My Summer, 2002

This year our summer did not start on June 21st, but on May 8th. That was the day that Miriam graduated from college. Most of our family, Mom, Dad, Lydia, Elijah, Me, and Grandpa and Grandma Lofgren sat in the Crown Center, Pensacola Christian College’s newest building. Maria took Jubilee and James to a room where they watched from a t.v. screen. But this was not the end of our vacation. In fact, this was just the beginning.

Our next trip started on May 11th, three days after we got home from Pensacola. But this time it was not for a few days. It was for a whole month! The first night we stopped in a nice little campground in Louisiana. We had started in Alabama, and passed through Tennessee. Jubilee and I went on a hay ride which (we thought) only went on the circle around the campgrounds. It actually lasted 15-20 minutes. What a surprise!

May 12th. We stopped in Texas at a nice hotel with a pool. We went swimming, then retired to our beds.

May 13th. We stopped at Uncle Ralph and Aunt Judy’s house in Texas. We enjoyed canoeing and swimming in the lake. we also had fun spending time with our relatives.

May 14th. We drove, played one of our numerous games of Rook, and finally stopped at Guadeloupe National Park. After paying for our campsite, we set up the tent and went to bed.

May 15th. After checking out the visitors center we drove to Carlsbed Caverns. There we took a self-guided tour of “The King’s Palace”. The rock formations were exotic! We had little audio wands that told us about what we saw. When we got back to our campsite Dad, Miriam, Lydia, and Elijah went hiking. It was very windy.

May 16th. After driving a while, we stopped at Echo Lodge. Earlier that evening we drove through Saguaro National Park. We saw a lot of neat cactus and even tried to pose like one.

May 17th. After playing 4 games of Rook and touring a desert museum with lots of animals we arrived in Joshua National Park located in California. On the way into the park I saw about six deer and a ram.

May 18th. That morning we took a little walk on a small trail. Then we drove around and climbed a lot of cool rocks. That was really fun. When we had driven a little more we stopped to take some pictures and saw a coyote slinking around under a tree. After that we drove a little and arrived in Paradise Cove Park.

May 19th. When I woke up on this morning it was very windy. It was 5:30 a.m. so I decided to go sleep in the car. We left at about 7:30, stopped for breakfast, then continued on our way while looking for a church. Finally we found a small chapel tucked in the mountains. Our family made up about 1/3 of the congregation! As we were driving up the very twisty roads to Sequoia National Park, we spotted a tarantula and helped it get safely across the road. Then we continued on our way. After setting up our tent and putting our food in the bear box, we went to bed.

May 20th. On the morning in Sequoia, when I woke up instead of being windy it had snowed! Everything was covered with powdery white stuff! When we had eaten and built a fire, the family that had camped next to us came over to get warm. As we were talking we learned that they were missionaries! They had a daughter that had just turned 12, and whose name was Anna! Currently we are pen pals. That day I was so cold that I got sick. But while we were going down the windy roads, it was so slippery we slipped into a snow bank. Thankfully God sent some people to help us out. But as we were going about ½ mile per hour, a ranger stopped us and told us to wait for the snowplow to come, which we did and then got down safely. On this night we stayed at a motel to get hot showers and such. Much more comfortable then the last accommodations.

May 21st. We arrived in Yosemite for a four day visit and stayed in a place called Sunnyside Campsites. We had a gorgeous view of the mountains.

May 22nd. We hiked to the bottom of Yosemite falls, went to the visitor center and biked to Mirror Lake.

May 23rd. This day was long and eventful. While the four went hiking, Mom, Jubilee, and I went horseback riding. Mom rode “Bartender,” Jubilee rode “Billy,” and I rode “Tucker.” We were still staying at Yosemite.

May 24th. Mom, Jubilee, and I went swimming in Yosemite’s pool, while the others went on another hike

May 25th. We left our campsite and drove to Bridalveil Falls and then continued up to Glacier Point. The view up there was breathtaking! Then we left Yosemite and started toward Death Valley.

May 26th. We drove through the night and arrived at our motel at 1:15 a.m. When we finally awoke, we did laundry. After that we stayed around town until afternoon. Then we drove through Las Vegas to a town just outside of it.

May 27th. We stopped at Hoover Dam and took a tour. Then we drove from Nevada, through Arizona, then to Utah.

May 28th. We drove some more and then arrived in Zion National Park

May 29th. On this day we took a bus tour of Zion. We also walked through the narrows, and hiked to the lower Emerald Pools. Dad, Miriam, and Elijah hiked to Angel’s Landing.

May 30th. We drove to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, then onto our motel. The view was spectacular!

May 31st. Most of us took a hike in Bryce National Park, (Mom didn’t) I liked how the rocks were shaped. Then we went to Capitol Reef.

June 1st. We drove to Arches National Park. The arches were cool! We saw many different ones.

June 6th. We drove to different places in the last few days One of them including Mesa Verde. I really liked the neat little Indian villages. We also arrived at cousin Kristen’s house in Oklahoma City where we spent the night.

June 7th. We got home. It had been a nice vacation but I was glad to get home. In all we went to 13 National Parks and drove through 13 States. But was this the end of vacation for me? No!

After spending time at home Mom, Lydia, Elijah, and I took off for New York City on July 22nd along with Joe Evridge, Tony Hines, and Joe Horning. We left at 1:20 a.m. in order to get to Atlanta to catch our flight. We arrived in New York around noon. That day we didn’t do much because we were tired.

The next day was Sunday and we went to Times Square Church. It was good and we stayed there fellowshiping until about 2:00 p.m. After we had eaten lunch we took the subway to The Brooklyn Tabernacle where there was a musical about the life of Christ. It was really neat!

When that was over we headed to the Empire State Building. We went to the top and lookedover the city. When we got out around 9:00 p.m. we went to eat at Wendy’s where they were playing Christian songs. It was veryrefreshing. When we finally got back to the YMCAwhere we were staying it was 11:30 p.m.

The next day we went prayer walking at different media places. When we were done we got on the Subway where we were jam packed. If two people got off, five would get on. Finally we were off that and back at the Y.

Tuesday night we went back to Times Square Church. On Wednesday we did different things around the city. Then on Thursday we went to a little park near the Y where we played instruments for about two hours. Joe H. and Mom got to talk to a few people about Jesus. After that we went to a Jewish neighborhood. People came out on their porches to listen and children gathered around us. After a while a man came out and told us to leave so we did. We had been singing, playing instruments, and talking to a few people.

Saturday was The Call NYC. We got there around 6:00 a.m. and stayed until around 4:00 p.m. it was a gathering for repenting for taking prayer out of school. The time in New York was good and we left on Monday.

After that my summer pretty well settled down and I took a four day ballet class, and spent time with friends. I would say that was a very good summer, wouldn’t you?