California

I leave in two days!!!

Since my last update, my parents and I have embarked on a west coast road trip. Kind of just a California coast road trip, actually. We did basically no planning ahead, have spent most of the time camping at various sites, and have spent a few nights in motels.

We left Friday and stayed in Oregon. We got to California Saturday morning and camped in the Red Wood Forest! The trees were humongous and gorgeous! We took some short little mini-hikes, stopped at visitor stations, and drove around the forest.

We spent the next three nights camping at random places along the coast. Most of the drive was twisty turny windy roads, but to balance it out, you could see the beautiful coast line and amazing beaches for the majority of the drive.

We stopped off at San Francisco for a day, going to the wharf, Ghiridelli Square (where I got an incredible dark chocolate raspberry sundae!), walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, and driving through "the crookedest street in the world". Quite a fun time!

Next up was Yosemite National Park, where we spent the day looking at El Capitain, the Half Dome, watching a video on the park, walking to Bridalveil Fall, and eating lunch at a lodge in the park. We camped that night at about 8000 feet, and woke up to find two large bear poop piles literally right next to our campsite! Oh, and also we woke up to the screaming and howling of wolves near by.

From Yosemite, we headed out to Death Valley, where we trudged through 120+ degree heat; the hottest I've ever been in!!! Makes me feel like Hot Yoga wouldn't be all that bad now that I've survived that heat. We would only spent about 3-5 minutes outside of the car, to do things like touch the huge sand dunes or taste some of the salt left on the long gone ocean floor. We mostly drove around and drank warm water and looked at rocks that were purple, pink, red, orange, "refrigerator mold green", and a number of other hues. We also stopped by the lowest point in the western hemisphere, at -282 feet below sea level before driving up about 5000 feet to see the lowest and highest points of the park simultaneously.

Then we spent Saturday and Sunday in San Diego, seeing the "Old Town" and browsing around, and the San Diego Zoo! I decided I want a troop of gorillas, two giant pandas, and at least one koala in my backyard when I grow up. We met up with Ari and also my friend Jenna from school and spent the day playing in the sun.

I leave Monday morning at 11 AM, and I turn 20 on Tuesday.

Thank you Aunt Linnea and Uncle Jim and Grandma for making profiles; I hope it wasn't too hard! Your comments brightened my day!

Love you all,

Hilary

Test Post

Congratulations, you've found my blog!!

Please check here semi-frequently to read my updates while I'm gone during Semester at Sea; I'll try to post pictures and would love to get comments from you! Internet minutes are few and phone calls...won't happen, so this is my primary way of staying connected to you.

I will be studying abroad from August 27th to December 7th, and travelling to:
Ensenada, Mexico
Honolulu, Hawaii
Yokohama, Japan
Kobe, Japan
Qingdao, China
Hong Kong
Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, Vietnam
Bangkok, Thailand
Chennai, India
Port Suez
Alexandria, Egypt
Istanbul, Turkey
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Cadiz, Spain
Miami, Florida

Anyway, PLEASE bookmark this page and don't forget about me while I'm gone!

Love, Hilary

For those of you reading this on facebook, the address is:
http://hilaryssasadventure.blogspot.com/