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| Christensen´s Backyard with a "little" creek |
What a nice time to spend the Christmas and New Year season
with our new family in law, the Christensens. So right after Christmas we
packed our bags and left a snowy and chilly Munich and switched it after
Amsterdam and Minneapolis for sunny and beautiful California. This was my first
time in the sunshine state and first time at all for Franca to enter the United
States.
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| Oakland California Temple |
Expectations were high! We stayed at the Christensens whose
house gave us a first glimpse of the different meaning and understanding of
space in the States and in Europe. Everything is huge: houses, yards, cars,
streets, and burgers and drinks ^^
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| Oakland California Temple by night |
As we had some time before the actual wedding celebration we
used it to visit different places and to explore beautiful California. Our first
trip took us to the Bay Area close to San Francisco to the Oakland temple. This
was actually one of my favorite temples, but I didn´t remember the name, so I
was really amazed and felt a little bit dream come true as I saw the palm trees
and the beautiful building with such a special meaning.
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| Muir Wood Park |
Our next trip was to the Redwood coast and the Muir Wood Park,
with a small remnant of the largest trees on earth that once covered all the Northern
Californian coast. Some of these trees that belong to the family of the Sequoia
were older than 1000 years and higher than 100 meters with trunks bigger than a
car. Truly magnificent and breathtaking. These kind of experiences always
remind me of the sublime beauty and the sheer endless variety of God´s rich
creation.
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| Stinson Beach |
Over the many turns of Highway No 1 we arrived at Stinson
Beach, however at the wrong time of the year, even though locals say that even
in summer the water is really chilly due to the cold coastal current.
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| The Capitol of Sacramento |
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| 2 Little Snow Angels |
One of Franca´s favorite parts was our trip 2 hours north
into the mountains (2300m) to Lake Taho and the Olympic Valley, where Franca
saw snow for the first time in her life!!!! And she discovered that behind all
the white glimmer and beauty lies a lot of coldness and even more coldness =)
But we had a great time exploring the frozen sea shores and going sledding somewhere
off the road.  |
| Lake Taho & Olympic Valley |
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| Golden Gate Bridge |
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| View on Alcatraz |
Although Sacramento is quite nice, it compares in no way
with the charisma and radiance of San Francisco. Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge
for real spanning the blue bay with a view of San Francisco and the little
island in the background with the world’s most famous prison (Alcatraz) was a literal
dream come true experience. We drove up and down the hills of San Francisco for
hours, just because it was so awesome (and I really mean up and down, a real
must see!!) and explored the harbor, the Oldtown and even took the famous tram
from one end to the other.
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| Street View in San Francisco |
Finally the big day had arrived: after many many hours of
preparation, decoration, photo shooting (Julien Moritz came along all the way
from Germany) and organizing everything around the wedding, we were able to
accompany Pascal and Vita to the Oakland Temple, where they were sealed by the
power of the Holy Priesthood for time and all eternity. It was simply amazing
and a beautiful and inspiring experience and what a great blessing it is to
know that families can be together forever. We said good bye to them, as they
left to Hawaii on their Honeymoon, and to the Christensens and the Carters
until we meet again.
May the newly formed couple live happily ever after …
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