So, Hey! We're trying to do better this year on the ol' blog front, so here is the first installment.
As we did last year, we went on a 1 month long vacation, as we hope to do every year from now on.
This time around we took the month of January to slowly make our way down the coast to San Diego, aka Sandy Eggo.
There were days where we just traveled and there were days where we stayed for a day or 2, or 7.
Our first notable stop was the redwood forest. Oh my! Was that ever amazing!
I (C) felt very humbled by the size and age of these wonderful beings. They were already 1000 years old when Christ was born!
We learned that nearly 90% of the redwoods have been cut down. This both saddens me and angers me at the immense selfishness and myopic nature of man.
Here you can, barely, see H and F peeking around the tree.
Our trusty new Forester behind the tree.
Our trusty new Forester IN the tree!
After the redwoods we then made a stop, as per the childrens insistance, at the Jelly Belly factory.
it was pretty neat to watch them make literally tons of jelly beans. Thanks to my sis we had enough Jelly Bellys to last the whole trip. I love the pear, and the buttered popcorn.
After that we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we walked over it.
There is an old fort at the base of the bridge, when we got down there the famous San Fran fog moved in. Thick like soup, it was impressive, and eerie.
After we got done at the fort, we started driving south to San Jose, when we stumbled across this gem. The San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. Built in 1915. Here is a
link to learn more about this beautiful building that was only meant to last 1 year.
From San Fran we spent 2 days in San Joser. There is a very interesting
museum there called The Tech. Good fun if you ever find yourself there.
Since we have science center and zoo memberships here in Seattle most
other science centers and zoos allow us reciprocal membership, so that
is what we did for most of the trip: science and animals.
From there we went to Monterrey Bay where , thanks to L's good Friend
(THANKS FRIEND!) we were able to stay about 5 days in a summer home a
block from the beach. During our trip there was a warm air front hanging
around California. Monterrey had warmer temps then than in August! So
we spent days on the beach and at the M Bay Aquarium.
The Jelly Fish were pretty amazing. While we were at the aquarium we learned that many of the species of sea animals are at critically low numbers. We have lost nearly 95% of sea otter populations. sad.
A really neat thing to see in Monterrey is the Monarch butterfly migration stop. they like the climate and the types of trees they have there. Literally tens of thousands of butterflies stop there. Many of them stay in a single area now designated as a preserve.
You can see how they like to hang out in thick clumps to stay warm.
Again, we learned that monarch butterfly populations are down 85% from historical norms. This is due to the use of too many pesticides in our agriculture, which is why we try to eat only organic produce. We'd like to invite you to increase your organic veggie consumption. It just kept occurring to me that we're (perhaps not so) slowly destroying our planet.
From Monterey, we traveled down the coast on Highway 1, which is one of the neatest most scenic drives you can do.
We had fun driving down the coast to San Diego over the course of a few days. We stopped to see beaches full of sea lions, again in steep population decline. They were pretty neat and it was exciting to watch the males fight.
We stopped at the Santa Monica boardwalk - not bad.
We drove through Los Angeles - very bad. If I never found myself here again, I would be just fine with that.
In San Diego we stayed in a nice little hotel on the beach, where we could rent bikes and cruise the boardwalk.
This picture makes H look like the 'old soul' that he is.
We also went to Seaworld - meh
San Diego Zoo - amazing. This is probably the best zoo in the world. It is worth a trip to San Diego for this alone.
and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park - pretty good; cheaper than going to Africa...
Here's my hot wife cooling off from the heat with an icy cold mango slushy, which I'm pretty sure is just frozen Costco mango juice, which is still delicious.
Also during our 7 days in San Diego, we visited with old friends (hey Matt), hung out at the beach,
went to Old Town San Diego to see what life was like 100+ years ago, and visited the Mormon Battalion historical site of the LDS church - interesting.
From San Diego we drove over the barren--and I mean barren--desert through Yuma and over to Mesa/Phoenix/Gilbert/Chandler/everything else AZ. There we spent two too short days with L's sister Zoe and her neat family. Here's a pic of the boys.
From there we heeded wise counsel to drive through Sedona on our way to the Grand Canyon. Sedona was so neat that as we were driving through early evening that when we were just out of town we decided to turn back and spend the night so we could see it some more the next day. We really hope we can make it back there someday. (Side note: Sedona is the town and area that Radiator Springs was modeled after.)
Then we spent a day looking at the Grand Canyon. Without going down in, there's not much else to do other than look. That night after returning to Flagstaff, we went to an observatory to see neat stuff through a big telescope.
Neat hole, huh?
Then we drove an original section of the famed Route 66 and saw some of the fun and quirky things that are found alongside the "mother road". From there we stopped for one night in Las Vegas. We don't really care much for Las Vegas, but we thought it would be a fun experience for the kids. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which we recommend that you not waste your money or time on. F got a migraine from all the lights and sounds. We saw the beautiful fountains outside the Bellagio.
And we spent the night inside the black pyramid known as the Luxor. Here is a picture of the kids with the Finx (you'll get that if you've read the Skippyjon Jones books)(if you haven't, you should).
After a decent night's sleep, we made the drive up to Provo UT. It was 71 when we left Vegas and 31 when we arrived in Provo. After 24 days of sunshine and shorts, that was a sad event. Thankfully we had the warmth of close family to ward off the chill. That and a good J.Dawg and a Gandolfo's sandwich. Here's my family with my good buddy and bro-in-law Pete. We also got to visit with most of both of our families, which was long overdue.
Much to our children's (mainly H) chagrin, they had to share a bed the entire trip, but I think F really enjoyed having her brother nearby.
On our way home, we got caught in an ice storm outside of Baker City OR and had to stay the night there. We decided to stay at the historical Geiser Grand Hotel. It was neat to be in a restored hotel from 1889. We walked through the blizzard to a nice little mexican restaurant and then enjoyed snuggling and watching a movie in the hotel room. If you get a chance to stay here, you should. Here's a
link for more info.
We had a very fun and educational trip. We are so grateful that we decided to homeschool our children so we could have the unique opportunity to have these super-fieldtrips. We discovered much about our great country. We learned a lot about the geography and natural world of the areas we visited. And we came away with a renewed desire to do our part and encourage others to do theirs to care for and protect our fragile planet.
