And so the journey home begins...

There's so much more about San Diego that I want to write about and remember here, but I guess it'll wait for another day. We're now three days into the journey home to Pennsylvania, and we've done and seen so much!

We left on Thursday, May 2. (Jim and Tillie left a few weeks prior, by the way, and are already back on the East coast). The lead-up to departing was CRAZY! Jesse finished grading his final exams that very morning and had a couple of HOPE meetings during the day (by phone from home). Rather than "just" packing up our lives from the past 4 months and preparing for a 3000 mile car journey, we were totally boxing up and emptying out the condo we'd so happily lived in. It was wonderfully already full of the essentials (plus tons of kiddo extras like toys and sports gear) when we arrived back in January, borrowed from several sources, and we were so grateful! Figuring out where each and every last item needed to go took a lot of attention and time this past week, especially since we needed so much of it right to the last days. Jesse and I joked that the stress of moving out maybe was a blessing in disguise, though. We were sufficiently frazzled by the time we finally pulled out on Thursday evening that we almost felt a sense of relief rather than just sadness over leaving!

In any case, we headed back down to PLNU to drop off a few last items and hit the cafeteria for supper. The sunset on campus was spectacular, and Josiah commented that God must have sent it special for us.  :)

Photo credit: Jesse with his phone. Perfect!

We drove a few hours, getting just north of Los Angeles before crashing for the night. It was a Hotwire booking, and it turned out to be a great hotel. We had breakfast on an outdoor patio in the morning breeze on Friday and the boys LOVED the hotel's airplane theme. The previous day's stress was long gone.

We quickly hit the road and drove north to Sequoia National Park, where we spent an awesome afternoon and evening. Magnificent!! Pictures don't begin to do it justice, but I'll include some anyway.  :)



 

Twin giants and twin peanuts.

From little sequoia cones come mammoth, 2000 year old trees!  :)

By the roots of a long-ago fallen sequoia. I call it "bad hair day."

On a whim we decided to climb up Moro Rock. It's not a hard climb (I was in sandals and a dress!) but rather a third of a mile stone staircase walk, winding up crevices and the side of a bald mountain. It was a little heart-stopping with William, since he's vehement about doing things on his own and could easily slip straight underneath the guard rails. Gah! But both boys did great. In fact, they were begging to do it a second time as we descended! Jesse and I explained that although we too had loved the climb and wouldn't have changed it, our blood pressure really couldn't take a second go.

Moro Rock from a distance. Could hardly believe we'd been up there half an hour before!

The views were spectacular.

 

Here we are on the flat walkway at the very top.

Will did every single steep stair himself (400 or so of them).