Day 11 - Ojai

This was the last day of our road trip, and  we spent it on the road.  We drove from San Fransisco to Ojai, a little town outside of L.A.  Tomorrow we go to the townhome that we will be staying in while we are in Los Angeles.  We were planning on driving down the coast, but the fires in the Big Sur have closed down portions of the road we were planning on taking.  We were afraid of detours and traffic, so we took the long boring Interstate 5 all the way.  It was evening when we got to Ojai, and it seemed like a sweet little town.  We stopped at all the hotels, and got the last available room in the whole town.  We walked to the town square and the kids played on a great playground.  We picked up some burritos we could eat while the kids played, and then we walked around the town square a little bit.  The next morning we let the kids swim in the pool before we got off, and then it was on to our little house, and goodbye to our sweet road trip.  We enjoyed it more than we thought we would.  We've decided that this was really and exploratory tour, and now we know the spots that we would like to come back to and spend some more time.  We've done the leg work, now for the next trip we just need someone to join us in the fun!  

Day 10 - San Fransisco

We took the train into downtown San Fransisco from our hotel.  Maeve said that she had never ridden on a train before, and I guess none of the kids ever have.  When we got off we walked to Chinatown to  a little lunch place that Jeffrey had read was good for kids.  It was fabulous food, and the kids loved it too.

After Lunch we took a bus to the Exploratorium.  It is like a much bigger and better version of the Children's Museum in Austin, and they have very good taste in their choices of DVD's for sale.

We walked around San Fransisco up and down hills, seeing the sights.  We saw the famous curvy street.  Neat bit of Trivia, Jeffrey's grandfather lived on that street.  Jeffrey remembers visiting him there when he was little.  

Afterwards we walked down to the pier and had some sourdough bread for teatime at Budin's.  Yes, we spent the $4 per roll for the turtle shapes for the kids.  They were too cute.  We hung around the ier waiting for it to get dark to see the fireworks.  The kids rode the Carosel, we saw a (lame) magic show, and Jeffrey got the kids icecream in lieu of supper.  How can you get better than that?

We had a little adventure in the evening, Jeffrey got worried about the buses not running at night because of the fourth of July fireworks, so rather than staying to see the fireworks show we started walking back toward the train station.  Unfortunately it seemed most of San Fransisco had the same idea.  It was a little surreal walking the streets at night with the kids, and with the rest of a city.  Our kids were troupers.  We never caught a bus, so they ended up walking the whole way, after an entire day of walking around the city, and they didn't complain.  We were so proud of them.

Day 9 - Yosemite day two

We spent the night at a KOA, in the cutest cabin. I had images of screened in walls and a cement floor, but it was a miniature log cabin with a log bed and bunkbeds, and a two built in desk and log chairs. We didn't get to spend much time there because we wanted to get off early to spend some time in Yosemite before getting on the road to San Fransisco.




On the drive back to Yosemite we took the longest shortcut in history. Jeffrey looked at the map and saw that one road was considerably shorter than taking the highway. What we got ended up being a one lane dirt mountain road that we had to take at some points at about five miles an hour. The only people we past were very surprised looking firefighters doing a training maneuver.


Yosemite was much more crowded than the day before being that it was fourth of July weekend, but we still decided to go see the more popular Sequoia grove rather than hike out to the more secluded spots, and I am so glad we did. The pictures say it all, and then again, they can't quite say enough. They were magnificent.



We made it into San Fransisco by nightfall. Even with all the beauty we had seen that day we were blessed with a spectacular sunset. We were filled up.

Day 8 - Yosemite National Park

We drove into Yosemite, and the kids spotted snow still on the ground. We pulled over and played for a while. It was weird being at the hottest place in the nation one day, and then the next playing in the snow.


We drove until we found a nice trail and hiked up to eat our lunch I had packed. We sat on a big flat rock and had a spectacular view.


After our lunch break we drove a bit further until Jeff saw a huge granite rock and pulled over so he and the kids could climb it. I waited in the car and noticing we actually had cell phone coverage, I called Rochelle to see how things were going. When I got off the phone Jeff waved me up. I assumed that meant the rock was easy enough for even someone big-pregnant to climb, so I hiked up and joined them. I don't want to miss out if I can help it.


One thing I did happily choose to miss out on was taking a dip in the mountain stream. The water felt like what it is, melted snow. Jeff swam out to the middle of the stream and called out to the kids that it was nice and warm in the middle attempting to lure them further in. Of course it was a little difficult to believe him when you could hear his teeth chattering.
We found a little store and bought some stuff for teatime, and had teatime in a meadow. I have decided that I am a meadow girl. To me, that has to be the prettiest place in the world. This is a much happier Stephanie than the one in Death Valley.


Yosemite was one of those places where it seemed that anywhere I pointed a camera would turn out to be a wonderful picture. We hardly scratched the surface of things to explore. Jeffrey and I would love to come back and spend a week there with the kids.


We headed on out to the KOA to stay in a cabin for the night, but decided we'd be back the next day to see the sequoias.

Day – 7 Death Valley

Death Valley is one of the more interesting places in America. Jeffrey was fascinated by it, and I had a really hard time. There are a lot of “stupid tourist” warnings that had me a little freaked out about not having enough water, and then the temperature and dryness itself wore on me more being pregnant than Jeffery or the kids. But the sights themselves were very interesting—it was like being in a completely different landscape, like you are no longer on earth.


We took a picture of the temperature at 124 degrees. Seriously hot. At this temperature Rachel and Aidan wanted to get out of the car and play in the sand, so Jeff walked them over to a sandy area off the side of the road. Rachel took her shoes off, and then got overwhelmed by the heat on her feet and Jeff had to carry her back to the car. He wasn't quite sure he could make it.


On the way out of Death Valley there were signs saying turn off the airconditioning for the next 20 miles so that the cars wouldn’t overheat. We didn’t at first, and then noticed our car temperature rising rapidly, so we quickly rolled down the windows and made it out of Death Valley without overheating the car. Whew! Adventure.

Almost immediately after leaving Death Valley the climate changed again. We saw beautiful trees and rolling hills. We drove to the town we thought we’d stay in, but there were no vacancies. Someone told us about a town not on the main road called June Lake, so we backtracked to go find it. We passed campsites and cabins all with no vacancy signs, and as it was starting to get dark we got a little worried. Jeffrey asked Maeve to pray that we’d find a place to stay, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth we rounded a bend and saw a cute little 1950s motel with the big beautiful word Vacancy on the sign. I went inside, and not only did they have a room, it had a full sized kitchen, free breakfast, and was only $79 per night. Jeffrey said that he could spend a week here, and I felt the same.
This was the view from our door.


We saw our first and only bear. As the kids were watching her the bear started to walk straight toward Rachel. Jeff quickly had all the kids get in the car. Later Rachel said, "I know why the bear liked me, because I had candy in my pocket."

Day 6 - Day in Las Vegas

We decided to spend an extra Day in Las Vegas, although it wasn’t one of our more interesting spots, but only being $29 a night made it an economical place, and the fact that it had internet and Laundry facilities made it a good place to stop and catch up on some things. Jeffrey took the kids swimming in the morning while I did our laundry and got some writing done, then we took the kids to the top of the tower to show them the view. Jeffrey asked who wanted to ride one of the rides at the top (yes, rides at the top, this is Vegas after all), and only Rachel wanted to. She and Jeffrey went on the needle that shoots up into the air.
In the afternoon I took the kids swimming while Jeffrey got some writing done, and in the evening we packed up, drove the strip to see some of the Las Vegas nighttime sights from our car.


We came back and put the kids to bed and then Jeffrey and I watched 21, the movie about the college kids who count cards at blackjack tables. Fitting to watch a Las Vegas Movie in Las Vegas. Overall it was a restful day.