Bike trip!!!

So, obviously I am not doing too well with this blogging thing. Told you it would be sporadic. But, as I promised to post some things, especially the summer activities, I better at LEAST get that done.

For those of you who don't know, our most unique summer adventure was our bike trip. Danny has been really big into cycling since high school, and since we got married he bought me a road bike and now I'm almost as in love with it as he is!

One of my friends in high school went on a biking trip down the coast of California, and ever since then I have always thought it would be fun to do that, and Danny has always wanted to do a bike trip as well. We decided that if we really were serious about doing a multi-day bike trip, now was the time to do it, especially before we have little kiddies to worry about. So we trained all summer, then packed two pairs of bike clothes each, one pair of normal clothes, necessary toiletries, a bathing suit each, a mini Book of Mormon, and a book each, and headed off to begin one of the most memorable trips of our lives!

Our trip began on a Saturday as we took a train north from Los Angeles to Salinas, CA. For those of you who are Steinbeck fans, this is where he is from and where many of his novels took place. We spent the night there, then biked to the chapel in town. As we were carrying our bikes inside to hide them in some extra room, we ran into one of the counselors in the bishopric who just happened to be an avid cyclist. Within 60 seconds he had invited us over to his friend's house for dinner, and after sacrament meeting his friend had not only confirmed that we could come for dinner but invited us to stay the night with them if we needed a place to stay! We spent the rest of the day talking, eating, and playing games with three-or-so families from this ward, then spent the night in their beautiful home. What incredible people.


The next morning, Monday, our journey truly began. We biked to Carmel, then biked the 17 mile drive, a beautiful and well-known scenic drive along the edge of a peninsula jutting out into the Pacific ocean. In all we went a little over 60 miles that day, and ended in the middle of Big Sur, a national forest along the coast. There we stayed in a perma-tent, as I like to call it. It was a canvas tent on a wooden platform with a wooden frame, and had a bed inside it with clean sheets and clean towels which you could use at the camp showers.

Tuesday was our hardest yet most beautiful day. When considering all of the ups and downs in elevation that day, we probably climbed a total of about 4,000 feet in elevation, and biked the farthest distance, about 72 miles. But it was one of the most exhilirating experiences of my life. Not only was it incredible seeing how far you came using your own two legs, but we were biking right alongside these gorgeous cliffs which went straight down into the ocean. At different parts of the day mist would come up off the ocean, push up the cliffs and come over the highway we were biking on, and altogether, it was unforgettable. Along the way we also stopped at an elephant seal beach, where we were probably about 30 yards away from about 40 elephant seals all laying out in the sand and water.

That night we stayed in San Simeon, a small town outside Hearst Castle. Wednesday morning we found some nice people at our continental breakfast who drove us to Hearst Castle, where we spent just about the entire morning. For the sake of time I won't talk much about it, but it was BEAUTIFUL and I highly recommend it for anyone driving through the area. That afternoon we then biked about 56 miles to the charming town of Pizmo Beach where we stayed for the night.

Thursday we biked inland a bit in order to reach Solvang, a completely Danish-style city right in the middle of California. As we were biking more inland we passed through miles of farmland, and Danny and I had a fun time guessing the different crops they were growing merely by smelling the fragrant air around us. Sixty-some-odd miles later we reached Solvang, and spent the evening exploring the charming town, eating Danish food, and reconnecting me with my Danish roots.

Friday was our last day, and on which we biked another sixty-something miles to Carpenteria, where we had to then take a train the last 80 miles back to LA in order to leave the next morning for our family reunion in Carlsbad. We did, however, have one last surprise along the way. As we rode through Santa Barbara looking for someplace to eat we stumbled upon the largest horse parade in America! We were then able to enjoy seeing men and women in Renaissance attire riding their noble steeds through the streets, horses literally dancing to mariachi music, and so forth as we enjoyed our Subway sandwiches.

Following are a number of pictures from our trip. As I haven't become a pro at this blogging thing yet I couldn't figure out how to get them in order, so they are in reverse order from the end of our trip to the beginning. :)

Some of the horses which were dancing to the mariachi music in the horse parade

In front of the windmill in Solvang

At Pizmo Beach

Admiring the incredible indoor pool at Hearst Castle

Watching the elephant seals

Danny in front of a beautiful view along the way

Another beautiful view

The perma-tent we stayed in after our first day of biking, also known as the "Crow's Nest"

(the name you might be able to see on the plaque along the side of the tent)

A beautiful bridge we crossed along the way. You can see the highway we took cutting

across the hill as well.

On the 17 miles drive. You can kind of get an idea of how little we brought in this picture,

as it is all there on our bikes

Danny and I with the wonderful man who let us stay at his house Sunday night.

I am also wearing his wife's jacket which they lent me, and which we sent them once we were finished. Incredible people!

Summer Installment 2: Sequoia National Park

A while into our time in California we decided to leave the smog and traffic of the city behind and go enjoy some NATURE! We drove three or so hours north to Sequoia National Park, hiked the first day, camped, and then set off early for another long hike the next day. Unfortunately, a number of miles into that hike my tendonitis flared up in my ankle and I had to limp the whole way back down. But we had a lot of fun witnessing the beautiful scenery, seeing the biggest tree in the entire world (General Sherman, a sequoia), and catching a glimpse of the wildlife, including THREE BEARS!

At a lookout point

Looking up inside of a tree where the core had been burned out by fire, but the sides and top were still living

In front of General Sherman, the biggest tree in the world

The following is a video of one of the bears we saw when we were hiking. Danny didn't get out his camera until a little late, so it is a short clip. But as we were hiking Danny suddenly said quietly, "Jessica, stop... There's a bear up there." I looked up, and it was completely still, looking at us. Danny, the bear and I all stood there completely still looking at each other for a while, when finally it decided we weren't going to do anything and continued sauntering off, sniffing the ground, probably looking for some breakfast. After a while of walking forward it turned, saw something, and started running down the hill (a bit ahead of us, don't worry). We turned to look and see what he was running after, and it was another bear, running away!

Summer Adventures

I had requests to put up pictures from our adventures in Los Angeles this last summer, and as we had quite a few, I may have to accomplish that task in shifts. Here is shift one!

For Danny's birthday and our one-year anniversary at the beginning of the summer I surprised Danny by kidnapping him from his work at lunch time one Friday and then driving him all the way down to San Diego. It was pretty funny, because I didn't tell him that he wasn't going back to work and just acted like I was taking him on a lunchtime excursion. After it had been perhaps 45 minutes, and we were still driving the same direction, he started getting pretty antsy and finally notified me that if we didn't turn around he was going to be REALLY late back to work. That's when I announced "Happy birthday! I'm kidnapping you!" He didn't realize I had worked it all out with his boss over a week before and started saying "Jessica, you can't just do that! I can't just leave work like that..." I could tell he was in panic mode, thinking I hadn't notified anyone in the office and he just wouldn't be showing up for the rest of the day, so I had to explain to my poor panicked Danny that everything was ok, his boss knew and had granted his generous permission!

When we got to San Diego we checked into our 4 star hotel (where I had found tickets for over 50% off), explored downtown and walked to the pier, then laughed the night away at a Brian Regan comedy show I had bought tickets for. The next day we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and saw everything from baby elephants to giraffes to rhinoceroses!

Danny and I on the pier

And lastly, we even got special treatment at our hotel! While we were waiting for our room we were sitting on the lush, fancy couches and the concierge brought us goblets of water. Well, while she was trying to pick them up off the tray and put them on the little table in front of us she happened to accidentally tip over the tray, and water spilled on my feet! She apologized profusely, then went and got a towel and was drying off my feet herself! She had known that we were celebrating our anniversary, so when we came back from our night on the town there was a bottle of sparkling lemonade and a tray of the most delicious chocolate covered strawberries I've ever had, along with a personalized card to make up for her mistake. I love the close of the card... "Stay dry!"

Believe it or not...

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, but Jessica and Danny are finally joining the ranks of married LDS couples all over the world in making our first ever blog! Now, we expect all of you (family, friends, and whoever else may stumble across us) to read this thing RELIGIOUSLY... just kidding. We figure that it is a great way for siblings, parents, grandparents and perhaps some friends to see some of the exciting things we have been doing since we were married about a year and a half ago. And boy is life exciting in our little Woodbury family!

Now as we don't have a child yet (and let's face it, the primary purpose for these blogs is for grandparents to see their adorable grandbabies and aunts and uncles to see their beloved nieces and nephews) our posting may be a little sporadic and half-hearted. But at least it will give those of you who are interested some sort of an update on our Woodbury family adventures!