Monday, January 23, 2012 – Part 2

FINAL BLOG – WHAT I’VE LEARNED AND WHAT I’M GRATEFUL FOR:

WHAT I’M GRATEFUL FOR:

This list continues to grow almost daily, so I know I’ll probably leave a lot out that I will yet think about.  I’ve been taught that it is important to have an “attitude of gratitude”.  I really believe that.  This trip has confirmed that to me even more.  As you read this list, I hope you will reflect on what you have in your life that you are grateful for.  Perhaps this will help you think of things you’ve never really thought about being grateful for before.  I hope it does!

1.     Being an American citizen with inalienable rights.

2.     Laws that say you are innocent until proven guilty.

3.     Knowing that I can call “9-1-1” if I need medical assistance, have a fire in my home, need a police officer’s assistance for anything, or any other emergency.  I don’t have to walk to a police station, stand in line for hours, and have to pay for the taxi to take a policeman to my home in order to report a crime.  That happens in Kenya.

4.     Even though there is corruption in this country, it’s nothing like what I’ve seen in Kenya and India.

5.     I know that I won’t get thrown into jail just because someone felt like doing it and could bribe the police.  (Not that I was planning on doing anything illegal – smile.)

6.     I know that if I see someone who needs medial assistance on the side of the road or somewhere else, I can help them (even if it’s just to call 9-1-1), but that doesn’t mean I have to take on the full responsibility of taking care of them or paying for all their medical or death expenses.  This also happens in Kenya.

7.     I’m grateful that I don’t feel the need to create a “compound” to surround my home with a tall cement wall with broken glass bottles along the top and have to have a guard for my home and myself

8.     I don’t have to put 11 padlocks on my doors in order to feel safe like I had on my home in Kenya.  .  I don’t feel like I’m in prison when I’m inside my home.

9.     I can walk outside my home after dark and still feel safe – even if I am alone.

10. I can go anywhere I want and don’t feel I need a bodyguard with me to keep me safe – sometimes even during the day.  I felt that way many times in Kenya, and even in India.

11. I have cement sidewalks to walk on when it rains, and I don’t have to worry about getting all muddy.

12. For the most part, most of the roads I drive on are paved and well- maintained.   Even though in Utah, because of the expansion and contraction on the asphalt due to the extreme temperature changes, there is always some kind of roadwork taking place to fix the roads, at least they are getting fixed.  I don’t have to dodge huge potholes continually while I drive, no matter where I go.

13. I’m grateful for big orange construction cones on the road with enough time to adjust where I am driving before I get to the construction and not just see a big log or branch in the middle of the road just barely before I hit the road work.

14.  The sidewalks are well-maintained everywhere I go here, so I don’t have to literally be looking down all the time while I’m walking so I don’t trip and fall on a broken piece of cement or a sidewalk littered with garbage.

15. I’m thankful for car mechanics who usually are able to fix my car in only a few hours or a day at the most.  In Kenya, if you take your car in to get fixed, you literally might not see it for six months!

16. I’m grateful to even have a car, and one that runs properly with seatbelts, nothing falling off the car as I drive, and a driver’s license.  Also having the knowledge that most of the cars on the road are being driven by people who also have a driver’s license and actually know how to drive.

17. I’m grateful that people in the United States generally stay on their own side of the road when they drive and don’t just make up their own lanes and their own driving rules.

18. I’m grateful for painted lanes on our roads, and separate places for bicyclists and pedestrians to be.  Also that I don’t have to dodge bikes, people pulling carts, matatus (public transportation vans in Kenya that stop anywhere and everywhere and pull out in traffic without looking), motorcycles weaving in and out everywhere, cows, goats, chickens, and people on the road while I am driving.

19. It’s nice to drive on a road where you aren’t constantly hearing horns blaring warning other cars, people, motorcycles, etc.  that they are being passed.

20. I’m thankful for pedestrian rights and know that if I step out on the street in a pedestrian lane, most likely the cars will stop for me rather than run me over.

21. I’m grateful for medications and shots that kept me from getting malaria and other diseases.  Also grateful that antibiotics have been developed to help stop the progression of leprosy.

22. I’m grateful that I can just walk into a store, read the price tag, and know what something costs.  I don’t have to barter for everything I buy.

23. I’m thankful that I have a car that can drive me to the grocery store (or anywhere else for that matter), and I don’t have to walk, take a taxi, matatu, tuktuk, ferry, metro, motorcycle, bus, rental car, get a ride with someone else, or autorickshaw to get somewhere.

24. Thankful for ALL the varieties of foods we have here and for fresh, clean, edible fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and meat.

25. Thankful for a refrigerator that stays cold, doesn’t have cockroaches crawling in it, and has room for more than just a few days’ food.

26. Household appliances:  microwave oven, stove and oven, toaster, blender, can opener, freezer, kitchen gadgets, disposal, dishwasher, decent pots and pans, and cooking utensils.

27. Fly swatters, measuring cups and measuring spoons.

28. I’m grateful for a TV, DVR, DVD, CD player, radio, hair dryer, electric blanket, fireplace, garage door opener, security alarm system, good lighting, central air conditioning, furnace, clothes washer and dryer, water heater, desktop computer with good internet access that comes through my wall (and not a little internet modem stick that has to continually be reloaded), cell phone and landline phones that work, phonebooks, and electrical plugs that are compatible with my things. 

29. Being able to do six batches of laundry in ONE day if I want to and know that they will all be clean and dry by the end of the same day.

30. A comfortable, cozy bed.

31. A house without cockroaches, geckos, ants everywhere (although I do get a few in the cracks of my driveway), centipedes, millipedes, mosquitoes, bugs and crawly things I don’t even know what they are.

32. Sleeping without a mosquito net.

33. No cobras or other poisonous snakes slithering around my house or on the sidewalks or grass.

34. Well-lit streets and public areas.

35.  Drinking fountains that I know are safe to drink from.

36.  Milk that isn’t “Long-life” shelf-stored.

37.  Ice cream.

38. Food from the grocery store that tastes like what it’s supposed to taste like (i.e. sugar, cereal, milk, dairy products, honey, Snickers, etc.)

39.  Fast food places and good restaurants.

40. Toilets that flush, toilet paper, soap and clean running water.

41.  Hot showers and hot, clean running water.

42.  Clean public restrooms where I don’t have to worry about taking toilet paper, hand soap, and hand sanitizer with me, and people here don’t think a public toilet isn’t clean unless the floor and toilet seat are wet (from people washing themselves off after using the toilet instead of using toilet paper).

43. Pure running water no matter where I go.

44.  Having the knowledge that if the electricity goes out, it doesn’t mean I won’t have any water either, and I know that someone will be doing their best to get it turned back on as soon as possible.

45. Having my own home, my own yard, and my own “stuff”.

46. NOT having to live out of a suitcase.

47. Having enough money to pay for my food, shelter, and clothing.

48. Garbage collection.

49. Garbage cans practically everywhere, and littering laws. 

50. Living in a place where people actually throw things out in garbage cans rather than on the ground no matter where they are.

51. Clean, well-lit, well-built, well-furnished, well-supplied, well-maintained schools.

52. The school system that we have, the way students are taught, teaching strategies like critical thinking skills rather than just rote memorization and regurgitation of facts, and the education of the teachers.

53. NO corporal punishment in schools!

54. A chance for students to go clear through 12^th grade in public schools, and the opportunities they have to further their education beyond that which isn’t determined by only ONE exam.

55. School textbooks, paper clips, pencils, erasers, paper, standardized tests with the answers (so the teachers don’t have to sit and figure out all the answers), well-stocked school and public libraries.

56. A Smartboard in my former classroom.

57. A good computer lab at school.

58. I’m thankful that our children aren’t in school from 6:30 AM until 4:30 PM, 6:30 PM, or even midnight (depending on where they are living)!

59. Good playgrounds with plenty of equipment for the students to play on.

60. A good postal system that isn’t corrupt.

61. Clean and safe hospitals.

62. Competent doctors.

63. Good friends and family.

I’M JUST GRATEFUL TO BE HOME, AND I’M GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE EXPERIENCES I’VE HAD AND THE PEOPLE I’VE MET.  This has truly been the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life.  (Probably BYU’s 30-Day Survival is the second.)  People have said over and over again that I am amazing.  I don’t think that about myself for a second, but what I’ve been given the opportunity to do certainly has been!

I’m grateful to all of you for reading my blog, emailing me, encouraging me, and praying for me.  As of tonight, I’ve had 1,398 views to my blog.  It has been viewed by people in the USA, Russia, So. Korea, Germany, So. Africa, Kenya, India, Austria, Canada, Latvia, and the United Kingdom.  I’m not sure who’s reading it in some of those countries, but it amazes me that there has been as much interest in it as there has been, and such a diverse audience.   If you’d like to respond to my blog in any way, I’d love to hear from you.  You can email me at:  kadiclough@gmail.com.  Thanks for being a part of my life for the past five months.  It’s been quite a ride!

Goodbye and best wishes in all you do in YOUR life,

Kadi

(P.S.  If you live in the Salt Lake area and would like to attend a presentation on my travels, please email me right away so that I can send you the details.  I will be doing a couple of them in the next week or two.)

Monday, January 22, 2012 - Part 1

FINAL BLOG – WHAT I’VE LEARNED AND WHAT I’M GRATEFUL FOR:

WHAT I’VE LEARNED:

I’m not sure if I can put into words all that I have learned in a concise way, but I’ll do my best.   This world has become much, much smaller to me.  I realize that I can go pretty much anywhere in the world that I want to.  I don’t see any limitations now, and I probably will discriminate less as to where I might go in the future.  I have just traveled to four countries:  Kenya, South Africa, India, and South Korea – all of which I’ve honestly never had a desire to visit.  (Even though I have felt compelled since 2001 to teach in Africa, I’ve never actually had a desire to go there.)

Last night, I was watching a program on television where a woman went into an Indian reservation here in the USA and helped elderly women in the tribe who had no food or water for three days, and they weren’t able to help themselves in getting any.  Some of the things she discovered in helping them were similar to what I discovered in Kenya and India.  My mind suddenly thought, "I wonder if that is something I should look into in the future?"  I’ve NEVER thought like that before!  I feel I’m suddenly open to all kinds of new things I would never have thought about or dreamed would be possible before.  I’ve had a few people tell me I have changed.  I think they are right on more counts than even they realize.  I also think, as time goes on, I will continue to discover more and more how this trip has affected me forever.

I’ve learned that, as an American, I have SO MUCH more than most of the people in the world.  Now, more than ever, I understand why people all over the world want to come to the United States to live and/or be educated.  I’ve traveled to nine other countries besides the USA before going on this trip, but I’ve never felt as strongly about this thought as I do now.  Maybe that’s because, aside from a few places in Mexico that were somewhat similar to what I’ve seen, I’ve never traveled to a third world country before.  What a difference!  Even as I tell people about certain things that go on in Kenya or India, I’m still taken aback by it all.  It’s almost more than a person can comprehend if you’ve never experienced it first-hand.  Even having experienced it first-hand, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around what goes on there and how it could really be the way it is!

I’ve also learned that there are good people all over the world who have the same needs as I do.  Families go on, people want to take care of their families, people care for one another, and they laugh and cry just like I do.  Children are beautiful and loving and enthusiastic about life no matter where they live.  I LOVED THE CHILDREN IN KENYA AND INDIA!!!

I’ve been saying or thinking a certain phrase quite a bit the past few days since I’ve been home – “Because I can!”  Tayler and I had toast the night I got home “because we could”.  I had a toaster for the first time in five months, (except for one week in India), and he hasn’t had one since February.  I got dressed a little nicer than normal the next day, wearing nothing that I’ve worn for the past five months.  Tayler asked me why I was so dressed up.  I replied, “Because I can be.”  Thursday morning I put perfume on which I haven’t had with me for five months.  Even though I wasn’t going anywhere, I did it just “because I could.”  I also overheard Tayler say to a friend he was drinking a lot of diet Coke, "just because he could".  (I think he's had some of the same feelings as I have had.)  I drove around with no real place to go, just “because I could”. 

My life’s pace has slowed down almost to a screeching halt by my normal standards just “because I can”.  I haven’t even fully unpacked yet, which is unheard of for me, and it doesn’t even matter.  Wow, what has happened to me?!?  I don’t feel in a hurry to do much of anything – also not “normal” for me.  I haven’t just been sitting around staring at the walls, it’s just that there’s no pressure on me to do anything right now.  It’s actually a very freeing feeling.  I don’t have a daily calendar that I’m scheduling my life out for five months ahead in like I usually do.  In fact, I don’t even have one yet.  My life here won’t let me get away with not having one for much longer, but I feel it may have stepped back a notch or two in importance.  And guess what?  That feels okay to me!

There are a lot of other things I’ve learned that I’ve mentioned throughout my blog, so I won’t repeat myself on those.

I’ve decided to break this down into two separate blogs so you can stop reading and take a break.   I really hope you will join me for the rest of this blog as these two blogs, to me, constitute what the full impact of my traveling around the world for five months has had on me.

Please join me one last time!

Thanks,

Kadi

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

RE-ENTRY…

I wasn’t expecting my reaction last night when I arrived at the Salt Lake International Airport.  Because I’ve been back in the United States since Dec. 31, I thought I had already felt the exhilaration of being “home” when I got tears in my eyes as I saw Oahu, Hawaii for the first time out my plane window and realized I would shortly be back on American soil.   I’ve been back in the USA for 18 days, for heavens sake!  Nonetheless, last night, as our plane was about to land, the flight attendant was giving de-boarding instructions.  One of the things she said was, “…And if you are returning home to Salt Lake, ‘Welcome Home!’”  I don’t know why that struck me so, but this time, as hard as I was trying to fight them back, tears actually rolled out of my eyes onto my cheeks.  And to top it all off, at that moment, I glanced out the window just in time to see a huge American flag painted on the side of the Delta Airlines office building.  That just threw me over the edge! 

I’M ACTUALLY HOME!!!!!  Even now, that’s bringing tears to my eyes just to say it.  I’m home safe and sound.  I’m home on American soil.  I’m home where my family and friends are (not that I didn’t have family and friends on my trip).  I’m home where I have my own little home and car and everything that goes along with that.  I’m home where I know what to expect from things around me (that’s a hard one to explain to you though).  I’m home where I can get mail again – I actually have an address.  I’m home where I don’t have to worry about certain diseases.  I’m home where things are clean and taken care of.  I’m home where everyone speaks English and we can all understand what each other is saying (except maybe at Carl’s Jr.’s hamburgers where no one seems to understand my order given in English – LOL). 

There were a lot of little things that happened last night that told me I’d been away longer than I realized…  Tayler picked me up at the airport in my Toyota Avalon.  It’s been sitting in my garage since the middle of August.  It’s almost like I’ve forgotten how my car works!  I couldn’t even figure out some of the simple things in it.   Tayler had figured out how to turn on my GPS, but I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off, re-set the clock, turn on the interior light, get back to the main screen on my menu in my dashboard, turn on/off the heated seats.  I felt so awkward in my car I’ve driven for five years!  Luckily, I wasn’t the one driving, or I’m sure there would have been more.  That’s still to come today, I’m guessing.

When we arrived home, I was greeted with the front of my house decorated with mylar balloons, the words “Welcome Home” in the living room window, a sign on the grass that said, “Kadi, Welcome Home You Globe Trotter You!  Hakuna Matata”.  Then we walked into a lighted living room, kitchen, and dining room.  There were fresh flowers and my favorite candy bars – Snickers and Baby Ruths – scattered around the vase with a note from Bruce and Tara (they’ve been taking care of my house while I was gone.   There was fresh fruit, bread, milk, a box of Cream of Wheat, and eggs that Tara had picked up for us. ).   [I have since learned that the flowers and food were from Tara, and the candy, balloons, and signs were from Diane – I kind of thought that was from her.]  My home was warm, clean, and inviting.  I even had hot, clean running water.  There were more mylar balloons in the living room.  They even put fresh flowers on the end table by my bed.  What sweet gestures!  I feel very loved and grateful to be here!

Tayler and I had a few “re-entry” moments, too.  He’s been teaching in South Korea since the end of February, so he’s been away even longer than I have, but he’s been back in the USA for nearly a week.  By the time we ran an errand for Tayler and stopped by my brother’s house to pick up all of both of our mail that had been forwarded to his house, we didn’t arrive home until nearly 10:00 PM.  Tayler got out of the car to punch in the security code for the garage door when I just pushed the garage door button in my car.  We both laughed realizing he didn’t need to get out of the car to get into the garage.  He’d forgotten!

We were both hungry, but because it was so late, we didn’t want to eat much.  We decided to have a piece of toast – just because we could.  Neither of us has had a toaster for all these months.  We’ve had to make our toast in a frying pan, which leaves something to be desired.  Next, we went downstairs to see what I had in my food storage that we could eat.  I settled on a bowl of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup and a glass of milk.  He just had an apple with his toast and milk.  Even that struck me – I could just walk downstairs and find food that I am familiar with, and heat it in a microwave oven (another thing I’ve been without most of this trip).

When he was finished eating, Tayler went over to the sink to wash his dishes by hand.  All of a sudden, he realized that I had a dishwasher, and he could simply rinse the dishes and put them in it to be washed. He’s had to wash all his dishes by hand for so long, he’d forgotten there was such a thing as a dishwasher.  I might have done the same thing had I not had access to a one in Hawaii and Oakland before I arrived home.

Everywhere I went in my house was like a new experience for me.  I was struck at how much light I have and how easily I can see in my home.  Without exception, even in the American cities I’ve been in, my home is lighter.  I LOVE light!  It felt so good to be able to see everything so easily even in the night!  I loved the feel of carpet under my feet, as opposed to cold tile.  My home felt clean and orderly to me.  My neighbor, who has a heating and plumbing company, had come over on Sunday and turned on all my interior water again for me and turned up my heater.  So I had clean hot and cold running water, and a warm house.  It felt so cozy.  Just looking around my home at the things I had in it was like discovering it all over again.  I’d almost forgotten what it all looked like.  Last night as I climbed into my own little bed in my own little bedroom, I was once again struck with how grateful I was to be home.  I turned on my electric warming blanket on my bed, crawled under the covers, and drifted off to sleep.   (I hope that no one I’ve stayed with takes any of this personally, but it’s just so nice to be in my own little house with my own stuff and know that I no longer have to live out of suitcases, etc.)

This morning, I opened my bedroom window blinds and saw the elementary school that’s behind my house.  I’d even forgotten it was there!  Then, I saw the kids and realized that school is in session.  Wow!  I’m so out of touch with the realities of my life here.  It’s like someone has taken an eraser and simply erased everything that my life was before August 16, 2011!  Apparently, Salt Lake has had NO snow this winter.  I mean NOOOOOO snow!!! The mountains are bare.  This time of year we normally have about 150 inches of snow in the mountains.  When I looked out my window, I saw basically bare mountains and a tiny skiff of snow in my backyard.  That’s it!  This is only the second time I’ve even seen snow since last April!  The first time was the night before Christmas Eve at Tayler and Meghan’s in South Korea.  I’m not used to that!  (Believe me when I say I’m not really missing the snow with it’s cold, slushy, icy, messy, salty roads, etc., but I do know how much Utah depends on snow covered mountains in the winter to provide our desert climate with water in the summer.  Luckily, we’ve had a couple of really heavy water years the previous two winters, so our reservoirs and lakes are still pretty full.  Nonetheless, if this keeps up throughout the winter, I’m guessing we’ll have to be very careful with our water consumption in the summer.)

I guess I need to go deal with my “new” life here… Unpacking, laundry, buying groceries, getting a new battery for my car (apparently a light got left on inside sometime after I left, and the battery is basically dead now), figuring out how to get my landline phone, internet, and cable turned back on, going through five months of mail, etc., etc.  I have a feeling my re-entry isn’t quite over yet.  We’ll see.

IT’S NICE TO BE HOME!  I’ll write again soon.

Kadi

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Well, I’m sitting in the San Francisco International Airport.  I’m less than an hour away from boarding the last plane on this long journey.  If I calculated this correctly, when I arrive home in SLC, I will have been in 34 airports either departing to or arriving from somewhere.   That’s a LOT of standing in lines for boarding passes, checking in luggage, agricultural checks, immigration lines, security checks, and actually boarding the planes.  It’s hard to believe I’ve made it through all of that with two huge overweight bags (totaling 115 pounds by the time I left Hawaii)) plus a 35 pound rolling carry-on and a beach bag full to the brim as my “personal bag”.  It’s a good thing for I’ve had people traveling with me, dropping me off at airports, and kind men along the way to help me with all of my very heavy bags.

I’ve come to realize that all airports, airplanes, and airline policies are NOT the same!  It seemed that almost every encounter was different from the one before.  Once again, Delta falls to the bottom of the list as far as pricing on overweight bags.  I made sure that one of my big bags was within regulations (51 lbs.), but the other was 15 pounds overweight.  Anything between 52-70 lbs. cost $90/bag!!!  The most I’ve had to pay anywhere else was $25/bag.  Hawaiian Air also charged $27 for a second bag, so it cost me a total of $77 – STILL less than Delta.  Suzy suggested that perhaps I could use the Flat Rate Priority boxes from the post office to mail some of my things home for cheaper than the $90 overweight bag price.  What a great idea!  I filled two of the large boxes with the heaviest things I could get out of my suitcases that would fit.  That was a total of only $30 – a $60 savings!  Way to think, Suzy!!!

I went to the Oakland Temple this morning, after checking online to make sure it wasn’t closed, only to discover it WAS closed for cleaning starting today.  What luck!  I was so disappointed.  That made two temples in the past week that I had TRIED to go to only to discover they were closed for cleaning.  Someone needs to light a fire under someone at Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City because both temples had turned in their cleaning schedule, but neither schedule showed up on their website!  That really stinks!  I was super bummed!  I did get to see the temple grounds in the daylight, and the view is spectacular of San Francisco.  That’s one thing I love about most of our temples.  They are frequently built on a hill so they are easier to see and they have great views of the area.

Tayler and Meghan headed home to Salt Lake on Jan. 12 for about three weeks so that he could take the Praxis Test for entrance into the Master’s program at the U. of U.  He and Meghan both want to get their certification to teach.  Hopefully, teaching in So. Korea will give them an edge.  It will be nice to have them at home for a few weeks.  Tayler will pick me up tonight at the airport, too.

I wasn’t planning on writing this blog, so I still have more to write.  Please stay tuned…

Kadi

Monday, January 16, 2012

I’m now in Oakland, California.  I’m staying with my cousin, Suzy.  Saturday, we drove into San Francisco and had clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls down at Fisherman’s Wharf.  That’s kind of the thing to do whenever you go to San Francisco, in my opinion.   It’s certainly colder here than in Hawaii, but it was a sunny day and it was fun to just sit outside at the wharf and eat/visit.

                          Where we bought our clam chowder at the Wharf.

                Suzy and me with our bread bowls full of yummy clam chowder.
     
                       
After lunch, I did a little shopping and browsing at Ghirardelli Square, The Cannery, dropped by Hyde Park Pier; then we drove over to Fort Point, which is under the Golden Gate Bridge, by Coit Tower, and down Lombard Street.  I’ve been to San Francisco several times, and it never loses its charm or ambience.  I was sad to learn, though, that the sea lions that have always frequented Pier 39 near the Wharf all left in 2009 after being there for twenty years.  Apparently, they have recently returned, but there weren’t any there when we were there.  They are always so fun to watch.





The Wharf near Pier 39 where the sea lions have been for 20 years.

   Ghirardelli Square where there are some fun shops and LOTS of Ghirardelli chocolate!

                           Hyde Park Pier.

Fort Point is the brick structure just under the arch at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was used to protect the city.

 I just had to throw this one in... It reminded me of Kenya.  Can you read the sign for the name of the cafe?  It's called the Tuk Tuk Thai Cafe, and there's a little picture of a tuktuk just like I rode many times in Kenya.  Ah, memories surfacing already...

 Lombard Street at night.  It's very steep and zigzags back and forth from the top to the bottom.

I really wanted crab or at least some seafood here.  (You just can't be by the ocean and not eat some good seafood!)  Suzy and I ended up cooking crab-stuffed salmon and shrimp cocktail for dinner.  It turned out great and was as good as anything we could have gotten in a nice restaurant (if I do say so myself – LOL).

Later in the day on Sunday, after church and the weather improved, we drove back into San Francisco.  We drove up to the Marin Headlands just over the Golden Gate Bridge and north of San Fran up along the coastline.  Wow!  What a view!  My pictures don’t do it justice, but I hope you can get a little feel of how gorgeous it was.  We also tried Lombard Street again because it was really too dark to see it well on Sat. night.

 Lombard Street in the daylight.  Each turn is only a couple of car-lengths long.  It's really a funky little road.

                             On the Golden Gate Bridge.

 Suzy and me on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very windy and very cold.

On our way to the Marin Headlands.  What a view!!!

 If you watched the "Bachelor" on TV tonight, this is exactly the view they panned in on.  It was rather fun to be right here where they filmed tonight's episode.

 Coming down the backside of the mountain toward the ocean.  It's a gorgeous view, but the sun was getting low and it was still a little hazy.  Nonetheless, it was breathtaking and beautiful.  This road is much steeper than it looks.

 They had some pretty good-sized waves at the beach once we reached the bottom, but they were nothing compared to Hawaii's.

 There's no reason to put this one in other than that I thought it was a very funny sign... I'm not sure if they are more concerned with the pedestrians or the frogs... Hmmm...

 If you've never been to San Francisco before, I thought you'd be interested in these photos.  All their houses are connected like this.  They have very little footage in front, they are usually about 3 stories high, and they are EXTREMELY expensive - like at least $1,000,000!!!  I'm not kidding!

Chuck, Suzy’s dear friend, cooked us chicken and dumplings – Kentucky style and round bread.  He worked really hard, and dinner was wonderful.

I haven’t seen Suzy for well over ten years, so it has been so much fun just to visit with her again!  I’m grateful to have been able to be here with her and Chuck.  They have been so gracious and accommodating.

Tomorrow, I’m going to the Oakland Temple in the morning, and getting ready to head home after all these months.  It’s been an amazing experience.  I will probably do one more blog entry after I get home, so check in one more time.  I’ve got a lot to say about this whole life-changing event that I’d like to share with you.  Hope to see you again.

On our way to dinner tonight, we stopped by the Oakland Temple.  As all of our temples seem to be at night, it was beautiful.

Well, after 34 different airport arrivals and departures, I'll be on my last plane ride tomorrow for a few more months.  I certainly WON'T miss the airport experiences!!!!!

Talk to you soon,

Kadi