California!

So, everyone has been asking for details about California, so I decided it would be a good topic to post on!

At Fisherman's Warf--Windy and Cold!

Clayton and I finished our finals on Wednesday evening. It had been a relatively stressful past month and so we were so excited to be done. Since he is such a great student, and thus, studies all the time, it was the first time I ever really got to see him relax at all. We then went straight home and started packing and moving our stuff to our new apartments. Thanks to my family, and Haili for helping me move my stuff--It would have been impossible without you! Anyways, at about midnight we finished but we were both starving, so we decided to go get something to eat! We ended up at Sonic where we spent about $15.00 on a meal celebrating our completion of winter semester! :) It was great. We got back around one and went to bed. I woke up around eight to do my cleaning check and finish packing. We dropped the last few items at Leanna's and then packed the car. Haili has a lime green VW Bug which is small, to say the least, but we were able to fit and not go crazy!

We stopped at Sonic (again) and then Jamba for breakfast, since none of us had any food in our kitchens, and then hit the road. It is supposed to be about a 10-11 hour trip to San Francisco, but somehow it took us about twelve hours. We got there, ate at a little asian restaurant, and then went back to Megan's parent's house where we were staying and finished watching "The Pursuit of Happyness," which they had been watching in the car while I drove. As a sidenote: although I didn't get to see the whole movie, I listened to it and man is it a great story! I can't wait to rent it and watch it again. Okay, so then we just went to bed because we were exhausted.

The next morning we slept in for a little while and then planned our day. We decided to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transportation) into San Francisco, go shopping, then take the Trolley to Fisherman's Warf, and then take the BART back to Pleasant Hills where Megan lives. It was quite an adventure trying to find the BART station, but once we got over that bump in the road, it all went relatively easy from there on out! Clayton & I on the BART!!

We didn't get to spend much time at Fisherman's Warf, because it was very windy and cold, but the day was still good. We had to take a bus back to the BART station and while we were on the bus, hundreds of bikers swarmed around us, taking over the street. Someone asked the bus driver how long the delay would be and he said something like, "I have no idea" with a mischievous face, and pulled out his takeout dinner. I thought it was funny. After maybe ten minutes we got going again as the bus driver started honking and just started driving, nearly hitting multiple bikers.

The only shot I got of the bikers!

After that, we went home, had dinner, and went hot tubbing at Megan's friend's house. By this time, Megan and her mom had made it back from Utah, so we got to play with her, too! We went to bed and then woke up to go sailing! Megan's family has a sailboat that is kept in a marina, fairly close to the Golden Gate Bridge, and they were nice enough to let us go sailing! I had never been before, and it was such a fun experience for me! Here are a few highlights of the sailing experience:

A shot of the bay!

Tourguide Clayton: One thing you may or may not know about Clayton is that because he is the baby in his family too, he loves to have little moments where he puts on a show. As a special treat, we got Clayton's tourguide description of what we were seeing...apparently we were very lucky because I believe we saw the Netherlands and Maryland on our trip in the bay! :) Needless to say, we all had a good laugh because of him! :)

Us on the boat!

Whale?: So, as we were eating lunch, we got to talk to Megan's parents for a little bit. They are really nice and they were telling us stories of the few times they've seen whales in the bay. Like many boats, their sailboat has a depth detecting device to make sure they are in deep enough water. They told us a story of when their depth detector said they were in five feet of water, and then a few moments later they saw a whale by their boat! I thought this was a great story, and wanted to see some wildlife! About an hour later, I casually glanced at the depth reader and it said about 153 feet and then an instant later it said 6.5 feet! I was like "uh, the depth reader just said we are in 6.5 feet of water!" For the next few seconds the reader went back and forth in between 150ish feet and measurements like 10.5 feet. They were all really calm, but all I could think of was "what if there is a whale underneath us, and it hits our boat, making us fall out, and then eats us...or worse yet, a shark eats us!" Well, luckily, that wasn't what happened. After a few seconds we saw some movement in the distance where a group of dolphins were surfacing. They said that they figured that was what it was....and I sure hope so!!

A view of the bridge!

After sailing, we went to Berkely where we got to look at the vendors and eat at Blondie's Pizza (apparently a very popular place to eat!) Nothing overly exciting happened, but we did see a few protestors saying that the white man was evil and ruining everything....a large group gathered, including some policemen, and I made sure to cross on the opposite side of the road, being as white as I am! :) We then went to a place to buy ice cream shakes! It was very expensive and very tasty!! After that we went home and hung out around Megan's house. They all watched the movie "Across the Universe" but I fell asleep on the couch about five minutes into the movie.

The next day we went to church with Megan's parents. Megan's dad is a Branch President of a single's branch (of about ten people), so we got to go there. In the bay area they were doing something called "Invitation Sunday" where they are supposed to invite non-members to see what we're all about. I think they had maybe two people show up, but because of this, the shorts were all very short and simple, and during what would usually be Sunday School, we had a little meet and greet time with food! Yum! Then we had a short combined R.S./Priesthood meeting where an older lady said, so kindly, and embarrassingly, that Clayton and I were "so obviously in love" and could only see the good in each other. I tried not to blush...it was pretty funny.

Before church on Sunday

After that we went to visit the Oakland Temple. It is really beautiful. They have an area on the roof of the temple that you can walk up to. We also went to the visitor's center, looked at an exhibit on the Book of Mormon paintings, one on the family that I loved, and then the people were kind enough to show the Joseph Smith movie for us, even though it wasn't scheduled for another hour. I love that movie. It is so powerful and really just strengthens my testimony each time I see it. Clayton and I had been planning on going up to Salt Lake to see it, so it was just a little treat that we were able to see it in California!

Us all at the temple!

After that we went back to Megan's house where her mom had made us some dinner. It was so tasty and we were all very hungry so we appreciated it a lot! After that, we got in our PJs and played some games together and then went to bed!

The next day we got up, got in the car and drove and drove! We stopped a couple times, once at In-N-Out Burger, and just kept going. We finally got back to Provo around 2 in the morning! Overall it was a great trip and very fun!