Road Trip!

At the end of July it was Road Trip weekend for Moms and their sons.  We got together with our neighbor Julie and her son and Drew's good friend Christopher for a road trip to Yosemite.  Dave was out of state on his own adventure - which I'll have him update with his own blog posting.

So we took the last Friday in July off work and kept the boys out of summer camp and hit the road early. 

We checked into our hotel and these mamas weren't about to waste anytime getting into the vacation mode!



That first day we spent swimming, drinking, eating and visiting Christopher's Grandpa.  It was kind of a low key day - we knew we were going to be doing some hard core hiking on Saturday in Yosemite.

After another 2 hour drive - we made it!





We were saddened to see all the devastation upon entering the park from last year's wildfires.  There were so many acres just charred black.

But once we reached Yosemite Valley the view was simply breathtaking!

We grabbed a quick picnic lunch and then headed into the Village Center so we could get a feel for where we needed/wanted to be and how to get there.  We started through the museum.  Here is Drew posing for the camera in a mock Miwok Indian home.

Drew the explorer  (I think the statue was Jack London, but I could be mistaken).

We decided our destination was going to be Vernal Falls.  A 3 mile hike that promised spectacular views and that it's one of Yosemite's most popular.  While I've been to Yosemite a couple of times, I admit I've never done any real hiking.  Just basic sightseeing and ice skating one time.  My other companions this trip were Yosemite virgins.

Here is Drew and I early in the hike.

Drew and Christopher pretending to fall off the side of the mountain.

About the halfway point there was a bridge.  We just enjoyed the scenery for a bit.

What you can't tell from photos is that it was hot.  And I mean HOT!  We were hiking in near 100-degree temperatures.  Despite the warnings to stay away from the water we were overheating and took a break in the stream.

The water was refreshingly freezing.  It's all snow runoff and coming from the waterfall that was our destination.  The park had good reason for not wanting anyone near the water - the current is very very strong and several people have died because they were carried away. 

So after about 20 minutes a Ranger kicked us out of our shady spot.  I will say she was very very nice about it.

Our foursome decided to split off for a bit and Drew and I forged ahead.  The second part of this hike is no joke!  Holy cow it's very steep and narrow.  Not to mention highly traveled.  Poor Drew wanted to just plow through, but I kept having to take "water breaks".

I used this "water break" to snap a few pictures of Drew as we got closer to the waterfall.  Mind you we are headed to the very top of this fall.

If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you'll see tons of people who have gone off the trail to get closer to this side of the water.  We even saw people jumping off cliffs (none of them were kicked out mind you).

Here's the steep, narrow, crowded terrain I was talking about.  It was about a half to three-quarters of a mile like this (I forget the exact distance nearly a month later).

And I thought the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse stairs were tough... this kicked my butt!  Even Drew admitted he was sore a few days later.

 And we made it!!

I can't say how proud I was of Drew for doing this hike.  It was no picnic!  Never once did he complain, whine or complain (about the hiking).  Heck, truth be told, I was impressed I made it.  I wanted to stay behind - the first half of the hike was a lot of uphill and I was exhausted!

At one point my cell phone chimed that I had a text (we'd lost reception pretty early on).  Julie and Christopher decided to make the trip to the top!

I can't tell you how amazing this hike was!  It really made me want to come back to Yosemite and spend like a week here - doing all sorts of hikes!  It's absolutely amazing to see - a must do for bucket lists.

 As we made our way back down the hill and back toward the shuttle that would take us to the village (my legs shaking with fatigue the entire way back down) we spotted a fire on a nearby hill.

Not thinking anything off it we proceeded back toward the shuttle and our car.

This crew was pooped!

 

Despite begging to have his picture taken during the hike, Drew was done with photos and walking.  This portion of the "hike" the distance from the shuttle to our car (maybe 200 yards) was too much for him.  He whined the entire way that he needed to be carried - I refused.  It was still about 94-degrees!

So we hopped in the car and enjoyed our last scenic views of this trip.

Only we happened upon a scene we didn't like so well.  That fire we spotted while coming down from the Falls... well it caused all sorts of problems for our commute to the hotel.

In fact we were at the 120 split inside the park when they closed the gates - two cars in front of us!  So we had to find our way via Highway 140 (which added more than an hour to our already 2 hour drive).

Which in hindsight probably wasn't a bad thing.  We saw so many emergency vehicles and rangers driving with lights and sirens.  But what was most interesting - as in, not something you see every day - a helicopter swooped down alongside us to get water from the "creek".

I put my phone out of the sun roof and got a picture of it of to the left side in the creek - if you look carefully you can see the propellers.

And here it is again through the sun roof with it's load of water to fight the flames.

In the end, this fire - which was dubbed the El Portal Fire  -  burned more than 4,700 acres over a about a week's time.  That's nothing compared to the Rim Fire devastation we saw coming into the park, which burned more than 257,000 acres!

So despite the long drive back to the hotel we survived - although I was ready to leave a few kids alongside the road....

On Sunday we drove home amid more "fun" from the backseat.  So much "fun" that these mamas had to stop for a "roadie".

Quite a memorable trip, to say the least.

Happy Birthday to Me

This year my birthday was overshadowed by Dave's big Four-oh. It didn't help that mine fell on a Monday. But in all the pictures from my birthday - you won't find a single one with me in it.

The Saturday before we drove down to Santa Cruz and spent the day at the Boardwalk.  We love hanging out at the Boardwalk.  And while the weather reports said it would be cold and overcast - we found the exact opposite!

We started out with the beach having a picnic and then hitting the waves - I admit it was awesome to soak up the sun and do some reading while the boys played in the waves.

After a while we hit the rides.  I only got the wristbands for Dave and Drew (gotta love the 2-pack at Costco).

Drew saw one of the newer roller coasters and was finally tall enough (and brave enough) to attempt it.

The boys in line for the "new" roller coaster

And if you look carefully you can see Dave and Drew in the front of this "new" roller coaster.

Then Drew was happy to hit up a few "kiddie rides".

But he announced he was ready to tackle the log ride again!  We suckered him onto it when he was 4 and he's never let us take him on it again.  When you're "six-and-three-quarters" clearly you're more brave.

But the highlight of Dave and Drew's night was playing Mini Golf - which comes with the Costco wristbands (well several activity options, Drew just likes the Mini Golf). 

This course took TWO HOURS for the boys due to it being so packed.  Apparently they had a really cool couple following them, and the guy told Drew every so often - "If you get a hole in one here I'll give you five bucks."

Guess what on the 18th hole- Drew did it!!

First thing that happened is the Boardwalk gave Drew a free pass for the next game.


And then the guy lived up to his work and handed Drew a five!


Oh but that's not the end of this story... the same couple razzed Dave then about the pressure being on him.  Dave said something that it can only happen once per household.  Well guess what - that's not true.  Dave also got the hole in one, and got the free mini golf pass for his next visit!


Unfortunately he wasn't promised the same $5 wager.

When they finally found me after 9pm - I was beyond famished.  So we walked back to the card headed to our annual pizza stop at Woodstock's.  Where Drew proceeded to eat only 2 slices (which isn't much for him) before he passed out cold.


Not only is pizza at Woodstock's a tradition, but so is passing out in the same booth.

And see - I wasn't kidding. Not one picture of me on my birthday.  It was still a lot of fun, and yes I really was there.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Organized Chaos

What do you get when you put 32 people together - 16 adults and 16 kids? 
Organized Chaos!

That's exactly what we did in the middle of July - we put together a whole lotta kids and adults together on one campsite (okay technically we were spread over 5 of them) and just partied all weekend long!

So Day 1 - we got up there plenty early and helped every one of our fellow tent campers put up camp.  Then the night was spent partying the night away...

Some people did the worm...

Yes even Drew!

Plenty of Dancing!

L-R: Rene, Stephanie, Me

And all the ladies posed for the camera...

Shortly after that photo, the campsite managers came around twice - saying we were too loud after quiet time.  The last time they threatened to call the Sheriff's department on us.  Mind you it wasn't even 5 minutes after the first time they "drove by".

Day 2 - You could find Drew at virtually anytime of the day at the Mini Golf Course...

... or on the water slide (the pool was closed for repair).

We love the Jellystone Campground because of all the ammentities including the fun Hayride!

Some of the ladies had dirty toes.... you know with all that kid watching we had to do....

The theme this weekend at the campground was Christmas in July and we were tasked with decorating the campsite for a contest.  This was our sad attempt at a "Christmas Tree".

 

We came in third place - I'd like to say it was because they forgot to judge us.  After a while, they took pity on us while we were decorating to say the winner was already selected. However they were kind enough to say we came in third place (probably out of three, but don't burst our bubble).

Gotta love the sunset on the hills of Lake County.

What was great about camping the weekend after the 4th of July... the campsite was deserted.  Which is probably a good thing since a couple of the grownups had "blue balls".

Another Group shot of some of the campers...

We had plenty of bubbles for the kids (of all ages) from a family wedding a few weeks earlier.

On the final night of camping we even had a few wildlife invaders - two deer!

It really was an awesome weekend with friends.  And while it was a bit crazy with so many people, it really was a good time and very little incident (minus being threatened with the Sheriff's Department).