We've come a LONG way since the last post! We left Bend and headed west. At the central 
Oregon coast, we headed south towards CA. We had incredibly beautiful views of the ocean and cool rock formations and sea stacks, and we explored some sweet tide pools. We saw Redwood Nat'l Park and the surrounding State Parks; that was really nice... lush forests with massive trees and dense ferns.
Oregon coast, we headed south towards CA. We had incredibly beautiful views of the ocean and cool rock formations and sea stacks, and we explored some sweet tide pools. We saw Redwood Nat'l Park and the surrounding State Parks; that was really nice... lush forests with massive trees and dense ferns. From Redwoods we headed southeast toward Lake Tahoe. On the way we got 'teaser' glimpses of Mt. Shasta and Lassen (another volcano). We stopped in Reno briefly just to see the sights.
Tahoe is beautiful. We skied 2 days at Heavenly. The weather was warm and sunny, and we found some real fun skiing. As we ate lunch the first day at Heavenly, supermodel Marisa Miller sat right by us, so that was another little highlight.
We left sunny Tahoe, bound for Modesto, CA. There, we stayed with Uncle Dave & Aunt Martha Hovestol for 2 days. While there we spent a day in Yosemite Nat'l Park... unbelivable! Big monolithic mountains, tall cliffs, huge waterfalls... It was awesome! We left the Hovey's early in the morning to beat San Francisco traffic.
In San Fran, we jumped on Highway 1 and drove the coast all the way to LA! 13 hours of driving that day! Amazing views of the Pacific as Highway 1 winds down the coast, sometimes climbing almost 1000' above the water, with sheer cliff all the way down to crashing waves and big rocks. It was too much to soak in! On that drive we explored a really sweet waterfall and swam there a bit. We arrived in N. Hollywood and hung out with some friends from Cornerstone and they let us spend the night. That was totally sweet to see them (thanks to Travis, Jerry, and Jon). 
Today, we met up with Dave Morrison in San Clemente, and he took us surfing. Wow. I've always wanted to surf, but especially lately. We had an absolute riot! I loved it. After surfing we drove the coast highway back up towards Long Beach, and checked out the sweet beaches and towns along the way(Newport, Huntington, Laguna,... ). What a beautiful place! We're spending the night at Dave & Kristen's tonite and surfing one more time tomorrow mornin' (can't wait). After surfing tomorrow, we head to San Diego, Tijuana (maybe), and then we are bound for Salt Lake City, UT. California has been so sweet! It'll be hard to leave the ocean, but we'll be itchin' to ski some powder, so that will make it easier I guess... Anyway, thanks for reading this.
Each day is better than the next,
Ben
