My trip to "sunny" California...

I just spent a week with my sister and brother-in-law who are currently studying in Fresno, CA. My flight arrived in Sacramento which is where they picked me up. From there we headed straight to San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO
We spent the first day touring San Francisco. We walked about a mile from our down-town hotel to see "The Painted Ladies" - a row of pastel-painted Victorian-style houses. Then we walked back, in the rain, to city hall where we stopped to warm up. We took the cable car (what trip to San Francisco would be complete without a cable car ride) to the pier and saw Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge from a distance through the fog. By that time we were cold and wet so we made one last stop at the cable car museum, which actually also acts as the working hub of the cable car system, before jumping in the car and heading to Fresno.



















WHERE CREATIVITY HAPPENS
Often in the past when my sister and I got together it was to scrapbook. While we didn't drag out the scrapbooking supplies this time, we did find time to work on some artwork for their apartment and I picked up a crochet hook again for the first time in a few months. We put on old episodes of Alf on Hulu to inspire our creativity.







TOUR OF FRESNO WITH A SCENIC BACKDROP
It had rained for 2 weeks prior to me arriving in Fresno and was cloudy/rainy most of the time that I was there, which was a bit of a bummer. But one of the blessings of the precipitation was that it cleared enough of the smog away so that you could see the mountains surrounding Fresno. Niki and Nathan said they'd never seen the mountains this clearly before.







FRESH SQUEEZED OJ
It's orange season in California. Straight from the tree to the cup - yum!








JANUARY BLOOMS
The seminary campus down there is beautiful and Niki and I took advantage of the nice (+10C) weather to go for walks around campus. It was weird to see blooming flowers and palm trees right outside of their apartment window.





IN'N'OUT BURGER - THE ULTIMATE CALIFORNIA EXPERIENCE
I was told that I had to try a burger from In'n'Out while I was visiting California. Niki and Nathan hadn't been to an In'n'Out yet so off we went. I was also told by a friend that I had to get my burger "animal-style." You see, In'n'Out has about the plainest burger menu out there but then they also have a "Secret Menu," which is where "animal-style" comes from - extra sauce, extra pickles, and the burger is smothered with mustard before cooking. Mmmmmm....






MYSTERY FRUIT
We found this random fruit growing on a tree on campus so we picked it and tasted it and found out we didn't like it and did some research to find out what it was.





We think it's a pomelo ???

Niki and Nathan dropped me off at the Sacramento airport yesterday morning. From there I flew to Phoenix which is where I found out that my flight to Chicago was delayed, therefore I would be missing the last bus of the day heading for South Bend. I ended up getting a hotel room in Chicago and catching a bus early this morning, arriving back in Elkhart around lunchtime.

It was great to see Niki and Nathan again. Now I'll need to start planning for Niki's trip to Elkhart this summer :)

p.s. For Niki's side of the story and a picture of our finished painting, click here.