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
2 comments:
Hi Hilary,
We suppose you may not be seeing this anytime soon, but we wanted to wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Did you get up early-early-early in the morning today to see the full eclipse of the moon?
It sounds like you and your parents had a great series of experiences as you headed toward your embarkation point. I would like to see Death Valley someday but it'd have to be in the dead of winter, or in the spring; we've heard the wildflowers can be spectacular. I had no idea the rocks were so colorfu there.
I learned something interesting yesterday: bumblebees don't go home at night. When I brought some flowers into the house last night, there was a bee sleeping on one. As soon as I walked into the kitchen, though, the light woke it up, and it zoomed up to the light and banged into it about 20 times before it fell dazed to the floor and I got it outside. Whew!
Again, Happy Birthday, and we hope the start of you voyage has been smooth and fun. Do you have homework yet?
Love, Aunt Linnea and Uncle Jim
hilary! im so glad you loved my state. i keep thinking of you among the ocean, and i cant wait to hear all about you first sas impressions. much love! keep bloggin girl.
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