Archive for June, 2008

Day 23 – Ventura Highway

June 4, 2008

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coastal highway driving for 20 hours…

All the way from the east coast to the west coast…

Loving every minute of it..

Incredible adventures off the beaten path…

Fortunate to have so many amazing friends and family to help us along the way…

Only to further strengthen our friendship…

Running free as vagabonds…

Never to forget these memories…

Inspired by the beautiful creation…

All together better than we could have ever imaged.

As we sit here by the fire pit in Lo’s backyard we are thankful to have made it to our final destination safely and will sleep well tonight knowing that we do not have to get up early and pack the car to drive somewhere new.  We always knew this trip had to end sometime, but it is still surreal that we did actually make it, and it is sadly over.

We would also like to say thank you to all of you out there who have been reading our blog and to those of you who supported us in one way or another.  You all have been great blessings in our lives and have kept us sane and not so homesick by reading your comments each night.  We love you all and look forward to sharing more stories with you in person!

Big hug, big kiss, little hug, little kiss, big hug (go watch the move Nacho Libre if you didn’t get this.)…

Lo, D, Eliz

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

-2 Timothy 4:7

Day 22 – Why must all good things come to an end?

June 3, 2008

Our final day in San Francisco. Our last day living as vagabonds. Tomorrow we make the gorgeous drive to Ventura on the Pacific Coast Highway. We began our day by taking a 6 mile hike along the harbor and across the ENTIRE Golden Gate Bridge and got some lovely pictures of ourselves…. and the view too. Some three hours later we made it to In-and-Out for some piping hot hamburgers and fries (well done) and a neapolitan shake. Elizabeth’s first venture to an In-an-Out was a great success. We did some shopping along Haight and Ashbury in the afternoon and made it back to the cousins’ house in time for an excellent dinner. Gourmet tri-tip steak, yumm. And apparently there’s a rule in these parts to have ice cream every night, no complaints here, haha. We enjoyed hearing some stories from Domingo about his college days in the 60’s while embarrassing his son, hahaha, no need to repeat those. Our feet are really sore from the walk (Lo went half the way barefoot), so it’s ok that we’re looking at a 10 hour or so drive down the coast tomorrow.

And on that note, goodnight.

Lo, De, Eliz, & Kat

P.S. We can’t wait to see momma cali!!!! And the islands!! wooooo

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Revelation 22:13

Day 21 – Free pot stickers!?

June 2, 2008

This morning we got up and went to a church in San Jose. Then we picked up some delicious Starbucks, courtesy of a gift card from Lo and Katrina’s Mom!!! After our refreshing coffee we headed into San Francisco to meet up with Elizabeth’s friend Andy for the day. He took us to an area with great views of the Golden Gate Bridge so that we could act like the tourists we are and snap a bunch of pictures. Then we went down to Pier 39 to get some real San Fran sourdough bread as a snack. We walked around Fisherman’s Wharf for a bit and then caught a cable car up to China Town. We got bombarded by some Chinese ladies on the street who practically shoved us into one of the restaurants and we ate some yummy Chinese food. After dinner we shopped around China Town for a little while and then walked down the hill that we rode up earlier. We were slightly frozen by the wind so we got back in the car and headed back to Andy’s studio on the coast. Oo la la. Tomorrow morning we are going to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge!

P.S.: We forgot to mention that we saw happy cows on our drive down yesterday.

Lo, D, Eliz, Kat

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14

Day 18 & 19 & 20 – Cruisin’ down the 101

June 1, 2008

Day 18- We started our drive from Portland by picking up a huge pink box of the day old donuts for 5 dollars from this place called Voodoo Donuts.  We heard about it from Lo’s brother who saw it on the the travel channel the night before, so we decided what the heck.  On our way to Grants Pass we tried to stop at a Safeway to pick up some groceries, but were unsuccessful, because as soon as we turned the corner and saw our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean we all screamed and said “keep drivinggggg!!!”…until Denzel (Lo’s car) had to park at the closest parking spot before we hit the sand.  We all sprinted out of the car ditching our shoes to get our first touch of the Pacific sand and water.  After enjoying our bit of absolute freedom, as we had made it as far west as possible, we got back in the car, got our groceries and headed south.   Once we got to Elizabeth’s friends house we played some hide-and-seek with the kids and even got to pick and enjoy some cherries. We also to feed their sheep and llama!

doughnuts

*voodoo doughnuts*

Day 19- Cotton falls from the sky in Oregon, who knew! We headed into downtown for the day, in which the highlight of our day was going to the old fashioned pharmacy to drink some phosphate soda pop things for only 25 cents!!  We also went to the park to have lunch and feed the ducks, who kind of just looked bored with people feeding them the same bread day after day.  It was fun nonetheless.  We then decided to change our plans a bit and head to the Redwood forest a day early.  We had never seen such huge trees!  We found this awesome campsite right on the beach after driving through “Elk country”…holy moly they are HUUUGE and have funnny furry antler things.  They kind of just stare at you.  Hmmm. We had no idea there were elk in California. Ps- Katrina had no idea that we had entered California when we did like 2 hours ago.  Haha.  We were again successful at starting our fire and made dinner to eat on the beach while watching the gorgeous Cali sunset and even had hot chocolate for later!  Ps- we also had soo much room to sleep because we had 2 tents!! (although still both from Walmart.)

we made it!

*we made it!!!*

beach sunset

*beach sunset*

Day 20- Car ride…greatly underestimated the time to drive…12 hours later = San Francisco.  Wooo.  Buttt the coastal drive was beautiful the whole way, sea cliffs, redwoods, beaches, everything we had hoped for. We even detoured a bit to drive through a tree, yess through a Redwood, almost didn’t fit.  The best part of our day was when we realized that the Golden Gate Bridge is a part of the 101 Freeway, we all screamed as we drove across, not believing that we were really actually on it, which also led us to not see any signs about the inevitable toll at the end of the bridge, oooops.   We  had to all frantically search our change purses and ended up paying the last 10 cents in pennies, the lady hated us and so did everyone else in our toll line.  As we were leaving, she even said, “Now go get your broke ***es home.”  Fill in the blank…but she laughed and said she was totally kidding. Hahaha.  So we are now tired but well fed and safe in Denise’s cousin’s house and will be ready to conquer the city tomorrow.

tree

*bahh here goes nothing*

From the land of fruits and nuts, goodnight,

Lo, D, Eliz (and Kat, kind of)

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5