keri and i flew into san francisco last thursday morning, took bart into the city, shopped, bought some missionary skirts (painful), jumped into our rental car (it looked like lightning mcqueen, lauren's favorite), plugged in the gps navigaiton system and headed for santa rosa!
lightning queen!
the golden gate bridge!
the drive was beautiful! it took us about an hour and a half - traffic was only bad off and on...all in all a great journey! we found out later that horizon air (a subsidiary of alaskan airlines) flies from las vegas to sonoma county airport (santa rosa) for not too bad a price. unless someone wants to see san fran, we can bypass that three hour round trip. :)
santa rosa has a cute downtown and after we checked in, we walked to the very best restaurant ever. the hotel clerk recommended LoCoCo's (italian), and we loved every biteful! a "must eat" for any future visitors!
friday morning we met up with a childhood friend, valerie (ence) hardisty, who had offered to show us around a bit. we went to hailey's high school (it was spring break/bummer), saw our new church, saw some deer, and went to our soon-to-be new abode!
me and valerie!
inner courtyard of the school.
hailey will be a PUMA!
maria carillo high school!
the deer!
view of the hill behind the school from the church.
the house!
the view from the back porch.
after sister stoddard showed us around we went to lunch and she tried to tell me everything i would need to know for the next three years. yikes! seeing the house and the school; that gave me a good feeling. by the time we were finished with lunch, i thought my head might explode. luckily, keri and i got to be tourists again after lunch and we took a drive to the beach; bodega bay. what an incredible drive! i kept thinking the whole way how comfortable brent and michelle would be in this part of the world. there were cows, barns, ranches...i was even comfortable. i think it is a great blessing for me to have "a little bit of country" in me. i think jon is in for the biggest adjustment missing the city. we'll see. i don't really like that the city was shutting down at 9:00 at night either. my visiting children will have to get used to it. :)
it was great to be able to see it all in person. our "handbook" told us not to visit the mission before we were to arrive! i had planned just to see the school, get the details worked out and drive past the house. i never planned to let the stoddard's know i was coming. i'm not sure how they found out, but they did! it sort of freaked me out, but i'm so glad i was able to meet her and see the house inside and out. sister stoddard was so wonderful, and welcomed us with open arms. (note to self: be wonderful in three years when leaving.) she had sent us a handful of pictures of the house about a month ago. they were (to put it mildly) depressing. in person, it is much better! i think i will miss my shutters the most...
i couldn't have asked for a better traveling companion. keri was SO VERY POSITIVE about everything! again, she showed me how to be a true and loving friend, by her support, her smile, her jokes, her laugh, and her encouragement. I AM BLESSED!!!
i wrote hailey a text message while i was there and said, "we are going to like santa rosa! i'm so glad you are coming with us." she wrote me back and said, "i'm excited to be able to go with you too! i love you mommy!" her excitement and sadness comes and goes...just like mine. she's normal. but i think we are going to be very happy!
11 comments:
Wow-I can imagine the mixed feelings/emotions you have. My stomach is feeling them for you! I remember the first day on my mission, I spoke with a Sister Jones that was going home. I wanted to go home with her SO BADLY, but I didn't want to go without having/knowing what she had, which only came through the experience of being there. I realized then I could only get what she had by going through day by day what she had done. YUCK!! I wanted to hide in her suit case! It was the most trying/beautiful experience. And I can tell you the day I went home I had gained everything that Sister Jones had, it was the happiest day of my life! I am very excited for you and happy you have such a beautiful place to go. You will be blessed and you will bless so many. Love you.
Wow! It looks BEAUTIFUL! I want to come visit! I am glad you got to go see it before you actually got there. You guys are going to be absolutely wonderful. Love you.
it is so green. weird.
;)
whoop whoop! GO PUMAS!!!(:
-that sounds weird. what is a puma?
haha. love you.
hailey, pumas are shoes :)
it is SO gorgeous.
beaches and barns within minutes of each other?
it's like heaven!!
it really is going to be fantastic!
can't wait to visit :)
it looks amazing! I am so glad you got a sneak peak! I am sure you are going to fall in love with green surroundings! I know someone who could hook you up with shutters!
Wow, Susan, that is beautiful country up there. You are going to come back to Vegas and wonder why everything is brown! That looks like a nice high school. I'm sure Hailey will love it! :) There is so much to do in SF. Will you be able to go there sometimes?
jennifer johnson, you are hil.air.e.ous!
my first question was "who is bart?" but, keri told me that it is a transit system... not some old man that you had to drop off in the city. phew.
so sad about the shutters. but it looks like the outside is so beautiful, you can just keep the windows open all day.
I'm so glad you got to do a little "in preview" trip. It looks absolutely so beautiful there! I want to know how much it rains. I'm glad you're feeling more positive about your surroundings after seeing it in person. This is going to be amazing for you all!
Really, that place is gorgeous! Nice looking school, lovely home, beach and mountains. What could be better? You guys are going to have a great time.
I'm excited for you Susan! Last year for my bday, Brad and I went to Napa, then drove through Santa Rosa, (I had a good friend in College from there,) and then on to Bodega Bay. We had lunch there and drove around and thought it was all so beautiful. Sometimes I get the urge to just move somewhere totally new and enjoy something different! I'm much more adventurous that way than Brad, but anyways, I think you guys are going to be great and the missionaries will love you. Maybe we'll have to make another trip up there to visit someday! I will miss you though, so don't forget about us!
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