That song has been going around in my mind for some time, even now, nearly a week after we left. Undoubtedly our time in San Jose was a big highlight of our trip—visiting Daniel and Dia in their home for the first time, going on delightful outings with them, going to church with them (three times!), getting to know the sunny cities in the San Francisco Bay area, and especially seeing how God even worked through the auto accident our first day there as part of the “good times,” memories that will be with us forever. We are truly grateful for every day that we were in the Bay area.

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Lombard Street in San Francisco is famous the world around

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Sometimes things happen that we just don’t understand, like the artwork above. We had planned to stay a week in San Jose near Daniel and Dia, and then head on down to Yosemite, Sequoia, and Grand Canyon before the weather got too cool in the mountains to visit those awesome features of nature. When our van was damaged, it necessitated a change in plans, and as it turned out, the accident truly did become a blessing in disguise. Let me enumerate our blessings:

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Our previous article left some of our readers with unanswered questions. So we are attempting to resolve those questions. Whenever a particular experience takes place, there is always some kind of “resolution” as time moves forward.

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What do you do when the unexpected happens? In our case, we had parked the van and were in a store when a Toyota decided to take our parking place.

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The ranger at one of the lighthouses we visited in California said “Everyone should drive Highway One at least once in their lives, and that’s enough.” We had already experienced enough of that challenging road to understand what he meant!

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Believed to have originated in Japan or China, the Resurrection Lily has simple leaves, which are not present when the flowers emerge from the crown. The leaves sprout and grow in the spring, then die back during June. Then in late July or early August the flowers appear. The flowers are white or pink and fragrant. The flowers spring dramatically from the ground in mid to late summer; it usually takes only four to five days from first emergence to full bloom.

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When we thought that we had pretty much covered the Redwoods, we found that we had really only begun. The Redwoods to the south of the national park were actually bigger than the ones we encountered in the Redwood National Park. We discovered that Humboldt State Park would treat our eyes to even bigger trees than we had previously seen.

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Bonnie and I have heard from “our youth up” about the Redwood trees and how big they grow. They actually are taller than the giant Sequoya trees but they are only half the diameter at the base. Nevertheless, they are giants created by an even bigger God who delights in amazing His people.

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The California Costal Redwoods are gigantic trees that cannot easily be conveyed with still pictures or even with videos.

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While exploring the Oregon coast, we made it a goal to visit all nine of the historic lighthouses on the Oregon coast—and we did it!

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They kept calling my name. But even when I responded, they wouldn't quit calling me!

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We were taking a little hike to see the Octopus Tree. We didn’t really know what to expect and were anxious to get a glimpse of this wonder of God’s creation. When the tree came into view we were quite surprised by the shape and size of the tree. But that wasn’t the only thing that was a surprise to us that day.

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It’s not often that Flat meets someone like himself: a “travel buddy.” But in Astoria, Oregon, Flat did just that.

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It’s hard to believe that we’ve been away from Tennessee for over seven months. I intended to write a reflection on the first six months, but we were so busy in August just keeping up with our travel blogs, that I didn’t have a chance. So this morning I’m sitting in a church parking lot at 6 am, unable to sleep, and thought I’d give it a go.

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