Californ-I-A
Our trip was broken into two segments...
segment one: saskatchewan to Nelson.
It was so beautiful, we decided to take the quickest route possible which happens to be driving the number one to Medicine Hat and then taking the crowsnest hwy the rest of the way. I don't think either of us had gone this route in many many years if ever, and it was so different and full of historical ghost towns and beautiful farms and mountainous regions. And there were still plenty of Tim Horton's to satisfy us. We stopped once at Boston Pizza to get some dinner and catch the end of a Calgary Playoff game. Calgary won so we were happy:) We stopped one other time and just crashed (by this i mean slept) for two hours in our car because we were exhausted. You see, we were planning on leaving by noon and we had been up early to finish cleaning our house out, and we didn't end up getting on the road until 8pm due to some circumstances regarding our land lord who decided to take a vacation in Regina when he knew we were moving out and needed to see him. ah well. alls well that ends well. One really cool thing we did on this trip, despite being tired and wanting to take the fastest route is that we decided to take a ferry across kootenay lake instead of driving around it. It is simply a beautiful drive down to the water's edge and there are some really cool hippie restaurants at the docking area, though they are overpriced. I don't remember much of the actual ferry ride unfortunately as I took that opportunity to sleep. Finally we made it to Nelson on Friday afternoon after leaving Sask Thursday evening. We stayed at Josh and Dee's place again and had a great visit with Josh and Dee and baby Emily. Have you ever played Killer Bunnies? Well, we did for the first time there and it is so much fun. I definitely want to buy that game now...and all the extra packs for it:) Luke and Josh also took in a UFC type fight while we were there and Luke and I both totally enjoyed going to the Zabel's HOPE church. the messages are always so bang on what Luke and I need to hear every time.
segment two: nelson to murrieta, CA.
note to the wise...when you use map quest, it is likely the fastest route, but they might make a typo or two and you might want to take a peek at a map so taht you know where you are headed via mapquest directions...we didn't do this and it led for some minor panic attacks. But like I said, we did get to our destination the fastest way, so it didn't let us down:)
We had totally assumed that the fastest route would take us through washington, oregon, and then california. instead our directions took us down a ways into Washington, east across the top of idaho, through a corner of montana, south down the rest of idaho, down through utah, across a corner of beautiful arizona, through the bottom bit of nevada and finally down into Cali! Seriously though, when we were headed east I was like "Luke, if we get as far as Montana, I know we have done something seriously wrong. we need to stop and look at a map!" and the next gas station we saw we did stop at...and we realized we were already in Montana!! but the map showed us that we were on track still:) Phew!
The roadtrip was bloody long and we stopped hardly at all. I don't know how we did it, but we did. I'm pretty sure it was close to 30 hours in total if you count the time we had to backtrack to a gas station to fill up in the middle of the night and if you count our countless coffee fill up/bathroom break stops. It was beautiful though and we are excited because aside from New Mexico and Colorado, we pretty much went through all of the western states in one trip. And at the end of the summer we plan on heading up the California coast so we will be getting an entirely new road trip tour then.
And how is California you might ask? It is beautiful. Warm, even hottish during the day, cool at night. The apartment is beautiful and while not entirely fully furnished as promised it does have the mandatory bed, dresser, table, chairs and couch (our computer however sits on the floor as no desk or side table was available). I had the opportunity my first day here to go to Oceanside with Luke's brother Jordan, our good friend Colin and our boss Eben's brother Jer where we had a great time surfing!! I am totally getting a board and wet suit if nothing else while i'm here.
Another thing we are definitely tempted to get while we are here is a car...just because this is definitely the state where everyone wants to keep up with the joneses...you can buy almost new vehicles for such reasonable prices just because they are three or four years old and everyone here seems to want a vehicle that is no more than two years old! i can't tell you how many Audi's, BMW's, Porsches, etc are flying around here.
anyways, this is crazy long and i'm tired of typing. time to go workout and sit by the pool...
buenas dias!
katrina
ps, i'm sore because my husband in a moment of affection decided to throw me off the bed onto my neck (which i thought would break!) and did a complete summersault over me and crashed into the dresser. ouch!!
segment one: saskatchewan to Nelson.
It was so beautiful, we decided to take the quickest route possible which happens to be driving the number one to Medicine Hat and then taking the crowsnest hwy the rest of the way. I don't think either of us had gone this route in many many years if ever, and it was so different and full of historical ghost towns and beautiful farms and mountainous regions. And there were still plenty of Tim Horton's to satisfy us. We stopped once at Boston Pizza to get some dinner and catch the end of a Calgary Playoff game. Calgary won so we were happy:) We stopped one other time and just crashed (by this i mean slept) for two hours in our car because we were exhausted. You see, we were planning on leaving by noon and we had been up early to finish cleaning our house out, and we didn't end up getting on the road until 8pm due to some circumstances regarding our land lord who decided to take a vacation in Regina when he knew we were moving out and needed to see him. ah well. alls well that ends well. One really cool thing we did on this trip, despite being tired and wanting to take the fastest route is that we decided to take a ferry across kootenay lake instead of driving around it. It is simply a beautiful drive down to the water's edge and there are some really cool hippie restaurants at the docking area, though they are overpriced. I don't remember much of the actual ferry ride unfortunately as I took that opportunity to sleep. Finally we made it to Nelson on Friday afternoon after leaving Sask Thursday evening. We stayed at Josh and Dee's place again and had a great visit with Josh and Dee and baby Emily. Have you ever played Killer Bunnies? Well, we did for the first time there and it is so much fun. I definitely want to buy that game now...and all the extra packs for it:) Luke and Josh also took in a UFC type fight while we were there and Luke and I both totally enjoyed going to the Zabel's HOPE church. the messages are always so bang on what Luke and I need to hear every time.
segment two: nelson to murrieta, CA.
note to the wise...when you use map quest, it is likely the fastest route, but they might make a typo or two and you might want to take a peek at a map so taht you know where you are headed via mapquest directions...we didn't do this and it led for some minor panic attacks. But like I said, we did get to our destination the fastest way, so it didn't let us down:)
We had totally assumed that the fastest route would take us through washington, oregon, and then california. instead our directions took us down a ways into Washington, east across the top of idaho, through a corner of montana, south down the rest of idaho, down through utah, across a corner of beautiful arizona, through the bottom bit of nevada and finally down into Cali! Seriously though, when we were headed east I was like "Luke, if we get as far as Montana, I know we have done something seriously wrong. we need to stop and look at a map!" and the next gas station we saw we did stop at...and we realized we were already in Montana!! but the map showed us that we were on track still:) Phew!
The roadtrip was bloody long and we stopped hardly at all. I don't know how we did it, but we did. I'm pretty sure it was close to 30 hours in total if you count the time we had to backtrack to a gas station to fill up in the middle of the night and if you count our countless coffee fill up/bathroom break stops. It was beautiful though and we are excited because aside from New Mexico and Colorado, we pretty much went through all of the western states in one trip. And at the end of the summer we plan on heading up the California coast so we will be getting an entirely new road trip tour then.
And how is California you might ask? It is beautiful. Warm, even hottish during the day, cool at night. The apartment is beautiful and while not entirely fully furnished as promised it does have the mandatory bed, dresser, table, chairs and couch (our computer however sits on the floor as no desk or side table was available). I had the opportunity my first day here to go to Oceanside with Luke's brother Jordan, our good friend Colin and our boss Eben's brother Jer where we had a great time surfing!! I am totally getting a board and wet suit if nothing else while i'm here.
Another thing we are definitely tempted to get while we are here is a car...just because this is definitely the state where everyone wants to keep up with the joneses...you can buy almost new vehicles for such reasonable prices just because they are three or four years old and everyone here seems to want a vehicle that is no more than two years old! i can't tell you how many Audi's, BMW's, Porsches, etc are flying around here.
anyways, this is crazy long and i'm tired of typing. time to go workout and sit by the pool...
buenas dias!
katrina
ps, i'm sore because my husband in a moment of affection decided to throw me off the bed onto my neck (which i thought would break!) and did a complete summersault over me and crashed into the dresser. ouch!!