We've realized that the last few days have been super hectic and crazy for us, so we thought that'd it be nice to have a review blog to catch our loyal followers (and casual readers) up on our activities. A lot has happened since Jake's in Salem but I'm just gonna talk about the last few days. The last 72 hours have been absolutely awesome! We finished up our time in Redwood City yesterday and drove down to Patrick's house in Mission Viejo, Orange County. But before I get to talking about how great the OC has been so far, let me review the excellent adventures of our stay in Redwood City (the city of Sam Sandquist). This blog entry is kind of an accompaniment to Jake's blog a couple days ago or maybe a sequel...
Last Friday, we (Jake, Nick, Caleb, Sam, myself) arrived in Redwood City from Salem, Oregon. It was a 9.5 hour drive from 2 am to 11:30. We unloaded our junk at our extremely gracious hosts house (The Sandquists/The Smiths) and soon left for what would become our favorite place, Peninsula Community Center (fondly referred to as PCC) to go swimming and get some rays. This place is indescribable! Everything you could ever want on vacation: a huge pool, sick basketball gym, hot tub, workout center/rooms, tennis courts, and a sweet little coffee-shop style lounge/lobby. This place became our second home for our stay in the Bay Area. After swimming, we came back to Sam's and had a fantastic bbq dinner with both families and some friends. We played a little ultimate frisbee with some of Sam's friends then headed to a local beach and had a bonfire. (Jake and I both called that we would have 4 bonfires on this trip...so far we've had 2...well on our way!) It was great to meet some of Sam's friends who would quickly become friends of ours. The next day was Saturday, which was a full day. We spent quite a few hours in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf with Sam's boss friend Graham. Lots of pictures that day. Later, we went to a block party at Sam's friends house and met one of our favorite characters of the trip so far there...and yes, this guy was a true character. He's a 72 year old, uber-friendly, ex-body-building, opera-singing spark-plug of a guy. Straight-up entertainer that one was. After that, we decided to hit up Graham's dance party. The place was cracking and we met some more awesome people (the theme of Redwood City...). The next day (Sunday), we went to Sam's church at Peninsula Covenant Church. Absolutely loved it there! Reminded me of my home church back in Kent, except somewhat bigger. I could definitely see myself being a part of that in the future and many of the other guys feel the same way. To our surprise, some of Sam's friends treated us to lunch at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant. These girls were awesome in every way! Kate, Hannah, and Esther, you girls rock our socks! We came home from lunch, and reunited/caught up with with Charlie and Van Ness (came in on the train that morning). We went to PCC to swim and play bball where Charlie decided he would switch sports and somehow miraculously own everyone at basketball. Then, later that night, we slack-lined over our pool back at the house (coldest pool in existence), and then somehow found ourselves back at PCC for some hot-tubbing. Jake, Van Ness, and I joined Kate and Esther for an early morning (5:30!) quiet time/coffee/sunrise on the roof of the community center. On the way down from the roof, we almost got busted by some bigshot guy but it all worked out. So then we said our goodbyes, packed up our gear and hit the road for the OC.
This segment of the trip wasn't too bad of a drive...only 6.5 hours plus a half hour lunch break at In-N-Out...quality choice for sure. We decided to hit up Newport Beach when we arrived right away. We met up with Kaelyn Handsel, our wonderful friend, and she came with us to Newport Beach. There really are no words in the English dictionary to describe how cold the water was that day....no lie. (See Sam's latest post for more on this adventure). But anyway, we ended up at Patrick's house in Mission Viejo to stay a night. Breegan Harper, another of our incredible friends, met us at Patrick's.
Since the sophomores were staying at a campsite 20 minutes away, we decided to head over there for a beach bonfire and some quality time with each other. That was one of the highlights of the trip so far for everyone...seeing our friends there and all being together. It was something to remember for sure! Also, Michael Herbes and Thomas Roberts spent the night with us at Patrick's...love those guys!
Since the sophomores were staying at a campsite 20 minutes away, we decided to head over there for a beach bonfire and some quality time with each other. That was one of the highlights of the trip so far for everyone...seeing our friends there and all being together. It was something to remember for sure! Also, Michael Herbes and Thomas Roberts spent the night with us at Patrick's...love those guys!
And finally, today was an excellent day to say the least. This morning, we got to see our close friends Jordan Sharon and Emily Kaleel for a little while at Patty's and at this sick pool. We spent the majority of the rest of the day at Laguna Beach body-surfing, boogie-boarding, tanning, and submerging each other in sand (pics to come!) After that, Sam, Jake, Charlie, Van Ness, and I drove to Kaelyn's home in Brea while Caleb and Nick stayed behind with everyone back there. She took us to Durango's Mexican Grill and Yogurtland for dinner (amazing $1 tacos and bomb frozen yogurt...good call Kaelyn!) We met up with her friend (and our friend) Caitlin Stark there as well. It was great seeing her!
California has treated us all so well and it would be safe to say that we have been spoiled on this trip in every way. This time together is such a blessing for everyone and we are really bonding on this trip.
Right now, I am the only one awake at Kaelyn's cousin's house, where we are sleeping tonight. It's dead silent and it's official: we are exhausted from today's fun-filled, non-stop activities. Tomorrow, we're more than likely gonna head to San Diego for a day and spend the day/night at San Diego State University.
Charlie just talked in his sleep...he said something that sounded like "Chat with me"...hmmm...sketchy.
Time for bed. Thanks for reading and check back later for more posts by all of us!
-Brennon
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