We're back... on the road

Hi all,
Well, we are back in the land of communication and back on the road, headed to Santa Rosa/San Francisco for a few days...I have always wanted to visit San Francisco...so on to make another dream come true...one of my seniors this last year, affectionately known as Z, deemed me a spiritual hippie...so, in light of that, I am very much looking forward to haight-ashbury...the girls have a few other places they insist I visit, but I can't wait to see what this city has to offer in way of interviews...Renee told me this morning that she wants to make sure that I get drunk on San Francisco...my friend Chris said it is one of the most perfect places he has ever visited...so off I go wide-eyed and sponge-skinned.
Santa Cruz was probably the hardest visit yet for me...I was wearing a Rebecca Ellis pink cross that I had just received a glowing compliment on earlier in the day, but downtown Santa Cruz elicited a much different response. I walked up to a man in an orange shirt (that is important since that is how he is being remembered in our conversations and prayers)who was playing the guitar and singing. He looked a little like Santa Claus but that is where the good humor stopped.

I walked up and said "Hi."

He said, "Look lady, I am in the middle of a song."

So I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'll let you finish your song."

He incorporated a snide response in his song and when he was finished he said, "Now, what can I do for you?"

I extended my hand and said, "Hi, my name is Angela."

He shrunk away from me.

I said, "Oh, do you have a problem with handshakes?"

He said, "I have a problem with you. I don't know what you are up to, but I can tell you are up to something, you and your little Christian smurk. Why don't you just get away from me." He started getting pretty caustic and he said, "Why don't you just walk away from me right now and leave me alone." A few people started to look on and he said, " I mean it."

I smiled and as I walked away and said, "Have a nice day."

He mocked me back in a sugary, cyanide voice, "Have a nice day, you stupid Christian dipshit."

Shellshocked, I walked to the other side of the information kiosk and looked down to see what gave me away. My beautiful pink cross and a piece of paper that I held in my hand...I guess what he thought was an evangelistic tract was really a coupon someone handed me on the street for a silver sale down the street. I leaned against a wall and got my breath back as Renee set up the camera to start getting some street footage. Thankfully, a very gracious guitar player came up to us about that time and presented himself as Bobby McGee. He was full of energy, life, and joy. A little bouncy and easily distracted, but it was what I needed right about then...he agreed to an interview and when asked where we could find God, he immediately replied, "In your heart." He then went on to talk about Jesus walking on water until a lady came out of the information office and threw him off as he reported his attempts at flirting with pretty girls. He then returned to the interview talking about oceans and dangerous jellyfish, and when I tried to steer him back to Jesus's water-walking, he broke out into song and sung us a little song about Jesus walking on water and leaving a long-haired preacher man alone (resembling the chords in Janis's Bobby McGee classic). Off he went with his guardian blonde-haired friend in tow. A very attractive man from Monterey by way of Chicago and India came up with his Starbucks caramel drink and asked us what we were doing. His curiosity got the best of him, and he ended up in front of our camera and gave a twenty minute interview, defining his view of God that he fashioned from his study of Hinduism, science, and personal contemplation. He suggested we get rich by collecting 10% of Santa Cruz's income, incorporating all of our ideas and creating our own religion...he figured we must have come up with some good concepts out on our journey. I asked him if he would have to believe in what he promoted, and he said he would have to act like he believed in what he promoted, but he thought that since we have all acted different roles in our lives that acting like we believed something shouldn't be too hard. As soon as we were finished with that interview, a very eccentric man was waiting for his turn. He said his name was Adi which he said means, "Original dark, curly-headed servant." He talked a lot about servanthood...and went so far as to promote the position of slave. He spoke of serving mankind and the lord and that God was love. He said many things, but his last words were to quit looking for God and to let God find us. He said we didn't know the right address, so we would have to wait on God to find us as we served others through love and humility.
After that interview we took an ice cream break and made our way back to the car and out to Hwy. 1 to watch the para-surfers (we couldn't think of a better term, so we are going with this one). I flung myself out of the car for another nippy moment in the Pacific. We then headed to the Santa Cruz boardwalk to see seals, a momma and baby otter, and a sailboat at sunset as The Beatles and Rod Steward crooned in the background. We ate and then returned to the treehouse. The next day we meandered out to the cabin in the woods for about 36 hours of rest. We got some much-needed exercise as we helped with the annual lot clearing. We felt accomplished as we worked with gravity to rake fallen pine needles down the slope that the cabin rests on and scooped the accumulated piles on a tarp and emptied several loads into huge, metal refuse bins. We played board games, read, talked, and cooked (boy, how I have missed being in the kitchen). We left this morning and made a second stop at the local Bear Ridge Restaurant and Pub for a late breakfast. Now we are at the Angel Camp's Starbucks taking a moment to blog before we meet a DTS friend, Bubba, a few hours away.
Well, that pretty much catches you up on the girls and their last few days....sorry no pictures lately. Our camera case with battery charger and uploading cable got left in Doug's car in Santa Ana. He is fed-exing it to Bubba's (thanks, Doug), so we should be photo-friendly in a couple of days...love ya everybody and stay tuned...

Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Cruz and Beyond...

Well,
It has been a few days and we have covered a lot of ground since leaving Southern California. We traveled up Hwy. 1 and 101 and the girls were kind enough to pull off to the side of the road and allow me to fly out of the car and run headlong into a very chilly Pacific Ocean. The temperature was shocking, but I have to say that the water baby inside had a marvelous time swinging, swaying, twirling, and dancing on the sun-kissed sandy beach, picking up little rocks that whispered to me and chasing the tiny leftover waves, trying to be grownup enough to not get my walking shorts soaked and then freeze all the way to Santa Cruz...I did get a little wet and a lot sandy, but Renee helped me remove some of it off my feet and legs with a bottle of water before I climbed back in the back seat...I sat there and cried a few joyful tears, realizing another lifelong dream come true...a few moments in the Pacific Ocean, running along where water and earth hug one another...we made our way down to Santa Barbara where we stopped to make more priceline reservations...then on to the infamous Madonna Inn...not quite what it used to be or maybe exactly what it used to be and society no longer is...but we went on referral by sweet Marie on the beach and had many laughs at the expense of the mediocre food, the less than enthused wait staff, and the alienesque clientele glued to the bar stools in the cafe...



on we went to Monterey for the evening, praying that God would extend the gas when the warning light went on, as we were out in the middle of nowhere at 12:00 A.M. Betty, our navigational guru per Laura's cell phone, told us to turn around and go back to the station we had passed about fifteen minutes before...that was our best shot....God extended the fumes and we made it, filled up and then found our inn for the night. We got up, ate breakfast and headed five miles above Santa Cruz to a redwood community where our friend's (Craig) parents live. We have been here the past two days, waking up in this amazing adult tree house, sleeping with the windows open, all snuggled up in blankets chin high, falling asleep to giant redwood silhouettes and awaking to the backlit giants head-on out the window...all the comforts of home and mountain camping in one experience.

Renee and Angela with the sequoia named "The King of the Forest"

Angela the treehugger

We will blog our yesterday interviews as soon as we can work through the emotion. Talk to you as soon as we reemerge...angela