California

Good News, I got a job! Even better news even though I started on July 30 they let me leave and go to California with James. In Provo, people rarely disapprove of your trip if you're going to meet your boyfriend's family, in fact, they encourage it.

We left Friday morning at 6:30 MDT and got to Sacramento at around 4ish PDT. Friday night we went to James' dad's house for dinner with the missionaries and then James and I dominated all of the games we played afterwards. (we're both kind of competitive)

Saturday morning James, Eileen (James' younger sister) and I went to San Francisco, his mom was planning on coming but didn't feel well and didn't think the weather in SF would help. It was quite the adventure. We drove to Richmond where we got on BART and took the lightrail to Powell St. in SF.

 When we got off we were planning on taking the cable car down to the wharf but James was feeling a little stiff and wanted to walk for a while so we figured we would walk to the wharf. The only problem is we walked 2 miles in the opposite direction. We ended up getting on a trolly to take us down. By the time we got to the Pier we were kinda cold and pretty hungry, so we walked from Pier 39 down to Ghiradelli Square where we ate at Lori's diner. It's the circular building in the bottom left.

Eileen, she's a pretty great 3rd wheel

Clam Chowder in a sourdough bread bowl

James finishing off his clam chowder tostada

Alcatraz

James posing like the bird

Can you say heavenly

Weird tree I stared at while we waited 2 hrs in line for the Cable Car

Some sibling love

Finally on the very full Cable Car

My first experience with a toll bridge

This is my picture of a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge

This is what I saw when looking at the Golden Gate Bridge
from the distance needed to take the above picture

Sunday we went to church and oh the difference between a singles ward and a family ward. James has lived in the same house for most of his life so he hasn't really changed wards which resulted in me being introduced to a lot of people. Sunday afternoon Lynn's Family (the middle sister) came over and played as well as Uncle Chris.

James had to be at Del Campo (his high school) to leave for Cross Country camp at 6:30 on Monday morning and of course I wanted to see him before he left so I took him. I got to meet Coach King, his cross country coach, who absolutely loves him and for good reason. James never told me because he feels like he's braging, I found out from his sister, but he was the Division II California Individual State Champion in Cross Country his senior year and he graduated 3rd in his class. He received the highest achievement award at Del Campo and so he is sort of a living legend at his high school.

After dropping him off I went back and took a nap. Eileen and I then met Lynn and her kids at the Jelly Belly factory, which was so fun! They give you samples of the Jelly Bean in different processes during the making. You also get really cool hats to wear.

Summer and Ricky after the tour

On Tuesday, Eileen and I went to downtown Sacramento and went to the Train Museum. It definitely seemed like a place my Dad and Grant would love to go to. This is one of 7 engines they have at the museum. It weighs about 1,051,000 pounds.

Outside a donut shop downtown

Tuesday night we went to a Sacramento Rivercats game, they lost but we had some great entertainment from the lady behind us who had a beer or two and a couple on a first date who ended up leaving early because the girl was done with the date. Word to the wise, when your on a first date don't place your hand on the girls upper inner thigh before you even hold her hand.

 Wednesday I went and had lunch at Subway with Lori (later we talked about how it would have been great if we met at a Cracker Barrel since that was our rendezvous point growing up, but sadly there are no Cracker Barrels in California). Afterwards we made snickerdoodles and talked, it was really fun seeing her and hopefully if all goes according to schedule we'll have lunch with the boys tomorrow.

Wednesday night Eileen and Mama Tracy took me to Urbanos which is their favorite Mexican food restaurant and unlike a lot of the mexican food places in Utah it actually tasted like good mexican food. We went up to see the Sacramento temple after dinner, sadly it's closed for maintenance this week so I couldn't go and do baptisms. 

Today I'm alone because Eileen left this morning for her Pioneer Trek and so I'm putting together back to school packets for Mama Tracy. She's the secretary at the elementary school all of the kids went to and so she has lots of tasks she can use help with. It makes me feel like I fit in. James gets home tomorrow afternoon and I'm just a little bit excited!