USA Road Trip: Point Reyes National Park and Santa Cruz

Day 16 – About 25 miles south of Fort Bragg we stopped for breakfast in a little diner called “Queenies” and ate very well. Came to pay… realised I had AGAIN left my wallet somewhere. We drove back to the previous motel and collected the wallet which is now superglued to my leg. The day was really one LONG drive along the coast, which was very scenic. Can’t really complain when the Pacific Ocean is on your right all the time. The cliff roads got a bit hairy though… we got to Novato (commuter town just north of San Francisco) and found a mexican restaurant for dinner. Just a warning to others… don’t order anything with “Super” or especially “Macho” before the main description…

Day 17 – We left Novato early to get to Point Reyes National Park which is just north of San Francisco. When we arrived it became clear that we really needed 3 days here rather than 4 hours so we got cracking. We drove out to the lighthouse on the ocean and watched Peregine Falcons, Vultures and Hawks hunting as well as getting blown over by the wind! We then headed to the north of the park and saw several huge Elk (Moose) feeding in the wild… really stunning. We had to miss out so much stuff which was a shame. After lunch we began the drive south (which took AGES). It was fun watching hundreds of people stuck in traffic going the other way though! Driving back over the Golden Gate Bridge was awesome, especially with no fog this time. Driving through San Francisco took ages as did the drive to Santa Cruz. Saw another bad accident involving a motorbike… saw plenty of others driving like lunatics on cliff roads. This drive was awesome – the views were stunning. Loads of surfers and kite surfers at every beach. We got to Santa Cruz, checked in and headed straight down to the lighthouse to watch the sunset. There were loads of crazy surfers catching waves right by huge rocks so it was cool watching them risk their lives… lots of sea lions, seals and other wildlife as well. Then we headed to the famous boardwalk and funfair. Found loads of cool old school arcade games… sadly hunger overtook us and we found a great pasta place a bit nearer our motel. Half way through the meal the staff all launched into a medley singing and dancing performance in the middle of the restaurant… a really great night out!

Day 18 – Short drive down the coast to Monterey to the world famous aquarium…

USA Road Trip: Fort Bragg and Mendocino

Day 14 – When at the Pacific Ocean the first thing you have to do is to find the beach. Fort Bragg has a famous beach called Glass Beach which we headed to straight after breakfast. Its called Glass Beach because it used to be the town dump and now has lots of smoothed out glass all over it. Quite pretty really. The surf was incredible as the coast is very rocky – some awesome waves crashing in. Whilst on Glass Beach we saw a load of people with binoculars and telescopes – a species of bird called a Hudsonian Godwit (bit like a Curlew) was on the beach – the first time it had even been seen this far south. We took some photos and promised to email them to the bird watchers… I just kept making inappropriate jokes about twitchers. Had lunch at a local fish restaurant and finally had some clam chowder which was really good. Wandered around another beach for a bit and then sat in a laundromat for ages cleaning our clothes. Ate back at the motel having got a takeaway from the local supermarket… Star Wars 3 on the TV.

Day 15 – Began with me finally getting my wallet back. The owner of the cafe I had left my wallet in met us in another cafe in Fort Bragg… what a guy! Then we headed to Medocino about 10miles south. Its a small village on the edge of the cliff – they filmed lots of “Murder She Wrote” here apparently. On the way we stopped at an old lighthouse right on the edge of a cliff… saw seals and great views. In Mendocino we found a really good place for lunch and stopped there for a bit playing cards… which was a mistake as when we finally left to walk around the cliff tops the sea fog had come in and you couldn’t see anything!! So instead we headed back to Fort Bragg and played Crazy Golf just opposite our motel. Proper beach holiday!! Last night we went out to a local Mexican restaurant. We’ve absolutely loved our time here… really chilled out and loads of great coffee!

Day 16 – We’re about to head south along Highway 1 down the Pacific Coast towards Bodega Bay and we’ll be staying just north of San Francisco. Just seen that there has been both wildfires and a rockslide in Yosemite… very near to where we were hanging out. Yikes. Also there is a big wildfire in Monterey County… we’ll be there in 2 days. Not often I hope for rain…

USA Road Trip: Arcata and Eureka

Day 12: We arrived in Arcata with the temp at 65 degrees – 40 degrees cooler than Redding. We headed into Arcata for a coffee and some food. What a cool place! It was full of really interesting shops and food places… but the town seemed to have more than its fair share of people who generally looked totally stoned! They weren’t just students (although there were plenty of them) either. Anyway after a small supper at a weird veggie restaurant we found the most awesome ice cream parlour I’d ever seen. We spent $13 on two of the biggest icecreams in cones you’ve ever seen. I had rocky road, chocolate peanut butter, and blueberry bonanza icecream with mashed in twix, chocolate sauce and toffee sauce in a dipped chocolate cone. This was only a MEDIUM as well… apparently a large cone is a pint of icecream!!!!

Day 13 – We went to Eureka for breakfast. We settled on a little coffee house that served bagels (after the ice cream the previous evening that seemed appropriate!). We had a wander around the local farmers market and some of the streets and then headed south to the “Avenue of Giants”. This is a 32mile road through the Giant Redwood groves along the Pacific Coast. It was stunning. After grabbing lunch in a deli we continued south past a really bad motorbike accident (not a nice sight – hope the rider was OK) onto Highway 1. The drive was really bendy and both of us were very relieved to see the Pacific Ocean after an hour of feeling really sick! We arrived at our fab motel and realised that I had left my wallet at the deli we had lunch at. Doh!!! Have just called them and hopefully they’ll be able to courier it down to us as we’re in Fort Bragg for a couple of days. If they can’t I’ll be driving 2.5hrs back up the coast to get it.

Idiot. Anyway, the Pacific Ocean covers a multitude of mistakes so hopefully it’ll be sorted asap. Just waiting for them to ring me back now…

USA Road Trip: Redding & Bethel Church

Day 11 – Today was only half way through the trip! We headed to a church called “Bethel Church”  which is a very large and lively Pentecostal church in Redding. We’d planned to visit as the pastor (Bill Johnson) was quite well known to some in the UK and we wanted to check it out… the morning service (11am) that we went to had about 1500 people there. The worship was great, really lively and engaging. A guy called Kris Vallotten spoke on healing and forgiveness. It was great to go there. The church building looks a bit like the NEC and has a coffee bar like Starbucks, a bookstore, a huge carpark and even basketball hoops in the main auditorium. We went back in the evening to hear Heidi Baker speak – she leads a charity/ministry in Mozambique called Iris Ministries  which does the most amazing work in Mozambique and beyond. She is a small American woman with the most powerful stories and testimonies of what God is doing in some of the poorest places in Africa. She spoke on Mary learning from the Angel Gabriel that she was pregnant… it was fantastic. Heidi is incredible – she told a story of one of the clinics/small hospitals that they ran in which they had an outbreak of Cholera. They were told to shut down and let the people simply die. Heidi felt that God told her to just go into the hospital and hug all of the 80 patients. Which she did. Without a mask or any protection. Every single one of them survived and got better. She also talked about the cost of obeying God – that trouble comes and how things might not always work out the way we hope – its at this point that we refuse to give up and we live by faith. The more I think about it the more I feel inspired. A real priviledge to listen to someone like her.

Day 12 – We went to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for breakfast. I’d compare it to the Little Chef but with more food on the menu and at a cheaper rate. Quality… hmmmm. Left feeling more than full and headed towards the coast – we had a hotel in Arcata waiting for us!

USA Road Trip: Mount Lassen National Park

Day 9 – We left Lake Tahoe and headed north. We stopped for early lunch at Truckee (basically a high street and a train station) and had some food. Back on the move we drove on to a place called Chester – a small town on the edge of Lake Alamore just south of Mt Lassen National Park. We found a small motel that was owned by the adjacent Best Western. We got a nice little room for half the price of the Best Western, but with all their facilities thrown in. Nice!

Day 10 – We drove into the volcanic Mt Lassen National Park early in the morning. The scenery was very different to Yosemite but just as awesome. There are several dormant volcanoes in the park (Mt Lassen being the highest), as well as lots of sulphur springs and geysers. We took a 3 mile round hike to a place called Bumpass Hell (a guide called Bumpass slipped into hot mud/water and severely burnt his leg). To say that it smelt bad was an understatement! The drive through the park was really fascinating and we seemed to stop every 5 mins. Once through the rest of the park we headed down from the mountains into the heat of Redding (105 degrees!!). Nell had found a great motel online which we booked into. That evening we tucked into “small” steaks at “Cattlemans” next door. Small = 8oz!!!!! They had 2lb steaks on the menu!!!!! Even I wasn’t tempted with something that big!

USA Road Trip: Lake Tahoe

Day 8: Left Yosemite via the Tioga Pass (see last post) and headed up north towards Lake Tahoe. V popular ski resort in the winter and boating place in the summer. Arrived at a “Quality Inn” (which almost lived up to its name). Headed out in the evening to a great restaurant called “Freshies”. We ate out on their sun deck and watched the sun go down over the lake. Combined with absolutely fantastic food this was a really nice evening. Had a quick wander along the lake shore to take more photos and enjoy the sunset. Then thought it would be fun to drive over the state border into Nevada to look at the shiny casinos. We drove over the border. There were 4/5 “hotels” with casinos in them. Not enough neon for Nell’s liking so we drove back and drank beer in our room whilst watching HBO. We really know how to party!!!

Day 9: Started the day with the worst buffet breakfast I have ever seen… polystyrene bowls/cups/plates and rubbish food. Headed even further north into the mountains again…

USA Road Trip: Yosemite National Park

Day 5: Drove from San Fran in our almost American muscle car.  Really boring drive on various freeways most of the time.  Nell got excited about visiting Wall Mart.  I didn’t.  Arrived at our motel (Cedar Lodge) and I drove off to find petrol, and get our 7 day ticket for the park. The gas station I used sold the most expensive petrol in the whole of the USA which is still miles cheaper than anything in the UK. It was proper hot here – about 95degrees F at our hotel and a bit cooler in Yosemite.

Day 6: Into Yosemite… words cannot even come close to describing the utter beauty of this place. I’ve been to some stunning vistas but these took every biscuit going. The place is amazing. We did a few mini hikes up to a few waterfalls and then ended the day watching the sunset at Glacier Point. The view there was awesome. We left before the colours of the sunset really got going but we saw them on the way down. I’ve never seen a sunset like it. Also one of the scariest drives that I’ve ever done – 1000ft cliffs inches from the edge of the road with no barrier. Pity Nell in the passenger seat nearest the edge . Highlight for me was scrambling up to the top of Vernal Falls passing couples and families having rows about how steep/how tired they were etc.

Day 7: Back in the park for a trip around the Sequoia trees in Mariposa Grove (south end of Yosemite). We took a tram ride around the trees. On the way we visited the famous “Bridleveil” falls – although calling it a waterfall in August is a bit rich… more of an occasional trickle. We hiked up a short path to find another “waterfall” that promised much and again was simply a trickle. Again, words can’t describe the views we saw. Take your breath away stuff. The “Tunnel View” was the classic Yosemite picture postcard…

Day 8: Very sad to be leaving Yosemite… we drove across the park to the “Tioga Pass” which at 10000ft was very high!! Again, stopped about every 5mins to take photos and enjoy the view. Once through the park we thought all the nice scenery would finish… how wrong we were. The entire drive up to Lake Tahoe was incredible… and just as scary!!

Road Trip USA: San Francisco

We’re not actually in San Fran anymore… we left last Monday in fact but this is the first time I’ve had free access to a proper computer – blogging on an ipod touch is next to impossible…

I can’t post photos up either – they’ll go up when we’re home in a couple of weeks (nice to know we’ve still got ages here!!!)

Days 1-4: SAN FRANCISCO

Arrived Thurs 13th from Heathrow. Flight was pretty uneventful. Watched Fast and Furious (garbage) and Enemy of the State (classic Will Smith). Usual British Airways 1hr delay and then having to reset all the films because the system crashed.

Eating Pizza at 930pm San Fran time (530am UK) on the first night tested even my stomach.

Day 2 – started with breakfast at Lori’s Diner (tasty) and then saw us be proper tourists including getting stupidly sunburnt (it didn’t feel warm!!!). We rode the trams/cable cars around the city, did a boat trip around the bay – under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz (ridiculously expensive to actually visit unfortunately).

Day 3 – went over to Haight and Ashbury on the recommendation of a friend and found the most amazing breakfast place (The Pork Cafe) – stuffed our faces and waddled around this hippyish bit of the city. Headed back for some shopping… new trainers and sunglasses (cheap but good).

Day 4 – back to Lori’s diner for breakfast and then a bit later on got the bus across the Golden Gate Bridge and then walked back – not a great idea for someone with a phobia of high bridges (me).
Finished the day drinking cocktails and eating really good burgers at the top of the Grand Hyatt hotel near Union Square – about 36 storeys up. Watched the sun set. Very romantic

Day 5 – Collected car… only took us 2hrs. One bloke in the queue behind us going mental for the entire time. Turned out he only wanted the car for the day… kept the rest of us entertained though. Got a Dodge Charger (yeah baby!!!!) and headed to Yosemite…

Evangelical Christianity: It’s Glastonbury for God

This was the headline in the Independent for an article written after a visit to New Wine Christian Festival last week.

Link is HERE

I always find it a bit strange to read this kind of an article but it really does give some great insights into how we are viewed by many.

Reading some of the reader comments at the bottom of the page is fun too… any thoughts??

Bristol Avon Barbel

Fished the Bristol Avon again yesterday afternoon for a few hours. The river was a bit too high and coloured to spot fish so it was a matter of fishing in areas that looked “fishy”.

As it was so warm, there were swimmers in a few shallow bits of the river so they were to be avoided. Lost two fish in quick succession and struggled for anything other than a small chub.

Dropped back into a swim that I had lost a fish in a bit earlier – waited a bit longer than I would normally and the rod flew round and I brought a very lively 7lb Barbel to the net. Really pleased with that fish.

Moved into the other swim that I’d lost a fish earlier, and sure enough the rod went round very quickly and I landed a slightly bigger Barbel of about 7.5lbs. Another move saw a small chub grab my bait and then just as light was fading I had another 7lb Barbel. All the fish were in great condition and swam off strongly. Could have had more if I didn’t need to get back on the M4 and home.

New Wine – THIRST Venue 09

We had a fantastic summer in Thirst (14-19s venue at New Wine) this year. The weather was pretty terrible earlier in the week but as usual people mucked in and helped each other out… still think that camping on the Bath and West Showground during a downpour takes a special kind of endurance though.

Not got time to go into detail but want to publicly big up the team that worked in Thirst – over 100 people who gave up jobs, time, money, sleep, sanity and more for a week to serve the young people that came along this summer. These guys are amazing and Thirst was much the better for them being there.

A few highlights for me…

- The massive amount given by the young people towards Tearfund and Regenerate – more than 50% up on the previous year. A sign of God moving amongst us…

- The awesome effort made by the team – going the extra mile and then some…

- The signs of God’s presence in our midst – people becoming followers of Jesus, healings, peace, transformation beginning

It was our last year leading Thirst and it was great to feel like we’d finished well… now off to the US of A

Back in civilisation

Back from a great time at New Wine leading the Thirst venue. Will post more details later but suffice to say that it was fantastic.

Only 3 sleeps until we go to California!!!!

Heard that our landlord is giving us a new bathroom while we are away this month which was a really nice surprise.

And today is cleaning day.

Fun.

Critical Thinking

Found this really interesting blog post from Alan Mann on “Camp Quest” (see previous post). Thought I’d put up a bit of it along with a link and welcome any thoughts…

Here’s the direct link

And a sample of the article. It articulates my thoughts much better than I can (thanks Alan!). He has an interesting take on the accusation made by the Times that Dawkins is “grooming the atheists of the future”.

Responding to one headline:“Dawkins sets up kids’ camp to groom atheists” Those organising the camp would like to make it known that, ‘Richard Dawkins is not setting up Camp Quest UK. The word “groom” is misleading, offensive and inaccurate.‘

Of course, Dawkins would never suggest that those of a religious bent would be found ‘grooming’ children, or stoop so low as to cause offence, mislead people about religion, or say anything inaccurate about Christianity – but he might write this: ‘we should work to free the children of the world from the religions which, with parental approval, damage minds too young to understand what is happening to them . . . Priestly groping of child bodies is disgusting. But it may be less harmful in the long run than priestly subversion of child minds.’

The organisers of Camp Quest are right to be frustrated and annoyed about being misrepresented – Welcome to the world of your own making!