California

We drove from Vail, AZ to San Diego...well, 21 miles east of San Diego, to a beautiful campsite on Lake Jennings. We set up camp and went to the beach in SD. The weather was amazing...big change from the desert. We spent most of the next day at the Zoo and Balboa Park. The zoo was huge, but we think they ran out of animals so they stocked a lot of the pens with different kinds of pigs (we didn't know there were that many). Not to go on a rant about caging up wild animals, but I (Jim) have decided I'm not a big fan of the zoo in general. I mean, a 40 x 40 foot square for a rhino? Let the thing breath for crying out loud. Anyway, it was a good day. The day after that we hung out on the beautiful island of Coronado on the beach and walked around town. It's just a bridge drive from San Diego and we loved this place more than SD.

The next morning we started up the coast to Laguna Beach where we hung out until my (Jim) friend Tony was finished working. We then headed to his place which is right on Newport Beach...wow! We had an awesome weekend hanging out on the beach, eating gelato, walking on the boardwalk, people watching (the boardwalk is 3 feet from the window!), and I played roller hockey. The highlight for Kristi was renting bikes (with a basket) and riding around all day. We were even able to ride to the grocery store and we filled her basket. For those who know her best know that her dream is to live where she can ride a bike with a basket and fill the basket with fresh produce and bread every day. It's the little things! We had a great time with Tony and his daughter Alayna who gave up her bunk beds for us (the ceiling was a lot closer than I thought...ouch!).

Next stop...Hollywood! Well, for a few minutes. We drove around a bit in Hollywood, Santa Monica and Venice...each with their own character of course. After our 3 hour stint in LA, it was onto wherever we felt like stopping for the night and that was Malibu. Beautiful area...loved the beach! We had a beautiful view of the ocean from our campsite and went for an awesome run on the beach in the morning.

Our next destination was Sequoia (beautiful mountains and Sequoia trees)...we decided this the night before. The beauty of flying by the seat of your pants! Now, this is where our trip gets exciting. We set up camp and stored our food in the brown locker at our site. In black bear country, you have to do this so the bears don't come to your site and steal your food from the camping area, car, etc. Helps protect wildlife and for your own safety. About 2:30 in the morning, Kristi heard a noise outside. Kristi looked out her little window and saw a bear on his hind legs and it looked like he was pressing on our next door neighbors passenger car window. He broke the window and we watched him climb in. Our hearts started to beat a little faster and we felt something needed to be done. Or, maybe Kristi felt something needed to be done. I was actually pretty content staying in the tent. As we exited the tent to tell our other neighbors across the little road about the visitor next door, Kristi hid in the car (I'm sure that would've stopped the bear from getting her). They honked their horn and we believe the bear then vacated the car. We flashed the light into the woods and watched the bear eat tortilla's that he had stolen. You would not believe what the bear did to this guy's car. He bent the window frame of the door toward him about a foot. That's what caused the window to break so he could climb into the car to get a late night snack. Pretty wild and a valuable lesson learned.

We woke up the next morning and did a very short walk near our campsite. We ended up at this amazing river in the mountains and there were kids jumping off the bridge into the river. The bridge was about 35' above the water and the space to jump in was narrow as there was plenty of rock. I've never done anything like it before, so of course I had to try it...twice! Good times!!! We then drove up the mountain to check out these trees that everyone keeps talking about and we found out why they've been talking about them...unbelievably huge! You could drive a mack truck through some of these Sequoia's...seriously. Pretty amazing!

We then drove north and set up camp and hunkered down for a night in Kings Canyon...well, we thought we were in Kings Canyon but we didn't drive all the way into it. We found out that the extra distance would mean we would have to drive an extra 30 miles through the mountain to get to it. Which means, we would have to drive 30 miles to get out. I know it doesn't sound like much, but mountain driving is different than just driving down the road and we've been through a lot of mountains...the Saturn is feeling the effects! When we woke up the next morning, Kristi was feeling led to Kings Canyon...the extra 30 miles. I on the other hand was ready to start making our way to Yosemite. I'm thinking, another canyon and mountain...been there, done that. Since she felt prompted by the Lord to make this extra trek for whatever reason, we did. Well, let me tell you, it was one of the prettiest mountain, canyon, waterfall, meadow, rivers we've ever seen!!! We were even able to swim near a water fall at the end of the hike. So glad we made the extra trek, especially after our next stop.

Now, I would have to say, Kings Canyon is probably not one of the most visited places as Yosemite and the Sequoia's next door. So, when we got to Yosemite, we hit the mother load of tourists. Yosemite is beautiful and all, but, it's so blasted big. It takes you a week just to get through the whole park. So, with our two days that we had for the park, we visited a few awesome views and went hiking. The hiking trail that we were on was okay, nothing special. Well, that's what we thought. As we were making our way back, we looked up as we heard this noise and we saw a bear running away from us...so cool! Now, if we hadn't had our experience with the bear in the car, we probably would've been a little freaked out. But, since we're wilderness people now, they're kind of like pets.

We left Yosemite and really didn't know our next destination. We just knew we wanted to get back near the ocean. We were also in the need for some good rest and a shower. After four days without a shower, you really start to dream about one. I thought Kristi had tan lines when she took her socks off....but it was just dirt. After checking hotel prices ($150 -$230), we found this awesome B&B in San Luis Obispo, CA for 85 bucks! It's so awesome, we've decided to stay two nights so we can get some rest, wash some clothes, do a blog and have two cooked breakfasts. We also went to church this morning. First time since we left Texas a month ago and it was so great to get back into fellowship with other brothers and sisters. We've gotten so used to not taking showers that we went to church without one and bed hair...so liberating. Monday we'll start our trek up the coast toward San Francisco...we have tickets for Alcatraz on Wednesday! We've also been told the elephant seals are giving birth and mating right now and we'll have a chance to see them along the coast.

Till next time, peace and love, J&K