California: Paradigm Changer

Before this summer, the only part of California that I had visited was the LA area.  It's nice - I love Disneyland, the beaches are fine, and there are palm trees.  However, based on Californians' claims for how awesome the state is, and only having been to LA, (and being from Texas,) I thought their claims were unjustifiably exaggerated.  BUT NOT SO!  Earlier this summer I visited northern/central California, and it was amazing.


My friend Ammon invited me to go along with him - he was going to visit his sister and participate in one of those obstacle course/race things, and wanted some company for the trip. After making it through the barren wasteland that is northern Nevada, we stayed the night in Reno.  (As it turns out, Reno is not a very classy place.  But we stayed in a "nice" casino for cheap!)  The next morning we crossed the border into California.  As soon as we did, the landscape instantly changed - suddenly we were driving through the mountain forests of the Tahoe area, with occasional vistas of gorgeous mountain lakes.  We made our way south and made a stop at the redwood forest of Muir Woods National Monument (WOW - breathtaking!), then crossed the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.  SF was a neat city - I'm sad that we didn't have enough time to explore there.  We kept going south, and eventually ended up on Highway 1, driving right along the coast.  We watched the sunset over the ocean as we continued on the winding cliff road.  Eventually we made it to Ammon's sister's place in Morro Bay, a neat little town right outside of San Luis Obispo.  It was pretty late by then, and we went straight to bed.  When the sun came up, we saw that they had a beautiful window view of the beach just a couple of blocks away.  I went with them to the obstacle race (which was fun even though I was a spectator), then back home and cleaned up.  In the afternoon, we visited a really fun beach with Ammon's sister and her family, then went out for dinner for some authentic seafood (more authentic than in Utah, anyway).  The next morning we left early, stopping only for church (Sacrament in Sacramento!).  What a great trip!  Who knew California could be that awesome?!?!

 Here are some pictures from Muir Woods...

(my camera phone can't do justice to how majestic it was)

 Sunset over the ocean driving down Highway 1

Ammon's sister's kids were gone the first night we were there, so we got to sleep in their beds - look how cool they are!  I slept in the pirate ship!  (Also, their room was full of Legos, so I kept busy even when we had down time.)

The view from their living room window... sigh... 

Sea otters in Morro Bay! 

A vineyard we drove through on our way to get to the obstacle race, located on a ranch.

 Here's a video made of the race that Ammon and his sister participated in.

 On the beach!

 We had fun with Ammon's nephews scrambling up and down the beach hills...

 Tide pool creatures

 Cool geology!

You may remember the eclipse that happened earlier in the summer - we were able to see it on our drive home through two layers of sunglasses and a tiny hole made with our fingers.  I tried taking a picture, but you can't tell there's an eclipse going on.