Sacramento, San Francisco, and SoCal (Vacation Week!!!)

So, as most of you know, Kara and I took a sweet road trip during week 7 of our California summer missions experience. We went to Sacramento on Monday and Tuesday and stayed at Kara's host mom's mother's house. It was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. I think we laughed more in those two days than the rest of the summer combined. Let's just say that we love adventure and those two days were definitely adventurous! :) We saw the State Capitol of California (sorry, no Arnold), shopped at the Outlet Mall, saw Evan Almighty, and visited Old Sacramento. It was a lot of fun and nice to get away for a couple of days. On Wednesday morning we got up and drove over to San Francisco for the day. What an adventure! Up to this point in my life, I had never driven in a "big city" except a couple of times in Houston and DFW. Thank goodness for good Mapquest directions and a lot of patience! :) We went back to Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Coit Tower and a trip down Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world)! It was fun to be able to see all of it without chasing junior highers down. San Francisco is such a cool city...so many different people...:) I loved it! There will definitely be pictures posted soon...:)

We drove back to Clovis on Wednesday evening and finally got back into town around 9:00 I think...to find out that Kara's host mom had hooked us up with a place to stay down in Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) for the next couple of days. So, we got up on Thursday morning with our amazing Thomas guide map and directions to a bunch of cool places to go and left for Santa Clarita/Los Angeles. It was totally different than anything I ever expected. I guess I didn't realize the mountains went right into the ocean and that they were everywhere down there. On Thursday we went down to Malibu and Santa Monica and hung out on the beach and at the Santa Monica Pier. It was so much fun and so beautiful! We watched the sun set (well kind of) and then went back to Santa Clarita. On Friday we got up and drove to San Diego to go to the San Diego Zoo. We also made a side trip through Newport Beach and Laguna Beach...so that we could say that we drove through the OC...hahaha...:) It was beautiful...and I'm a huge fan of the Pacific Coastal Highway now...:) So amazing! :) The Zoo was wow...simply incredible!!! It's right near downtown San Diego, but you would never know it! I got to see the pandas and polar bears and giraffes and elephants and lions and everything else you can imagine! The San Diego Zoo is somewhere I've always wanted to visit, so now I can say I have! :) On our way back to Santa Clarita, we stopped in Escondido and had dinner with the amazing Torrey Eckert (a Baylor/KXA friend) at Chick-Fil-A! :) It was refreshing to get to see someone that I have known longer than two months. :) On Saturday we went to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. It was not what I thought it would be, but it was fun to see all the places that people always talk about (Chinese theater, walk of fame, Hollywood sign, Rodeo drive). Again, pictures will be posted soon I hope. :)

All in all, the week was a lot of fun and Kara and I had a blast together. Our quest to see as much of California as we could in six days was very successful and I'm glad we had the opportunity to do it. I really want to come back someday and see all of it again and more. Oh how I love this place!