thursday the 18th i got to say hello to the golden gate bridge. however, it was going to be an adventure for sure because to get there i had to drive over an hour on 5 californian highways and i had to drive stick, of which i was a bit rusty. but nontheless i headed off, and i got to see some great scenery and i had a glimpse of the san quentin prison (for all you johnny cash fans, he really did play a concert there). i made it scathe free and there was a little ...

tuesday the 16th i got my first chance to see downtown san francisco. i was able to take the "bart" train in and i was thankful to not have to drive. the bart is basically a subway but its only underground part of the time. aunt frances dropped me off at the station and i hopped on the train. after about an hour on board i was dropped off in central san francisco. it was a bit intimidating at first because all i had was a map and i didnt know quite what...

sunday. diving. well, snorkeling but diving sounds better. ok, so this was something i had wanted to do so badly but didnt think it was going to come to fruition so i didnt get my hopes up. but sunday morning uncle chris and i got up at 4:30 and met his friend steve at five and headed for the ocean. it took over an hour to get there and it was really foggy and dark when we arrived. we changed into our wetsuits, mine was pretty tight, and we hiked down to the wate...

... so we had breakfast at the herralas and then we spontaneously decided to head out to yosemite natnl park! i was really excited and we were on the road in around an hour. we stopped at a california fast food chain called "in-n-out" and we got some good burgers. it took 3ish hours to get there and as we drove into the valley i got my first glimps of those famous rocks. it was unbelievable. the sheer magnitude was almost too much to take in. we stopped...