A Weekend with my Brother

The boys and I drove well into the night after leaving Grand Canyon on Friday, and arrived in Fresno, CA early Saturday morning for a much anticipated visit with my younger brother Paul and his family. This visit brought me back 21 years to the time Paul first came out to CA to see me. I lived in San Leandro CA, from August 1985 – July 1986, taking part in an intern program at a local church. In May of 1986 I got a surprise call telling me that Paul, just turned 20, was planning to move to CA to live with a friend. Paul had been through a very rough few years of his life, and being his older brother I wanted to do all I could to help. So I began to pray. Later that afternoon a man asked me what was on my mind. I told him about my brother, and he offered him a job on the spot! A few weeks later I finished my internship, Paul flew out to CA, and I took him on a one week journey to see Yosemite, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, and the Monument Valley area in Utah. Shortly afterwards I moved to NC where I met Dana and had my family, and Paul met Marita, married in the church where I had interned, and raised a beautiful family. So here we were, 21 years later, meeting in CA again I hadn’t seen Paul with his family since they were at my house in 2000, so I was meeting his children as teenagers (13, 14 & 16) for the first time. It was wonderful to see them all again, and to hear of all that God has been doing in their lives.

Today (Sunday) we drove up to Kings Canyon National Park to see the giant Sequoia trees. The drive west into the mountains of CA revealed a landscape that was in stark contrast to what we saw across the plains and in Colorado. The entire valley and mountain area of CA was shrouded in a thick smog that was hard on the throat and cut visibility greatly. Driving across the valley we saw endless fruit orchards rather than the grain fields in the central states. As we entered the mountains what stood out most was how brown everything was – the absence of green grass makes everything look different. As we climbed up to 6,500’, the terrain became very rugged, and the trees began to tower over us. Shortly after entering Kings Canyon we came upon a grove of the giant Sequoia trees, and they were breathtaking. The largest we saw had a diameter of 40’ and a height of almost 300’. There is no way that I could capture the magnificence of these trees in a photograph (but I tried!).

After returning from the mountains I took Paul and Marita out to dinner, and my sons took their three cousins out to dinner and a movie. It was so nice to be thinking of the five cousins being out and having fun together! I am really glad that we are taking this trip when the boys can both drive, as it has opened up many opportunities for them.



After two days here we are ready to move on, and tomorrow we head north 90 miles to Yosemite, where we will stay until Wednesday morning. I am looking forward to the spectacular waterfalls there, and to the hikes that we will take. I do not know if I will have internet access in the park, so this may be my last post until Wednesday.

I close with another “now and then” set of photos, one of my brother Paul and me in Yosemite in 1986, and another of the two of us in Kings Canyon today.