Just two days after returning to California, I went on a road trip with my friend Sarah and we drove all the way up the coast to San Fransisco. That trip was a lot of fun. On the first day, Thursday, we drove through Santa Barbara stopping many times to get pictures of the beautiful coast. We toured Santa Barbara for a while, got to see the Santa Barabara mission(outside only), found a park with a spectacular view, and walked through downtown. Later that evening we arrived in San Luis Obispo in time to walk through their Farmer's Market. we stayed there with one of my cousins and left the next morning.
We drove to Hearst Castle and took a tour. I had never been to see the castle before, and it was beautiful and so worth it! I really want to go again! I have heard some people say that they would not call it a castle, but I totally would. It is HUGE! I don't know why it would not be called a castle! It may be the only "castle" or one of the very few here in the United States. It is only half a days drive from my house, so I think I will try and take advantage of its location soon.
After that we made our way up the coast. We stopped and saw some large Elephant Seals, hiked a few small hikes in Big Sur and the surrounding area, and had dinner in Monterey before we made it to Livermoor where we stayed the weekend. We stayed with some friends of Sarah and I had a lot of fun getting to know them. We spent all of Saturday touring San Fransisco and enjoyed swimming in our friends' pool and jacuzzi later that night. On Sunday we went to church with them and in the afternoon we did some more touring of San Fransisco. We had not gotten to get close to the Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday, so we went to see it on Sunday. It had been such a clear and beautiful day Saturday, that we were disappointed to find that it was rather foggy and overcast Sunday morning/afternoon. We still enjoyed the time we had there. On Monday we drove all the way down the I-5 back to Orange county. It was a long stretch, but did not seem that long because Sarah and I had some really good conversations about things going on in our lives. I really enjoyed spending that time with Sarah and getting to know her better through it. The conversations were healthy and helpful, I think, for both of us.
Here are a few pictures from our trip. I sadly lost one of my memory cards and thus lost the majority of my photos. I did not realize this until after arriving home. It has not been found since. But I did have some pictures on my phone and some on my other memory card and got a few from Sarah. So even though I am sad I do not have a lot of pictures to prove I went on this trip, I still have the memories, and those are always better than pictures!!
Santa Barbara Mission
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle
Golden Gate Bridge
Jennifer(me) and Sarah
The rest of my summer has been filled with doing fun things with friends and my work. Work hasn't been too hard and I have been picking up a few extra shifts, so it is going pretty well in that manner. It has been fun doing things with my friends, slack-lining, going to the beach, shopping, going to the movies, jacuzzi time, all of it has been wonderful. Summer may be over because school has started, but for me any time I get to spend time with my friends is like summer to me!
I almost forgot to mention that I got to see another Broadway musical!! I got to see Les Miserables with my Mom while the show was here in San Diego. I am so glad I got to see it while it was here because the show was only in town for a week! I must admit that I believe I enjoy Les Mis more than I enjoyed Wicked. I did enjoy Wicked, but it was my first Broadway show to see, so it took a little bit to get used to it and I was not familiar with the music. I have been familiar with the music of Les Mis since I was a young girl, plus we got closer seats for this show and it was easier to see the actors as a result. I was in a production of Les Mis when in high school so I am very familiar with the play and because it was and has been the only actual play that I have been in, that show has always been special to me. So you could say I had a biased opinion coming into the show, but oh the music was wonderful and I loved some of the effects the used!! I thought these effects were better than what they had in Wicked. I just overall had a really good experience with that.
My Mom and I at Les Miserables
I hope you, my readers, had a wonderfully blessed summer such as I had. It may have been blessed in other ways, but I hope it was blessed nonetheless.
