The End of a Happy Tale

So this is it. Our trip has come to an end and it’s safe to say we’ll never be the same again. The things we saw, touched, smelled, tasted, and experienced are beyond what we can put on a paper. We’ve created memories that will last us the rest of our lives. Everyone will remember that first glimpse of the ocean; the cold air as we jumped out of the vehicles, excited and exasperated by the utter vastness before us, leaving us with a quiet awe. We’ll always remember the incredible power behind a big wave as it hits you and the unbelievable excitement that you feel when you ride your first wave. We’ll always remember the smell of the fish and the sound of hundreds of people milling through Pier 39; or the music, chatter, and vibrant colors in Chinatown. We tasted fresh fish and calamari and ate many ice cream cones. J There are just too many things to express. We can only hope that the pictures we took bring us back to those places and always leave us with a smile.

To the moms: We thank you for holding the group together. At the end of the day you were the ones to pull through. When everyone else was sleepy or too excited to see stuff to stick around and help, you stayed and got supper going or put breakfast out, or cleaned up afterwards. We hope we weren’t too burdensome and that you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did! You did a wonderful job of taking care of what we would eat, getting the groceries, and always knowing what was in what container or cooler. As we all rely on our own mothers, so we relied on you. It’s not easy taking on 14 kids (including Bubba of course!) J But you did a marvellous job!

To Bubba: You’re crazy! :D Oh what fun we had with you! Sometimes we wondered who on earth took you along! But we knew we could always go to you for a laugh, or a shoulder to cry on if need be. You’re kind of like a big teddy bear. We could always rely on you for news or weather from home or for finding the best route to take. You seem to have a love for maps.  We also thank you for doing an OK job of hauling the trailer :P I’m pretty sure most of us feared for our lives getting into the vehicle with you but we commend you on getting us safely from point A to point B and home again. And you only got pulled over once! :D Well done!

To Mr. Harthoorn: Thank you is just too small a word to sum up our gratitude, but I’ll use it anyway. Thank you for seeing an opportunity and for motivating us to achieve this trip. You saw our miffed feelings about our school and the little opportunity we have and you turned it around and created the Travel Club. You used our small numbers and turned it into something big and got us excited about it. You spent countless hours organizing fundraisers, attending them, planning places to stay and activities to do and figuring out and managing a budget. There is so much more to it that we’re sure we didn’t see, but you did it all selflessly for us. You went above and beyond what any class expects or even hopes from a teacher. We thank you for your initiative and your drive and for teaching us that with some motivation, hard work, and excitement we can achieve anything we set our minds to. You’ve also taught us that a positive outlook on life goes a long way. We hope that with all the responsibility you had that you immensely enjoyed yourself! Note to teachers everywhere: if you never want your students to forget you…take them to California! J Thanks sir.

To our supporters: Thank you so much for hiring us! Without all you wonderful people in our community who called us up for odd jobs to be done (etc.), this trip never would have happened. Our fundraisers ranged from rock picking, to bake sales, to bottle drives, to shovelling snow off barn roofs. Whether you hired us, gave us bottles, bought our baking, or just gave us a word of encouragement, your generosity was greatly appreciated!

To our readers: We hear that you are many and widely spread! J Thank you for following us along the way! We’re sure that there were many thoughts and prayers sent our way and it was very much appreciated. We hope you enjoyed reading of our tales and that you had a good laugh here and there. Above all we hope you were inspired! J

After all these “toasts” are said and done, we most importantly give thanks to the Lord. He graciously kept us in safety in all our travels and activities. This trip made us stand in awe of our God and His majesty. His creation is so beautiful; the great mountains, the vast ocean, the mighty redwoods and so on. His handiwork is marvellous indeed!

Classmates, take everything you can from this trip and grow from it. Take all the things you’ve learned and experienced and let it inspire you to get farther in life. Go above and beyond what people expect from you and achieve the impossible. Remember, life is what you make of it! In everything be content, but never be satisfied with what life has to offer… Always chase the sun!  

Tuesday blog (Sorry it's late)

We woke up this morning to cloud cover and wet tents that needed to be packed up. Not a fun task, but we stuck through for one last time and got everything loaded.  We waved good-bye to Kamloops and headed home. I think most of us passed out fairly quickly, while a few listened to music, watched movies, or chatted about our favourite parts of the trip. Everyone was sad that the trip was coming to a close, but relieved and happy to be on the last stretch home. There isn’t too much to report for our last day, but every happy tale needs an ending. We stopped in Clearwater for fuel as well as Jasper, then pit-stopped in Edson for a bite to eat at Subway and KFC…take your pick! Two hours later we rolled into Barrhead. Hello home! We parked at the agrena to sort through everyone’s items. The Barrhead group and some from Neerlandia got picked up by family members. Most of us were still droggy from all our snoozing but mixed emotions flew through the air. We were all were itching to go home and tell our families about the trip. After all we had just seen the ocean, toured San Francisco, learned how to surf and went jet boating!! :D And yet we were all reluctant to say our farewells. Our long awaited and hard earned trip had just come to a close. It’s tear worthy right? J We satisfied our sorrows with talk of a reunion barbeque, hopefully to happen sometime in August.  Till then… J

Saturday Blog

Sorry its late... but here it is :)

So, we’re officially onto the last leg of our amazing trip. We woke up at about 6 this morning......got everything packed up (new record, by the way J), ate a simple breakfast of cereal and bread, packed some lunches, waved good-bye to our awesome new friend Darren and hit the road. Everything ran smoothly....we drove through the beautiful Napa Valley and saw a bunch of wineries. There were a lot of incredible homes, limos, and hills upon hills of grapes. We also saw orange trees and fields of sunflowers. On other side of the valley we hit the freeway again and met the busiest traffic we’ve seen yet as the highway branched off to Sacramento. The highway led us through desert area and we watched the temperature climb to a balmy 37 degrees Celsius....that’s right....Celsius! It was amazing! Also, as per our last blog, Forrest Gump got watched twice today.....we’ll have to see how that one pans out over the next three days J. Many of us slept along the way (being woken up at 6 does not go over so well J). We drove along the Rogue River and wound up here in Medford where we plan to stay over until Monday morning when we will head back Canada. The campsite here is beautiful, as it is fairly close to Rogue River.  When we arrived, the mom’s and a few of the girls started cooking hamburger and chopping veggies for the tacos we planned to have for supper. It was delicious J. A group of us went floating down the river on air mattresses that were purchased at the local drug store. Fun stuff! The night should still hold some exciting activities. Rumours of kick the can or capture the flag have been floating around. But until tomorrow, sleep tight, and God bless! G’night.

[Written by Caitie and Kaitlyn]

Monday Blog

Monday morning came much too quickly for everyone…4:30. Yikes! We packed up camp again and were off around 5:30. By the end of today our journey through the states would be complete. We hit the interstate and drove. By Eugene we were seeing the same highway we had on the way in; back through Eureka, Portland, Seattle, Bellingham, and finally Lyndon. There we stopped for some essentials at Safeway: gas and vanilla coke. J We had to chuckle since a few people decided to use up all their American money in odd ways. Can’t get enough of those Reece’s hey Travis? :P

 We also switched up our vehicles for crossing the border. We’re very strategic, wanting an arrangement that wouldn’t cause any problems.

But again, the border was fine. They asked how much we bought, Babba didn’t know so he just said we bought some souvenirs. No problem. They didn’t search the trailer or anything. PHEW! :D Just kidding. We didn’t have anything to hide, but time is money as they always say. And by now we were tired of being on the road. We cruised across the border singing “Oh Canada” at the top of our lungs! We had a blast in the states but it was nice to be on the other side of the fence again. Home sweet home. No more weird stores, or money, or road signs. No more giant cities, it was back to the simple country life we’re all so used to. And the best part was: we could text again! Hurray J No more dead zone or roaming charges!

 We drove through Abbotsford and Chilliwack then stopped in Merrit for supper and breakfast groceries. Kamloops was our destination for the night, but when we pulled in we all shed a tear. Sadly our camp for the night was not equipped like our last ones. No more river, swimming pool, hot tub or rec hall. Worst of all there was no fire pit…goodbye s’mores! L  We camped on a 25 square foot chunk of dead grass and gravel surrounded by concrete, and a definite storm was brooding.  (K so I’m not very good at measurements, but it wasn’t big, barely fitting our four tents.) The moms’ tent kept blowing over so they set up their sleeping quarters in the back of the blue van.

After setting up, we had a delicious supper of chilli and garlic toast. Wasn’t the best choice since we were all to be cramped in vehicles again the following day. Oops! :S Ha ha! But tasty nonetheless! J Mr. H closed for the evening, thanking our heavenly Father for His diligent care over us. Our positive outlook was heightened. Although our last night wasn’t quite what we hoped it would be, we were thankful for all that we had been blessed to see and experience.  

 We did have showers that several used before calling it a night. After 14 hours on the road, many took to their sleeping bags one last time. Sigh. Tomorrow’s forecast: Home. J

Sunday

Sunday morning: wake up call 8:15. It gets cold out here in Oregon at night! During the day it would be 30 degrees and the evenings are warm but the temperature drops every night and most of us wake up freezing. A couple of us slept outside under the stars for a change of scenery J There was the regular general melee as everyone ran around finding Sunday clothes, making our hair pretty, eating breakfast, and shaving (thank you Bubba J) At promptly 9:15 we were rushed into the vehicles and everyone tried to grab the last couple things we needed as the chaperones hollered for us to hurry. Turns out the hurry was completely unnecessary! We got to church at quarter to ten just to discover that their church service started at 10:30 NOT 10… we were 45 minutes early! So we entertained ourselves by walking down the nearby streets, talking to another couple who had showed up early and just hanging out. Finally people started showing up and we went into the church. All the members of the congregation were talking and mingling as we sat down and waited for the service to start. When the minister came in he welcomed us to the church, and Mr. Harthoorn was invited to the front to tell the congregation why we were there. Then the service proceeded as usual and we had a sermon on the order of worship. After church we had coffee in their outside foyer with the congregation and enjoyed the sun. Everyone was friendly in this church too! There weren’t many young people in this church (not like Lynden) but they were all friendly just the same. We proceeded to use the upstairs for lunch, and some of our awesome girls whipped up ham and cheese buns and chicken noodle soup. We took a little break after lunch… some of us napped on the couches that were provided, others of us used the floor and Kaitlyn graced us with some beautiful piano playing J. Then we plugged in the DVD that Momma Froma had brought and watched a sermon from Rev. Louwerse. We finished our second service at around 3 and headed back to our campsite. We grabbed our air mattresses once again and strapped them to the roof of our van. We stuffed 11 people into the van and drove very slowly a ways up the river. We had talked it over and decided we were brave enough to try ride the rapids that we had discovered running under a bridge. That’s right…Canadians ride rapids! :D We carried our mattresses down to the rivers edge and hesitantly climbed into the cold water eyeing the rapids with unease. Mr. Harthoorn decided that he should try ride them first so that in case he died, then everyone else would know not to go. I hopped on with him (they decided to sacrifice me too) and we cruised over the rapids, dodging rocks, with waves washing over us. It was such a blast! So we waved to everyone else and they followed us down the river with squealing and yelling. We floated down for quite a while, relaxing on our mattresses and enjoying the sunshine and cool water. We climbed out and started walking back on the road but the black asphalt was so hot we could hardly stand it! We kept looking for the white lines to walk on to save our feet. We made it back to camp and then did it all over again J Mr. Harthoorn’s group was on supper duty and we ate a delicious Sunday supper of barbeque chicken, fried potatoes, beans and an amazing taco salad. After supper and cleanup a couple of us took Bubba down to the river for one more run. We knew we were going to have to get up early in the morning so the girls took down their tent and we all slept under the stars in the cold. We are trying to enjoy our last bit of Oregon camping and hot days. Back to Canada tomorrow, and the vanilla coke is disappearing quickly, but we are starting to miss poutine J Caitie finished the evening with devotions.

We are coming home! See you all very soon ♥

[Written by Annette]

Friday

Friday Blog

Wake-up call was 7:30…..I don’t think many of us had much trouble getting up as we were all thinking the same thing. It’s SAN FRANCISCO day!!!!! Kaitlyn cooked us a wonderful breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and bacon. (Our cooking has also got Darren begging one of us to stick with him for the rest of his trip to do his laundry and cook his meals J). Our tour started at 9:00 in the morning; and our tour guide, Angela, got us a tour bus all to ourselves…..seeing as how our group is so big. After a quick pep talk about what we would be doing that day, and what time we wanted to be back, we set out. It took about 45 minutes to get from our Petaluma campground to San Francisco. As we got closer to the city, the air got noticeably colder and much foggier. Angela told us a lot of random facts about the bridge. Did you know that the only reason the bridge is red instead of gold is because the people painting it decided they liked the primer (which was the red-orange color); so they opted to keep it that way instead of painting it gold? It is now International Orange, and we won’t forget it. Did you also know that the bridge is named after the Golden Gate Strait which runs underneath the bridge? I bet you didn’t….and if you did, pretend you didn’t J. The bridge is able to swing 27 feet in the wind. I don’t think it ever has, but it could. All the cord used to hold the bridge, if joined together, would wrap all the way around the world 3 times! Quite unbelievable.

Anyways, as we crossed the bridge, it was super foggy, so pictures and views weren’t as great as they would be that afternoon. We caught a glimpse of Alcatraz through the haze as we stopped for a quick break and a few of us walked a bit of the bridge. Angela then took us through many different parts of the city; the Golden Gate Park, the Pesidion, the Victorian homes, etc. The history and architecture of the city is amazing! The Victorian homes are elaborately decorated with bright colors and amazing detail. The old military homes are simple, but very elegant as well. We were told so much of the history that it’s hard to get it all on paper. It’s very elaborate and interesting. We were told much of the 1906 earthquake, as well as the 1989 earthquake. Angela showed us the building that remained standing after those earthquakes and fires, and the safety precautions taken to make the city safer. For lunch, we stopped at Fisherman’s Wharf….and Pier 39. We split into groups, went for lunch and shopped for souvenirs. There’s so much to see and do that at first, it’s overwhelming. The city is bustling with people it seems to never stop.

We also discovered that Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. also exists on Pier 39. Now, there is a story to this. If you’ve read our earlier blogs, you know we’ve taken to calling Bart, Bubba. So, he decided he should buy a Bubba Gump shirt as well as the Forest Gump movie for those who haven’t seen it yet. Guess what we’ll be doing on the drive home? J The very mention of Forest Gump brings a chorus of ‘I love you Jenny. I’d make a good husband’ from every guy in the camp to any girl in sight.

We shopped for about 2.5 hours before getting back on our bus and headed for Chinatown. We spent about 45 minutes there shopping for more souvenirs and taking the different culture. It’s quite fascinating to see how some cultures can be so different from out own. After Chinatown, we started out of the city and stopped again at the Golden Gate Bridge. This time around, it was much clearer and the bridge was more visible. We took a bunch of pictures and headed back to the campground.

We are all sitting nicely around the fire, listening to the chaperones decide which route to take home. We hope you’ve been enjoying the stories of our adventures as much as we’ve been enjoying our adventures. Till tomorrow, “Life’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.” J Goodnight all!

[Written by Caitie]

Thursday

Thursday Blog

Thursday morning. I think most of us rolled out of bed without a wake up call. See how good we’re getting? ;) Taking down camp was done in record time…or at least we like to think so. We ate a breakfast of cereal and bread and of course the rest of our fruit. You can’t take fruit into California.

Hopping into our new vehicle arrangement made by Darren, we headed out. Cya Oregon, hello California! The drive took us back through Gold Beach and Crescent City on highway 101. Down the coast we traveled. We all saw the waves in a new light, ooing and awing over their size, wishing we were back in the water trying to catch them. What a great sight, seeing the wave build up so high the top rolls over into a foaming white spray then travels until it crashes into the shore. Sigh J

The drive was really beautiful as we passed through redwoods that go so high you can’t see the tops out the van window. Quite unbelievable…you really do feel miniature! The sight takes your breath away. Any pictures we took just didn’t do justice, sorry. You’ll just have to go see them for yourselves.

We stopped to have a better look at them near a town called Leggit where you could drive THROUGH a tree! Awesome hey?! J 33 degrees forced many to buy ice cream at the little store there and search for cold water in the coolers.

 There was a poem that was inscribed onto a sign there that I thought was really neat. We hope we got all the words right from off the picture. Here it goes:

Here sown by the Creator’s hand

In serried ranks the redwoods stand.

No other clime is honoured so

No other lands their glory know.

The greatest of earth’s living forms

Tall conquerors that laugh of storms.

Their challenge still unanswered rings

Through fifty centuries of kings.

This is their temple vaulted high

And here we pause with reverent eye

With silent tongue and awestruck soul

For here we sense life’s proper goal.

To be like these straight true and fine

To make our world like theirs a shrine

Sink down oh traveler on your knees

God stands before you in these trees.

Beautiful hey? J Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did.

After the great redwood forests we passed into the wineries and orchards of California. The hillsides are covered in dried grass, while the green trees and orchards contrast. This area is quite mountainous, hilly, sandy and rocky. Beyond the mountains to the east is the infamous Napa Valley. We stopped for one last coffee break just outside Santa Rosa, then headed to our new campground.

We rolled into the KOA campground in Petaluma around 7:30. We set up camp, and did some laundry for a $1.25 a load. Nuts eh? Sadly they charge you for everything here…but not internet or showers. Hurray! J We are in the group site again, enjoying the moo garbage cans :P There’s a pool, a hot tub, a rec hall, bouncy mat, a petting zoo, and the essential facilities.

We had a nice hot supper of stew and garlic and cheese buns. Delicious! Janine did devotions to close the evening. All for now. Stay tuned for tomorrows adventures in San Francisco! :D

[By Kait]