California Coastline

A month ago, we set off on a trip up the CA coastline. We had a week, a few reservations, camping gear, and a dog...this could be interesting. We started our trip in San Diego. We went to Coronado Island for a couple of hours Friday night until it was dark. We returned to Coronado and went to the beach only to find out that we couldn't have our dog at that beach. We drove up to the dog beach and gave Wrigley the time of her life. I think she was in shock that there could be so many other dogs.

We worshipped in Oceanside, CA so that we could check out a few of the places Ryan remembered from his days at Camp Pendleton. San Clemente was a small town where everyone had a surfboard with them. We continued north and camped that night in Malibu. The drive up the coast from Malibu was right on the ocean, and I got out to take some pictures of the scenery. The spray from the crashing waves was hitting us from 50 feet below!

We spent a day in a touristy town and then decided to find a spot to camp in the middle of Los Padres National Forest. We curved up the mountainside and found a spot that had previous campers but was definitely not a campground. We set up our tent on the flattest spot you can find on a mountainside, made some dinner, and (I) tried not to think about getting eaten by a bear. (We were in CA and they do have bears!) The next morning we awoke to find that we were higher than the clouds...really cool. We had a peaceful night camping with no one anywhere close to us.

We then made our way further north to San Francisco. We stopped at Carmel-by-the-Sea along the way. The beach was beautiful...but the water was sooooo cold that my feet hurt for 5 min after I got out of the water and buried them in the sand. Sorry, you have to turn your head to see this one!

San Francisco was a really neat city. It was hard to get much done with Wrigley in tow, but we got to see the main attractions and had some GREAT seafood! The fog is mostly covering it, but we are standing in front of Golden Gate Bridge.

Camping almost every night turned out to be not so bad. It was a lot of work to unpack each night and repack each morning, but we got to stay at some beautiful campgrounds. We had an amazing time and would love to go back sometime!

An overdue update

Well, after hearing that a few people actually read these updates, I felt a little guilty that I hadn't added anything in such a long time. Here is a short update on what we have been up to over the past few months!

In October we closed on our first house! We are really excited to have a place of our own and slowly make it just how we want it. We spend hours working on things around the house and sometimes dont see much progress, but I guess thats how homeowning goes sometimes. We have 3 bed/2 bath and plenty of room for anyone who would like to make a trip to Phoenix. Did I mention that we have a pool..it should be getting warm enough to swim pretty soon!

In November we went north about 3 hours to Pine Top, AZ with a group of friends from the church. We stayed in time share condos that a couple families had available and took the chance to go to the mountains and enjoy a weekend in nature and away from the city. To our delight, we woke up Sunday morning to a blanket of snow. We had a lot of fun with some great friends.

Another important addition to our lives has been a new puppy. Her name is Wrigley and she is a boxer/shar pei mutt. She is just the cutest puppy ever, but terribly ornery. She loves to chew, and has decided to chew several things that I was not so happy with. Four plants to date have lost their lives to her, and more will I'm sure. I just discovered yesterday that she chewed the handle of the parking brake in my car when Ryan left her to run into the grocery store for a couple minutes. OOO, but she is so lovable and cute...and I should know that puppies chew EVERYTHING.

Ryan and I have been unlucky enough to have gotten sick several times this winter. That really slows down how much we can get done when he works the night shift every 6 weeks! We do try to get away on the weekends sometimes to see different things in the city or all over the state. A week ago we went to Jerome, AZ. It is about 2 hours north of Phoenix and is the largest ghost town in the country. We had a lot of fun. We packed our car full of everything we would need to camp for one night (unfortunately you need as much gear for one night as you do for one week!), Wrigley, our trusty Discover Arizona book and set off for an adventure. Wrigley spent the whole night in the tent watching out the tiny crack between the mesh window and the fly of the tent, guarding us as we slept. We spent a day looking through antique stores in Cottonwood and then toured the city of Jerome. We finished the day with a really neat hike in Sedona. Wrigley had the time of her young life. She couldnt even believe there were so many cool things outside her yard!

We are doing very well and feel very blessed to have such a great life. We look forward to my Mom and Dad visiting in April...and anyone else who comes out this way is always welcome!