Dreams do come true...

Well, my family and I made it to Medford, Oregon last night after a VERY long day in the car. It really wasn't that long, but I think we may have stopped somewhere between 10 and 15 times. I had taken some motion sickness medicine that left me in a drowsy state most of the day and everytime I got to sleep I'd wake up with us taking another "off the beaten path" trail to something new and different to see. There was lots of cool stuff, I was just really ready to get here.

Here's a quick recap of the trip so far...

We saw the Grand Canyon from the plane:


We went to Pier 39 and drove down Lombard Street. Now, I've been told that the streets in San Francisco are crazy steep and I've even seen pictures, but nothing really prepares you for seeing it in person. It is crazy, and Lombard street is perhaps the craziest.

After driving down "the crookedest street in the world" we were off to find the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, I had envisioned us stopping on the southside of the bridge, taking some pictures, changing into my "running" clothes, and then taking off. I was going to run and the rest of the family was going to drive over and I would meet them on the other side. It was going to be nice and relaxing.

Here's how it really went down. We missed the turn off to the visitor's center on the southside so we pulled over into the bus lane. Keep in mind that the people on the bridge are commuters so they really know what they are doing. They drive about 50 mph and don't want to wait around for tourists. So, I'm frantically changing my clothes (in the car) when a bus comes up behind us, I jump out of the car (pretty much half-dressed) and then my family was off. Once they drove off, I had to tie my shoes and I really needed to find a restroom, so I climbed down the hill to the visitor's center. About this time the fog started rolling in and I could only see about halfway across the bridge. It was cold, it was windy, and it was foggy. Pretty much the perfect conditions for running a couple miles. :) I can say that this was probably the easiest and most enjoyable running experience I have had so far. It was pretty cool and it was an even better feeling knowing I had set a goal and achieved it!

Yesterday, we drove and drove. But, we also got to see lots of cool stuff. Like every Redwood tree between San Francisco and Medford! Here's a particularly huge one:


We almost drove through this one, but didn't want to scratch the rental car (it is 2,400 years old):


And, here is something that you just don't see in Texas:


Finally, we made it to the beach! This beach had very dark sand that felt so nice on bare feet.


Since I was at the beach, I took off my shoes and left them on a log. I walked about 100 feet towards the water and my feet were on fire. I had to run back to my shoes to put them back on. Well, in that two minute period without shoes I managed to burn the bottoms of my feet! I even have a blister to prove it! Ouch! It was during this off-the-beaten-path trail to the beach that we saw an insane amount of ferns amongst the redwoods. My sister was especially excited to see some real life ferns, because she's only ever seen them at Hobby Lobby. It was clearly a dream come true moment for her.