Kim and Jeanette's Excellent Adventure

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
We left for SAN FRANCISCO (well, actually Dublin, CA, but San Francisco sounds so much more exciting) at 9:30 a.m. and had a lovely 11 HOUR DRIVE. We listened to “Gone With the Wind” on CD’s and that was great, but we didn’t even get through half the book!

Thursday, June 16th, 2011
After several phone conversations, we finally met up with James, Alyce, Tyler, Sibil, 3.5 yr old Sarah (who’s definitely an Einstein kid), 1 yr old Jane, the bridegroom-to-be Zach and their “foster” kid, Charlie. They rented an RV that’s all contained and pretty sweet (Dad said we should check it out for Bear Lake some year). Since there aren’t any RV parks in CA, they were renting space at the county fair grounds – which Sybil said was quite nice. So we’re sitting there with them and the conversation went something like this: Us – “So, what are the plans for the day?” Them – “no plans, really.” Really?! (Yeah, Laura, I totally thought about how crazy that would make you!) So, while they got showered, etc., we took Zach over to the-bride-to-be Carrie’s house in Livermore, which was really nice, too.

James & Alyce fixed us a delicious lunch and we had a nice time eating and visiting with them in their RV. Then we all (except Zack & Carrie who were getting their marriage license) went on the quest for a beach. We got lost a few times on the freeways from Hell, but finally made it to Santa Cruz – where there was absolutely no where to park – especially a huge RV. So back into our vehicles we went and headed up north along the coast.

Dad found a gorgeous beach right off the road and before everyone was even out of their cars, I was in my swimsuit and ready for my “ocean fix”. I didn’t even care that it was 65 degrees and who knows what the water temperature was. I jumped right in and started to “ride the waves”. Tyler jumped in next and said, “Ha ha! It looks like you’re trying to body surf!” Well, yeah! So then he followed my example and we had a riot – that’s definitely one of my most favorite things to do! Sybil and the babies swam a bit, too. Best time ever!!!!! (Even though it literally took me two hours to warm up and my knees, feet and hands were raw from the sand/rocks.) Oh, and we saw several WHALES spouting just a little bit out from where we were swimming!!! We even saw one or two as they came near the surface! Totally incredible!


Friday, June 17th, 2011
Yesterday I discovered, to my horror, that my temple recommend wasn’t in my purse pocket where I always keep it. (Who knows where it is?!) So this morning we drove to the Oakland Temple to find out how to get there. The temple is up on a hill and you can see the entire Bay Area – so breath taking! I went in and explained my dilemma to them and they had me fill out a form and said they’d have a pass for me tomorrow.

As we jumped back on the freeway with every intention of going to help set up for the reception tomorrow, we came to a fork in the road: to the left was where we were supposed to go; to the right was San Francisco! Dad said, “Which one should we take and we both yelled, “SAN FRANCISCO!!!” So off we went across the Bay Bridge and right into downtown San Francisco. They traffic wasn’t bad at all – a little stop and go in the city. We found a parking spot A HALF BLOCK away from Fisherman’s Wharf. We spent the next couple of hours strolling around, eating killer corn & clam chowder, clam chowder, etc., at The Blue Mermaid. (Dad insisted on buying me a Blue Mermaid T-shirt).

As it was already 2:30 and traffic going into the city from across the Golden Gate Bridge was already crowded, we decided to just drive by the Golden Gate Bridge, rather than across it. It was an amazing sight! A fantastic end to a great adventure!

Can you spot the tourists?

Note the thrilled little girls

"Stop that, Zach!"








Saturday, June 18th
The wedding ceremony was really nice although the officiator was kind of ornery and told us all, “No back slapping in the temple!” Which was funny, because Zach wasn’t there when he told us that and he was very enthusiastically slapping all the men on the back!

Zach looked so handsome and Carrie looked so beautiful. She was wearing yellow high heels (her mom laughingly told us that Carrie is 5’2” and Zach is 6’2”) that matched Zach’s yellow tie.

Then it was time for pictures. While we were waiting, 3 yr old Sarah pointed and said, “Look! There’s a hum-pecker!” I looked and there was a little hummingbird.

We had a nice luncheon right there in a building on the temple grounds which they use for just such occasions.

Sybil and I went through a session at the temple – but we both kept falling asleep – so we felt bad for the people we were going through for. The Celestial room was very beautiful and elegant.
Dad and I didn’t know the reception was a dinner, so we went to the Outback Steakhouse for a great dinner AND had a GLUTEN-FREE brownie for dessert!!! Who knew?!

The reception as really nice and Carrie’s folks went all out. There was dancing later and I danced with the babies (just to give their parents a break – mind you)

When it was all over, we and about 20 other people spent the next 1.5 hours taking stuff down, piling it into cars, etc. After 1.5 hours, Dad and I were so done even though there was still stuff to do, so we abandoned ship and went back to our hotel to go to bed.

Sunday, June 19th, 2011
We spent the whole day on the road, checking out the gorgeous CA scenery (for awhile) and listening to “Gone With the Wind”. We still didn’t finish it, but it was very entertaining. And as for sleek and oh, so comfortable Odette? She averaged 30 mpg for the entire trip. How’s that for a V6?

P.S. Maybe someday I'll know how to arrange my blog . . .