Not All Who Wander Are Lost

14 States and 2 countries later, we finally arrived home safe and sound! The second half of the trip was a bit horrific...since the car kept overheating, and we were in the desert, we couldn't run the air conditioning...it was near 100 degrees the whole drive. But all in all, quite worth it. We spent the last night of our journey the same way we spent the first night of our journey-sleeping in my car! Haha, We had such an amazing time! Everything was so wonderful and enlightening. I can't wait to scrapbook the whole thing!

This is our last entry! I hope you enjoyed following us!

Love,
Jessica and Johnny

We are in Texas....slowly but surely making it back to good old Chambana. I have to say, this trip has been amazing, but we are definitely looking forward to getting home! 940 miles to go!

Love,
Jx2

So we just left our three days in Vegas, and it was AMAZING! Our first night we just wandered the strip, and I ordered my first official drink! The second night we went to see Zumanity. Zumanity is Cirque du Soleil's "sensual" side...it is basically a cabaret. So I have wanted to see this show for several years, but the last time I was in Vegas I was 17 and couldn't go. Now since I am 21 and have been itching to see this show for YEARS we had to go! We had our section reserved (orchestra) but it was general admission from there, so we walked from the Luxor (our hotel) to New York New York where Zumanity was playing an hour and a half early. When we got there, the line was already starting so I hopped in. It was then that John announced that he forgot our tickets in our ROOM! So if you have been to Vegas, you know they build those casino's like mazes to keep people in there drinking and gambling. If you aren't 100% sure on where you are going, you are bound to get turned around, especially under stress. So I waited in line as John went back to get our tickets. The doors to the show opened and no John. I waited and waited, and watched hundreds of people walk by as they filled up the theater. I was so upset...I was FURIOUS. I had waited for years to see this show and now I was going to be stuck sitting in the back! By the time John got back, the show was about to start. We went inside and the ushers sat us down in the last row. I was fuming...almost crying. This really meant a lot to me. John went to the bathroom and while he was gone this lady asked a couple in front of us if they wanted to move to the couches in the front row. They said no. I jumped on the opportunity and said that I would move down to the couch. She looked at me (alone since John was in the bathroom) and told me sorry, the opportunity had passed or something ridiculous. John got back and I was even more upset, and then, the lady comes back and says that we could move down! We ended up sitting on this love seat RIGHT NEXT to the stage in the very front row! These seats are nearly $400.00, and we got to sit there for free! Then we find out that the show is (Very) interactive! During the pre-show, a lady came out and sat on John's lap and announced to everyone that he was her new boyfriend and this is their first date. Then a man came out, and she introduced John to him, it went something like this,

"Dick, meet my new booooyfriend, John! John, meet my husband, Dick!"

Hahaha it was funny, they teased us and asked us if we wanted to "swap" partners, etc. So then later on in the show, John got pulled on stage to help this same lady hold on her "breast implants" (it was a comedy act). It was so funny. Later we got pulled up again to do a slow dance with some other couples in the front row. One of the performers gave me an autographed picture of himself (haha) and John got a souvineer photo of himself on stage. It was an INCREDIBLE night. I could not have asked for anything better. And I attribute all of our good fortune to John forgetting our tickets and making us late! This evening was yet another example about how everything in our life is perfect. No matter how bad the situation, you never know what doors are opening for you because of it. I had such an amazing time, and I Know John did too.

Today we had to check out at 11am, so we did, and then talked our way into the resort pool. We hung out there until the late afternoon so that we didn't have to drive in the middle of the day when it was 100 degrees outside. So we spent the day relaxing at the pool, swimming, and reading, and then headed on our way. On our way out we stopped by the Hoover Dam. Now we are in Arizona somewhere at a motel for the night. I have some homework to turn in in the morning via email, so we needed to stop somewhere with free wifi.

Oh yea, while we were driving we noticed the most beautiful stars. It was pitch black, and we were out in the desert. We pulled over for a few minutes and climbed out my moonroof to look at the stars. Between the 2 of us we saw FIVE shooting stars AND we could see the Milky Way. It was the most special, spiritual and beautiful thing. We were so happy to share it together.

So now it is late, and we are off to bed. More soon!

Love,
Jess and John <3

Today marks our halfway point of our journey. This is our last night in Ojai! Tomorrow we start heading back east. We are making a three day stop in Las Vegas! I can't wait! We will keep you posted (better than we have recently!!)

Love Jess and John

We have done a lot this week. On our first night, there was a party for Jess and Raven's birthday (Jessica's cousin). We celebrated with all of Jessica's family. On Monday we visited Jess' s aunt Gordy and her cousins at their place and went swimming, in the hot tub, and watched a really great movie. It was really nice to bond with them as well. On Wednesday was Mariah's 8th grade graduation ceremony. Her ceremony was beautiful. There were 31 graduates in her class, and every single one of them was exceptional. Mariah graduated with Presidential Academic Honors, as well as the Headmaster's Award. She represented her class as Secretary of Student Coucil as well. We are so proud of her hard work and we are so glad we had the opportunity to watch her take this next step in her life!

Talon (another(!) of Jess's cousins) took us to Santa Barbara to check out the pier, eat some sushi, and just relax. Afterwards we hung out at one of his friends houses. It was a good time.

The other night we visited Raven and Darin (more cousins!) at their apartment to have coffee and dessert, basically just to visit. Darin's parents were visiting from Miami, so it was a great opportunity to visit and enjoy eachother's company.

In the in-between time we have been swimming, hiking, doing homework, research, you name it!

Yesterday we went hiking, had lunch at Suzanne's in Ojai, with Auntie Carol, Uncle Matt, and Mariah. Later we went to a concert later at Ventura Center for Spiritual Living, where Jess's family goes for services under the 'Science of Mind' beliefs. Last Sunday we attended a service with Aunt Carol and Jess's cousin Mariah that was very uplifting. If that is what every day is like there, I'm definitely converted.
And we did hike today through the Gridley road access trail area behind Ojai. The flora and mountains were spectacular. One of the mountains we saw has layers of rocked that are perfectly curved and stacked, and sideways, like taking pieces of paper and wrapping them around a ball. It was awesome to see and think about how exactly they were formed in that shape. Since we arrived in California, we have experienced the wonderful hospitality of Jess' family here. We have been staying in Aunt Carol's house and hanging out with the doggies Buster and Bonnie, and a kitty Riley. Mia, a very beautiful Belanese kitty, has been hiding out around the house for the most part since we arrived.

Suzanne's is a beautiful restaurant that is very special to our family. Auntie Carol treated us to such a beautiful and romantic dinner for Jessy's birthday. It was right next to the fountain and the garden, and they made a birthday dessert for Jess. It was so wonderful =)

Last night we went to see Larisa Stowe and the Shakti Tribe at Ventura's Spiritual Center (Auntie Carol's sanctuary). It was absolutely incredible. This woman's voice is unrivaled. The group combines spiritual mantras and beautiful eastern music...it was thought-provoking and soul-searching. We meditated, sang, danced, clapped, yelled, it was incredible. John really, really enjoyed them as well. It was just so incredible. Tomorrow, I've got to study for an exam, but John is going to go to church with Auntie. I am sooo glad we have found a place to love, a place for peace, a place to be ourselves and love eachother and share our joy with like-minded people doing great things for our world. We aim to embody these mantras and believes throughout our every day lives, and live in the NOW. It is so easy to forget how important now is. How important it is to take time for yourself, meditate, reflect, relax...school can be so stressful and take over our lives. But it won't anymore, because when you are balanced and you are living with intention, there is no reason to feel negativity and stress. We have been enjoying our time here in Ojai so much! Tomorrow is Mariah's graduation party, and the whole family will be here again! It is so exciting, when we arrived we had a party (for Raven and my birthday) and we are leaving monday after a party! It has been an amazing week that has gone by sooo quickly. We love our family <3 Thank you to everyone who has made this week so special!

We spent one night at Jedidiah Smith Redwood National Park. It was absolutely stunning. The Redwoods are truly a magnificent sight. We planned on hiking, but instead explored our campground and found a beautiful rock bank on a river, and spent a couple hours searching out stones to build our own Inukshuk. This was no easy task. We had to use a lot of team work and patience to get it right! It was a lot of fun. We made s'mores that night, and had some good food. We went to bed early in order to get up for the 13 hour drive to Ojai. The next morning we headed out on the Pacific Coastal Highway. It was absolutely breathtaking. We drove through the mountains along the ocean. We stopped several times to take pictures on the beach, and of the beautiful rock formations. We are gaining tolerance with our driving capabilities now...13 hours seemed like nothing! We arrived in Ojai around midnight.

So it has been a few days. One of them, Jessica and I headed up to Vancouver from Bellingham to see the city. The journey itself was mostly uneventful, except for the intensity of questioning by the Canadian border guards. Being that we came from Illinois, they either took some sort of interest in us or they are just substantially more unfriendly than the US border guards. When entering into Canada, we had multiple checkpoints that asked us to declare any firearms, explosives, etc that we may happen to be carrying. That seemed pretty standard. The young lady who examined our passports at the final booth checkpoint gave us a pretty good interrogation. It went something like this:

Guard “Where are you all coming from”

Us “Illinois”

Guard “Thats a long way to go to visit Vancouver (suspecting tone in her voice)”

Us “Well we're on a road trip this month. We've been staying with a friend in Bellingham and we thought we'd come up here to see Vancouver as this is the only opportunity we have to do that.”

Guard “What is your business in Vancouver?”

Us “We were planning on walking around the city to see the sights, Olympic stadium area, and get some of the sushi that is plentiful here for lunch. We also here that there are some very scenic parks around the city.”

Guard “I wouldn't go all the way to America for sushi.”

Me “We drove about 20 minutes.” (woops!? Don't be rude to them, but that wasn't the greatest interrogative statement...)

Guard “I thought you were from Illinois”

Us “We are staying at a friends in Bellingham this week. Since we're leaving tomorrow we thought we'd come up to Vancouver while we can.”

Guard “Have fun coming through the traffic jam on your way back.” then mumbles statements about traveling, safety, and such, and let us through. There was about 5 cars in front of us at the border on the way back, during 'rush hour.' I don't think this person has ever been within 50 miles of Chicago, LA, or New York.

That was actually a pretty tense conversation, and we were forewarned about it. It was very strange where she chose to attack our statements. All in all crossing the border was a lot more unnerving than we had anticipated. Once in Canada, we had an awesome time looking at the similar but different home construction and infrastructure setup. The city of Vancouver itself had a grid of streets, and to our surprise when we tried to use street names to get to our destination in the downtown area, no street maintained a name for more than a couple miles. With no turns, or other indications of any sort of change, the streets that we happened to travel on changed names multiple times on our journey. It took a little while to figure that one out! They have green, blinking green, yellow, and red lights for traffic. Apart from those items, the city was quite awesome. The bay situated in the urban zone had heavy traffic of seaplanes which we saw taking off and landing. That was very cool to watch. We got up close to the shipping yard with thousands of giant containers. There was heavy traffic on the bay of ships of all sizes. Huge barges doing their business with the shipping yard, small boats cruising around, and the seaplanes giving tours of the city. We even spotted giant piles of sulfur and some other mineral or rock where they used belts to just load up ships directly from that harbor with the raw minerals. Around the city we were able to see many mountaintops.
We spent most of the day walking around the Hastings St. area of the city. Our first stop was a maple syrup shop that sold more varieties of syrup that I could imagine existed. They have us samples of a medium syrup, and it was quite maply and delicious. The jade shop a few stores down had all sorts of jade statue trinkets. They also had a huge jade boulder that had a beatiful green sheen to it. They had taken it and moved it essentially as is into their store. The collection of (super-expensive) beautiful jade statues of elephants, inukshuks (a native rock statue formation), eagles, and other designs was phenomenal. The third store we came across had a huge collection of native wood art. The totem poles, wood cut eagle and other animal designs, boxes, statues, and other wood carvings as well as a few paintings that they had were marvellous. In the upstairs of the shop, we watched one of their artists carving a dolphin design into a large wooden chest. While walking around Jess and I browsed many other types of stores with various themes and items; none of them were as spectacular as those first three.

After all the browsing of shops, we found ourselves in the middle of the Olympic park. So we headed straight for the torch, which is undergoing some kind of renovations to establish it as a permanent structure in the city. The whole park area construction was very cool and stylish. They designed it to have a lot of unique bench type areas where many people can experience solitude while looking at views around the city. The digital orca statue was very cool, and the statement about the piece by the artist was quite profound. After a day full of browsing, we found ourselves to be super hungry and headed to the nearest sushi place. It was very inexpensive, both of us ate delicious sushi rolls to fullness, all for about $12. A great way to end the spectacular day.

We have a lot of catching up to do, we will work on it tomorrow and catch everyone up on the latest goings on-
Love,
Jx2