Trip Up North

Last week Shaina, Angela, and I went on a road trip up north to the small town of Scott's Valley. My ultimate purpose in going on this trip was to spend time with my amazing sister and wonderful friend. However, if you were to ask them...they might tell you that we were going to hear this famous guy sing some songs. : -) Actually, they'd probably roll their eyes if they heard me say that. Yes, we were driving up there because of a concert, where yes a famous singer was going to being singing, and yes everybody loves his voice. Anyway, I'll tell you a little bit about our trip.

We left Tuesday morning and started driving on the "ever exciting" 5 Freeway. It took us about 5 hours to get to Kelsey's house in Scott's Valley. Although, apparently (*ahem*) roads that look the most direct on the map....umm, yeah...aren't always. You have to pay attention to the level of elevation when considering which route to take. Also remember that maps don't show the little details like tight curves and steep hills. Hmmm, makes driving fun right? Poor Shaina and Angela, I probably made them car sick. That road was the cross-over from the 5 Freeway to the 1 Freeway (on the coast). It was very pretty (lots of trees and flowers), but we probably won't take that road next time.

We got to Kelsey's house at about 3pm. She showed us where we were going to be staying at the Christian Camp where her family works. It was right down the road from her house. It's so pretty where she lives. The road to her house and the camp is lined with trees (it's kind of like in a forest) and it's pretty secluded and quiet. It was real nice, I liked it a lot.

So, we changed and got ready for the concert. It took us about an hour to get to Oakland, which is where the concert actually was (not in little Scott's Valley : -). Okay, so here's some pictures...

Angela and I right before we left Kelsey's house for the concert.

Kelsey and Shaina in the backseat.

We stopped at Panda Express for dinner. The food was fine...but some of us don't really prefer Asian food. But that's okay, 'cause some other people do.

Awww...sisters. We can all thank Shaina for such a fun trip. She was the one who got everything together for us to go.

This was the very large arena where the concert was.

Awww...such good friends.

The best Angela friend ever.

They were pretty excited for the concert to start.

In our seats...anxiously waiting... : -)

"Bummer! We forgot the binoculars!" : -)

The opening show was quite great. Maybe even better the "man" himself. The group was called Naturally 7, and they were quite talented. Everything was a cappella and vocal percussion. It was pretty amazing.

Apparently something happened...'cause all the fans started screaming. I seemed to have missed it. Just kidding. : -)

Yes, we heard Michael Buble live, yes he does have a good voice, and yes he is a very good performer. I was impressed with his "down to earth" personality. I was expecting him to be kind of proud and "I'm so amazing." But he wasn't, so that was nice.

I thought the light and background changes were cool. It was fun/challenging trying to get good pictures of it because of being so far back.

So, then we drove back to Kelsey's house (well, the camp actually). We got back at about midnight or 12:30am I guess. We were all pretty tired and ready to go to bed. But, unfortunately, Angela and I had to have an "experience" first...(oh boy, why do these things always happen to me?). And poor Angela had to be my roommate.

Here are some pictures of the camp and our cabin so you can visualize what I'm telling you about...and then I'll tell you about our "experience."

The cabin where we stayed.

Our rooms were right next to each other...which was nice.

The inside of our room (Angela and I), it was really nice and cozy.

Okay, so about what happened...well, Angela and I had gotten ready for bed and then we were wondering what time we needed to leave in the morning. So, we decided to go next door and talk to Shaina and Kelsey about it. I walked out the door first and then Angela followed me...this wouldn't normally be a problem...except that I didn't check the door to see if it was unlocked...and Ang didn't think to check the lock...and the key was sitting on the dresser in our room. So yeah, we both walked out, closed the door, and went into Shaina and Kelsey's room. We started talking to Shaina and then I turn to Ang and ask her if she grabbed the key...she looks at me and says "no...was the door locked?"...I said, "umm, yeah I think it was..." Shaina and Kelsey both look at us with looks of "oh no!" and "it's 1:00am in the morning..." and "now what?" So then we check to make sure the door actually is locked...and it is, of course. Kelsey says something about no one at the camp being awake to get an extra key, we start thinking about sleeping in their room with them...and then...all of a sudden...I had a great rememberance! (okay, well maybe not really) But I did remember a trick that my RA in college taught me my first semester at TMC. (shhh, don't tell anyone...) It's really quite simply, it just involves a credit card/gift card and then...wahlah!...the door opens. (ideally anyway) Yes, it's an old trick, but it only works on certain doors...fortunately for us, the door of our room was an older one, and perfectly ideal for this credit card trick. It popped right open (okay, well maybe not exactly...but you know).

Anyway, I guess it really wasn't that big of a deal...but when I was standing outside in the cold looking at the closed door of our room...it struck me that it's comical things like this that make me laugh and wonder why I am continually so dumb. You'd think I'd learn my lesson. Hmmm, apparently repetition is the key to my learning.

These were just the trees outside our room. I really love trees.

Us with our "morning faces"...

Yay, for good friends!

So then we continued on our amazing travels down the coast to that small touristy town called Solvang. Shaina wanted to stop there and get a gift for her boss, so we got out and walked around for an hour or so. My favorite part about it was that I got some good pictures. It's always fun to take pictures of cute places and things. Although, apparently when I'm busy taking pictures...other people lose track of me...and then when they call my cell phone, it's on vibrate and I don't feel it (because I guess I was concentrating on taking the picture?)...and then they think I'm lost, but I'm not because I was right where they left me...kind of. Anyway, getting lost in Solvang isn't too bad, it's a pretty small town. But then again, who was getting lost?

Us being silly soldiers...

I think horses are really cool animals...there wasn't really any other reason for me taking this picture besides that.

I took some other pictures of some wildflowers...but I'm saving those for a future post. You'll see them one of these days, I promise.

Then we got back in the car and drove the rest of the way home. 'Twas a fun time that we had together and I'm glad we went. It was also nice to have a little break from work. Anyway, now you know about the random road trip we took because some people like that "guy" and his voice. : -)

"And they all lived happily ever after. The end."