Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

After driving through the Redwoods my family and I continued on our trek and headed down to the San Francisco area. We had several places that we planned on going to. Some were in San Francisco, and some were in surrounding cities.

For the duration of the stay we roomed in the city of Fairfield, at a hotel called Homewood Suites, one of the Hilton brand hotels. They offer both breakfast and dinner there, so it can be a bargain if you have a larger family.

Our first destination was a visit to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. The park itself has been in the area for a while but hasn’t always been a Six Flags park. My parents have always known it as Marine World, which has been the name of the park until just a few years back. The theme for the park is Land, Water, and Air, as it features marine and land wildlife, as well as a variety of rides which are supposed to represent Air.

The marine portion of the park was sort of like a miniature version of SeaWorld in that they had water shows that you could watch. We were able to see dolphins, sea lions, tigers, and orcas. I don’t think that the shows are nearly as good as you would be able to see at SeaWorld, but they were still fun to watch.    

 

We were able to spend a whole entire day just at Discovery Kingdom. The rides were pretty fun too. There is one that is called something along the lines of Whitewater Rafting. It is similar to the Disney’s California Adventure’s Grizzly River Run. I got very soaked on that ride and it took me a few days to get my wallet completely dry. I also enjoyed riding a completely wooden roller coaster called Roar. It was pretty rickety, but you go extremely fast. It’s worth the stop if you are ever in the area.

A Roller Coast Named ROAR!

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A Walk Through the Redwoods

The last vacation of the summer got under way for my family recently. My parents served their church missions in Northern California, so they decided to take the time and take us back where they served, as well as a little bit south of the area.

So with that we took a drive along the U.S. Highway 101 from the southern Oregon border down through the northern part of California.

We were able to stop at the at several locations such as the Trees of Mystery and the Founder’s Grove. It is amazing sight to see the size of the California Redwoods, especially through the Avenue of the Giants. The Trees of Mystery is just off of the highway located in Klamath, California. It features several scenic trails (although there are many to try in the area), has a large gift shop, and looks like it can be the gathering place for some large events. They also feature a sky car that takes you through the treetops for an even larger breathtaking view. We didn’t actually ride it because of time and its cost, but we did go through the Indian museum that was there. It featured artifacts from different tribes and areas of North America.

Finally there were two large statues of Paul Bunyan and his trusty ox Abe. Paul is interactive too, meaning that he will answer in questions you might have, or just talk to you if your in the mood.  

After driving for almost a whole day we stopped for the night in Arcata/Eureka, two towns that my parents served in for awhile. Eureka is a town that is somewhat similar to Astoria in that the logging industry is prevalent and the weather is often times overcast. It is also a town right next ocean. One restaurant that is renowned the area is called the Samoa Cookhouse. Despite its name, they do not serve Samoan food there. The Cookhouse is claims to be the last logger style restaurant.

The food there is home style cooking, with enough for the appetite of the logger. There is no menu but rather a three-course meal, with the dishes served changing each day. We had fresh bread, salad, and beef soup to begin with. That was delicious as it was, but then we got the main meal which consisted of roast beef, pork steak, baked potatoes, and peas. The pork was slightly dry, but everything was delicious. Although the price is slightly high, it is worth it. I also forgot to mention that it is all you can eat.

On our way through we drove the Avenue of the Giants, an alternate highway that takes drivers into the heart of the Redwoods. Looking up into the canopy really shows the height and size of the trees.

  The last stop we had was through the legendary, world-famous Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree. There are several other drive-thru trees, but none are as good as the original. My family was able to get several pictures of the tree with us, including a few with our van in it. It was a tighter squeeze than we expected. I think it is also important to note that the tree is alive and well, and looks just as big and green as the rest of trees in the forest, if not bigger.

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Rainier Stake Youth Conference 2009

The photos have come back from my youth conference that took place in June. Our theme for the conference was S.T.A.N.D. (Stay True and Never Doubt) , based on the mutual theme for the 2009 year (Be Thou An Example). It was an enjoyable two days, especially since our stake hasn’t done a youth conference in a while.

The first day we spent the afternoon doing a service project. That was followed by a dinner, brief fireside from our stake president, and a dance. The following day included various games and activities, along with classes from various adults in the stake, as well as some guest speakers. That night we dressed up for a formal dinner, and had a presentation where we viewed short films that each ward had made to illustrate different topics found in the For Strength of Youth pamphlet. I think that our ward had the best one by far. The conference ended with a great testimony meeting, and had all the youth already looking forward to next year’s.

A Day at the Beach

Since it is summer and the sun is shining, we decided to spend a day at the beach, one of the advantages of living on the Oregon Coast. I took a few pictures while I was there, and also saw a few things that I had never seen before.

We occasionally  have sea life wash up on the beach. I’d never seen anything that large until this visit. We saw a washed up sea lion. It looked like it had been there at least a day, do to the fact that it’s head was already a skull. Once in a while we will have a whale wash up too although I’ve never seen one.

  Like I said earlier, it has been great weather for awhile. There has still been a breeze at the beach, but with a jacket it is perfectly comfortable.

I took this shot because this I thought it looked kind of cool. I don’t know much about professional photography. 

We have some bald eagles that live near our house and there is a good sized population in the area. Two decided to use the sea lion carcass as a snack, so they got fairly close to where we were. They are fairly large birds and are an experience to see.

One in a million (Or thousand or even hundred.)

You always hear about those stories where people find a fifty or hundred dollar bill just laying around. You never think that it will happen to you, but you never know.

I had something somewhat similar happen to me. My bank, TLC Federal Credit Union, has a program for teens that use the bank called Free 2BU. What it basically entails is that every time you deposit money into your savings account you get entered into a drawing. The prize of the drawing used to be an iPod, but recently they switched it to a $100 VISA gift card, good to use anywhere that VISA is accepted. Since the bank covers three different counties, (Tillamook, Lincoln, and Clatsop), the chances of winning aren’t too great, unless you make quite a few deposits.

Imagine my surprise when I got a call from the bank saying that I had won the card. I didn’t even know then that the prize was a card, but I was excited to hear about it.

I picked up the card when I made another deposit. It looks just like a normal card, and while I haven’t rushed out to spend the money already, it will be nice to have some more spending money for whatever I decide to spend it on.

 

Summer Job

I was able to get a summer job recently, as a way to have a little extra spending cash and some money to save for future things like college and a mission.

I was able to get hired at one of the local Subways in my area about a week ago. I am working part-time, about three to four days a week, which allows for me to still have time for other summer activities. While my shifts including closing the restaurant and leaving around midnight, it still isn’t too bad of a job. It pays decently, especially since Oregon has the second highest minimum wage in the country. I also get a free six inch sub each sub, so I don’t go hungry.

It looks like it will be a pretty decent job, and while I probably don’t want to become a professional sandwich maker as my career, it will be nice to be receiving pay checks.

4A Baseball State Champions

My high school has been at it again with the athletics, only this time it has been with the baseball team. It seems that our school has had all the success in the world lately. We have several athletes that are going to compete in the Pac-10 next year, and it has shown in our achievements.

This year going into the baseball season we were ranked number one in state at the 4A level, and one of the best in state at all levels. Only one loss occurred during the whole entire season, and it was at the last second to a 6A team.

We reached the championship game without to much difficulty. The baseball team as made it to the finals three out of the four past years after only have one playoff win in school history all previous years. This big leap has been in part from the arrival of coach Dave Gasser, who won the state championship the first year he was here. He is the most career wins as a baseball coach in the state of Oregon.

The Astoria Fishermen showed why they have been so dominate this season, and had control of the game for the most part. A late rally made it close for a little while, until we sent in our ace pitcher to close out the game. Below is links to stories, videos, and pictures from the game.

Astoria's Jordan Poyer closes career by closing out Baker in 4A title game

Fishermen reel in a title