Today I have some very exciting news for my fantastic blog viewers out there. Y'all are in for a real treat! This post debuts (*drumroll please*) my very first GUEST BLOGGER! Wooooo! Ron Davis (husband of one of my best friends and roommate from the MSU years, Katie) is going to share about our recent adventures in CA, partly because he is a fantastic writer and partly because I am too lazy to blog, so I asked him to do it for me :) Enjoy!
Alaina, her former roommates Keri Jewel and Katie Davis
(with baby “Kiwi” in the oven), and myself (husband to Katie Davis) were hiking
up a hard incline at Yosemite National Park in California. We were putting one foot in front of another
and happened to come alongside a large troop of boy scouts and leaders. One gentleman, decked out in full scout apparel, a classic wide brimmed canvas hat, and a huge hiking pack probably
circa 1970 said it all as every turn of the trail opened another awe-inspiring
view. “Wow.” “That is the most beautiful thing I have ever
seen.” “If they made a scout patch for amazing views this would get it.” Ok…he
didn’t really say the last one but his descriptions were fantastic.
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| The group on Cloud's Rest in Yosemite National Park |
Our scout troop leader friend did a great job summarizing
the whole trip to California – beautiful.
What an awesome place to visit!
Katie, Keri, Kiwi, and myself can’t thank Alaina enough for her enthusiasm
to encourage us to come and all her hospitality while we were there.
Alaina picked all of us up late Thursday June 7th
at the Los Angeles airport. After a quick night crashing at a friend’s place in
LA we hit Hollywood on Friday. We
enjoyed seeing the glitz and glamour of the set for the premier of “Rock of
Ages”, all the famous stars in the sidewalk, famous handprints in the concrete
outside the Chinese Theatre, groups of aspiring rappers peddling their $10
autographed burned CDs, and entrepreneuring men in transformers costumes
allowing us to pay to take pictures with them.
There certainly was a little bit of everything there. Since we all looked so famous it was tiring
signing autographs and running from the paparazzi so we headed over to Mambo’s
restaurant in suburban LA. Keri, who is
the number one fan of food network’s Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives, found the
restaurant online as it had been on the show a few years back. We enjoyed the authentic Cuban food and
vibrant atmosphere.
After lunch we headed north through snarling traffic on
US-101 to scenic Santa Barbara. The
coolest thing on the drive was seeing the rare Google Streetview camera car in
its native California habitat. (Yes, the
author is a nerdy traffic engineer.)
Santa Barbara was dedicated in 1786 as one of the many
Spanish missions. The missions were
established by Spain in California to fortify the area against other world
powers, especially Russia, and to convert Native Americans to
Christianity. We stopped the drive to
walk along the city’s sun-soaked beach.
The beach proved to be a gold mine for weathered glass pieces to add to
Alaina’s collection. They are formed as
glass pieces are smoothed by the pounding surf and the endless sand. Among the over twenty pieces we found were
even three blue pieces which Alaina said were the most valuable! We grabbed dinner at Moby Dick on the pier
and then continued our drive to San Luis Obispo (or “SLO” if you want to sound
like a local).
After another quick night in SLO at Alaina’s house it was on
to Yosemite National Park. As a side
note quick nights seemed to be the norm on this trip. I blame the state of California for having
far too much to see in five days there.
Why sleep when you could be on the beach, hiking in the mountains,
surfing, or enjoying great restaurants in 75 degree sunshine?
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| Ron, Katie, and Kiwi sleeping in the back seat of Alaina's truck |
Yosemite’s official website calls it “Not just a great
valley but a shrine to human foresight, strength of granite, power of glaciers,
the persistence of life, and the tranquility of the High Sierra”. And the four of us will vouch for this
explanation. We had an epic time hiking
to North Dome on Saturday and Cloud’s Rest on Sunday. The experience by the numbers included a
total of one night camping in two tents, three woodchucks in the wild, five
campfire cooked chicken breasts, 23 miles of hiking, and over 300 pictures. Not bad considering our team
included one pregnancy and one recovering broken ankle. Our consensus favorite part was the top of
the hike to cloud’s rest which viewed out over Yosemite Valley from nearly
10,000 feet up.
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| Keri "climbing" up North Dome |
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| Weathered tree stump |
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| Katie holding up Half Dome |
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| Hiking North Dome with Yosemite Valley in the backdrop |
On Monday we all went to the beach near SLO. Kiwi enjoyed chilling in a beach chair and
let Alaina and Keri know by giving them some kicks through Katie’s
stomach.
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| Feeling the baby kicking |
Keri unfortunately had to fly out Monday afternoon from the
massive (sarcastic) SLO airport. After
seeing her off Alaina, Katie, Kiwi, and I went for dinner at Tognazzini’s
Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, California.
Morro Bay was a very cool area that felt much more like an authentic old
seaside town than other cities along the coast.
It’s docks were filled with tough, old fishing boats and in the backdrop
was the 576 foot tall Morro Rock, a large volcanic plug right along the
coast. I knew Tognazzi’s would be good
when we walked in and a grizzled old sailor was talking to the manager behind
the front desk. We were seated and
treated to an excellent seafood meal with day’s fish catch sitting in bins on
the dock right outside the window.
Spectacular! I would definitely
like to spend more time in Morro Bay.
Tuesday brought a wild day of surfing for myself, Alaina,
and a friend of Alaina’s from SLO (Laura) followed by a hurried drive down to LA so
Katie, Kiwi, and I could catch our flight back to Chicago. Surfing was an absolute blast (I would definitely
like to try it again). Thank the Lord
for carpool lanes in LA which proved to be clutch in our efforts to make our
7pm flight! Thanks again Alaina for a
great trip!!
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| Alaina and her surfboard |
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| Ron catching a wave |
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| Zooming by gridlock in the LA carpool lane |
