On vacation

I got a vacation!

I was frustrated with a lot of things. People, mostly. None of my assistants in my calling responded to an email I sent out. My "sweet bro" roommate/home teaching companion didn't respond to me about when he would be around. My other roommate left the state but he's too good for us so I didn't know it until someone else told me. My FHE group leaders didn't communicate to us. My roommates are very irresponsible with the food they keep in the fridge; I filled up an entire garbage bag of old food. I've become a bit of a tree hugger and recycle things, but I didn't recycle the containers because some of them were half food and half mold.

So it was good to forget about those Provo jerks for a time.

On Tuesday, I drove through September-esque rain to head home, first to go to my cousin Quin's setting apart for his mission. On my mom's side of the family, he's the first missionary since me. It weirds me out that I was in my last area five years ago at this time.

On Wednesday, I left with my parents, my sister, and my niece to head to California to visit my brother and his family.

On Thursday, we headed to Lassen Volcanic National Park, which I believe is the fourteenth national park I've been to, and the third one I've been to this year/in the last month. We met my nephews and their parents there. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend much time there. Lassen has all four kinds of volcanoes (stratovolcanoes, cinder cones, plug domes, and shield volcanoes), but we didn't get to see much. Cinder cones are my favorite, but we didn't see any.

My youngest nephew, Nathaniel a.k.a. Qi-en, formerly known as Baby, is four years old and he kept asking where the lava was. We told him the rocks used to be lava, but I'm not sure he understood.

Lassen is a small national park, so I was surprised at the quality of the t-shirts. They actually had shirts I would want to wear. Some national parks, such as Zion, have just terrible t-shirt designs, ones that use the Papyrus font and are just plain ugly. I only imagine old people wearing them. (Disclaimer: I have nothing against old people, but I don't want to dress like something I'm not.) Last August I found a decent shirt at Bryce Canyon, but after I bought it I realized it was a woman's shirt, so I gave it to my niece. (Disclaimer: I have nothing against women, but I don't want to dress like something I'm not. Besides, it didn't fit me.)

At Lassen, there was lots of andesite, some basalt, and even some pumice. But I generally prefer sedimentary rocks; they tend to be easier to identify, and I think they tell better stories.

 We stayed in a rental cabin in Lassen, and then we drove to Mt. Shasta, which apparently is the largest stratovolcano in the Cascades. Before we loaded our stuff into our very fancy hotel rooms (my parents have gotten spendy), we needed to go get lunch. And having four kids in tow, they all wanted to go to McDonald's. I don't understand why McDonald's is the default favorite of kids, because it is awful. Even their decent food isn't that good. Anyway, my overly indulgent parents agreed to go to McDonald's six miles away in Weed, CA. That's what it's really called. On our way back, my mom decided she didn't want to go on the freeway again (yes, we went on the freeway to go to McDonald's). So we went on this little road that was quite adventurous. The paved part was really bumpy. Then it wasn't paved anymore. We passed numerous sites with old mattresses, dilapidated couches, and destroyed TVs, just sitting out in the middle of nowhere. Our road ended up going right next to a train track. It was bizarre and slightly terrifying.

Then we came down to Albany, CA, in the Bay Area, to visit my brother and his wife and my three nephews, Preston, Franklin, and Nathaniel. Today we went to the Berkeley Ward. They have an old chapel built in the 1930s; it is very ornate. That would have been back in the day when local members had to erect buildings themselves. It sure is different from all the cookie cutter churches we usually see.

At the end of this week, I'll be back to Provo with all its jerks. (And its nice people, too.)