Since the holidays ended, I've been staying fairly busy on the weekends. I've finally had the opportunity to explore more of California and have some wonderful adventures. They all begin with the 3-day weekend around the New Year. Kathleen (one of my roommates) had a college friend whose family was visiting San Francisco, so Kathleen, Anne, and I made a trip to San Francisco on Monday, January 2. We walked around Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Ghiradelli Square, etc. It was nice and relaxing, and my first time actually walking around San Francisco and not just driving to Candlestick Park and back.
Kathleen, myself, and Anne in Ghirardelli Square
Then I'd asked for a 3-day weekend (January 6-8) so that I could go see the Redwoods with my friend, Alex. He had to drop his sister off at the airport on January 5, so he came to Loaves and Fishes and volunteered around Friendship Park for the afternoon. Then he brought me up to Grass Valley for dinner with his family before starting the real adventures on Friday.
On Friday, we drove from Grass Valley up through the Avenue of the Giants (Humboldt State Park). We went on a couple short hikes through the redwoods. They were everything I'd hoped they would be. They're so grand, it's indescribable. We drove through a redwood in his mom's Toyota Sequoia (which we though was cool since sequoias are a type of redwood). It was a wonderful day. We left the land of the large trees when it got too dark for us to hike anymore, and headed over to Highway 1 and drove it down to Fort Bragg. It was almost a full moon, so the sky was lit up, and you could see the waves crashing against the cliffs we were driving on. We pulled off at a turnout and stargazed and admired the ocean for a little while. When we got to Fort Bragg, we had dinner, watch K-State lose the Cotton Bowl, then went to sleep.
Driving through Chandelier Tree
Saturday morning, we went to MacKerricher State Park. We were hoping to see whales migrating, but we only saw lots of birds and seals. Then we headed to Mendocino, CA, and did a nice little walk along the cliffs by the ocean. It was a beautiful area of California. We sat down on a cliff for a while to enjoy nature's beauty, and when we were getting up, this nice man asked us if we wanted him to take a picture of us. I gave him my camera and he took 4 or 5 pictures, then handed it back and said "They're frame-able." Then we moseyed back to the car and headed for Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. When we got to the lighthouse (a half-mile walk from our car), someone told us there were tons of whales migrating! Then we realized we'd left the binoculars in the car, so we just looked for the tails splashing. We guarantee we saw some whales migrating, but it would have been nicer with binoculars. The lighthouse was quaint and beautiful. Then we looked at the time and decided we needed to head back to Sacramento so we could meet up with other Tulanians and watch the Saints beat Detroit. We went to MVPs Sports Bar, watched the game. Then went to Pine Cove with my house to celebrate/end the day.
Alex and I in Mendocino, CA
Sunday morning, we headed up to Fort Ross. We took a nice pit-stop at the Jelly Belly Factory, and then drove up through wine country. Fort Ross was a really cool Russian fort. It's currently being restored, so we weren't able to go in all of the buildings, but we got to go in most of them and down to the beach. Then we hiked to the other side of the fort and sat on the cliffs for a while. About an hour before sunset, we decided to move to a beach where the Russian River meets the Pacific and watch the sunset over the ocean. It was about 45 minutes closer to Sacramento, and we had to pick Alex's sister up from the airport that evening. When we got there, Alex decided he should go play in the water, I knew from how cold it was on my feet that I didn't need to actually go in. Then we watched the sunset and headed back to Sacramento. After picking his sister up then grabbing dinner, they dropped me off and the weekend was over. It reminded me how much I love nature and a lack of human influence on it. The redwoods and the ocean were just so beautiful, and the reason they were was because there weren't buildings and bridges everywhere.
Sunset near where the Russian River enters the Pacific.
The next weekend, I played in a beach ultimate frisbee tournament (Lei Out, in Santa Monica) with Kathleen and her friend from SLU, Colleen. Our team won the J-bracket (2nd from worst bracket). It was a nice, exhausting weekend, filled with more sunsets over the Pacific.
Santa Monica Pier around sunset.
The weekend of the 21st was my one weekend in Sacramento in January. We celebrated Nicole's 24th birthday, and we relaxed.
Re-Orientation started on Friday, January 27, and lasted until Tuesday, January 31. It was a nice retreat back at Camp St. Francis in Aptos, CA. There was good food, good people, good talks, and more nature. We had quite a bit of reflection time, most of which I tried to spend outside either laying in the grass looking at the sky, or walking down on the beach/laying in the sand looking at the stars. It was very relaxing and much needed.
February weekends are looking to be in Sacramento. Last Saturday, I played some softball, but otherwise relaxed. Then Sunday, we watched the Super Bowl at home (thank goodness the Patriots lost). Last night, I went to the Newman Center's St. Valentine's Formal. Today, will just be grocery shopping and softball. I'm hoping that next weekend I'll make it to some Mardi Gras celebrations. I know Nevada City isn't too far away and has a parade, so here's to hoping I can make it out of town one weekend.
Well, those have been my adventures... Now I need to get ready to go grocery shopping... If you'd like to see more pictures, I have them posted on facebook.
-Krystal
