They're dead. They're all messed up.

Hey there everybody. Yeah, I know it's been a while. And this is going to be a frickin' long blog today, so if you're not patient, now would be the time to bail out and stop reading. Everyone happy? We lose those less-enthusiastic readers? Ok, here we go.

Thursday was the plane ride, and it was very interesting, to say the least. Instead of my plane leaving at 12:35 like it was supposed to (and then I would have a two hour layover in Reno), it was delayed two hours in Boise, which is definitely not as interesting as Reno. But I did end up watching most of the tennis match between Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova, and I must say that I'm very glad that Venus Williams ended up winning the women's tournament at Wimbledon. She played very well. But hey, what do I know. Anyway, so I sat next to this lady on the plane to Reno and her little girl. The little girl was named Hannah and she was three and she was just adorable. She just kept talking and talking. And I spoke with the mom on and off during the flight and she was very nice. And it's a small world after all, cause it turned out that her husband (who was sitting in front of us with their little boy) was from La Grande. Imagine that. But it was fun talking to her about planes and kids and stuff. And I didn't miss my connecting flight, I actually had time to wait, and I must tell you that it's simply weird to have slots and stuff in an airport. It was crazy. But I made it here safe, though very tired (I was going on like, three hours of sleep, it was pretty sweet), and it's been fun.

So Friday we went and saw War of the Worlds and I actually got to see the first twenty minutes of it. And it wasn't much, so don't like, lose sleep over it or anything Steve. And I honestly can't think of what else we might have done, but I know that I probably stayed up really late doing nothing.

Saturday was a ton of fun. We went to the city for the day, and it was soooooooo awesome. I love it there, I really do. It's really beautiful. But anyway, we rode the ferry there, which never gets old, and we just ended up wandering around Pier 39. We went into shops when we felt like it, and it was nice not to have a set schedule or anything, just doing whatever we felt like. We did ride the carousel, and Thnak, my valiant steed, did indeed win the race against that sorry steed, Snausage. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Then we went down to the Rainforest Cafe, and holy cow, I love that place. It would have been so much fun to design, honestly. We had to wait a long time for a table, but that was ok, cause we spent a lot of time wandering around the store, and then we sat in front of the store with Irving the gorilla watching the people come in. Then we ate, and wandered around some more, and then we went back to wait for our ferry, which was late. We went across the street to watch some break-dancers while we were waiting, but they were already done by the time we got there. But on the dock, we saw the CUTEST kids that I have ever seen in my life. I'll try to describe it, but you really had to be there. There was this little girl, maybe two, who would walk around the dock, but she didn't want to step on the cracks, and so she would very carefully step from one plank to another. Sometimes she would walk along the two planks straddling the crack, and no matter how much coaxing and showing her that she wouldn't fall into the cracks, she insisted on not stepping on any of them. It was so cute. Then her older brother, who was maybe four or five, would just run around and chase pidgeons. He came and helped his little sister by picking her up and taking her to their mom, and she gave him a kiss and it was so adorable! I seriously have never seen anything as cute in my entire one million and six years of existence. And I think part of the reason they were so cute was their racial background. Their mom was Asian, and their dad was black, and they were just beautiful! They looked almost Polynesian, but it was simply beautiful. And then the ferry finally came and we had to say goodbye and it was sad, but I was glad that we were able to watch them. It made the time waiting for the ferry fly by. Then when we got home I fell asleep on the couch while Ray went to pick up Gwen and Lenna, Ray's super-cool nieces. They came over and we watched the rest of the A's game....oh! Insert in story. On Friday we went to the A's game, and they won 6-2 to the White Sox, their third consecutive 6-2 win. Weird. So that's what we did on Friday. Sorry, continuing. So we watched the rest of the A's game, and they lost, which is sad, but especially sad because it was the fireworks game, and it's always sad when they lose that game. BUT they won today and so it's all happy. So we watched the game, and when it got dark we went and watched the fireworks that were at the Coliseum from across the estuary. It was really neat seeing them across the water, and you could really see them all. Not to mention the Oakland Temple was all lit up on the hillside like it always is. But then we went home and ate ice cream sundaes. It was a very good end to an excellent day. And as Gwen said, "what better way to end a Saturday than with a sundae!" I couldn't agree more.

And today was simply awesome. I went to church, just sacrament meeting, and while I remembered that it was testimony meeting, somehow it completely slipped my mind that fasting always comes at the same time. So yes, I ate. Forgive me. Anyway, church was totally awesome. I bore my testimony, and I felt really stupid cause I cried in front of total strangers. But something amazing happened because I really didn't say most of what I wanted to, but every single person who spoke after me talked about a principle that I had wanted to talk about. I was so grateful for that. And I'm grateful that one of the four sister missionaries they have (sister missionaries are so COOL!) spoke right after me and kinda saved my poor testimony. So I guess it turned out all right. And afterward a few people (including the cute couple that were sitting behind me) thanked me warmly for my testimony and asked where I was from and stuff. It really made me feel good, and those people were so nice. And I swear, La Grande is haunting me, cause the guy that gave the closing prayer was a Brother Nebekur! Tell me that's not freaky. Then I came home and slept for a little while, and then we went to the beach, and let me tell you, that was an adventure! The normal hour and a half drive to Capitola beach was lengthened to THREE hours because of all the traffic we ran into. I slept most of the way, so it didn't really bother me. And I guess it was a good thing, cause a lot of people were leaving as we were coming so it wasn't as crowded as it could have been. Even though there still were tons of people there. But Ray and I went up to this totally wicked sword shop they have in town to check out the swords and knifes. And this place is genuine. It's not the sort of place that sells those cheap fake "decorative" swords that have no function other than to rest on your wall. They are real, honest-to-goodness, functional swords, made for those in Renaissance re-enactments and stuff. It's one of those little shops that the people who actually use the swords know about, and that's where they go. It was really cool. And they have all the Lord of the Rings re-makes and stuff. Quality stuff, man. It rocked. But we just relaxed on the beach for a long time, walking up and down the beach when we felt like it, and I got this awesome tan line on my feet. I was sitting facing the sun reading my book, and I had my feet half-buried in the sand, so there's a faint line going across the top of my feet. It's pretty narly. So then while we were trying to drive back home, there was an accident or something on the highway, and so we were de-toured off so we headed out to Santa Cruz to wait till they opened the road again. We wandered along the boardwalk, watching the people screaming in roller coasters and other rides, and the little kids trying out the less intense rides. It was a lot of fun. And it was night by this time, and so the whole boardwalk was all lit up, and there was a sort of energy and excitement in the air. But then we finally got home, after an extremely short drive home compared to our drive there, and now I'm here. So I've had a totally blast so far. It's been great. I love the ocean, just the salt sea air, and the fog and the big crowds and the intensity and confidence of everything. I just love it here. I'm definitely going to have to live here or somewhere very near by when I grow up. I just love it too much.

Well, I had better go, even though we're not really doing anything tomorrow, except for the parade in the morning and fireworks in the evening, but my mom's trying to sleep and I think I'm keeping her up with this obnoxiously loud keyboard. So if you got this far, I hope that you enjoyed reading about everything I've done, and I'll try and keep you all posted until I get back on Wednesday. And I was just thinking, you know how you hear all these songs about people, usually girls? I was just wondering if those songs were written for them or merely about them. It would be interesting to find out. It would also be really cool if someone wrote a song for me. Oh well. Well, see you all later! Love to all! Shalom.