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The Greatest Place on Earth!

Disneyland may claim to be the ‘Happiest Place on Earch’ (which is debateable with all the crying kids you see there), but YOSEMITE is definately the Greatest PLACE on Earth, and the happiest for me. I think in my entire childhood, other than the day I went to see the first Star Wars movie, Yosemite had the biggest impact on my life. (And that’s not counting be attacked by a bear last time I was here, but that’s a post for another day) One our way into Yosemite Valley The driving is spectacular (if not frightening). The vistas are breath taking – they make the Oregon Coast look like ant hills and pebbles. It is simply impossible to completely describe or photograph Yosemite. If you have never been here, you must before you die. Make it your goal in life! When you get here, you’ll say, “Wow, Karl was right!” First thing I did in Yosemite? Throw a snowball! We were very surprised to find snow on the way in, and lots of it in some places. We were only in the park for three hours today, but drove in rain, hail, light snow, and under clear blue skies with…

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Redwood National Forest!

See those storm clouds rolling in? We have seen many examples of God’s provision on this trip! Just tonight we stopped to eat at a Marie Calendars and I decided to take my laptop in to look at pictures (via Mac instant slide shows) while we waited for our food and noticed (in honor of Branden) that there was a local unsecured high speed wireless network! (that’s a good thing) I was able to check my e-mail at dinner! (maybe not a good thing) Anyway, by the end of dinner it was pouring rain – and we found out our destination was 2.5 hours away, not the one hour we thought, and that there was no lodging in the town where we were planning to stop and look for a place to spend the night… so I followed the wireless connection next door, and here we are at Best Western! It has rained a lot on this trip, but God has been gracious – it must rain (this area is so lush and green) – but rain has not ruined a day, it always seem to rain either when it doesn’t matter, or when it actually makes the view better.…

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Not Quite Rogue Squadron…

For our final day in Oregon, we went on an all day trip down the Rogue River in a Jet Boat! (see mailboat.com ) Me in my official Mailboat Jacket. (since I left my VCBkids one at Henry’s) It was a 104 mile trip that went from 8am to 3pm up the river and back. It was mostly smooth sailing, but there were a few areas with some fun rapids. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! We were told there was a very good chance at getting to see some wildlife, so I was very excited when I spotted a wild cat…. Don’t worry, I protected Sara from this savage beast! The views were, again, spectacular. There were many small waterfalls… And we ran into many rafters. (well, not literally!) The boat was extremely fast, and since it is jet powered (by two powerful chevy auto engines), it can travel extremely fast in only ten inches of water. It did spray up some, but a water ride at an amusement park will still get you wetter. It was the rain that fell a few times that got us more wet than the spray from the boat. The wimps got off at the 64 mile waiting…

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Go South Young Man (to California)

It took us a while, but we finally got through Oregon, and are now in Northern California. (and have to pay sales tax now… BOO!) We will worship at the Redwoods National Forest on Sunday. At least we got across Oregon faster than this fellow… OREGON COAST PHOTO GALLERY IS NOW ONLINE! Hope you enjoy the photos! We sure had a lot of fun, and plan to vacation here again when we can move even slower, and stop more often to hike and explore. NEWLY UPDATED WITH MORE! If you would like 1280 x 854 highres wallerpapers of these, Vist: Karl’s Oregon Coast Wallpapers You will see thumbnails and can download the ones you want.

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Karl’s Oregon Coast Wallpapers

Yes, we bought matching shirts. Yesterday we started our journey down the Oregon Coast. In one word? Breathtakinglyamazinglybeautifullyspectacular. The Oregon Coast FAR EXCEEDED my expectations, and they were pretty high already. It has proved to be even more spectacular than I had even hoped. Colorado? You may need to step aside – you’ve got the mountains, but not the rivers, ocean, lakes, and lush greenery. I still claim Colorado as my favorite state, but is more due to my personal roots there… It is getting harder to say it is the most beautiful state in the Union. The first day we traveled from Portland, North to the Coast, and then started straight down. We ended in Newport for the evening with dinner with our friends, the Helts, who I met through Kidology. Pam Helt has co-authored a few of my Kid’s Church units with me. We had lunch this morning at Coca Mocha Joe’s before heading on our way again. We also visited their church, but more info and pics on that later. I can’t get over the amazing displays of God’s Creation here! It just never ends, for hours on end. No photos can capture it, but I tried.…

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