california part one

I suppose I should start talking about my trip now that it's four days past when I said I would talk about it. This post will be a brief overview, with later posts covering in detail specific episodes.

Where did we go, exactly? Well, we flew into San Francisco International Airport, spent some time in the city, then drove to Redwood City. We sang three services and a concert on Sunday (Peninsula Covenant), stayed in Redwood City for the night again, and packed up and went to Mission Springs Covenant Camp and Conference Center in Scots Valley. We stopped in Santa Cruz on the way and this was my first experience with the Pacific Ocean and it was COLD. The next day we packed up and left for Santa Barbara (5hr drive) after some very cool experiences which I will cover in detail later. In Santa Barbara we sang at Montecito Covenant Church and I stayed with a professor from Westmont College--we visited the school the next day and it was georgous!

From Sata Barbara we drove back up to Pleasant Hill (6hr drive) and sang at Hope Center Covenant Church. We left for Turlock the next morning (this is Friday, for those keeping track) and visited the Hilmar Cheese Factory and one of the associated dairy farms. That was our largest concert, and also our last. Three churches combined to host us so the crowd was much bigger that night than it had been all week. Saturday we were supposed to go to Yosemite, but a giant boulder fell on the path to get in, so we went to Monterey Bay instead. That was by far the best day--we had five hours to ourselves, so I went kayacking with a bunch of other people and I LOVED it! I was all salty and sore afterward--best day ever!! The next day we flew home and arrived back at school a little after one o'clock in the morning. I went to class at 8:15.

I also forgot to mention that I went to Alcatraz, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, hiked to see the sunrise, got sunburned (with the shape of two keys on my chest...that was not one of my more brilliant moments), did less homework than I meant to and was okay with it, ate way too much food, and spent more time on a coach bus in one week than I ever had in my life! So, you can imagine that this will likely take a while--put on your seatbelts!

Peace