the missing link

Ni Hao! That's Chinese for hello.. writing to you from my new place in Oakland California! It has been some time since my last post and oh so much has happened but I am happy to tell all that both John and I are safe, fed, and in great spirits. We found a small place in Oakland's' China town, more properly known to have plenty of Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and other Asian everything. The Asian cuisine is just fabulous, both in authentic taste (so John tells me) and in price. I've tried so many new dishes and am enjoying them all. San Francisco is only about a 20 minute drive over the bridge and a fabulous place to go.

I had an interview at the largest Art Gallery in San Francisco, www.theartistalley.com, and was offered the Art Gallery Assistant position but have yet to solidify all the details (keep your fingers crossed and prayers said that I will secure this wonderful and decent paying job). This morning I rode my bike to the United State's newest Cathedral only 2 miles down the lakeside from here. Christ the Light Cathedral is absolutely gorgeous and I am so fortunate to be bale to call it my new parish. Underneath the church is a huge, and slightly intimidating, mausoleum. If anyone is to come visit California's city of Oakland this is a must see.

So, what remains is the missing link between Montana and how we arrived on the edge of the world; as some may call it. Well it all began with a sad departure from the beautiful Big Sky ranch and south towards Utah. First Stop was Craters of the Moon National Park. Very interesting park to say the least due to the fact that it is completely void of almost any visible green of living object. In truth we learned the area was home to many animals and organism but the black landscape in the middle of Utah's desert was without a doubt an interesting site. The entire park is a currently inactive lava field in which dried lava from thousands of years past to just two thousand years ago have shaped huge spatter cones, frozen flowing lava, and large black hills of lava sand.

Utah's Salt Lake City was our next stop. We were anxious to find a car shop that could fix the car's air conditioning that had just broken. Now we tried to make due for a few days without the AC but the temperatures in Utah were around 100 and rising as we were headed south. So for safety (dehydration) and of course comfort reasons the AC was our top priority. I'm going to make a long hot story very short and sweet in retrospect. It took about a week to get everything sorted and I have to thank John's wonderful father for helping us work out all the details with that situation. But during the meantime we stayed about an hour south of the city at Timpanogos Cave National Park. Up in the mountains the weather was about 20-30 degrees cooler and there were some great opportunities we took advantage of out of the otherwise seemingly elaborate and hot situation we found ourselves in that week. First we took a cave tour. And typing that here in my computer in a nice short sweet sentence makes it sound like a quick easy and painless experience.
Well of course no one died or any other major catastrophic events did not occur but prior to the tour we were instructed to hike to the mouth of the cave and meet our tour guide at our time assigned. The hike was only 1.5 miles but it was the elevation climb of 1100 vertical feet in switch backs (if you look closely you can see these and the people hiking on them in the photo on the right) and the 100 degrees of heat that was trying. Thank goodness John was there to coach me to the top. The hike was completely worth it though. Taking about an hour and a half we finally reached the top and filed into the narrow passage ways of Timpanogos cave. The temperature was about 40 degrees and very dark; my first time in a cave! The walk down the mountain was wonderful and refreshing only taking about 20 minutes. Hopefully I did not scare anyone about the Timpanogos Cave because I would definitely recommend the tour to all. Also, while at Timpanogos we hiked a beautiful trail to a mountain high waterfall. To be continued tomorrow!