From the Deep South to the West Coast!

Last Saturday Ruth and I left Mississippi and headed for the West coast to spend a week with her sister and brother-in-law in Foster City, San Francisco. When we arrived on Saturday night we headed out for a meal at the ‘Stinking Rose’ called this because of the fact that the entire menu consists of garlic in some shape or form... garlic quickly became a theme for the week as it managed to make its way into a lot of our food! We took a walk around Broadway and I was struck by the diversity of this big city and the sights and sounds all around. We ended our night by driving to twin peaks where we took a look at the city skyline at night, it was a cool sight.

On Sunday we went to Central Peninsula church and heard a guest speaker, the famous tennis player, Michael Chang, give his testimony, it was really encouraging and we managed to get some signed tennis balls after church! We had lunch and then drove to Stanford university where we walked around and took pictures of the different buildings there, it has the largest campus in the whole of America and was definitely a lot bigger than Stranmillis or Ole Miss!

We headed into downtown San Francisco on Monday and spent time exploring the big city... After being together for almost 4 months Ruth and I have got to the stage where we are almost one person (!!!!) and this was evident in one particular shop we visited... We both had to get a dress for weddings we’re going to at home this Summer and Ruth came into the changing room and told me she wanted me to look at something. I was already in the changing room and had on a gorgeous dress I was really excited about showing her and was thinking of buying, we both came out of the changing rooms and there we were standing in exactly the same dress and we both ended up buying it! Study abroad with one person does weird things to you! We made a visit to Chinatown and I felt like I had somehow flown right into China it had such an authentic feel to it. On Monday night it was Jones’s birthday and so we headed out to get Chinese food at a local restaurant, I tried a lot of things I had never had before including little dragon bread!

By Tuesday it was time to get down to some serious sightseeing and so we headed back into San Francisco but this time steered clear of the shops and headed straight for the famous cable cars on Powell Street that took us the whole way to Fisherman’s wharf, Ghirardelli square and Pier 39. I loved going to each of these places... Ghirardelli square was the first stop, famous as this was the place where the Ghirardelli chocolate was made for most of its history, now it has a shop dedicated to selling chocolate and many other little boutiques and pretty arts and crafts stalls. Fisherman’s wharf was a mixture of tourist attractions, shops, street performers and other random Americans (including a man who you paid to take a photo with his two dogs who were wearing sunglasses!!!)! There was loads to see and do in the wharf and pier 39 was an even cooler experience, it even had a store completely dedicated to the left handed (Dad) and we made sure to go and see the famous sea lions who line the dock.

The highlight of my sightseeing in San Francisco was by far the visit we took to Alcatraz on Wednesday, being a history major I loved getting to see the prison after hearing and reading so much about it. The tour began with an escape tour given by one of the rangers who told us of the various escape attempts that had happened, including an inmate who made it to the rocks of San Francisco Bay but had become so deluded from the cold and the sea water that he lay down and was lifted by the coast guard who sent him back! It was a really interesting but also pretty grim visit! After visiting the island prison we headed for a closer look at the golden gate and got some pretty good pictures there, we visited the small town of Solsalito and following this the famous Lombard Street, famous for being the windiest street in the world!

Getting most of our sightseeing done we spent Thursday in a Mall in San Francisco and after that took another drive down to the pier and finished the day going to the huge cinema there to see Iron Man 2.

On Friday morning we started out on our epic road trip, the plan was to drive along the coast from San Francisco all the way to Los Angeles, an 8 hour drive, meaning we got to see a whole lot more of California in one day! The first stop we made was in Monterey Bay where we visited the famous aquarium there, it was the coolest aquarium I’ve ever been in...huge tanks with more fish than I knew existed but the jellyfish were by far my favourite, the way they had been placed and lit up made them look like a work of art! Following this we stopped by a seaside town called Carmel and then drove on along windy roads with awesome scenery, through Big Sur and past Malibu until we arrived in Los Angeles that night. Our first stop was to Hollywood Boulevard where we did the Walk of Fame, checking out all the famous names on the stars and after getting something to eat seeing the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held and the hands and feet of the stars outside the Chinese Theatre. First impressions of Hollywood weren’t great, a lot of very weird people around and not as glamorous as I anticipated!!!

The next day we headed to Universal Studios where we were going to spend the day... this is definitely the highlight for me of all the things we’ve done while being here in the States! The day started off well getting to see sets from some of my favourite shows including Wisteria Lane where Desperate Housewives is filmed, other shows included CSI, Parenthood, Law and Order, 24 and many more! The Studio Tour took us round lots of famous sets and showed us a lot of the behind the scenes goings on at Universal! After this we made our way around all the rides, Shrek 4d, Waterworld, The Simpsons, Terminator 2, House of Horrors (never been so scared in all my life!!!), Jurassic Park, The Mummy and others... it was an awesome day out from start to finish! Before we began our trip back to San Francisco we stopped off to see the famous Hollywood sign in the hills, we also walked along Rodeo Drive but didn’t see any celebrities and our final stop was Venice Beach and Santa Monica... It was a busy but amazing weekend!

We headed back to Central Peninsula church on Sunday and spent the rest of the afternoon, reading and chilling out.

I had an amazing time seeing California and have plenty of pictures to prove it... I am looking forward to what the East Coast has to offer now. We’re flying to Pittsburgh today, it is a 5 hour flight...still haven’t got used to the size of America!