California: Days 1&2

We actually traveled to California together as a family this year, the last time that happened it was 2005! My parents have wanted to take us to their honeymoon spot, Yosemite, for quite some time and this year it worked out- we had the time and money and Dad could get time off so off we went. My grandfather was also turning 80 and my aunt and cousin were coming down from Alaska as a surprise so we decided to surprise my grandparents as well.

Day One was pretty much spent traveling- we hopped on a plane from Erie to Philly ( that's right, we had to fly East to go West!) and had a long layover til our flight from there to Sacramento. Our flight was supposed to have taken six hours but instead took EIGHT hours as we were stuck on the ground for over two hours because there was something wrong with a radio.

US Air then had the gaul to then charge us for food- and they didn't even have enough food for everyone! I was sitting clear in the back and was worried that I wouldn't get something substantial to eat (I really needed some protein for my migraine) but thankfully got the last sandwich box. Sometimes God's tender mercies include sandwiches, I'm telling you. Did they show a movie? No! Nothing!

I was basically nauseated all day from lack of sleep, turbulence, headache and a weird eating schedule. Laura got the dry heaves next to me on that long flight, I jumped up in a hurry! I felt so bad for the guy on the other side of her! She was ok though.

It then took forever to get our luggage and our rental car and to get checked into our hotel, we didn't get to bed till 2am, Western time! My body was thinking it was 5am.

The next day was calmer. We had intended to go to church in Sacramento, but we got in so late that that wasn't going to happen. We had a great hot breakfast at the Hilton, they had a short order cook! Best freebie hotel breakfast ever!

We were able to find the Sacramento temple and it's tucked away but oh so lovely. It stunk not being able to go inside or even inside the gates but we got some nice pictures. I would love to go inside someday. The flowers were beautiful and it was so nice and peaceful there.

We drove from there for several hours to Sonora, which was somewhat close to Yosemite. It was neat seeing parts of California that I'd never seen before. Many of the towns look very "Old West" with their false fronts. We passed through gold country. Our hotel in Sonora did the job fine.

We got settled in and got some rest...the next day was Yosemite!

Stay tuned!