Trip to NYC and CHI- TOWN

At the begging of the Month my friend Kelly was visiting from Australia. She really wanted to go to New York City. She had never been so I gave her a buddy pass and we headed off on our adventure and the midnight red eye flight.

I really didn't think that we were going to get on, but when we did, I called my dad at midnight and had him book us a hotel room. I told him which one though, so he didn't have to go searching for a good deal.

I got to sit in first class on the way over and was not very smart. I watched a movie going over. I couldn't pull myself away. I finally got about 2 hours of interrupted sleep before we landed in JFK. We then started out. I was very glad that I knew the way and was just able to go instead of like last time, when I wandered around and had to ask everyone where to go.

Our hotel was very easy to get to and I rather liked it. The lobby was bright and colorful, the hallways were dark, but colorful and the rooms were small but clean and air-conditioned. That was my favorite part. We took a quick nap, before heading downtown.

We first went to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was fun to walk most of the way across it and get some better views.

We then walked through lower Manhattan, through the St Paul’s Church, saw Alexander Hamilton’s grave, we walked passed Wall street and got a picture of the Big Bull and saw the ground zero before walking down through Battery Park to buy our tickets for the Statue of Liberty.

The lines were crazy. We stood in Line for over an Hour just to make it to the screening center. The ferry was way over crowded, but at least it was a nice clear day to have a nice walk around Liberty Island. After that we took a train up to Times Square to eat some pizza.

We walked around looking at all the lights and made a stop in Toys R Us to see the Giant Ferris Wheel inside and the little less than Life Size T-Rex and other toys. After that we went over to Central Park to enjoy the peace and quiet and the pretty views of the buildings.
One thing that really shocked me were all the Piles of Garbage that lined the streets at night. The heat of the day didn't help the smell of the bags. It kind of helped it to smolder. It was kind of interesting. It made it so deep breathing was not recommended.

We soon had to go back to the Hotel to change and accidently take a nap. We then quickly left to go eat at a little open door pub down the street. It was great food and not to spendy. We then had to go see Times Square at night. I love Times Square. It truly is one of my favorite places on earth. I love the lights and the Atmosphere.

I was very grateful when sleep finally came. We planned to get up early but it didn't happen. We only had time to go up to the temple. The man in the front let us go into the front doors. I felt really underdressed to do that, but they were really nice. We then went up the 1 train line a ways to Tom's Restaurant. They used the outside as the Restaurant in Seinfeld.

We then went back a couple streets to see the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It is one of the biggest in the world. It was really beautiful and I wish I would have had more time and a better camera so I could enjoy the inside of it.

here is another view of the inside

After that we walked through a corner of Central Parks North West side before heading back down to 5th avenue getting food and heading to the airport.

The airport was a fiasco. We tried to get on a flight and it didn't work. The rest of the flights looked terrible for the next two days. I had to make a decision so I decided to take us to Chicago! It would help us out, because we would have a free place to stay, the flights looked better and there was another city that Kelly said she had visited.

We both got first class, on a little plane over to Chicago and soon got on the blue line headed to my friend Celeste's house. We all sat to chat for awhile. Kelly was amazed at the Fireflies in the backyard. We sat there playing with them and trying to take pictures of them forever.

Finally we went downtown and walked around the streets. We went up inside the John Hancock building pretending to get drinks, so we didn't have to pay. The view was amazing at night. We then went and ordered a Pizza and got Kelly some fries. Because it was so late, we had to take the pizza to go. We ate it over east of Michigan Ave buy the NBC building in a little park.

It was so fun, to sit enjoy friends company and the lights of the city. After that we walked around by the Chicago river and headed back home.

We stayed up all night talking, before leaving really early to get flight stuff figured out.

It took a couple of tries and I didn't think we were going to make it, but after racking up a lot of airport appreciation time we finally did. I was stressed about all the flights, but the trip was really fun and I'm glad we were able to go.

Tulip Festival

My mom and I love flowers. So a little while ago I took her to Thanksgiving point and we had a day at the Tulip Festival there. It was when It was just starting to get warm in the spring time. It was so beautiful.

We started to take a tour to learn all about the flowers and the Garden, but they were walking way to quickly and we didn't have time to enjoy everything and take the millions of pictures we like to take, so we broke off and slowly walked through the flowers and each of the different gardens, just chatting and enjoying the scenery.

I had know Idea that there were so many different types of Tulips.

Each year after the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving point they dig up all the bulbs and sale them. I wanted to by some but you don't know what kind you are getting. I want, what I want,so I decided that was a no go.

We last ended up at this big rock waterfall with little food vendors.

I got this Chimney European pastry that was kinda interesting. We then sat and ate at the Cafe out on the Patio. It was a great day out with mom!

Martin and San Diego

So my friend Martin from Switzerland moved to San Diego for a few months. He was in an intense English program in La Jolla. One of my trips ended in Ontario and so I decided to rent a car after my trip and drive down to visit him. It was so much fun and only slightly tragic.

The fun parts were the first day we went to the beach and played sand volley ball and later that night headed on over to the San Diego Temple. It was so beautiful at night. The next day I drove all around San Diego while Martin was in class taking tons of pictures of all the sights.

The Tragic part of the trip came when I picked Martin up and we went on a walk along La Jolla shores beach. We were walking in the water and sadly my camera fell out. I never even new that it happened until it was lost. All those pictures and memories lost. At least I downloaded a couple before I lost it. I guess I'll have to do as the people in the old days did. Just remember it.

Later that night we went out to eat with a bunch of his swiss friends. We lost them in downtown and spent 30 minutes driving all over trying to find them. When we did it was in little italy and a wonderful little resaurant. It was great fun except I couldn't understand half of what they were saying. Swiss German is messed up! Anyway we left really late and I had to drive straight back up to Ontario, got 1 hour of sleep before I had to head off on a plane back to Utah. Oh well, It was worth it!

The Zoo and Nephews

At the Beginning of June I had the chance to go up to Boise and take my sister and her little kids out to a day at the Boise Zoo.

I've been planning to do this forever. The kids loved it!! I was a little nervous that they would get bored. We saw so many different animals, Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!! One of the Favorite exibits was the African Plains.

They had a little mock village as well as loud monkeys, Giraffes and Zebras too!! The only thing I wish is that we would have had a map instead of getting lost in the maze of winding roads trying to search for a few animals that seemed hidden, like the Red Panda.

There were also lots of toys that were really hard to get the boys off of. When we finished at the Zoo we went and had a picnic in the park next to the zoo.
The next day we went out to a little carnival and took Trey and Chase on a little roller coaster.
They were a little terrified, but we convinced them that they had fun!

Hello from Down Under...Sydney to be exact!!

At the end of April I was able with two of my Chicago friends, to take a trip to Sydney Australia. We took a flight out of San Fran and sat in Business class on the way over. We were even lucky enough to sit together, even though we flew stand by. It was a 14 hour flight, but was to me like a fun road trip, with bigger seats and more space to run around. We mostly sat around and played games on Andrews Iphone and talked, trying to force ourselves to stay awake until we should go to sleep Sydney time, helps with the Jet lag. I was one of the only ones who made it, but was able to see the Hawaiian Islands as we passed them by. Well when we finally got to Sydney we couldn’t get off the airplane until they sprayed for bugs. Apparently the planes pesticide papers had expired 4 days pervious and so before we could get off they had to come on with aerosol bug spray and spray everywhere. You can imagine the ruckus that caused. Everyone freaked out, but I just took it as a photo op. We finally got off and headed on our way, so I thought. The first day was full of little snags of not having a room rented, not knowing how to get to a hostel, figuring out transportation and then trying to find parking. 8 hours after we landed, we were able to finally get downtown to sight see. We went to an area known as the rocks, which is the oldest settled part of Sydney. This is one of the most Touristy spots and is right on the Harbour. The oldest house in Sydney is located here as well. It’s called Cadman's Cottage and was built in 1816, once home to John Cadman. After eating some Pizza with hot Salomi and whole olives with the pits still in them, we ventured a short distance over to the Harbour to look at the Sydney Opera House and then walk down to the end of the doc to take pictures of the Harbour Bridge. As we sat and admired the view I looked down into the water below and saw hords of Jelly Fish. They almost covered the water, defiantly wouldn’t want to take a swim there. It reminded me of all the dangerous animals they have here. They have the most dangerous Spider, Snake and Jelly Fish. Well after we saw the bridge and Opera house I had to run back to the car, grab my bags and head off on the Train to Parmatta, where my friend Kelly Conlon lived. I was supposed to be here the first day myself so I could go hang out with Kelly, but my friends decided to come a bit early. Well it was Kelly’s birthday so she got a group of friends together along with her twin sister and we went out to celebrate. We went out to eat and then after we ate ice cream and cookies, while watching a movie. Kellys roomie Amie had me try tons of different kinds of Aussie food, Milo hot chocolate, Tim Tams, some other little things and she even made me lunch for the next day, a veggie mite sandwich. Vegie mite is made from yeast extract, so it’s kind of Salty and sour as in fermented sour. I don’t know how to explain it. Anyway I had tons of fun with my Aussie experience hanging out with Aussies. The next day Kelly took me up to her work, which was the church offices in Sydney which was right next to the temple. I was able to attend a session in the Sydney temple and then enjoy the grounds for awhile till my friends picked me up and we then headed off to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This was one of my most favorite parts of the trip. The park lets you get up close and personal with the animals. Some of the animal are fenced in but many are just out roaming around at your feet. I was able to pet A Wallaby
A Kangaroo A Koala An Emu and see lots of other animals native to Australia, like the Tasmanian Devil, which is a lot uglier than I had anticipated. A wombat, apparently they bite, so there was not petting going on there. The most poisonous snake in the world Inland Taipan . I wouldn’t want to be in that section of the zoo in an earth quake, They had like 6 of the most poisonous snakes in that room. There were tons more and I loved it. It was the most fun, I’d had at a zoo, since I was a kid probably. Actually, I think it is the most fun I’ve ever had a the zoo! After the zoo we ventured on up the road into the famous Blue Mountains, so named for the bluish tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. I thought that they would be more desolate, but they were populated and beautiful. One thing that was kind of weird to me was to see the leaves changing colors in April. It was fall there for them and very pretty. We were able to see some waterfalls. The red cliffs dropped straight down and were covered in green. It was a beautiful back drop for the water to cascade from. I wish we would have had more time here. You could feel the moister in the air and it finally gave way into buckets of rain.
(this is what the three sisters should look like...not my picture)
We ran back to the car and started heading up the road to another rock formation we wanted to see called the three sisters. The modern day tourism industry has created a legend about the three sisters that says that three sisters fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. Battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back. We tried to race the weather, but when we got to the town of Katoomba we found it cold and fog filled. We could barely see in front of our faces, let alone the mountains. We decided to get ourselves some food and then found a hotel to stay the night, since it was twilight and bad weather, we thought that if we stayed, we’d be able to see stuff the next morning. To our dismay when we awoke, the view was the same. The fog was dense and thick, but we decided to take a walk down by Echo Point anyway and take a picture of the view, which looks like San Francisco on most days, just gray. We then had to head back to Sydney and drop the car off. I was perfectly fine getting rid of that scary little thing. I was the only one that was to drive it, but the stupid thing was a stick, but even worse was the steering wheel was on the right and you had to drive on the left. It would have been fine, well sort of if I didn’t have to think about all of that at once. I only almost killed us a couple of times, but freaked everyone out most of the time. I finally let my friend Andrew drive. We then took a ride on a ferry out to Manly beach. The ride was so beautiful and the beach was amazing. This is a picture looking back at Sydney from the ferry anyway, Manly is across the harbor from Sydney. I think it’s the best place to go for souvenirs. It reminds me of a boardwalk beach town in California. The ice cream was great and the view was amazing. I think I liked Manly beach better than Bondi beach, which is more famous. Anyway after taking some pictures and walking around we headed back on the ferry. We decided to stand in the bottom part of the boat this time because the waves splashed up and I wanted to get some cool pictures. Well there were a lot of people in the front of the boat headed back. I think it made it heavier because we got a lot wetter than the people did going over. I thought I had the timing right to get a good picture but instead I got drenched and I sadly used my camera as a shield against the water, instead of me shielding the camera. My camera didn’t last very long after that. Salt water and cameras don’t mix. Anyway I’ve never seen people scatter so quickly. We stayed up there and enjoyed the view. It was worth it. We were going to go up in the Center Point tower to get a great view of the city, but it cost 25 bucks and I had just destroyed my camera, so I wasn’t in the mood. We did walk along Macquarie street and saw the Parliament House, Sydney hospital, which is an amazing old building, outside the Royal Botanical gardens and took a stroll threw Sydney’s Hyde park. It weirded me out that so many place here had the same names as in London. We also got to see St Mary’s Cathedral, which is made of a brilliant red stone and beautiful to see. It is also the largest Cathedral in Australia, but not the highest. Later that night we were able to walk around China town, eat Chinese food and walk down by Darling Harbour to see some of the boats in the maritime museum. It was the only time I was able to see any of the lights of Downtown Sydney at night. The harbour was beautiful. I wish we could have seen the Opera house as well. There were lots of street performers to watch besides just sitting and relaxing on the shore line. The next day we took a bus out to Bondi beach and relaxed on its beautiful shores. This beach was a lot less crowded than Manly and the water wasn’t very cold to swim in either. I didn’t get to stay long before I had to head back and go to lunch with my friend Warren Dautzenburg. He is an elder from my mission. The funny thing was that we just ran into him on the street. I was walking along and all of a sudden he was right in front of me. It was so random, but I was grateful. It was fun seeing him again. We were supposed to go hiking around the rocky shores of Watson Bay north of Bondi beach later that afternoon but the plans were changed and I ended up just taking the ferry back across the harbour right when I met back up with my friends. Maybe next trip. I saw the light houses and rocks from the bus, so that is ok at least I saw them. That night we didn’t do much of anything because Andrew got food poisoning from bad sushi and Chelsea was sunburned really bad. I ran errands for them, but it was nice to get out and walk around. The next day Chelsea and I headed back down to the rocks, which we visited almost every day, to see the Opera house, and also to eat at our favorite place called Pancakes on the rocks. They had the most amazing crepes and pancakes and they didn’t just have sweet stuff. I had some with chicken and a creamy sauce smothered with parmesan cheese. It was delicious!! Anyway the time went by way to fast and I soon found myself climbing aboard a United Boeing 747 in economy class. I was unlucky enough to get a middle seat, but blessed that the seat next to me was broken, so I could spread out. I did get a beautiful view of Sydney as we flew over and I got to say good bye to that beautiful city that felt a little bit like home.