Extended family...

What a wonderful time when folks you love meet folks you love! We spent the night on Saturday with some of my favorite people from PSCE days in Richmond, VA. Matt and Amy Kirkland have three adorable children, Hannah, Caroline & Sam and they welcomed us into their home. It's always fun when parts of your life begin to merge and it was great to have some of the people from two different "families" in my life come together and enjoy one another. We even got an extra hour because of the time change which was a blessing because we didn't get away from San Fran as early as we had planned. Thank you, Matt & Amy, for being such gracious hosts! 

Saturday in San Francisco!

We spent the day on Saturday in San Francisco where we walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was beautiful and reminded me of when Jo and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance - either coast! Then we had a chocolate sundae at Ghirardelli Square, ate shrimp on fisherman's wharf, took pictures of the seals at Pier 39 and took a ride on a bicycle cart back to our car. It was an incredible day!

Day four of our West Coast Adventure

Today we drove through the red wood forest and we even drove through the middle of a tree! We also took our picture standing in side one of the trunks (see pic) - it was awesome! There is just no other word for it. This is beautiful country! Diana saw some people stopped by the side of the road so she figured they were looking at something so we pulled over and there was a group of about 8 elk lying down by the road. Of course, we had to get our picture taken with them even though the lady kept saying how dangerous it was because they are wild. Well, so are we! :) We also saw a black bear climbing up the mountain across the creek from the road. That was an amazing sight - we pulled over again, loaded in the car and went back to get a better look. It was still there! Incredible. The best part of the day was getting the chance to catch up with one of my very best friends from since we were kids, Stefen, who invited us in to his home in Newman, CA. He even had an orange futon!! I knew I liked him! :)

The view from Sarah's living room window! 

Here we are in the shower at Sarah's apartment. The greatest part is the view of the space needle from her living room window! 

Carla, Diana & Lesa - watch out California!

 

West Coast Adventure

I keep pinching myself to make sure I'm awake because I'm living a dream! I am helping my friend, Diana, move from Seattle to Santa Barbara, California. We are currently in Crescent City, CA in the middle of the Red Wood Forest. It's BEAUTIFUL!! Our friend, Lesa, and I flew out to Seattle on Tuesday and we had dinner with our friend, Sarah, and my friend, Jessica, and Sarah's friend, Jackie. We went to a fun pub which was within walking distance of Sarah's very cool apartment. We had a GREAT time! We had to take some fun pics of all of us in Sarah's bathtub because it's so short that it makes you feel like a giant! On Wed we loaded up the truck and headed out of Seattle about 4pm. We made one stop at her sister's house to pick up the last of her belongings and then headed to Portland. We stayed with our friend, Thomas, who lives in Newberg, OR. We had a wonderful evening catching up (we met last November when we were all volunteers with the Red Cross in Biloxi, MS). This morning we took Thomas to breakfast and then headed across Oregon. The weather was perfect and the drive was GORGEOUS! This is such a beautiful state. We stopped in Crescent City for the night and tomorrow we plan to explore the Red Wood Forest before heading to Newman, CA to stay with my friend, Stefen, from high school. This is such an amazing trip and I'm so glad to be sharing it with two of my favorite people!

RAN

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog. I'm doing a temp job today at Reece & Nichols so I have a little time to just play on the computer. I wish I had some pictures - but I'll add them later. Last week we went to New Orleans again for another mission trip. We spent five days gutting three houses. The weather was a little cooler than June but still warm. We had a fabulous team of 12 plus a couple of extras who were in town and wanted to help. It was a fun week and we worked HARD! It's amazing how slow it's moving - I'm sure it will take years to see some real progress. We did two houses in one suburb and we were told that 700 homes just in that suburb would have to be completely torn down. WOW! 90% of the gutting work is being done by volunteers. We visited with one of the crews that clean up the piles in front of the house and they said their work had really slowed down after summer. I guess a lot of the work was being done by our incredible young people who eventually had to go back to school.

I had the shortest date in history last night. It lasted 12 minutes. It was one of those experiences that every woman dreads. He didn't climb out the bathroom window but he definitely could not get away fast enough. I guess I didn't think that could actually happen - but low and behold - it does. I'm not sure how you get back on the bike after that kind of crash but I guess I'll just play it one date at a time. :)

That's all for now. Check back later for updates on the life of Carla.