Road Trippin’
Posted on May 21, 2008
Filed Under Collegelife '08, People, West Coast | 4 Comments
Waking up early on a Sunday is not fun. This Sunday we woke up at 6.30, which is very early, but we had a good reason: to get to California as early as possible. Our plan did not really work out because we arrived closer to 11 PM the same night, but that’s life. Sam, our host was going to drive us there and hang out for a morning and then drive back. We were very happy that he was willing to do this for us and we were excited to see Oregon and Northern California by car. We had planned a stop at the magnificent Crater Lake, which is exactly what it sounds like, a lake in a crater. It might not sound too exciting but it was a gigantic lake that was about 2000 feet (for Swedes: 600 meters) deep and had 2000 feet tall snow covered mountains surrounding it.
When we, after 4 hours, reached the Northern entrance we had to stop, because the road was covered in 3 feet (for Swedes – you should have learned by now – almost 1 meter) of snow. This forced us to drive around the whole thing, which took us another hour, so we could take the Southern entrance. When we finally got there we were very astonished by the beautiful nature and we stayed for about an hour walking around, taking pictures and admiring the scenic view. A lot of the area around the top station was covered in a glacier-like type of snow that was there despite the warm and sunny weather. Erik even managed to step through it once and bruise his leg on the ice.
The drive through Oregon was calm and peaceful and we switched drivers every now and then so everyone could get their share of sleep. After many hours of watching the Oregon nature we all agreed that Oregon was the most beautiful state we had been to. We drove from the field and forest covered lowlands around Salem, to the snow covered mountains and finally to grass and bush covered hills and mountains in the south where the temperature reached 100 Fahrenheit. We stopped for food at Taco Bell (for Swedes: a fast food chain with Mexican food that, unfortunately have not come to Sweden yet) and stopped at Starbucks for energy and caffeine (and yet another cute Starbucks employee).
We came to San Francisco and Britta Peterson’s house late that night and we were very happy to finally be there. We had been talking about coming to her house since early last fall and now, finally we were to see the fantastic city, where Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage battled the crazy general Ed Harris, who was garrisoned on the prison island Alcatraz (for full story, watch “The Rock”).
Comments
4 Responses to “Road Trippin’”
Leave a Reply
i have made that drive probably 20 times. it is so beautiful. what i would give to take that drive again… i love the northern part of the west coast so much… absolutely my comfort zone and my true home. i’ll be there in 3 days. ah..
I love that picture. It looks like heaven, I am so glad you guys are getting to do this road trip. You Swedes have done more of the states then most Americans have done. God bless you on your trip and stay safe.
Tjena Isak!
haha. Njut av livet!! Kommer du hem i Juni nu då?! Kram
Vilka härliga bilder.. trodde du skulle till usa och plugga
roligt! va fint!