Spring Break Recap: Klesisters in Gualala

 

What is Gualala, you might ask? It is a beautiful coastal town with a population of only 280,  off of highway 1. And, it is also the place where many Klesis sisters got to go for the weekend, to just relax and have fun together away from Berkeley.

Our trip to Gualala was quite epic. By the end of our last day, we did not want to leave. We had so much fun, food, and fellowship – and here is just a picture-filled recap of all that we did!

We started off the drive to Gualala with a stop at McDonald’s on McDonald’s Avenue. So many of us were wearing our new Klesis hoodies that the people at McDonald’s thought we were a group of tourists! We were definitely quite a sight in McDonald’s…

Then, we began the long drive to Gualala. It wasn’t the most comfortable drive as the road was really windy and curvy – but thankfully, despite the motion sickness, we all got to our amazingly nice vacation home in one piece. Immediately, we moved in our food and kitchen supplies for the next 2 days and started cooking ramen and kimchi soup to accompany our late night fellowship.

The next day, we woke up early and were blown away by the view from our house. Even though it was gloomy, we were thankful it wasn’t raining. We enjoyed our breakfast with the view of the ocean right in front of us, and quickly prepared for a walk along the coast.

 

The coast was beautiful, and the following pictures say it all. The walk was relaxing, and the weather was good – it didn’t rain!

Since the weather was better than expected, we walked back to our house and got in the cars to meet up with the Koinonia Juniors, who were also in the area. We met up with them on the beach, and were glad to see familiar faces in Gualala.

We hung out on the beach for a while – some of us raced to see who could run the fastest on the sand, while others built the foundation of a stick-hut…

Hungry for lunch, we returned to our house to make chicken grape salad – mmm. Delicious.

After lunch, it was already mid-afternoon. We then started our bonding activities, such as Guesstures (many hilarious moments there, of watching each other act and freak out over not grabbing the cards before they fell into the box) and sharing (embarrassing) stories/ facts and wise pieces of advice to the freshmen.

To top off the afternoon of chilling and relaxing, we watched Sound of Music (one of many people’s favorites!). When the movie ended, we were all shocked at how late it was (it was already 9 pm) – but with songs from the movie stuck in our head, we made our way into our grand lunch of steak, potatoes, and salad.

And after dinner, we ate some mango sago (Cindy’s specialty!) before singing campfire songs around the living room. There were supposed to be s’mores too, but we were all too stuffed from dinner and Cindy’s dessert.

No, in case you were thinking we called it a night after singing, you are very, very wrong. Myra started the hidden-talent talent show she had planned for, and selected people to perform things like Chinese Ribbon Dancing and Rapping… we all laughed too much from the acts that we exhausted ourselves and went to sleep afterwards.

In the morning, we had a hearty breakfast of steak and eggs (yes, we had steak in the morning too…) and got ready for service in Gualala!

We joined our Koinonia Juniors at the Gualala church, and were warmly received by the congregation there. According to them, it was a rare moment in their church history that their guests exceeded their regular members!

After service, we were all overjoyed to see the sun shine over the coast – and made plans to go to the tide-pools after lunch.

For lunch, we had Sieun’s korean beef stew and Melissa’s sweet potato bread. Some of us enjoyed our lunch on our house’s back-porch, under the sun. It felt good to finally enjoy our back-porch and some extremely good weather!

After our delicious lunch, we sadly left our house, only to head to the best part of our trip yet – the tide pool.

And with that, we left the beautiful town of Gualala.

The car ride back to Berkeley wasn’t so bad – there was so much to see along the highway. And before we knew it, we were back near Berkeley, eating pho.

And there you have it! A full account of the Klesister’s trip to Gualala. If only our stay there had been longer!