First, our mission at the time was to reach California the state with all the sunshine. “I can’t wait till we finally settle in California it would be so nice,” everyone said in a cheerful voice.  A week or so before our move we cleaned up the house.  On that day when we were cleaning our house the sky was dark and cold with a pale patch of sunlight coming in through the clouds.  We started deciding in piles/groups what were the things we were going to keep and what were we going to throw out or donate.  Once we sorted out all of our belongings we started cleaning the whole house such as doing yard work, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and wiping down the house.   Also, we did some minor repairs on the house such as repainting the walls and ceilings etc.  “That was hard work,” my parents said in a tired voice.  Prior to this last cleanup we called up professional handyman, roofers, etc. to fix up our house.  Our house was all ready to be put on the housing market for sale.

Second, we called up the moving people and they took about 80% of our stuff the rest of our belongings we packed our cramped car full with.  We said our final goodbyes to our house and started driving towards California with our cramped car.  Beforehand my parents planned some places where we were going to go to along the way such as going to places we been never before, but eventually in about a week we would reach California!  My mom and dad said that “we will definitely be going to Niagara Falls and Mount Rushmore and the rest of the things we will figure out along the way.” We went through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada.  To start, the first interesting place we stopped at was Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada.  At Niagara Falls we listened to the sound of the water rushing and the crisp and clear sound of the water.  Our family took pictures in front of the waterfall with the water flying in our faces.  “The waterfall is so pretty with that rainbow,” my family said in awe.  At Niagara Falls the water was rushing down so fast you could hear the clear and crisp swooshing sound of the water. Niagara Falls is a waterfall that formed about 12,000 years ago and in the 1900’s it became a popular place for daredevils to do stunts and for people to go on honeymoons.  On the way to our next stop we stopped by Notre Dame College in Indiana.  Our family quickly looked at the campus and football field and we headed to our next stop.

Third, we stopped at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.  At the National Memorial we hiked the President's Trail and took pictures of the president’s faces.  “That was a tiring hike,”our family said in an exhausted voice.  The faces of the presidents were carves, so sharply that you could see the lines of their facial outlines crystal clear.  “Those faces are carved so beautifully, clearly, and sharply, ” my parents exclaimed!  Doane Robinson suggested carving historic heroes in the Black Hills of South Dakota out of granite.  Robinson contacted the sculptor Gutzon Borglum that was currently working on the sculpture of Robert E Lee in the mountains of Georgia and asked if he could sculpt out the faces of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Soon enough the sculptor abandoned his project of sculpting Robert E Lee.  Borglum chose the Black Hills to sculpt the president’s faces.  When the president at the time Calvin Coolidge traveled to the Black Hills in 1927 for summer vacation.  Borglum asked for the president to deliver a dedication speech at the site.  Calvin Coolidge unexpectedly gave a 250,000 donation to the sculpting site.  Also, at the Memorial we saw the unfinished Crazy Horse sculpture in about the summer of 2010.  Crazy Horse is an Indian Warrior who fought along with Sitting Bull to defend their territory in Black Hills, South Dakota against the Americans at war.  Crazy Horse Monument began construction in 1948 and is still not finished today because of money reasons and problems with the rock placement to carve the sculpture.  After, this we were planning to go to a famous dinosaur museum, but sadly it was closed.  We moved on and headed straight for California since the dinosaur museum was closed. But, first we stopped in Reno before we got into California.  In Reno we stopped in a nice casino/hotel last minute and ate a nice sushi dinner.  “That was delicious”! Our family said in a satisfied voice.

Finally, we arrived in California and we stopped at Yosemite National Park.  At Yosemite we hiked a little bit and driven to some of the waterfalls.  We didn’t do much in Yosemite; we just got a little glimpse of the park.  Ultimately we reached our grandpa’s house and said hi to him and talked about our drive here and some other troubles we had along the way for a little bit.  That night we slept at our grandma’s house after we visited our grandpa.  When the movers eventually came some of our belongings were either cracked or broken, so those items we finally threw away.  “What did they do?” my parents said in an exasperated voice.  We learned to never trust a non-reputable moving company again.