Our Journey Starts
Our trip begins at 9:30am on Saturday, the 27th, the day after the major earthquake in Chile. At this point, we do not know how the earthquake will affect our travel plans and will be tracking the recovery as we get closer.
The Kellermans give us a wonderful send-off: delicious sloppy Joes for dinner on Friday and yummy breakfast on Saturday morning. We leave Pacifica in a downpour – it seems appropriate to be heading towards warmer weather.
As we drive south, I am amazed at the beauty of California. The hills are vivid green, contrasted by bright yellow mustard flowers. The fruit trees are in full bloom – hot pink and white flowers everywhere. When we are at the halfway point to Los Angeles, we hit a major rain storm and have little visibility. We go over the Grapevine, closely watching the outside temperature gauge on the minivan’s control panel: 39, 38, 37, 35 degrees. Snow is coming down, but fortunately not sticking on the roads and we arrive safely to Los Angeles.
As a treat, I promise to take the kids to one amusement park before crossing the border. They select Magic Mountain, where we go on Sunday. I experience the scariest ride of my life! Although I am an avid roller coaster rider, this one, the X2, terrifies me. The Magic Mountain brochure describes the X2 as “A whole new Xtreme Xperience – the world’s first and only 5th dimensional thrill!” I close my eyes the entire time and want the ride to end. Here is the reaction from the family:
- Paul: exhilarating and horrifying at the same time
- Connor: most crazy, awesome, scary, stomach turning, incredible ride. 4 hours after leaving the park, my stomach is still in my throat.
- Quinn: it was crazy!
The rest of the roller coasters, with their 360s and steep inclines, are tame in comparison. Magic Mountain is an impressive park with 13 roller coasters; we hit about half. Maybe we will hit the second half on our way home, but not the X2!
Tags: California, Travel
hwy1alltheway
Paul & Karen, I hope you all have a great & safe trip. I envy you guys and hope to do a trip like this myself someday.
Have a great time!!!!
Butch
Connor~
We miss you very much! Especially your jolly laugh. We still have you on the snapgrades seating chart.
Important: Have you seen a black squirrel?
Sincerely,
Class of 2010
Hey Karen, Paul, Conner and Quinn! We wish you all the best! Snake Bob is doing well! Ziven takes him out of his home for a ‘house tour’ daily and even fed him his first meal (with us) on Monday. It went down faster than I thought it would. But Ziven handled it all well, going into the pet store by himself (I was at the music store next door), telling them about Bob, getting the right sized (surely scared) mouse, holding the container on the way home (to me saying ‘I do not want a loose mouse in the car!), ‘depositing’ it into Bob’s lair and giving me the play-by-play while I unloaded groceries. That is how long it took! So, all seems to be well with Bob -not to worry! We did go to Tahoe overnight last weekend and when we were looking for a place to eat, we passed a Chili’s and Ziven said “let’s go there and wait for Quinn!” We thought that was pretty clever but must say we are quite envious of you all! Keep blogging! Very inspirational! Your friend, Katie
Good luck on your adventure! Look us up if you come through San Diego.
To Class of 2010
Thanks for your post. I have not yet seen a black squirrel, but I saw a donkey painted as a zebra.
Bye,
Connor
What an adventure! The pictures are great and I’m excited for all of you. Have fun and enjoy this special time in your lives!
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