The beach we camped by drown in fog.. The dark line in the middle that extends to both sides of the picture is the jetty that had the stupid foghorn.. and lots of fun tidepools with crabs and starfish
The infamous Golden Gate Bridge..
This was Shannon's idea but I put it up here because it grosses out Bryce when I do something flexy:-)
This is my 'I'm trying to gracefully kick the water and don't ask what my arms are doing' kind of picture
We got fresh California strawberries from a stand down the road and I accidentally overcooked the chocolate, so I was just getting it with my fingers, eating a strawberry and licking my fingers. Shannon came over and tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around like this. I couldn't get away with siphoning all the chocolate for very long..
This is my entire group I went camping with (besides me, but ya know what I look like) from left to right: Patrick, Colton, Rachel, Peter (punk covered his face), Phil, Emily, and Shannon
Blue Angels' famous pyramid formation.. Yikes that's close
"You have good lines" ~Shannon
Who would that be?? None other than Lord of the Dance!! AKA Shannon
Yes, a true treehugger
And KICK!
A heart drawn in the sky by two planes flying side by side, then when they split let out the streamline and do a side flip to get the two sides of th heart, then the third plane (stil in the picture) that comes through for the arrow
Fighter jets that have pretty colored streamlines:)
HUGE FREAKING PLANE. I cannot even describe it.. I'm not close to the Golden Gate Bridge and this is how huge it is in my picture..
If you look really close you see the two planes about the center of the picture that are so close to each other as they cross paths!!
THE BLUE ANGELS!!! HERE AT LAST!!Well, I haven't written in quite a while, so I'll just summarize the last week because that is realy the only exciting part of October. October 10 to October 19 Shannon came to visit me for my birthday. While she was here we did lots of shopping, visited San Francisco, went to the river, camped on the beach, swam, tanned, and she even came to school with me! I got some extra money for my birthday so I went shopping and got a Roxy jacket, 2 pairs of Hurley shorts and a new pair of shoes:) Shannon also picked up some things because it can't be a vacation without shopping.
Last Sunday we went to San Francisco and Laura and Shane came with us. We left about nine or so and the trip went smooth until just over the bay bridge, then we hit traffic. It was very slow and went across some of the bridge until the toll boothes. We could not figure out why there was so much traffic because usually Sunday is the off day, but not this one. After some thought we realized there wasa 49ers game (after seeing hoards of people driving with 49er memorabilia all over their car or on their person). Though not only that, but there was a parade and it was also the conclusion of fleet week so there was an airshow all afternon featuring the Blue Angels. After driving all over the stupid island because roads kept closing right in front of us, we paid a ridiculous $30 to park and headed to Fisherman's Warf. It was wicked watching the stunt planes out over the bay. I had Shannon's picture and the screen is broken, so I took a ton of pictures of sky because I would guess where the planes were. I need to work on my guessing skills quite a bit. The Blue Angels had an hour of the total show and did some amazing thigns. They made a heart with the smoke, flew straight up then would fall back, fly amazingly close to each otehr, and of course the infamous pyramid of all six planes. I got a few good pictures, but it was dang hard to get because they would be in and out of the shot before I could snap it.
I didn't know much about teh airshow, so I researched it when I got home and found out that the Blue Angels are F-18 Hornets and the whole thing started in 1943 to keep the civilians interested in the airplane programs of the military. over 500 million people have seen the shows and that number is constantly increasing. They have a practice area in Nebraska over lots of deserts so that the sound from the planes doesn't bother the neighborhoods. They got low quite a few times and it was like an earthquake, it was so loud! I was fascinated by it all, so I didn't shop much because I was out on the pier craning my neck skyward to see any sign of a plane. We were going to drive over teh Golden Gate Bridge, but by the time we were leaving we were very ready to go home. Too many people to want to stay in teh city any longer.
Little did I know but Sacramento is also known as the city of rivers. True, we only have two, but they sure are big and have a lot of parks to explore and visit. I am only a few miles from the junction where teh Sacramento and the American river connect. Shannon and I went to Discovery Park which is set on the river and has a couple boat docks, a beach, and a big open park with huge trees. We went picture happy and had lots of fun on the trees and wading in the water. The water was quite comfortable and it was nice to wade, so nice in fact that it was all we could to do resist jumping in fully clothed.
My ward planned on going camping in Bodega Bay on the 17th and 18th, but a few days before it the trip was canceled. We were really mad because that is what I had planned for two whole days! Plus, not camping on the beach really put a damper on our spirits. Luckily, there was a group still going and I knew about it! So we still went. We left Friday afternoon and crammed into Phil's car and Peter's truck. There were a total of eight people going: me, Shannon, Emily, Rachel, Phil, Peter, Patrick and Colton. Five of us were crammed into Phil's car and I got very sick from his driving. After driving all over creation to take teh round about way to the camping site, we finally spilled out of the car and set up camp. For there only being eight of us, there was a huge camp site so we had plenty of room. We started setting up camp and after getting all of the tents laid out Phil realized taht he didn't have the poles for his tent. So, we improvised and put his tent under a tree. He tied the middle of it to the tree and I went up to help him and noticed small gold hooks. So I grabbed the hooks and started hooking them up to the tree. Soon enough, Voila! a tent appeared. I figured out how to move the tree jsut right to not pull the tent too mcuh. We were a hop, skip and a jump away from teh beach so I went down to explore. I loved it. A smal cove, small waves, ripples in the sand, and quiet(except the stupid horn that went off every 8 seconds to warn boats that there was a jetty and to not run into it. the lights on the end must not have been enough..) One by one everyone else came down to join me. We watched teh sunset and played int he waves. I got a little excited and got in up to my knees and turned my back to the waves. I had one hit my knees and go all the way up to my waist.. so I was a bit wet. Peter surprised me when he came up behind me and picked me up around my waist, holding me precariously high over the waves and threatening to throw me in. Luckily he didn't, but teasing continued and the punk stole my phone and I had to chase him all over the beach to get my phone, hoodie and shoes back. I sure got my work out becasue he has long legs and catching up to him, no matter how fast I am, is quite dificult. Colton came late because he had to work, and once he got there we set up a fire and it blazed quite big. It was very warm though! We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. I probably had about ten marshmallows,but only two s'mores. They got addicting real quick. About eleven Patrick, Emily and Rachel all headed to bed, but the rest of us stayed around the fire to talk. After a battle over the closest chair, Peter ended up sitting on me, but to make things more comfortable I ended up sitting sideways over his lap as an agreement so that we could both sit in the chair. After about twenty minutes of sitting like that Phil caught on and forced himself into Shannon's chair. Poor girl.. It was everything she could do to get out of his lap and get out of his reach. He was really rude and really annoying the whole trip. By the end of Saturday everyone was against him. He really got on all of our nerves and we were al ready to leave him behind. That's all I'm going to say on the matter becasue i could write an entire entry about why we all hate him.. We finally went to bed about 1:30( after I had fallen asleep curled into one of the camp chairs already)
The next morning we all woke up to French toast, a warm fire, and hot chocolate. We just sat around the fire and chatted for a few hours to wake up and to get warm. A thick fog set in overnight, so in the morning everything was wet. It was interesting to step into shoes taht had puddles in them.. It made it really pretty, and finally started to lift right as we left. After much pushing from Phil we packedup camp and were going to head to a beach. We figured one clsoe, but when Phil told us he said it was an hour and half away. We're on the beach and we're traveling how far to go to the stupid beach???!!! Thankfully, Shannon and I got to drive in Peter's truck (Dodge Ram 1500) instead of cramming into Phil's Toyota Corolla and listening to him talk and talk and talk... So we headed south and at least we finally did get to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, but we had to pay the stupid toll.. Then we drove through the heart of San Francisco which took forever because there's always traffic there. We get almost to the end and get a call from Colton that his truck broke down and he's about two miles behind us. So Phil asks us to go back and get him while he makes his merry way down to the beach. Cursing all the way, we flip around and head back through the traffic, and over the median to get to our friends, and of course, right when we get there the truck starts working again. Gotta love irony.. We were ready to just go home, but I honestly wanted to go to teh beach, so we headed down to Pacifica. I had said we could go to one that I knew, Rockaway beach, that I had been to before, but it wasn't a swimming beach. Little did I know that Pacifica is the next beach jsut south of Rockaway, around a giant outcropping of rock. So we went down and got some food, donned our wetsuits, and went running full till into the water. Ha well sorta.. It was nice with a wet suit, so after being swept off my feet in knee deep water I ran in to join in Patrick and Colton who were swimming without wetsuits (yes, they're crazy.. I know). At first I was just swimming, then I tried boogie boarding. I didnt' catch any waves, but it was fun to ride. Colton didn't last long cuz the water was way cold, so it was just Patrick and I and we decided to head closer to the group because we had been pushed very far down the caost by a riptide.. So as we were getting out I got pummeled by a wave as tall as I was and when I peeled my wetsuit off I had showers of rocks come out. Forget having sand everywhere.. I had rocks. I changed quickly otu of my swimming suit and into the only dry clothes I had.. Shorts. We got back to the car and Colton gave me his pajama pants and they were so nice! Such a relief from freezing in my shorts.. It was a fun drive home with Peter. shannon was out cold after the Bay Bridge and so I talked to him the whole way home... Mostly about how mad we were at Phil.
We got home and showered, then met up again (but just Colton, Patrick, Peter, me and Shannon) and watched Surf's Up at Colton's house.. By the end of it though only Shannon adn Patrick were conscious. We hadn't slept much the night before, so we were all exhausted, I curled up on the floor and was out cold, luckily I made it through most of the movie. After the movie Colton pulled me down toward where he was and started tickling me! Then Peter joind in and hit just the right spot that I couldn't even move I was laughing so hard. Luckily I had Shannon there so she gangedup on Colton, but it was a lost cause for me because Peter isn't ticklish. We talked a bit more and then headed home to our nice warm beds. It was a very fun weekend and I was hit on by every guy I went camping with :) Made it very fun though, and now I have a lot more friends than I had before.. I'm happy to have had the chance to get to nkow more people.
Throughout the week we went to the pool by my house and laid out to tan. The first day we jumped in the water, I had stuck my foot int he water and I knew it was cold so I told Shannon not to. We got to the side and jumped in together. We were both hyperventilating by the time we reached the side and frantically climbed otu. The water was ice cold!!! With the last few days of wind we've had it made the water super cold.. We didn't get in again the whole week haha
Sunday Shannon took me shopping so that we could get something for me for my birthday. I got some very cute plaid Hurley shorts from Macy's on sale, and some cute heels from Payless. Taking Shannon to the airport was bittersweet, and I can't wati for Christmas when I get to go home and see all my family. I miss everyone so much!! Sunday night I frantically did homework because I was very behind.. I had a Psychology test on Monday (I think I did well), a Sociology test today (no comment) and a Nutrution test tomorow (Yikes). So now I am back in swing to get a job and to focus on school. There's tons of pictures, because I did a lot and haven't written for a long time. Enjoy!!
