Last Day

Today was JD's birthday and we had a great time at church and at the ocean.  We also spent a last bit of quality time with Gordon, the Clarke family dog.  It is not going to be very much fun going back home tomorrow.

Happy Birthday JD!

Beach Day

Relax day!  We slept in, didn't have to be anywhere or do anything and it was so nice.  JD got a bit fried on our Anacapa adventure thanks to his hatred of suncscreen so it was probably a good thing that we didn't have any set plans.  We drove down to one of my favorite places in the world: Oceanside.  We ate at Ruby's Diner and walked the pier.  While we were waiting for our table to be called we watched dolphins surfing the huge waves there which was super cool.  Thanks to how burnt JD was, he spent most of the beach time on under a towel to stay away from the sun, whom he isn't on good terms with at the moment.  On our way back to the Clarke's we stopped at the Mission Viejo mall to see the Lego Store, and bought some cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory.  It was a nice, chillaxing day.  One more left before we make the long drive back home.

Channel Islands National Park

We went to Anacapa Island yesterday, the smallest of the Channel Islands National Park chain.  It was amazing.  We rode on a boat out of the Channel Islands Harbor to Anacapa.  On our way there we had some dolphins swim along side us, and right before we reached the island, a humpback whale surfaced near our boat, so we followed it for a while.  It was hatching season on the island which means a lot of nervous momma birds on their nests, everywhere.  We hiked around the island for some beautiful views on a sunshiny day.  We could see sea lions swimming through kelp forests and sunbathing, and there were flowers everywhere.  On our way back to the harbor our boat went through a pod of dolphins somewhere in the range of 1,000 according to the captain.  It was crazy cool having hundreds of dolphins swimming all around the boat and jumping along and in the wake.  If I can get the footage I took to work, I will post what I got, though, as usual, photos and film just don't do it justice.  We are looking forward to a couple of relaxing beach days, and celebrating JD's birthday on Sunday before heading back to Utah.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

It was a super wet and rainy day today while we were up in the mountains admiring giant trees.  It was kind of strange driving through clouds and having them wisp about the trees as we hiked around.  The park was amazing though, we saw General Grant: 3rd largest tree in the world, and General Sherman: largest tree in the world.  That is by volume, not height.  We walked inside fallen down sequoias, and groves full of them too.  Upon reaching the other side of the park we saw the sun peak out as we scaled down the mountain, giving us a beautiful drive to Oxnard, we went past a ton of farms again, and they smelled divine, especially the orange groves. Channel Islands tomorrow!

Yosemite National Park

We went to Yosemite National Park today and it was amazing!  We hiked around sequoia trees that were huge, hiked up to Lower Yosemite Falls, road the shuttle system around the valley.  Got rained on a lot and just sat under trees until storms passed through, and had a great time.  I watched the Ken Burns National Parks: America's Best Idea documentary a few years ago and ever since I have always wanted to come to Yosemite, and it lived up to its reputation.  I can say it was nice being in the park this time of year, from the looks of it, the valley is probably completely packed during the summer months, but the cool weather and rain made the park relatively quiet, enough for JD to stalk a mom and her baby deer for a while.  Super great day!

Fresno

We drove through a ton of farms today, we aren't sure what most of them were, but there were a ton of trees, grape vinyards, and a lot of trucks carrying different fruit, like lemons.  We made it to Fresno in time to attend the Fresno California Temple, it is one of the smaller temples, the grounds were beautiful and it was nice being able to go.  Before the drive we spent more time at the beach just relaxing, I made sand creatures, like the crab pictured.  It was a long drive, but miraculously we weren't stopped in traffic once, not even in our travels through Los Angeles, Glendale, and Burbank.  It should be a fun few days going through some new National Parks!

Joshua Tree National Park

We hiked around Joshua Tree National Park today and it was so cool!  It was outside of Palm Springs in the desert.  Crazy drive going from rain and 65 degrees to hot sun and 97 degrees in the matter of 20 minutes, just by crossing a 'mountain'.  The cacti were in bloom and there were tons of Joshua Trees (go figure).  National Park week is awesome too, no fees!