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.

Guy's Weekend

It's a big year for my parents, my Dad especially - in June he retired and then a couple weeks later it was Father's Day (he's also coming upon his 60th birthday and 40th Wedding Anniversary).  So for his retirement/Father's Day gift, we gave him his dream trip to Dodger Stadium.

Not long after meeting Dave about 14 years ago, and learning he was a Dodger Fan, my Dad has wanted to visit Dodger Stadium.  He'd never been.  So that's what he did with Dave and my brother in tow.  They met up with Dave's Dad as well for a true guy's weekend.

Well it was quite the party... Dave and my Dad drove down on Friday and checked into the Embassy Suites just in time for the free "happy hour".  Then David (aka Tata) met up with the boys.  The reports of what happened next are a little "fuzzy" so I take it it was one of those nights where boys will be boys.

The next morning Dave and my Dad awoke and met my brother Matt at the airport (he had a wedding the night before) and then they set out for the ball game.  They decided to play it smart and take cabs everywhere they went - aka a paid DD.

I think this has to be the "happiest place on earth" for Dave.  So I'm posting pictures found on the camera - because girls weren't invited, but I get to post the blog, I am taking some liberties at posting...

Found a picture of Andre Ethier... a former Sun Devil....

The view from their seats...

My Dad was in 7th heaven.  He's still talking about the trip a month and a half later.  And it was also obvious how much fun he was having with all the texts he was sending to me and probably half the people in his contact list.   The whole family was "lectured' by Grammy about how GrampC went over his text minutes so texting was off limits for a few weeks...

Happy GrampC and Uncle Matt

Two of the 3 "its"... GrampC and Tata (the 3rd "it"is Grandpa who was in New York)

I received a crapload of texts from everyone with pictures, but I apparently deleted them all - but here is GrampC on the drive back home at Tommy's.  It's a chili burger fast food restaurant that is Dave's "staple" when visiting LA.  Dave had to take GrampC to his first Tommy's experience.  Let's just say I am happy I wasn't in the car for the remainder of that trip...

 

While the boys were away, Drew and I enjoyed some time "house sitting" at  Grammy and GrampC's house.  Grammy was back in Minnesota for a family reunion.  It is really tough house sitting at Camp Grammy's....

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Virginia Vacation - This and That

While it seems like we were always on the go on our vacation, we also had plenty of down time!  That mostly consisted of time in the pool.  There Drew learned to swim without floaties and realized he often preferred to swim without his goggles.  He also learned to tie shoes!  So a momentous trip in its own right.

And who can forget their first brain freeze?

Dave and Drew had been talking about wanting to get brain freezes. I guess it's from some show Drew watches.  So we had to make a pit stop and get slurpees.

Lots of swim time.  We managed to swim nearly every day were in Williamsburg.

Dave, Drew and Grandma

Below, Grandpa and Drew - they have matching glasses/goggles

And Drew was busy reading to Grandpa all about Pocohontas

As I mentioned we played a lot of Uno on this trip...
 

 After getting back from Richmond and finding out someone poo'd in the pool, we decided to play some mini-golf while they cleaned up the "incident".

 

Turns out mini-golf is hazardous to your swim trunks...

After someone else threw up in the pool, it closed again for a bit so we played "name that tune" in the cabana.  We did pretty well too!

 Finally the pool opened for good.  I opted not to go in that night.  I mean vomit and feces?  No thank you.  The boys were a bit more brave.

We had a fantastic trip all around and even 2 months later we're still talking about it!  Drew wants to go back for our next big family vacation, but Dave has his eyes set on another Baseball destination... Florida perhaps?