joshie ward.

[chasesilverjwi]

The Bottom Line

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Super encouraging words via my brother in christ from the us of a... chasesilverjwi:

God is in control

God knows what’s best

God loves me

Wise words from PJ and Sheri Lewis

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Another thing to add to the portfolio, a logo I made for a travel company. You can see it in use on their site, here: monobo adventures.

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Figured I could put some pictures on here, almost like a portfolio, so here goes. This is just a drawing I did when I was bored once. I could call it 'bottled potential' or something equally pretentious but I shall leave it nameless.

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Happy new year!

I promised some friends of mine that I would start blogging today, rather I did yesterday, so here goes! I'm not really sure what I shall be jabbering on about at this time of night, but I shall think using my keyboard and you can read the results.

This will be brief, because I'm tired and I want to travel back down my stairs to watch the end of Jools' Hootenanny with my family. Saw the Vaccines on it before, they killed it. Love those guys. Favourite music from 2011 though? Actually can't choose, so tough.

Sorry if I'm rambling (it's hard not to living near such beautiful scenery, and it would be a waste of a pair of boots).

What I would love to say is that the date changes very little bar the calendar. What does change your life is your attitude (which the date often, eater unusually, has an effect on) and just you yourself. If you would like to do something then why wait for the 1st January? Get on your bike and do it! Especially if your resolution is to learn to ride a bicycle.

Apologies if my jokes are even worse than normal, again, it is one o'clock in the morning.

p.s. I am super excited for this year, if a little daunted by the amount of stuff I have to fit in it. Some of the more notable events could include: going to university, the rest of my gap year, spending time with some of my favourite amazing peoples, and eating the odd slice of cake.

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Hi! Turns out I have to pay for this joshieward.com website for 12 months. I got it to put blog posts from America on, thinking of putting those on here sometime. Anyways, I figured I would start blogging because I like writing. Maybe people will read some of it, probably not. Might stick up some art every now and again too. Or even a video because people keep bugging me to make more of those. We shall see.

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If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

John 15:18

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Gap yah!

This year I am taking a gap year. I think I'm very lucky. I will be working with the South Lakes branch of NISCU for a lot of my week, and on Thursdays I hope to be doing a ministry training course with the North West Partnership at Leyland. I also hope to get a part time job in the mix but I'm still working on that one. I am very excited about all this, and we shall see how it grows.

I am, however, terrified by the prospect of being left alone when most of my friends have tootled off to their universities and met numerous amazing people. I am sure I will cope.

After my no doubt amazing year in which I hope to grow and learn in many ways, I have to do something. At the moment I feel I am being drawn towards a Physics degree. I have always loved Physics, and I got an A in my results which was a wonderful surprise. The particular course I am looking at is Physics with Philosophy.

Please pray for me while I try and work out my future and begin my gap year, and pray for all my friends beginning their degrees and heading out into the scary place that is our world.

God bless. x

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Goodbye America

   I am writing this on the first leg of our flight back to England. The seatbelt lights are on. We are experiencing turbulence. I’m having to hold on tight to my laptop. We’ve been flying for hours now, about 45 minutes to go until Philadelphia. No problems... yet.

   On Friday we went shopping in the morning for a little. Had a very relaxing day, lounged around a bit. I think we learnt to play croquet that day. It’s funny learning something quintessentially British whilst in America. In the evening we went to lake Washington for a swim. The lakes here are much warmer than they are in England, and that says a lot about English lakes because these ones are made up of melting ice and snow running off the hills and mountains. We got some pizzas from Costco (massive shop that sells things in massive wholesale quantities cheap) and ate them by the lake. Then we went back to Costco and got some Gelato. One dollar 50 for three generous scoops in a massive waffle cone. That’s less than a pound. That’s ridiculously inexpensive in comparison to ice cream back home.

   The next morning we went to this Bakery on the way to a log cabin some cousins are staying at. We were advised to share portions, but they were really cheap so I wanted to get my own. In the end we ordered some pancakes, eggs and bacon for Max and I to share. When they came we were amazed. Two pancakes as thick as drop scones that filled the whole plate. I was so stuffed I couldn’t finish my HALF portion. Crazy sized food. They also had Cinnamon Swirls, I kid you not, the size of your head. 

   We arrived at the Cabin where our cousins were staying for the weekend. They have three little kids who are all beautiful and great fun. We hung around for a little then went up to the top of a mountain for a good view of the cabin from above, then drove back past a river with a rope swing and big rock you could jump in. The trouble was that the water was ice cold. It really was, my legs ached when I waded in to drag the rope swing out, and the shock when I swung in from it made it really difficult to breathe for a little. We went back to the cabin and had a BBQ and shmores. I love shmores so much. 

   Later on we went to a stock car race, well, races. There were lots of different categories and courses. The best ones were on the figure of 8 track. Every time it was closer and closer to a massive crash as the track crossed itself. The drivers aren’t scared of smashing their cars into each other. Good spectators sport.

   Sunday morning soon arrived and we were up early to head to Antioch Bible Church. What an amazing people. A little different. A lot of black gospely music and such. The pastor, Hutch, was great. His sermon was spot on. When he stands up to speak, he says, “What time is it?”, then everyone stands up and waves their Bibles in the air and they play a catchy song. Another lazy afternoon after church, and then we went to see Harry Potter on the IMAX while the girls went shopping to a big mall. They seemed to have fun and we certainly did. I like just going to the IMAX (we have one about an hour and a half away in Manchester back home) for the experience of the giant cinema and screen with really good 3D and perfect sound, but the film was also great.

   Yesterday was Sam’s birthday. We didn’t do too much, we went to the Golf driving range while the girls had their nails done. To get their Sam and I had to lie down in the back of the pickup truck and stay low. The driving range was fun, but we thought the best bit was the fact we were allowed to use the golf buggies to get there. Yesterday evening we went out for a meal at an Irish pub called O’Donnel’s or something. All you can eat chips with the burger!  Pretty dangerous business plan seeing some of the people in America. 

   Anyways, I’m finishing this off in an airport and will stop now so I can upload it for you. I am going to miss everyone in America very much. It was amazing fun and the holiday of a lifetime but I can not wait to get home. xxx

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(about half an hour away from) Seattle so far

On Tuesday we arrived at Colin and Jan’s beautiful farm, near Seattle. We’ve been told that the weather should acclimatise us back to our own weather before we head back, but the afternoons these past few days proved that to be wrong unless England’s climate has changed a lot since we left just over a couple of weeks ago. 

   Yesterday morning we got up and went to Seattle. First we hit the museum of flight. It was big. It is built around the site of the first ever Boeing factory, but that is a fairly small, (in comparison) red shed. When they started off they had to make furniture to make enough money to keep going. They have a massive room filled with planes, helicopters, bits of spacecraft and all sorts. They also house a stealth jet that the US government said didn’t exist. There was a world war section that was amazing too. They had a spitfire and all sorts. I liked the Messerschmitt. I made an AirFix Messerschmitt once. We also went inside a Concorde and what was once Air Force One. It was the plane that Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on after JFK was assassinated. 

   Next we went out for lunch to the Spaghetti factory. That was nice. I didn’t have any spaghetti, I wish I had. I went for some platter with lasagne AND a chicken breast covered in mushrooms. I didn’t have mushroom left in me after that...

   In the afternoon we headed to Pike Place market. There we visited the first ever Starbucks. It was packed. They had buskers outside with a turnaround so fast that it was essentially a roundabout. I think it was a highly sought after spot. There was a famous fish market where they threw fish at you when you bought it, but we didn’t see that much of it because of the fact that there was a massive crowd outside. There was some camera crew there filming. We had no idea who the guy they were filming was, but apparently he is a famous chef in the states that has a weekly cookery show. He also apparently eats weird things. We walked through a tiny bit of the market, that is three storeys high in all, and it seemed to go on forever. All around the place was wonderful fruit stalls. They had the most juicy, tasty white Nectarines.

   We headed home and learnt a new game. Skip-bo. It’s pretty fun. I must buy a deck to take home with us. I won the first game we played, and lost miserably the next. Later on yesterday evening we watched ‘What’s up doc?’ featuring Barbra Streisand. It was very funny.

   Today we went over on a ferry to Friday Harbor (do I keep American spellings because it’s a place name? I have. I can spell FYI). That was pretty cool. We had a nice relaxing ride over there and back, and while we were there we ate very well at a restaurant on the coast, a place called Downriggers. I had fish and chips. Not up to our very high British standards, but they were delicious. Then we had a look around the town, there wasn’t much. 

   We finished our grub and got an Ice Cream, jumped back on the Ferry and headed back over the water. On the way home we took a detour and visited Deception pass. There was an amazing bridge there and a beautiful view.

   I will let you know what happens tomorrow after it has happened, I’m sure that will make it a lot easier to write. Less than a week left now. Mixed emotions, I miss people at home but I shall miss people from America also, and we are continuing to have such an amazing time. JW. xxx

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Funcycles

On Sunday we went to church at the Canon Beach Convention Centre. It was the first meeting of their family week and they had a speaker there who was very good. The service went on for a while though, a couple of hours. It was good. On Sunday we looked around town a little, went to the beach a lot. It was another hot day. We went out for pizza at ‘one of the world’s best pizza places’. The pizza was good.

   Yesterday we got up and went for a swim in the pool on our campsite. We went into town and had a last look around everywhere. In the afternoon we hired some three wheel bikes, called funcycles. You drag them to the beach and then zip around in them. Fliss crashed, go watch the video at the top.

   I’m on the way to Seattle now, and haven’t got long so I will keep this a very brief update. You can just watch the video of Fliss crashing over and over in place of words. Goodbye for now. I head back to the UK in a week. Kinda sad that two and a half weeks of our holiday has gone, but we still have a week left to enjoy! And I miss home lots too.

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Cannon beach

We left the Shermans’ house on Wednesday. We miss everyone we are seeing then leaving very much. We don’t know when we will, if ever, see some people again and that is horrible. We have six nights now of just us, not visiting family and friends. We are travelling from Reno to Seattle and stopping of for the weekend at Cannon beach.

   On Wednesday we stopped at a little camping ground called Burney Falls. It’s actually a mile and a half away from Burney Falls, but they stole the name anyhow. We went to Burney Falls, you had to pay to get in, but it was worth it. There was one big water fall, and a circular walk that goes around the river. We did the walk and while we were coming to the top of the falls a deer jumped right in our path and skedaddled into the forest away from us. Sam thought it was a mountain lion at first and was momentarily terrified. 

   Another day of travelling and we arrived at our next spot, Diamond Lake. We were there for just one night again, to break up our journey enough to make it physically possible. We were eaten alive by mosquitos. Mum swells up when they bite her and she is now riddled with red bumps all over her legs. We lit a camp fire partly so the smoke could politely remind the mosquitos that we didn’t rejoice in their existence, and partly to toast marshmallows on for shmores. Shmores are one of my favourite American things. I don’t even know or care if they are, in fact, American, but they’re still one of my favourite American things. We rented a film from the campsite for a dollar, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. My siblings either thought it was weird or fell asleep half way through. I loved it. Can’t believe it’s been so long before I finally got round to watching it. We got up early the next morning and hit the road.

   We’re at Cannon beach now and stayed here last night. It’s glorious weather. The sun is as hot as it is for everyone, just we are feeling it a lot more here. Apparently Cannon Beach doesn’t have amazing weather most of the time so we are lucky to be here with such awesome sunshine. We bought a beautiful kite, complete with the beaming smile of the sun, clouds, rainbows and a multitude of tails. I bought a really cool ‘I like Jesus’ t-shirt. The beach is amazing. The sand is golden, and as hot as ash the morning after a camp fire, when it is in the sun. We stopped about 10 metres from the entrance of the beach, we’re going to have to go a little further tomorrow though, it stretches for miles. 

   One of my favourite things about Cannon beach is the supermarket. The only one where you can find people, me included, humming along to worship songs playing on the radio. It’s their convention week. It’s a bit like Keswick in the week of their convention, most people you meet love Jesus, but judging by a lot of the shops and what they are selling it could be like that a lot of the time. If you get this today then I found some WiFi and stole it for long enough to get this to you. Chances are I will. This town is full of the stuff. If you don’t, then sorry it’s late. It has been travelling mostly so I didn’t have much to write until I got here where I haven’t got a Starbucks or anything to sit down in with my MacBook. 

   See you soon, Josh. xxx

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Let's go karting

On Monday we hit Virginia city. It’s an old wild west town. Lots of people dressed as cowboys, lots that didn’t bother, and apparently lots of excuses for shops filled with complete rubbish. They did have a pretty good deal on a battered old banjo in one shop though, but it wasn’t worth fixing up and getting back across the ocean. We went to a shooting range with little laser guns and shot at targets for a little bit. We walked into town a bit more and some of us got a hot dog or a sandwich. Then we headed back and looked at a load of the awful shops, and some really good sweet shops. They have these really tasty things called turtles, which are pecans with caramel and chocolate on them. I’m going to make some when I am back home. We soon headed off to the graveyard to have a look around.

     Later on Monday night Stuart and Sue took us out to a Casino for the all-you-can-eat buffet. We ate all we could eat. There was a lot of food. You piled up your plates with a little of everything, and you could just have one bite of everything and they’d take your plate away with all the leftovers and you could go back for more. The food was really good too. The mushroom ravioli especially, I am informed it is famous mushroom ravioli. As famous as ravioli can get. 

   Later on we messed around with water balloons and some might have happened to go over the wall and onto the freeway and people may have found it fun. We went to bed.

   Yesterday, the day after Monday, also known as Tuesday, we went to go shopping. I got some new kicks, PURPLE converses. They’re slick. We went to eat at BJ’s. It’s really nice, I had angel hair pasta and strawberry lemonade. Really tasty. In the afternoon we went swimming at this pool inside a ‘walled community’. They’re a funny idea, but the swimming was good, and we had a nice hot tub in the sun. We actually sunbathed most of the time. 

   Next up: BBQ. There were quite a few people there and BBQ food is always good. We had a water fight in daylight this time. We spent ages filling up the water balloons, and they were all gone really fast.

 After food we went go karting. That was really fun, despite the karts being really annoying and it closing early. There were no crashes in the first races, people were using their brakes. In the second and final racers, however, we took a few more risks. People crashed into the walls a few times, but on the very last lap of the very last race there was an amazing crash. A guy called Ben (who is in a band who are genuinely good: http://www.facebook.com/Memorymotelreno) pulled out a little to drift around a corner. In the go karts you can’t see behind you, there are no mirrors. Will was about to lap him before he did this, and was half way through overtaking. There was an epic crash, everyone stopped. Ben spun all the way around. Will was shaken a little, but then he carried on. Ben got kicked out, we were confused as to why this happened, but it made the story a little more exiting and it was the last lap anyway.

   After that we did even more stuff, the Shermans are really good at packing everything in. We went back and played poker. It was going good, then Ben and his sister were going to go so for the last round we were all in. All in apart from Chase who had monopolised most of the poker chips, and then won the final round, and then that was the end of that. 

   Then we had more water bombs, so we were very silly and went to the back garden again to throw some onto the freeway and try and hit cars, a few people got this one pick up truck who turned around and swore a lot at us. We all hid or ran, and put everything away and had learned our lesson. The thing is, pickup truck man didn’t think we had so he drove around the back a lot. Then he drove round the front and kept doing so for ages. We all hid inside and were scared, then he finally got bored so people left and we went to sleep. It’s a memory that will stay with us, and a story to tell the grandchildren or something.

   Reno was amazing, everyone was really fun and we will miss them so much. I hope to see everyone again sometime. All I can say is water week! God bless. xxx

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Reno

We arrived in Reno yesterday. It’s hot. Stewart and Sue are here too so it’s nice to see them. We’re staying with the Shermans, who are more cousins or second cousins or whatever they’re called, but we just say cousins. 

   We’ve packed a lot in in the past few days. We went bowling last night, and ended up doing laser tag too. That was fun, and we got to meet everyone’s church friends. Today we went to their church, Hope Community, and saw them all again. Bill is the pastor there. We went to the youth service before the main one, and had to introduce ourselves in front of everyone. They liked making me say bottle rocket, apparently it sounds funny in an English accent. We went back and caught the second half of the womens’ football world cup final. The USA lost to Japan on penalties. We were disappointed.

   Then we went to lake Tahoe for the afternoon/evening. It was great weather, at least 30 degrees. Unlike our lakes, and coastlines a lot of the time, they had a sandy beach. The water was warmer than Windermere, so we jumped in for a swim straight away. We swam out to some big rocks, scrambled up them, and jumped into the lake. We swam back to the beach and soaked up the sun for a while, played catch, watched as Fliss was tackled and thrown into the lake whilst wearing clothes, and then went for a barbeque. We ate and played scrabble a little, then we had to rush off because Will was playing in a church softball game. 

   We were lucky enough to get green lights all the way and to make it just in time. We had a 7 strong cheerleading team, the stand was empty if you didn’t include us, but we got Mexican waves going when they got someone out or a home run and made a lot of noise. They lost though, and it was a really short game, so we went to a frozen yoghurt place on the way back. 

   I love frozen yoghurt places. They have so many different yoghurts and toppings to choose from, you could stay there all day. Sadly we got there 10 minutes before it closed, so we couldn’t stay there all day ourselves. We sat outside and ate ice cream with some more people from Hope Community. Then we drove home with Max and Rachel singing along to the Justin Bieber blasting out the radio. We watched a movie and that was it for our first full day in Reno.

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Bob’s Gold Mine

I’m writing this on Friday night/Saturday morning, but we haven’t got WiFi here so it may not get to you just yet. Today we left Malcolm and Jean’s house, Nomadness Ranch, and went to swap our hire car for a 30 foot RV. The car was big, but this thing is a monster. Pretty sweet ride. We’ve gotten to the campsite fine, later than we had hoped. We arrived in the dark and got a little bit lost, but we’re here. We’re staying over for the night on our way to Reno to see even more cousins. We’re missing people already. Everyone has been so amazing and kind putting us up, and they’re all such awesome people. I wish I could see more of everybody. We got to the RV and one of Dad’s cousins had left us a load of stuff and some balloons which was so fab of them. We were going to meet up with her but she was working and we aren’t coming back this way which is a huge shame. That’s the update for today, bit of a no news day because we’ve been travelling.

   Yesterday I was a little busier. We went to a gold mine after a good lunch at a miner’s restaurant. We’re staying near Mariposa, which is a mining town. First we had to cross a river to get to the mine, we did so on a little trolley that had pulleys to get yourself over. That was pretty exiting. More exiting than the car ride round that some people took. Then we met Bob, he got a lift with us because he doesn’t live in his house anymore, he’s too old. 89 actually. He hobbled along with his walking stick and showed us some of his mining equipment outside his house. He was very deaf, but lovely. A good christian. 

   Malcolm and Bob stayed at the bottom of the hill and we headed up a little to a pool in the river. The few of us that were even keener, or not looking after kids, went up to the top of the mine. After a bit of a hike we arrived. Dad, Max and I went through a mine shaft for a bit. There was a wee climb and it was pitch black so we had to use torches. The fact that we are in a country where there are lots of snakes, bears, spiders, and scorpions means that when people tell you there are some in the mine you actually believe it a little for once. It wasn’t long but it was interesting, and we saw some gold in the rock. 

   Max and I ran back down. It is very hot in California, but really dry so you don’t get too sweaty and you can actually move around unlike the rare sunny spells in the UK. We got to the pool in the river, everyone else had left, so we hopped in quickly by ourselves then headed back down to the river by Bob’s house to see everyone who had stayed down the hill. 

   Another funny thing happened today in an “In ‘n’ Out Burger”, the guy on the till said we were the first British people he had ever met in person. Apparently everyone treats you better if you speak in your best English accent. Someone told me not to get an accent before I set off, but I think being around Americans has made me sound more and more English.

   Speak soon. JW. xxx

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Yosemite

Today we went to one of the most beautiful places in California... the USA... the Americas... and the whole world. Yosemite national park. It was beautiful. Trees everywhere, loads of MAHOOSIVE mountains and rocks. Bigger than anything I have ever seen before. Amazing. The scale of everything in America blows you away. 

  We saw loads of wildlife. Every now and again we’d see a crowd of people looking at animals, this one time we stopped and it was a bear with two cubs play-fighting. Amazing to watch, I got it all on film but it was through long grass. We also saw a bear later on separately, and I got some better footage of it. We saw squirrels, some came right up to us when we were having our amazing picnic/feast and Sam got some good photos. There were a few chipmunks too, and some lizards. We were walking down a path to see some trees when there was a group of people looking at something on the floor. There was a lizard on the floor, I didn’t see it up close because I was walking along behind. Sam, and loads of other photographers, were filming and getting photos of the thing, it was sat perfectly still. Then along came a little girl running in, and she picked it right up. It still didn’t move. Then her brother and her ran off giggling, they had perfected that prank. I looked at the photos and it seemed real. Her brother told me they’d been doing it all day. 

   The waterfalls were truly epic. Massive things. We went to the foot of one, and the spray was coming off it so much it was like being in heavy rain, there was a rainbow in the misty water droplets just on the floor, floating in the air right next to us, beautiful. 

   Later that day we headed to a baptism at a church my great uncle Malcolm sometimes goes to. It was at a river and we had to go along a one track road right by it for a while. We got to a campsite and went to go see them. The people there were so friendly, such a family, so on fire for God. An amazing church.We were planning to go and eat after the baptism, but they said the baptisms wouldn’t start until people had eaten and that they had loads of food, so we ate with them. Then their pastor, who Malcolm had described to us as a ‘cowboy pastor’ got everyone quiet and we had a bit of worship. There’s something about being outside with acoustic guitars singing together, so in touch with creation, that is so beautiful. The pastor then gave an amazing sermon on the story with Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego. Very raw, very real. Then we sang some more and headed to the beach for the baptisms. We stood back up the hill a little and I filmed it from the rocks up there. There was a huge diversity of people there. It looked freezing in the water.

   Toodles for now. JW. xxx

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Nomadness Ranch

We arrived at Malcolm and Jean’s house in the black of night yesterday. We were later than we had hoped because we were at the Wellings’ for so long. We got an in and out meal on the way, it’s a fast food restaurant, but the menu is mega simple, only 3 options and it really is fast food.

   They are amazing people, and they have an amazing house, with an amazing story. There are lots of good bits, but the main story is that Jean’s Dad, who was a pastor of a church in England I think, prayed over a bit of land that they were visiting and claimed it. Through some other miracle they got in contact with a church who wanted to sell them some land, and they took them to a plot. It was the very same one that they had prayed for. I’m missing out a bazillion awesome details, but that’s the jist of it. 

   We’re also staying with Malcolm and Jean’s daughter, Moira, and her two kids, Yared and Nathaniel., or Nati as we call him. They’re a bunch of laughs and full of hugs, which is swell. Moira and her husband, Ben, who is in Afghanistan at the moment, have a blog here: http://leppardlife.blogspot.com. 

   This morning I had a quick swim, a tour of the place, both inside and out, and then played with Yared and Nati when Yared got back from a holiday bible school week at a local church. After some lunch we headed out for a walk up to some waterfalls. They were beautiful. I should also add that today was really hot, for us anyway, everyone else said it was fine. It’s been about 80 degrees, which is 30 in Celsius, but last week it was 100, and I don’t know what that is in Celcius. After the walk we went for some Ice Cream and down by a lake. We came back, had another swim, and then some grub. We are all really tired, I don’t think I have adjusted to the new time properly yet, but it’s fine. I will happily go to sleep in about 5 minutes, it’s just passed 9, which is fine because we’re getting up early tomorrow to fit in Yosemite and some baptisms in a river with a ‘cowboy’ church.

   Talk soon. If you read this, drop me a message somewhere to say hi and so I know you have. I’m sorry there are no comments on this. Love you all so much. JW. xxx

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Hit the road

Today we left San Francisco. Our day there was great. We had breakfast in a greasy cafe. I had a Mexican breakfast. Eggs on tortilla things, topped with Jalapenos. It was delicious.

   We walked into town again towards the hire car place. On the way we went into a big shopping centre. They had a colossal Abercrombie & Fitch shop, and I went into Hollister and, for the first time in my life, I bought something in it. We were sold some salty skin stuff from the most amazing salesman. My hands do feel really soft though. We grabbed a frozen yogurt on the way out. It was a make your own thing, think the little ice cream stand in Pizza Express, multiplied by a thousand. Again, delicious food. That’s one thing the Americans have got down. Health, maybe not.

   Mum, Fliss and I headed back to the hotel to check out while the boys went off with the father to get our hire car. They arrived at the hotel while we were on the way out, and told us the bad news that the car was really cramped. It will be alright though. We go down, check out, but Max and Dad head back to the hotel room for a last trip to the loo. We go to the car. Turns out, like most things/people in America, it’s a great, big, fat, massive, whopping thing. A Chevrolet suburban. We get in and wait for Max and Dad. Larry heads out of the door and towards our car, which is parked very badly by the door near the Hotel car park. He comes to the window and pops his head in. “Mrs Ward? No need to worry, your husband is fine. It’s just... he’s stuck in the elevator.” That quote misses out the excessive amounts of giggling from Larry, shortly followed by our own. We wait in the car for about 25 minutes. They come out with beaming smiles and laugh it off. I was curious as to why it happened, and had noticed the “No sudden movements please, earthquake sensors are in place.” sign, so I asked if they had moved around at all. This is the best bit of the story. They had been dancing in the lift, happy partly at the fact the car is mint and partly that they had told us it was awful and we fell for it. 

   Then we head out for a ‘planned via Facebook while we were in an airport’ trip. We went to see one of Dad’s cousins and her family, the Wellings. We hadn’t met them before, but their faces are pinned to the back of a cupboard in our kitchen. They lived a little out of San Fran so it would be a shame not to see them when we are so close. We popped round for ten minutes just to say hi while we were on the way to Mariposa. The few hours we spent there were amazing. They are awesome people. They have three girls, two a little older than me, both at uni, and one younger, as well as the youngest, a guy called Daniel who I had a bit of a friendly rivalry with in a game of tag. We learnt a few new games, went for a rollercoaster-esque in the back of a truck up the hill next to their house, and just got to know them. They were so friendly and outgoing, and the little time we spent with them had a big impact on our lives.

   Now we’re in the hire car on the way to Mariposa to see their grandparents, my Dad’s uncle and aunt. We will be staying there for about 4 days. Dad’s uncle has built a yurt in his garden, as well as a few zip wires, and an aviary in a tree. I am informed he plans to build a water slide coming from on top of the aviary. Needless to say, we are looking forward to it.