California

Over a week ago I got back from one of the best experiences of my life, a trip to California. We rode a 36 hour train ride, rode on a catamaran, got to go to a college, stayed three days on Santa Cruz Island, and got to see a whale give birth. On the train we played poker, wrestled, watched part of the Seahawk’s game, and listened to the rest. During the night Sam D., Jessica, and I couldn’t fall asleep so we looked at people to see what they looked like when they were asleep. We tickled peoples’ faces with the tip of a pencil to see what they would do. And of course we would look at Mustachio, who hadn’t moved the entire train ride, to see if he was sleeping, or sleeping.

The part of the trip I thought was the most fun was being on Santa Cruz Island for three days. On the first day some of us climbed over this hill and found a patch of trees and green grass. That was the only spot that had green grass for as far as you could see, up there. Later that night we played Mission Impossible, a game where there are two spotters that can’t move, and a flashlight you have to get to, to win. The spotters had headlamps and they had to point to the person and call out their name for them to be out. Being out just means you had to go the beginning and start again. That night all but three of us slept on top of a hill near our campsite. This was a terrible idea for it was way too cold for me to sleep. I kept waking up and going to the bottom of my sleeping bag, then rolling up in a ball to try and stay warm. The next day we went on a hike to a place called Smuggler’s Cove. On the way there Sam D. Riley, and I were imagining a place we wanted it to look like, we called it, “The Hidden Valley.” Once we got to Smuggler’s it looked nothing like what we had envisioned, but it was still a cool beach. There was a house down the trail with two orange trees next to it that we got some oranges from. There was also a lemon tree. We saw Paul, a guy who was camped at the same spot we were, and we started talking to him. Once we got back to camp Mr. “B” and I tried to perfect our skills at slack lining. Once again that night we played Mission Impossible, but this time Paul decided to play with us. Next day we went on a grueling hike up to the highest point on the island and stayed up there for about 30 minutes before we left to camp again. That day I was up till dark slack lining trying to perfect my technique, and it paid off. On the last day at the island I could walk all the way across the line. My record was twelve steps.

The most difficult part of the trip I thought was conserving food and money. On the last day I was out of food and almost out of money, but luckily Sam Lee had eleven Mountain House meals left and shared some with me. The reason I found this the most difficult was because I’m not used to eating that little so I wanted to eat too many at one time and that left me short a few meals in the end. A reason I found money difficult to keep was because we had to take a bunch of transits that ranged from $1.25 to $2. When we went to Von’s (Safeway) I wanted to buy a lot of food because it all looked so good. On the train I wanted food like pizza and drinks like soda. Let me tell you something, train food is not cheap.

The most important thing I learned on the trip was, if you’re going on a trip like this, be prepared. Be prepared for rain, be prepared for snow, and be prepared with food. BE PREPARED. Because if you’re not prepared for everything, you could be miserable for the whole trip. Bring enough items to last you the whole trip and bring things to keep you warm and dry. Too much is always better than too little. I learned that this trip. And I will never forget it.

Overall this was a great trip and a great experience for me to have. If I could do it again I know I would. The train ride home had its ups and downs though. When we got on I found out we would have to get on a bus for about six hours then get on another train to get home. The good thing was, at about 7:00 in the morning we got a complementary breakfast. Then when we got on the bus we got a sub sandwich, chips and water. We also got to watch the movies, National Security, Mr. Deeds, and The Simpson’s Movie. When we got to the train station in Seattle Jimmy’s mom, Barb got us KFC for on the bus. And that’s when we boarded the bus to go back home.