Cross Country Part 1

Well It's finally time to head on out! Pack Pack Pack! As we began to pack I began to get sick. I got a soar throat, a fever, and just felt miserable. This picture is the best I felt in that 24 hour time period. As you can see we had finally finished packing the small saturn that was to be our chariot across the country. Me, Tim, and Julio (the plant) and a FULL car of posessions.

Tim and Gaspar in front of our lovely home in the Sunset. Both Tim, me, Gaspar, and Anu lived in the basement next to the garage. It was a tight squeeze but a great place and awesome times together.

The full Trunk

The full backseat. We didn't realize how problematic this full backseat would be until we tried to get out our clothes and toiletries or set up the tent. Ok for driving, not that great for changing. Live and learn.

The movers Chad, Tim, and Anu! Thanks so much guys. We would have left way later without your help. Especially since I (Jenn) was 90% out of comission.


One Last look at our beloved First Baptist Church. We'll miss you.

"Last SF Exit" and last look at downtown. Quite a place.
Onward and upward!

Once outside of SF we came to the open road. Much brown grass, mountains, and pavement.
These pictures might be a bit sparse because Tim was driving and I was mostly sleeping as I still did not feel well.
Day 2: Tim is still doing the driving! I love you Tim. Thanks for taking such good care of me.

More dry mountains and tumbleweed as we exit California and enter into Nevada. This is the dry season in both California and Nevada.

We also saw dirt devils! This was something I didn't think really existed.
They certainly do though. They're very cool, a bit nerve wracking for me, but supposedly not dangerous. We actually stopped at this gas station and the dirt devil came right over the gas station. Wow!
After Nevada we journeyed on and found ourselves entering into Idaho! Just for a bit. I believe this was in Idaho. Maybe northern NV though.
This was the absolute best moment! Not only had I been craving a DQ cherry dip for MONTHS but it was the first delicious discovery that soothed my throat and my empty belly. Oh, it was the best!
And then back out onto the open road. A bit more grassy now.

A coffee stop turned into a photo op for this really cool fountain in Idaho. This thing was HUGE.
It's hard to see in this picture but there is the Grand Teton Mountains behind us. What a view.
I'm smiling but still with a very soar throat. No more fever though.
As we got closer to the mountains and the Wyoming Border the scenery became more interesting.
Trees! Fields of flowers!
Footprints! I think these are from a deer or Moose. They were pretty big.

More SF Friends

This posting includes many people who were part of our everyday lives in SF. Now you will have a face to go with the names.
A few of the NHance Guys. Tim, Brian, and Nate

Marcia and Dave, NHance co-owners and a wonderful welcoming family. Thanks for making us part of your family while we were away from ours.

Elijah, Stacey, and their beautiful daughter Olivia. All 3 of them attended our small group. Stacey and Elijah were the team leaders for the India trip we went on.

Ronda and Ben. Awesome newlyweds from FBC and part of our small group.

Luke and Becca fellow FBC'ers and India travellers.

Gracia and Tim. We could never thank them enough for all they did for us in SF. They were amazing hosts, housemates, and friends.

Nicole and Nick. Awesome East Coasters with so many similarities to us it's freaky.

Margie, Jake, Me, and Cynthia having a hot pot dining experience. A first for me, old hat for all of them. You can always count on Philipino friends for interesting eats.

Image Arts Boss and poster guru Jason.

Many hours of quiet turned into fun times with co-worker and friend AngelaWorld traveler and Buffalo native Nate.

Image arts co-worker, Lisa, a great lady with a strong will and a good heart.

Thanks to everyone who made SF what it was for us; a fantastic place to grow and learn.

Our Sionara Fiesta!

So, after deciding that we were heading out Tim and I felt we couldn't go out without one last big hurrah with all our friends. We Planned a BBQ in golden gate park reserved a site and sent out the e-vite. We called it our Sionara Fiesta! So...here it is. Lots of friends LOTS of food, lots of fun and fridgid temperatures. Of course. Although it didn't rain it was quite chilly and windy! Notice the hoods and huddling.

Me and Radah. My diva girl. Go Green!

My children's church co-teacher Hazel and our friend Jim from FBC. Jim forgot how chilly it gets in the sunset. Shorts Jim? Yikes!
N-Hance co-worker Mike and his wife Katie and son Gabriel. A great family who will also be moving back to the East coast (virginia) in November.
Food and friends Marie and Rolando Vega, Tim, Elissa, Micha and Wayne Womack. Eat up! Go figure that despite all the people that came Tim, myself, and our neighbors Anu and Gaspar ate hot dogs and hamburgers for the next 2 weeks until we moved. UUUGH!
Little Olivia, Stacey and Elijah's daughter making friends with a tiny doggie. Nice snuggli Olivia.

Karen, Jenn, Karla, Maya, Elissa, Matt, Owen

Lot's of great JCC friends and FBC friends all in one place together. It really warmed my heart despite the cold. More hoods and huddling.

Kelly, Stacey and Cindy doing their best to keep warm.
Thanks so much to two of my favorite ladies Judy and Gwen for coming out. A big thank you to everyone who came to our Sionara Fiesta in Golden Gate Park and braved the chilly windy temperatures. We all had a good time and ate lots of good food.

Angel Island

It's the killer Dungeness crab of Pier 39! Watch out!!!

Angel Island is an oasis in the San Francisco bay. Until about 2 weeks before departing for the EAst Coast Tim and I had never been out there. I had never even seen the city from the water. What a sight. This is a view of Russian hill from the ferry to Angel Island. Russian hill is where Tim and I first lived for 1 1/2 years. It's also where SFAI (Tim's school) is. Both are very near the top of the hill. You can imagine the beautiful views from there. I'll do an SF highllights post one day.
After a nice long hike up the plesant dirt trails and around the small island we came to the top.
What a view! A quiet peaceful day with sun, nature, and 360 degree views and not that many people. A great break from the city. Wish we had done it sooner. Another day another check off the "Must do" list.

Monterey Bay Aquarium!

Our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium was one of the last boxes we had to check off our list of "Things to do on the West Coast". It was a lot of fun. Look carefully at the top picture...there is a massive school of fish there.
Tim's first encounter with a starfish!!!
The jellyfish!!! This was truly the coolest part. Tim took this fantastic picture! I can't wait to put it up in our bathroom one day. Yes, jellyfish do swim this way...upside down.
This strange guy was called a sunfish. I'm not sure why. He was about 3 feet long. 1 1/2 feet high and 6 inches wide. Like a flounder turned on it's side. Strange.

Oh, get this! After the aquarium I had a hankering for some clam strips. We figure the coastal town would be a good place to get some fried goodness. WRONG! We asked at 6 different resterants and no one even knew what they were and certainly didn't sell them! I was stunned and dissapointed. We had a lot of fun but went home only partly satisfied and certainly longing some east coast clam strips.

Fun trip. One step closer to our exit from the west coast.

Yosemite Part 2

Part 2 of our Yosemite!

Aaaahhh. After a chilly evening it felt great to lay out on a warm stone and soak in the environment on our next hike. We set out on a slightly longer 4 mile hike around mirror lake.

There were plenty more big rocks.

Lots of interesting plant life...

Some very cool pinecones too

And then after a very hot hike we came upon mirror lake! The lake wasn't as big as I expected but it certainly was beautiful. We hung out here, had some lunch, took pictures, and got our feet wet. Boy that water is COLD. But it was refreshing. After that we intended to round the lake and head back...turns out we went the wrong way and ended up hiking 2 miles more than we planned. We hiked up the creek...across the creek...And wound up at the north pole!!!
Actually we were just above the 5000ft snow line. Pretty cool huh. Snow in April. After that we set off on our return journey and found a good spot for some rock climbing...sort of.

So our 4 mile hike turned into a six mile hike with not enough water. We did make it but we were thirsty...and hungry. So back to camp for a nice hot meal, a fire, and some s'mores. Yum.

Day 3: Our more intentionally ambitious hike to Vernal Falls and Nevada falls 6 miles.
I think that's the falls WAY over there.
Falls on the way to the falls.
Check out those steps. They go allllllll the way up. This part made me nervous because they were quite slippery from the spray.
That is Vernal Falls!!! Beautiful!!!

More steps up to the top. These are slippery too. Hold on. At this point I was thinking "hmm...if I had known it was going to be like this would I have come up here?"

Good thing I didn't know.Here's Tim with a great view and some wicked water right behind him.
we came all the way up from down there
But still have plenty to go. Let's take a quick rest.
OOOOhhh. There is the second phase of our hike...Nevada Falls

Up many many many more granite steps right next to the falls.
See how Tim is holding his hat. He's not tipping it to me he's keeping it from blowing off. It was really windy up there. There was nothing to keep us from falling right off except slow, sure footing, our will to stay on, and a gracious God that protects us on our greatest adventures.
We made it to the tippy top and stopped for a picture before setting up to cook an awesome mountain top meal.
Boil the water with our pocket rocket and then put it in the bag to let it cook w/the dehydrated food. I don't remember what the meal was but up there, after that long hike, it rocked!
Unfortunately we forgot the spoons! Tim is great to improvise, so improvise we did. Peeled sticks are actually really great utensils.
Here's a view from the top of the falls. As you can see it's starting to get dark. Remember how it was so steep and windy on the way up. It was even more windy now. We hoped to have an alternate route down so we didn't have to go the same way.
see all that snow on that ledge. That was our alternate route. Well, I guess we'll have to take the wind.

So, after we went back down and down and down all the stairs we went past a lovely creek again and the glow of the sunset through the trees was beautiful.And Tim got a chance to say hello to the horses and mules that reside near our campsite.
Well, hay is for horses but also for us when we're really tired. Time to hit the hay.

Day 4: Upper Yosemite Falls Here we come!
After a nice vigorous hike up another steep hill we came to another waterfall. I know it seems a bit repetetive but really they were all different and beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. I recommend that you all go yourself.
Be Careful Tim. I'm holding my breath as I took this picture.
This one takes my breath away. You get a really good view of the valley.
Well, after a total of 16 miles and 4 days it was time for us to head out. One last stop before we go back to the city. We were fortunate enough to have a gift (Thank you Dad) for a spa visit.
What better time to go to a spa then after hiking and sleeping in a tent for several days.
It was well appreciated. We both got massages and didn't ache the next day despite all our hiking. Thanks Dad. Thank you to everyone for travelling with us to Yosemite.
Much Love and Happy Trails,
Jenn an Tim