Another day, another state

Two exhausting days in a row. Last night the boys and I crashed. Hubby had crashed the night before, so he was up for a bit. :) So, no pictures from our adventure yesterday, yet. We are off to Las Vegas today - a 4-5 hour drive. We are going to drive down the strip, check out what we think is neat and then relax at the hotel - poolside. Hopefully I'll update this blog by giving you all the story that goes with those pictures, and show what we did yesterday. We don't know if we'll have internet. Seems like Vegas hotels charge for the little extras that we have grown accustomed to everywhere else. So we'll have to see. Monday we are off to Hoover Dam and then traveling to get closer to the Grand Canyon which we will be seeing Tuesday. Slowly but surely we will be making our way back east, closer to home, closer to family, closer to friends. We are all excited about the things we have yet to see. There have been some minor changes to the next two weeks, you'll have stay tuned to find out what. :)
Love to all!

Way too exhausted from a terrific day at the Channel Islands. For now, you'll have to make up your own story to go along with the pictures. I'll fill in the blanks tomorrow, so read this post again to see if your story matches mine!

We finally reached the Pacific!!

After four days of being in California, we have finally reached a beach! Time to play, shiver, watch a sun set over an ocean, shiver, make sand castles, and did I mention shiver? It was cold! But the boys had fun and we can all say we played in the Pacific.
If you look in the background of this photo,

and this photo, you can see the outline of land. These are two of the Channel Islands, our destination tomorrow(Thank you, Grandma!!). These islands are 20 miles off the California coast. We will take a catamaran out to the islands, first time for all of us!

Here is Palmer building a sand castle. The water was so cold, he really didn't play too much in it. But he did have a good time in the sand.

Here is a message that the boys wrote me:

I'll take that message any day!


One of the reasons to go to the beach late in the day was so that we could see a sunset on the beach. That is something none of us have ever seen. Very pretty.

It does give the day a sense of finality. Hmmm. A peaceful way to end the day.

And when we were walking to the car to come back to the hotel, we were blessed with this scene:

A full moon through the palm trees. So wherever you are this evening, I hope you have a brillant full moon and a great night!

If we had trees like this at home....

I too, might be a tree hugger! If I could only get my arms around the tree!



We spent today, day 18, here:

and here:
and here.

Three signs don't equal three different places. Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks are seperate parts of one National Park and it is surrounded on all sides by National Forest Land. Just added protection for guys like this:

We saw this young Mule Dear with his mother and sibling. They were all just munching away at shrubs. They did stop long enough to give a quick nod as a welcome, then it was back to eating. Animals here are busy getting ready for the winter months, which today didn't feel too far away. It was cold! Long pants ,sweatshirts, and heat in the car, brrr!

Let me just say, pictures do NOT do these trees justice! Hubby and I have seen many pictures of these trees, but there is still such a WOW factor when you see them. They are just unbelievable. Something that must be seen.

This is how a Sequoia looks to a squirrel! :)

Here is Dempsey investigating a Sequoia that had fallen over. A few minutes after this picture was taken, Dempsey and Palmer crawled into it and came out the top side.

Our parting memories of Sequoia and Kings Canyon Park will be driving through a Sequoia that fell in 1937 and

seeing this most impressive Black Bear. This guy didn't have a care in the world and just lumbered before the car and then on his way into the woods.

After we had left the park, we were treated to two beautiful vistas(yes, the mountain tops the clouds!).

Even though this looks like yesterday's Half-Dome, I assure you it isn't. There is just lots of awesome scenery here in CA.

We have three more days in CA. A week in one state! Can you believe it is day 18 of this trip? We have seen some pretty terrific scenery and we still have some more left to see. We also have a country to cross to get home!

Can you guess where we were today?

Yosemite, home to El Capitan and Half Dome. Here is a look from one of the first places you get the opportunity to view them. That is the side of El Capitan on the left and of course, Half Dome in the middle.

Here is Half Dome, closer up. It is quite impressive.

On the way into the valley, you can take a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls.

This is a closer look at Bridal Veil Falls. Notice the white cloud at the top? That is the water that the wind is blowing into a mist. It was really neat to watch the falls change constantly. Mist blowing one way, then another, then not at all. Always morphing.

On the way back, the boys stopped to sit on a fallen log and look at a crystal clear creek.

They were also hunting a lizard that crawled across Palmer's leg!

Here is a view of El Capitan looking head on. Well head on from about 7,200 feet below!

And here is a little tease for tomorrow. Yosemite has three groves of Sequoia's. We visited the most mature grove. These trees are amazing!

Everything is big in Yosemite, and the park is almost overwhelmingly so. This is a place we will all put on our list of, "Places to return to". We didn't even scratch the surface of this park. You really need days to explore all the wonders Yosemite has to offer!

Lastly, while looking at the Sequoia's, Palmer and Dempsey spotted this little guy. He was very busy storing up for the winter, and still managed to pose for us! How accomodating here in this terrific park!

San Francisco!

Welcome to San Francisco! Upon entering San Fran this morning, we had the luck of going across the Golden Gate Bridge and fog.

And more fog!

I don't know if anyone has heard of Lombard Street. We hadn't until I spoke with my aunt last night. She told us one of the things we must do is see Lombard Street, the world's most crooked street. Well, we didn't just see it, we drove on it. This is standing almost at the top looking down the straight side.

This is looking down at the crooked part. Do you see just how little all the buildings look in the background? This street is really high!

And this is at the bottom, looking up. As you can see from the sky, the fog wasn't blowing over the entire city and it was a beautiful day.

At the end of Lombard Street is Coit Tower. This is a tower that was errected to memorialize a city resident that left the city money to make a peaceful space. The view is gorgeous from this end of Lombard Street.

Here is the Golden Gate Bridge, still in fog:
Here is the view of Alcatraz from Coit Tower. Kind of reminds me of a Greek Isle, if you forget the purpose of the building.

And remember Lombard Street? This is a view of the "World's Most Crooked Street", again this view is from Coit Tower. And lastly, this is Coit Tower. You can go up to the top and on the inside there are murals all over the walls depicting life in the San Francisco area.

From really pretty views, to absolutely no view at all. Alcatraz. Luckily, we haven't run into accomodations like this on our trip(although the hotel in Northern Nevada was close!) This cell, a typical cell, was 5ft wide, 9 ft front to back, and 7 ft high. Well, if you break the law no one said that you should be comfortable!

Back on the ship getting ready to go to back to San Francisco, Palmer and Dempsey think perhaps their room back home isn't that small after all!

Before we said goodbye to San Francisco, we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. At the end of the walk, we were treated with seeing some very tranquil wildlife. Packed like sardines, you wouldn't think space was limited. These guys had room to spread out, but obviously liked to be close and snuggle. What a good way to end the day, sunning yourself and snuggling up close to those you love. :)

Goodnight!