we stopped into Tiffany's, in which I felt very uncomfortable the entire time. We walked through China town and all the little markets and headed down to the piers. We did do some tourist stuff like walking up Lombard Street, the windiest street in the world, went to Ghirardelli Square for some fantastic sundaes, and hit up Pier 39. We went to a great little Chinese restaurant for dinner, but the price tag that came with it was not so nice. San Francisco is expensive! All in all, it was a great day.

Krystal had been waiting for her mission call that week and her sister called us while we were in the middle of a crowded sidewalk in China Town to tell her that her call had come. Obviously she was anxious to get home, so right after dinner, Rachel, who had come and met us in the city, speedily drove us back to Freemont so Krystal could open it. We won't mention that while still in the city, we accidentally turned the wrong way down a one way street into oncoming traffic and proceeded to to a U-turn with a bus driving straight at us. Whoops. :) Love ya Rach! Anyway, Krystal opened her call and she's going to Lubbock, Texas. Whoo-hoo!

Ofa's beloved Tiffany's. They even gave her a complimentary bag.

Who knew they sold live frogs in a meat market. I sure didn't.

Yum.... Sundaes at Ghirardelli Square

Awesome hat store at Pier 39

Lombard Street

Ocean

At the Pier

Krystal opening her call

Another missionary from the rugby team!

Friday: Talya's 21st birthday! Happy birthday Talya! We celebrated her birthday with a great breakfast and lots of rugby! It was the rugby final four in Palo Alto, which we should have been in by the way, but it was fun to watch the teams. Friday was the semifinals and for the women, Stanford beat Navy, Penn St. beat Brown and for the guys Cal beat St. Mary's and BYU beat Colorado.

Rachel also got her mission call on Friday and she is going to the Argentina, Resistencia mission. Wa-hoo!

Talya's birthday breakfast. Here's the story with the elephants: ever since she was little Talya wanted an elephant for her birthday but never got one. So we got her 20 little plastic elephants and a stuffed elephant to make 21... one for every year she didn't get one. We named the elephant Lubbock in honor of Krystal's mission call.

Talya was happy she reached the big 2-1...

Saturday: More rugby. We went on a great run in Palo Alto and the headed to the rugby pitch for the finals. For the women, Stanford beat Penn. St. 15-10 on a last second score. It was an awesome game to watch! Not gonna lie, it hurt a little bit not being able to play because I know we could've done well. For the boys, Cal just thoroughly embarrassed BYU 59-7.... it was rough to watch. To make ourselves feel better we went out for gelato and hung out at a small little bookstore. Lame? Not in the least.

Sunday: headed home. The girls left in the morning and I flew back in the evening.

Right before the girls left to drive back to Utah, and of course, Lubbock's there too. And about the bus... let's just say Ela has some awesome cousins. :)

So there you have it! I hope you made it through. I tried to be brief. But in summary, it was a great trip... probably one of the best weeks of my life. It was a great last hoorah before lots of people head on missions. I'm grateful I was able to see such great places and have such great people around me.