California Trip, Part I - Driving Around Southern California

As soon as my Spring exams were over, we headed out of town to go visit Stephany's family out in Southern California. We hadn't been out there since shortly before law school started in August 2007, so it had been about two years. We just got back to Dallas last night. We'll be here for about three more days (enough time to attend the wedding of two friends of ours from our church home group) before we make the drive (and temporary move, for the summer) to Albuquerque. Next week, we'll head up to Denver to see the other side of Stephany's family, who we also haven't seen in about two years.

The California trip was great! We were able to spend some really great time with Stephany's family, and we all got together several times during our trip. Since we were going to be there for about six days, we rented a car to get around easier. We spent some of our time looking for the homes where Stephany's family members lived when she was a kid. We also just drove through some cities in the area, and we headed to the beach one evening (those pics to follow).

This was one of the first days of our trip. We picked up some Frappuccinos at Starbucks (we joke that they taste like income and health insurance) and drove around for an afternoon.





Here are some pictures of the area, for those of you not familiar with Southern California. Most of our time this day was spent driving around Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, and Hacienda Heights.





I love all of the varying trees and plants out there! I even saw some Magnolia trees, which I usually associate with the South, in Pasadena. They just have all kinds of greenery (and "groundcover," green stuff all over the hills and yards which prevents soil erosion) in California.







You can see the mountains from almost anywhere in the area. Unfortunately, you can also see the smog. Like most big cities, though, some days are better than others. Stephany says that's one reason why she loves the mountains in Albuquerque - it reminds her of her childhood growing up in Southern California.



The hills are one of the most distinctive aspects of Southern California, I think. They're really cool to see. In some places, you see really nice homes built up on them.







This was another day of driving around, towards the end of our trip. We started the day out at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a coffee store chain out that way. Stephany was lookin' quite cute.





We ended up that day out towards Disneyland in Anaheim, quite unintentionally (unless Stephany has some sort of internal magnet that inherently draws her to Disneyland - which is completely possible). I know it was hard for Steph to be so close to Disneyland without actually going, but she survived. We'll look forward to going again, maybe our next trip. I love how the brown sign says "Theme Park," with an arrow - it's Disneyland! As if anyone might just happen to be in the area looking for a theme park of some sort ("Oh, hey, this one looks good.").





More to come soon.