California Roadtrip - Homeward Bound & A Mission Call!

Alone again!!  Hmm.. but first, the need to negotiate the last of the city freeway and find the way in the east direction to Las Vegas.  Los Angeles is vast. Very vast. Very busy and not the place for us to linger.  As we became immerged in the mountains, the skies cleared and we could see the ranges stretching far into the distance.  I discovered there are about 30 million people who live in Los Angeles.  It's hard to comprehend such a number!  Our journey reversed itself.  We passed the turn off to Lake Mead, followed the meandering road through the mountains, entered the cactus covered desert area, all the while listening to country music on the radio.  I lay the seat back flat and drifted off only to wake as the car slowed down and we were entering Las Vegas. 

Rick had found a Post Office so we could post to our granddaughter Zayla who is turning TWO!  We have been carrying her present with us for two weeks now!  I sure miss her sweet little cuddles, and love how she is talking now, her beautiful little voice.  I just want to hug her so tight, Chloe too.  My girls..

Las Vegas is hot! The blast of hot air hits you in a very familiar way.  However, we didn't linger except to grab a late lunch at 'In and Out'.  This was a new experience.  It's actually a hamburger place with only four items on the menu.  The burgers and fries are made fresh on the spot, and I was so surprised at how crowded it was!!  We had to wait for our order to be processed, and ate in the car as we where once more on our way.  Once again, I was impressed with the clean, modern city that Las Vegas is, and, you can see the mountains! There is no smog!!  But if I was to live here, I would have to have really good air conditioning in my home and car, and have a swimming pool!! Despite the heat, I think it's a beautiful city.

This is where our return journey differs from our original route.  From Las Vegas we headed towards St George, which is just over the Utah border in the south west boundary.  It's about 2 hours from Vegas, and was such a nice drive.  I was quite refreshed after my lengthy nap and there was just the two of us, the radio playing whatever it could pick up, mostly country.  We watched as the desert lands gave way to more hilly country and then we came to the small town of Mesquite nestled in mountain outcrops.  Would you believe it? There was a chapel!  There seriously didn't look like there was enough population to sustain it!  When you see chapels like this, you know you are in, or close to Utah!

We suddenly it seemed (probably because I had my nose in a book), that we were entering a canyon cut into the mountain.  The road seemed to disappear, like one of those crazy rides we left behind in California.  What an amazing road.  The mountains cut deeply, and rose almost vertically around us as we wound through them, then they opened up to lovely country, a mix of desert and oasis, with mountain ranges near and far into the distance.  Then again, we stumbled upon a town which had to be St George.  Sure enough, just as Sherry said, the Temple came into full view standing out very white against the wall of red rock behind it! 

We found our way to Sherry and Richard Jensen's home in St George and had a lovely time visiting with them along with Sherry's brother and wife.  Jerry persuaded us to stay overnight to break up our journey.  They are so genuinely kind to us.  They took us out to the Visitor's Center before it closed and to see the Temple.  This is a really beautiful Temple (as they all are).  But this Temple has so much history being the first one built since the Nauvoo Temple, the first since the saints entered the Salt Lake Valley.  It took about six years to build.  How faithful those first saints were when asked by Brigham Young to settle in this hot, distant location. But also how obedient, and then they had the priveledge to build a temple.  It really looks magnificent at night all lit up against the night sky!

Thursday, 29 July 2011

We made an early getaway, leaving by six in the morning and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise as we left St George,which is far more extensive than we first saw.  We passed valley after beautiful valley! I was so impressed as I imagined the south west of Utah to be more like the area between Grand Junction and Price, Utah.  A bit deserty and barren.  But these towns and farmlands were very peaceful and beautiful, with the intermitten mountains keeping us company.  We passed through historic towns settled by pioneers long ago, many of which possessed several chapels!  We are definitely in Utah!!

We continued on the I-15 until we met the junction for the I-70 and a sign that pointed Salt Lake that way, and Denver this way!!!  The final stretch for home!  (It's a long 5 hour stretch!)  What came next really surprised me.  We were back in mountain country again!  Pine covered slopes that covered many miles and which eventually opened up into rocky outcrop country that resembled a shallow Grand Canyon!  Before long, I swapped with Rick to have a strectch of driving.  He slept on and off and missed the amazing scenery.  Unfortunately, when we stopped, I discovered that my camera had finally given up the ghost.  The lense refuses to stay put and keeps retracting, so I was unable to capture any of these amazing rock formations.  I enjoyed this drive through this canyon area immensely!  It was just amazing! 

Sadly, these beautiful scenes had to slowly disperse and I was now driving with a sleeping husband into open dry plains again.  This is the stretch of area, that I imagined the rest of Utah to look like.  That's ok, we were getting closer to home with each mile.  As Rick awoke, we were just talking about Tom, when he rang!  Bishop had just called him and his call had arrived!!  This is really exciting stuff!  The call is at Bishop's home, so Tom couldn't pull a Jonny and open it before we could get there!  We organised to all meet at Bishop's at 5.30pm.. Suspense!!!

We stopped only briefly at Grand Junction where Rick took over the driving.  We actually made excellent time with clear roads.  This road is now very familiar to us, we have passed through several times now. The mountains look lovely in summer too, covered with green pines and green grass with the Colorado River flowing fast and free.  We saw quite a few people white water rafting.  It was interesting to note that at first they were paddling towards us, then after we passed the Continental Divide, they were paddling downstream in the same direction as us.  The rafts really pointed out the direction the Divide caused, one way towards the Pacific Ocean and the other way towards the Atlantic..

Once we got through the tunnels we called Tom, only about an hour away now, and soon after we caught sight of Denver city stretching out before us.. We arrived home about 3.15pm after an epic journey of about 3000 miles and approximately 4700 km.  We saw so much, it was really incredible.  But after all is said and done, there is 'no place like home!'

THE CALL:

We gathered around 5.30pm at the Bishop's home after first phoning Karlie and getting Michael on skype.  It was Saturday morning in Australia, and Chloe has a ballet lesson!  (She told me how she spilt her breakfast on her leotard!) Once at Bishop's we had to wait for him to return home and then had trouble getting Michael back on skype.  Meanwhile Rick had Karlie & Nathan back on the phone, but it was a bit of a circus while we waited, very noisy and hard to hear them.  I was conscience that they needed to go for Chloe's ballet lesson.  Finally we were all ready and Tom was opening his call to...... the Australia Melbourne Mission!!!

Tom reading his call out.  Karlie & Nathan are on the phone in Adelaide, and Michael is on skype from Brisbane

 I immediately felt soo good and relief!  Tom was ecstatic, so stoked.  Wow, to be called from America back to serve in Australia.  It's just so wonderful.. Interestingly enough, when Tom first submitted his papers, he had a dream he  would serve in Australia.  Then, lots of different countries were bandied about.  So many possibilities.  In our own ward, recently two were sent to Russia and one to Panama.  Then the night before his call came, he had a really vivid dream he was going to Carbo, Greece.  Melbourne happens to be the third largest Greek city..  This has been such a spiritual experience for us.  I feel overwhelmed, our third son has been called to serve, how blessed we are.  It was disappointing however, that Tom spent alot of time in his phone calls to Australia defending how he felt about serving in Melbourne which is only about 8 hours from our home However, he is so excited and has conducted himself magnificently.  This will be the perfect mission for him. I am so proud of this son of mine.  Congratulations Tom!!

The crowd gathered to share this moment with Tom.
 Back L-R: Rick, Conlan, Kelland & Bishop Alan Smith
Middle L-R: Kelsey, Cade, Donna & Paige Mercer, Me & Sarah
Front: Tom & Taylor (Skippy).



California Roadtrip - Hollywood and Universal Studios

We were packed up and ready to get going by about 8.00am. Our aim was to get an early start after our last experience on the I-5, and we were anticipating work traffic.  However, we were pleasantly surprised with the freeway actually being 'free' flowing.  It's not our favourite place to be, you sure do have to have your wits about you so you take the right turn off and are in the right lane!

It was over a couple of GPS hours to Beverly Hills with a 'bathroom' stop thrown in, but we soon found ourselves in the inner city environs, and quite agog at the run down appearance of the city, combined with the smog, it didn't give a good first impression.  Dirty. That's my first thought.  However, travelling further out along Beverly Blvd, the homes and shops started to look smarter and cleaner and then bigger!  The street appeal improved dramatically and then woo-hoo! We passed Hollywood Blvd! Wow!  Hollywood, Tinsleton!

Hollywood Boulevard

Universal Studios is really close and easy to park.  One of the first things we did was eat.  We seem to favour Subway, cheaper and healthier and familiar.  I really enjoyed coming to Universal, having a pose on the famous red carpet and enjoying all the props and sets.

The Red Carpet for the Rich & Famous??

It wasn't long though before the crowds really built up and the wait for rides was getting excessively long.

Big mist machines to keep the crowd cool..

Marilyn Munroe and her girls giving us a performance..

We decided to go on the Studio Tour and ended up progressing in the line for just over an hour!  Fortunately, the overhead mist machines helped..

The tour train in and out and round about the different sets..

It sure was good to finally sit down on the tour bus or 'tram' as it was called.  Well, the wait was well worth it!  It was a lot of fun to see all the different famous sets that are used for TV shows and movies.  And then re-used for different TV productions and movies.  Fascinating and really fun.  So glad we got to do that! 

There are two 'New Yorkers' hanging out the windows calling out to the passing crowd.  To Rick the guy calls out: "Did you know you have three brawds following you?  They only want your wallet you know!!"

In the London section, a Palace Guard Tom found amusing!

As did Chani & Sarah...

..but he had the last laugh!!!

We spent the day exploring the different areas of the park, the kids went on rides and we saw a couple of excellent shows, the first was Terminator with actors and 4-D effects, and the other was Water World, a performance that was full of special effects, fire, water, explosives and stunts.  Very spectacular.  The crowds were unbelievable, so crushing.  I had to admit, at this point being over theme parks.  It has just become to busy and crowded to really enjoy it all.

The crowd waiting for entry into the 'WaterWorld' show

...which was outstanding with lots of stunts and action!

Tom was having a great time recruiting who he could to go on rides with him, but Sarah & I slowed it down a bit after dinner and wandered casually around sussing out the various sights.  For me, it was the characters, sets and amusements, for Sarah, it was the good looking Mexican or Latino young men on the stands!!  She is a bit of character!  We both also had a bit of a headache, I think there has been a bit much sun exposure over the past few days.  We had one final ride on the 'Simpson's', which was a bumpy, fast virtual experience that made you feel you were flying, going on a roller coaster and so forth.  I'm not good with the feeling of free falling, but with this one, whenever I felt uncomfortable, I just shut my eyes and cheated!!  It was very cool, and everyone liked it, but I am so glad we don't have to line up anymore!! 

Sarah in an encounter with 'Jaws'.  Lucky it's dead by this point in the story, and that it's just a prop!!

You just have to have a pic with Shrek!

By the time we left, we happened to get caught in traffic that was leaving an adjacent show and it took fifty minutes to get to our hotel fifteen minutes away.  It was about 10pm by the time we checked into our hotel on Beverly Blvd, so again, we didn't have time to go to the movies.  Chani was desparate to see the new Harry Potter movie. Sorry Chani!  Well, that was the end of another full on, packed day.  Also our last full day in California.  Tomorrow, Chani flies back to Australia.  We have really enjoyed having her travel with us, and will miss her carefree fun when she leaves.

Universal Studios and LA at dusk

We were able to get going reasonably early on Thursday morning so we could spend some time at the supermarket for Chani, and explore Hollywood Blvd.  I'm glad we got to walk it before the shops opened, and before too many people were about.  We had fun following the 'stars' on the pavement looking for our favourite personalities.  We had fun finding the ones we knew, and after a snack at the local McDonald's we spent some time in the front of the famous Chinese restaurant looking at all the famous hand and footprints!  Some of them are really old.  I so enjoyed our short visit to Hollywood Blvd with all its fame and glory and palm trees.  Otherwise, to the locals, as the day begun properly, it's just an ordinary city street - business as usual! By the time we left, there was quite a crowd looking at the famous hand prints, it would've been less enjoyable..

Next, we wanted a good photo in front of the famous Hollywood sign.  We made our way there courtesy of our GPS and after winding our way up narrow streets, we came to the official look out point and managed to get some fun photos with the big sign over our sholders and above us.  When we turned around and faced the city, the smog pretty much obscured what could have been a wonderful view.  It was like trying to see past a cloud.  Visibility seemed to be about 2kms at the most, with the city skyline being very faint.

It was finally time for us to make our way to LAX, the international airport.  This gave us another opportunity to see some of Los Angeles.  Most of all, the smog has made a strong impression on me, along with the shabby streets in some of the areas, opposed to the obvious opulance of Beverly Hills.

Pulling up at LAX, we found it to be just as easy to drop the kids off instead of parking.  We said our fond farewell to Chani, what a pleasure it's been to have her travel with us.  We will miss her, but not as much as Sarah.  How wonderful it was that she could come on this visit.  We also put Tom and Sarah on a flight back to Denver.  Their flight left several hours after Chani's, but they were ok to wait.  Tom was rushing back initially, so he could leave with the Tripps to Lake Powell and not hold them up.  The trip has been delayed until Saturday, but that's ok, and Sarah, because she really isn't the best traveller and an $88.00 ticket seemed a small price to pay to have trouble free travel for the last 1000 miles home.

Once we left the kids, we decided we really didn't like the freeways, the smog and the crowds, so headed out of Los Angeles.  We still haven't heard about Tom's call, but know it's coming, so really wanted to be back in Denver so Tom could open it with us there.  As we headed out, I became aware that the city was surrounded by mountains! What a pity you couldn't see them.

 Ok, homeward journey, here we go...

California Roadtrip - Escondido and San Diego

SAN DIEGO

Flower gardens at the San Diego Temple

... and a beautiful Pohutikawa tree, (NZ Christmas tree) that reminds me of Christmas in NZ!! 

Our next accomodation was in Escondido, in San Diego County.  This was actually a 'Vacation Rental By Owner' (VRPO).  I was referred to this by Kenna, and we were able to find accomodation in New York from this website, so used it to find something in California.  This self-contained apartment was a great price with the use of a pool and tennis court. It was especially good to do some washing as it was now a week since we had left Denver.  Getting to Escondido took longer than we expected however, with the I-5 freeway moving at a snails pace for ages.  All six lanes, one direction, moving at 20mph!!  Not much fun, except we were often afforded grand views of the ocean and beaches with the many palm trees.  No doubt we are in California!! 


5 lanes across, going sooo slow!!

We finally arrived in mid afternoon, and Brooke, our host was so welcoming.  As it turned out, they were also LDS!!  Brooke took us to a small mexican place for some food.  I have always loved Mexican food, but my experience of it has been limited to supermarket Taco kits, burritos and what has been on the menu at 'Cha-Chi's' in Adelaide.  Here we entered a different world.  The cafe was very humble in appearance and the hand written menu board made us truely feel like foreigners!  We didn't understand a thing on it! Thankfully Brooke knew what to order, and so we sampled four different soft corn tacos (Street Tacos $1 each) without any cheese or sour cream, but with spices, raw onion and sauces using beef, pulled pork and chicken.  It was so very delicious topped off with lemonade, real lemonade made with limes and lemons!! So yum!! 

Authentic mexican food!  Street tacos for $1each

We then hurried to get ready and headed to the San Diego Temple, about a half hours drive away, to catch the last baptistry session before the Temple closed for 2 weeks maintenance.  Wow! Wow! What an amazingly beautiful Temple. It looks like a big white castle! This was what Sarah wanted to do in America.  For a long time now, she has admired the pictures of this Temple and wanted to see it in person.  San Diego is also where the famous Zoo and SeaWorld are, so we were able to fit it all in.  What a great experience, as we all participated in the session, with Tom this time, completing some male family names.  Afterwards, we spent quite some time in the grounds taking photos.  The tricky thing is, when the Temple is sooo large, is to try and fit everything into the picture.  But we managed to get some lovely shots between us! 

 

On the way home, we stopped off at the beach again, then once back, the kids enjoyed the pool while Rick watched some TV & I continued a book I was reading! (That I picked up for a quarter in Boulder!)

What a decision!!

I think the beach as a whole won!

Sunday, 24 July 2011

The local chapel was about 5 minutes down the road, and tired as we were, we made it at 9.00am.  It's so nice to visit different places.  People are friendly wherever you go.  The unique thing about this ward, was that it was split and combined with another only a few weeks ago, so there are many who still don't know each other.  Our Australian accents did get us a bit of attention, but its a small world when you meet people who know people from Adelaide!  Crazy!

We headed back 'home' for a snooze, and then were called to join Brooke & Gary for dinner with their family.  Brooke had made Mexican with the purchases from the Cantina the day before.  I will never eat Mexican the same way again.  What she included, was so delicious and it was very nice to be included in their family Sunday.  Gary had a couple of nephews and their families staying also, so it was a big group.  Thanks Brooke & Gary!!

Monday, 25 July 2011

After much deliberation, we decided to go to SeaWorld in San Diego first. On the way, Tom suddenly gives a whoop-whoop!  He had just received a text message from our Bishop to say (his mission papers were submitted just prior to going to EFY) his mission call had been assigned and was being posted from Salt Lake the following day!!! How exciting to think it has been decided!!  We will now just wait and see what day it shows up at Bishop's.  We may have to forgoe our plans for home and return quickly instead!  Tom's mission call dominated our thoughts for most of the day!

The famous SeaWorld has many great animal attractions and shows.  Soon after we arrived ,we were able catch a show featuring 'Shamu' the ... whale.  What a spectacular sight when Shamu first jumps high into the air.  He is beautifully black and white.  Such clean lines and so clever!!

Once again, we looked out for different shows and were greatly entertained by the clever seals, otters, and dogs that performed obedience tricks and stunts.  The dolphin show also featured whales and acrobatic performances.  It was clever chorography, but I felt a bit disapointed the dolphins weren't featured a bit more.  We spent a lovely day at Seaworld and covered it all!  It's a great place, however, I still think SeaWorld, Queensland tops it, just a tich more impressive.

We didn't stay for the evening fireworks, we felt we had seen enough and our stomach's were demanding attention.  So we headed back to Escondido, and searched for a 'Sizzler' which was Tom's pick.  However, the Sizzler no longer existed according to our GPS.  We just couldn't find it, so instead found a Greek Cafe and enjoyed some 'real' food as opposed to fast food take away.  Nice. One thing we have noticed in California are the many Eucalyptus Gum Trees that grow here, causing a deep sense of nostalgia with us.  Once back, the kids swam again, so a nice finish to the day.  At this point, we are all feeling weary, but a good sleep does make all the difference.

A Californian Gum Tree!

Tuesday, 26 July 2011



The meandering Zoo pathways are green and lush, beautiful!



This morning we clean up and packed up, to stay in La Jolla near the beach.  But first, we headed for the world famous San Diego Zoo.  I have heard alot about this zoo, and I was not disappointed.  It really is a beautiful zoo, set in the hills of San Diego it has so many meandering pathways with inviting enclosures.  We spent the entire day wandering around it.  Just lovely!  There were a couple of great highlights we enjoyed, the first one being the Gorillas as they posed and performed for us.  They really do have distinct personalities.  We especially loved watching a mother interact with her baby.  They were really playful together, so cute! 

These playful Gorillas kept us entertained for ages!

A baby Hippopotamus being protected by mum.

  But the glass enclosure gave us a great view!

 The other, we all agreed was the Polar Bears.  Apparently this is a fairly new exhibit, but there were two Polar Bears play fighting for ages, one dominating the other until finally, the submissive one had had enough. The great thing about this enclosure is the underwater viewing, so you can see the bears swimming and playing underwater. 

This was in fact a great feature throughout the zoo, being able to see under the water as well as above.  We found the kangaroos, two small Reds, in a relatively small dirt and rock enclosure, and felt sorry for them. Likewise, when we found a Kookaburra in a fairly small cage with not a gum tree in sight.  The Koala's however, had plenty of gum leaves in a lovely setting and of course, attracted lots of viewers.  They were young and do look very cute! We really enjoyed this day, with the only mishap being when my camera was knocked out of Tom's hand, landing on the lense.  It's playing up, sometimes working and sometimes not.  Disappointing, hopefully I can still get some more mileage out of it..

Chani & Sarah 'riding the bear!'

'Safari' Rick!

An ice-cream pie

Michelle, pretty relaxed this side of the fence!

Just resting those weary feet!

 We stayed overnight in La Jolla not far from the beach front in a local inn.  Unfortunately, we were so tired, we didn't take advantage of the beach as we thought. And the following morning called for an early start as we spend our last full day in Southern California heading north to Hollywood and Universal Studios. 

Some of La Jolla Beach, San Diego

PS.  As yet, we still have not had any more news regarding Tom's call.. but do expect it to arrive by the end of the week,