I'm Back

Hey everyone. I'm back from my vacation, and it went by way too quick, as expected.
I don't have the pics for y'all yet, but I'll recap it for ya.

Down to the redwoods first. It rained. A lot. We abandoned the tent after the 1st night, and slept in the car. It turned out that our campsite sat above clay, so it drained really slowly. If we had let the tent lay, we would've been under 2-3 inches of water.
But the hiking was amazing, since it was serene and mystical, with the fog hanging around the tree trunks.
Then to SF, and a stay in the tenderloin, the seedy part of downtown. We had a great meal at Cafe Zuni too.
The next notable thing was going to Magic Mountain to ride the coasters. I was nervous at 1st, but quickly got over the feeling, and enjoyed them. Going upside down 7 times? Whatever!
We then we went to San Diego and saw my step sister Heather and Angie's friend Chris. We had a great time there- the weather was perfect!
Out to the desert. Joshua tree was very different for me. I've never spent much time in the desert, with it's quiet nothingness. The trees are quite peculiar as well....
Then to the Grand Canyon. It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. We hiked down into the canyon, descending over 2000 feet, on a 6 mile hike. One day I will go down to the bottom and see the river and look up to the top of the hole I've fallen into...

Vegas. I lost.

Sequoia Nat'l Park was really cool. I wanted to explore it further, but in reality, one needs to hike into the depths of the park. There's really only 1 road through the park, and you see probably 1/5 of the park from it. And in the adjoining King's Canyon, you see far less from the road.

From Sequoia, we went to a really nice lake outside of Fresno, and drove back up to Seattle with a stop in Ashland, OR- home of the Shakespeare Festival.

We spent a lot of time in the car, but saw a lot of my country, which I feel I haven't properly done in the past. But now I know this: There's a lot of truly beautiful land out there. It never failed to make me realize how lucky I am to live here for the splendor of the Nat'l Parks.
It was a great trip, and I'm sad I have to go to work tomorrow!