#3 "What happens on family vacations, is talked about all year."

            One of my most favorite things to do at family gatherings is to simply sit around a table with a few uncles, aunts and cousins; and listen to all their different stories. And 90% of the time, they are stories of their recent vacations and everything that happened on them. The good, the bad and the Absolutely hilarious. 

         This is day 3 of our family vacation (excluding Zack) before I start AmeriCorps. So I thought I'd catch you all up on what happened thus far.
        The first day we woke up VERY early (if you read my last post you understand how early). We boarded the plane at 6:55 and took off around 7:30 from Chicago, then landed in California around 9:30 at LAX.  From there we went to the beach in LA and stayed there for a while. We walked the pier and ate at an okay restaraunt. We actually did a few other things the first day but can't exactly remember all of it. I'm starting to realize that I need to write EVERYTHING that I do down so I'm able to blog about it. Sorry everyone I'm sorta new at this!! 

The second day we spent the day at Pismo beach which was really cool! The sand there was so soft and all in all it was a very relaxing day. From there we walked on the pier and watched some of the local surfers catch some waves! While we were watching Sierra must have been on one of the seagulls "hit list" because she got pooped on in three different spots! Disgusting right! After Sierra cleaned herself off we walked around the little surf shops. And like I said there's probably a few other little details that I'm forgetting. 

     

       The third day was by far my favorite. We got ready and walked around Stanford University. The campus was huge but really pretty. What got my attention though was the church they had on campus. It was absolutely beautiful!! From the outside to the in, everything was spectacular. After that we traveled to half moon bay (may or may not be right about the name) which was a cute fisherman town. After that we started to travel to the Red Woods. On the way there though were some picturestic mountains, so a perfect photo opp. From there we went to the Red woods which just like the church at Stanford, was breath taking! If you have never been there, I highly suggest you go. 

        The fourth day we drove to San Franscisco and went touristing, to what I can't remember, but one place we did go to was a fancy golf course. (I'm starting to realize the ony things I was really interested in or stuck out to me, I remember.) 

         The fifth day we went to Alcatraz! Which was a very cool experience. I ended up learning a lot about the history and some of the inmates that went there. Since we're on the subject of inmates, there was actually a former inmate, that went to Alcatraz, in the bookstore signing his book he wrote about his time there. My mom did buy the book, so I'm sure she can tell you more about it. We then drove to the hotel right next to my campus called the "Lionsgate hotel".

       In the morning we got ready, knowing it would be my last few hours before we had to say our final goodbyes. We went to Walmart, got a few things I would need, drove to see where the closest Catholic Church was, and drove around my campus in our Silver car about 6 times. (Remember the silver car and number 6). 

        Then in was finally time to check in. I went through about 9 different stations to check in, and get different information that I needed.  Included in this information, I learned what team I am on, I am on team SILVER 6! HA just thought that was a funny coincidence! After the stations my parents (and Sierra) helped me move into my new room, which is a pretty good sized room (I'll talk about my room later).

        We then said our goodbyes and they had to depart. If any of you are wondering, yes. We ALL cried. 

After they left I got my sac lunch and actually made a couple friends right away! One girl who's room is right across from mine and a boy that is from a different country. I'm really excited to get to know everyone else (which will be hard to do since there are 300+ people on this campus) to learn about their past, hopes for the future, goals, where they are from etc. Its all a learning experience from here. 

                                        ~Savannah

P.S. I know there is a lot of information not in this post, but I actually wrote it out a few days before and for some reason (I blame the poor wifi at the hotel) it did not save, or post. So again I'm sorry, but I'll try to write things down for now on!

P.S.S I know many of you want me to post a lot, but you'll have to bare with me because I don't have as much free time as before! I promise to put my address up soon! Also, I wrote this post using my phone so if there are misspelled words it's auto correct.!