Day 7: First Impressions

So, as you all know, Charlie and I have only been in California since Sunday afternoon, about 60 hours ago (Actually, I remember waking up on the train at 3 AM and turning on my phone to the GPS part. I saw that we were in the city of Mount Shasta -- finally in California! It was a great feeling, until I realized I had to reposition myself to go back to sleep without waking up Charlie. Ugh, stupid train...) It's been so fantastic, and even though Brennon is doing the same type of thing in the other room here at Kaelyn's aunt's house, I'm going to review my time in Cali so far.

I really only first felt like we were in California when we got into San Fran. Going on the bus to downtown and then finally seeing Sam, who picked us up, and the rest of the gang for the first time in a few days was so refreshing. I can't say enough about our time in Redwood City. We were going to go straight down after Charlie and I got back but we decided to stay another night. Great city, awesome community center, amazing friends (which can't be said enough) and just a fantastic experience was how I would describe Redwood City. From slacklining to swimming to basketball to getting caught on the roof at 7 AM (a story for another time -- Brennon will probably tell it), we did it all in Redwood. Then we left for SoCal. Me, Sam and Nick in the Accord and Jake, Caleb, Charlie and Brennon in the Pathfinder.

After a fantastic drive down that included an In-N-Out stop, we arrived at Newport Beach. I went on a barefoot tempo run in the sand, which felt so great. After a couple hours there we went to Patrick's house in Mission Viejo and then went to a bonfire in San Clemente. We brought Kaelyn and Breegan with us, and met up with 15 SPU sophomores and Thomas and had an amazing time where they were camping. It was just madness, so many SPU kids! That was one of, if not the coolest part of the trip, for me. We got to meet up with our great friends! After sleeping in this morning (thank goodness!) we went and met up with them again at Laguna Beach. After an amazing day filled with burying people, skimboarding and intense body surfing, we bid adu to our friends until we get back to the 206 (and Nick and Caleb, who went to Mission Viejo to stay with Jordan. We will see them Thursday when we pick up Caleb) and went with Kaelyn to her hometown of Brea. We've just been given the Brea experience with Taco Tuesday, Yogurtland, Vantage Point and even Kaelyn's high school. I actually got to run on some of her favorite trails, too! So great! Now we're going to sleep and preparing for a great breakfast by her uncle tomorrow and then the five of us -- Jake, Sam, Charlie, Brennon and myself, are going to San Diego. If the rest of this California trip is any indication, it should be fantastic.

Andrew