Our Big Adventure!

Wow! So much has been happening in the last couple of weeks! We treked across the country and after four days and three nights, we made it to North Carolina! Once we arrived, our work was not through. We had to go rent a storage unit and unload all of the boxes of things we didn't need until we moved into our own place. Then we had to return the trailer, and then come to our townhouse to unload all the things we needed here. It was definitely a lot of work!

After we got all of that done, it was time to figure several things out. We decided that we liked the place we were living, so we applied to get into a townhouse here at the end of the summer. Luckily, they had one that we could move into on the first of August. We really like the unit we got! It has a nice view of the pond, complete with fountain. We'll take some more pictures soon.

We also bought a new car! It is a brand new Toyota Camry-Blue Devil Blue! We really like the new car, and really like the gas mileage it gets compared to the truck!

Besides that, we've just spent lots of time exploring the area. We've been walking/Calvin has been running on the Duke Forest trail, we drove out to a beautiful area called Falls Lake, and yesterday Calvin took us on a surprise trip to the Outer Banks! We got to see this little town called Rodanthe (anyone seen the recent movie?). It was so neat! As you're driving there, you hit the ocean, then you go across bridges to this strip of land that runs along the coast, so there is ocean on both sides. It is really awesome. Now take a look at some of the pictures and videos!

Camden at the Southpoint Mall in Durham

On the beach in Rodanthe

Camden loved the waves!

The wildflowers were beautiful!

We Made It!

Our journey began last Sunday as we left Farmington, Utah and headed east.  The journey finally came to an end on Wednesday afternoon as we pulled into Durham, North Carolina.  While the journey was quite long, it was an amazing adventure.  We were able to drive across the United States and see the different landscapes and some different people.  Ashton summed up the cultural unity of the United States by stating that you could always expect a McDonalds to be at the next exit.  Anyway, as I am not the typical blog author (in fact, I am only testing some software) I will end for now. 

From Sea To Shining Sea

In the next few weeks, our family will have driven from coast to coast! We've been visiting Calvin's family here in Nevada for the past week, and we took a couple of days out to go on our own little trip. We headed out early Thursday morning and drove to San Francisco! The drive through the Sierra mountains was beautiful.

In San Francisco, we explored Pier 39. Our hotel was only a block from the Pier, which was perfect. We saw the sea lions who have made a home there at the pier since the earthquake in 1989. We also went on a boat tour of the bay. The boat sailed out and under the Golden Gate bridge. Then it turned and went around Alcatraz. They told us all about the prision that used to be there. It was pretty spooky. We even saw some dolphins swimming out in the bay!

After the boat tour, we went to the aquarium. Camden loved going through the tunnels under the aquariums and looking at all the fish, sting rays, and sharks. In one of the tanks, they had some of the biggest fish I have ever seen. I am definitely going to think twice before I go swimming in the ocean again. In this shallow pool, we got to touch the sharks and the rays. They also had some pools where we got to touch some star fish.

Our next stop was China town. We walked all 14 blocks there and 14 blocks back. It was so much fun to watch Calvin speaking Chinese to all the people there. They would get so surprised when he started speaking to them! We got some really good treats from a couple of Chinese bakeries.

On our way back to the pier, we stopped at Ghirardelli square. We couldn't resist some of the famous chocolate and and some really good ice cream.

On the second and last day of our trip, we got up and drove across the Golden Gate bridge. We then made our way up to Napa Valley. The vineyards and rolling hills were beautiful. After our sight-seeing, we went to Six Flags, Discovery Kingdom. The roller coasters were awesome! They also had some pretty cool animal exhibits and a neat killer whale show. Camden even got to go on a little ride! Overall, we had a very fun trip!