Day 26: Home Base, Bakersfield California

June 17, 2013

Hello friends and family.

"Yosemite" California as soon as you can!

As David mentioned in the last post, Yosemite was absolutely breath taking. The waterfalls were breath taking and the steep granite mountains were pretty spectacular as well. During the week, we hiked and also took a photography class/walk with a professional photographer for Ansel Adams. The class taught us how to use good composition, sharpness (detail), and depth of field for the best picture possible. David and I were happy to learn a few extra tricks with our camera, making it fun to shoot in a more manual setting.

One day, we did not feel like making the hour drive into the Yosemite valley, so we drove a couple miles up the road to Rainbow Pools. There used to be a resort on the premise, but burnt down a while ago. Now there are three pools that have been taken over by the national forest and anyone can use them. The bottom pool has a waterfall overflowing into it and steep cliffs all around. The water was 30 feet deep, so for the brave and adventurous spirits, you could jump off these cliffs! It made me think of my brother, Nick, and how much he would have enjoyed the jumping!!!
 

Probably wouldn't want to jump off that particular cliff...

As David mentioned, we headed out a day early with the pressure of knowing that there were things that needed settled before the weekend hit. 

Reno made it to Bakersfield with no big glitches. He definitely was picky with when he wanted that back light to work.
 

On Friday we drove Noah to LA airport with a detour to see the Hollywood sign and the stars on hollywood blvd. It was cool to see, but I would be ok with never going there again ahah. It was busy, dirty and people were always trying to get us to join their tours.
 

Lucille Ball in Hollywood.

We are currently parked on the Southeast side of Bakersfield, which is not the best area. However, we will be relocating on Thursday to a much nicer, safer, family friendly park on the Northwest side. This is the park that we were hoping we would get. Thank you Jesus!!  We were also informed we could stay long term as long as our credit check clears and Reno is registered...

Reno reluctant to register

This is a point of stress currently. To become registered, Reno has to go through a smog test (emission check). Well... if you have been reading the posts from the beginning, you know that Reno does not run the smoothest. David is 99% sure that he will fail the test, which means that we will have to fix whatever it takes to get Reno to pass....
 

We are praying really hard that he passes, but if he does not pass, that he will at least only need minimal fixes to pass. As soon as we are registered we will be able to pay monthly rates which are so inexpensive compared to apartment rentals here!

Real life starts again

David's first day with Occidental Petroleum is today. I have not heard from him, but I know it is an HR day. So, they will be going through rules, benefits, and other random stuff. I know he was excited, but also a little nervous this morning.
 

Today, I got a gym membership and I had nice long work out with no pressure to cut it short since there was not much else I had to do. Ha. I was planning on going to the library to use their computers and printers, only to find out they are closed on Mondays. So, tomorrow I will go and work on transferring my nursing license. I am hoping I can get it done in 1 day, so I can apply for jobs ASAP. There is a possibility I will work part time as an adjunct professor for an LPN school here in town. We will see. I am excited to see what God has in store for both myself and David here in Bakersfield.

Well, I think that sums up what we have been up to! I will try to post at least once a week. We love and miss everyone.