San Diego

Took off last week for San Diego. It was a trip we had been planning for awhile, just kept putting it off for other things. But, it was getting way past due for Thomas's birthday present, a trip toLegoland, so we finally got it together. We stayed in a surprisingly nice Travelodge in LaMesa, CA. Mike said it had recently been remodeled & used to be a Ramada - a step up the Wyndham food chain, I believe. Good room, very clean, typical continental breakfast offerings + the make-your-own-waffle station and super helpful staff. Incredible considering we paid $50 for the weekend nights and less for Tuesday - Thursday.

petting bat rays

feeding the bat rays

We rode this. A lot.

Journey to Atlantis - kind of a cross between a roller coaster & a log flume.

mama & baby koala

Thomas working on getting his license at the Volvo Driving School

Let's just say, you people should all be very frightened in 9 years.

Mike & Thomas on some sort of robot arm ride

Thomas driving the boat. Again - frightening.

They had this cool place where the kids could build cars, test & race them.

Here's Thomas with his creation.

Why, yes! We are homeschoolers.

We had a great time. We did 1 day at Legoland, 1 day at the zoo & 3 days at Sea World. It was a nice change of pace from the past several trips. Once we were done for the day, it was time to relax - no cooking or cleaning! Thomas liked Legoland the best. I really enjoyed Sea World. Mike enjoyed the trip to Trader Joe's where he bought 25 different varieties of beer to try out.

4WD

A few weekends ago we finally used the 4WD on the Escape. A friend told us about a road up to Browse. We started the day off with the intentions of going to the Arizona Strip, but decided to head to Browse before they closed the road for the winter. It was a good time and nice to get off the beaten path a bit.

an old fence - to hold in what?

crabapples

saw something under all the leaves - turned out to be these shoes

I can imagine that little girl got fussed at for losing them.

DANGER

DO NOT ENTER

POSSIBLE HANTAVIRUS

CONTAMINATION

Makes you feel all warm & fuzzy about the place, eh?

yet another camping trip, part 4 - yay the end!

So, we were in Fresno (you know, back in September when all of this happened, right?) and Mike had the Escape looked at & "repaired". That would be in quotes because the air conditioning worked for 2 days after we had it fixed. Turns out there was a leak when we bought it. There was a lot of dye in the system, so the mechanic could tell that someone had been trying to find the problem, gave up on it, charged it with freon and sold it. So nice & honest. Once we got back to St. George, we had it fixed again, so far so good.

Anyway, once the air conditioning was repaired, we headed to Yosemite. We saw a bear cub right outside the Mariposa Grove, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. Enjoyed the park, driving around a bit before heading out to our campground.

We waited too late to get reservations for somewhere in the valley, & it was too cold up high for tent camping, so we ended up camping outside the park in a KOA. We spent that first night by ourselves, but were joined the next day by Kerri, Jesse & Miriam!

Half Dome

squishing Half Dome

Kerri & Miriam

mountain jay

Kerri & Elton John's doppleganger

We had a really good time camping with them, although I don't think Kerri is signing up for the adventure again anytime soon. Miriam isn't the best sleeper in the world, and it made for a long night in their tent. Me? I sleep with earplugs so I was pretty oblivious! We didn't so anything super-noteworthy. Just enjoyed our time together, hiked a bit, checked out the scenic overlooks, cooking dinner in the park picnic grounds & had an "illegal" campfire in the grill at the KOA.

computer problems & the Halloween costume

So we've been having issues with our main computer. When we try to boot it it hangs up & is generally irritating. We have to try multiple times before it will actually boot. Grr. This is the computer where we have all the photos stored, the one with the camera software & card reader. So, I finally took the camera card to Costco and got the Halloween photos on a CD. I only got a few shots because the camera card was full. Because the main computer wouldn't boot & I couldn't offload them.

Anyway, here is the futuristic bounty hunter.

The costume did not turn out quite like Thomas envisioned it. He was, um, less than grateful about the end-product . . . until I told him that he could be something from the store next year. Much back-pedaling ensued. "Maybe I can wear this again next year." That's my boy with a disdain for the mass-produced!

the futuristic bounty hunter and his good pal, Optimus Prime

yet another camping trip, part 3

Our last day in Sequoia & King's Canyon

We decided to get up early, skip cooking breakfast and try to go see some wildlife. We hadn't seen any bears and kind of wanted to. They get up early, nap in the middle of the day and then get up again in the afternoon. Yeah, we managed to. We watched this guy for about 15 minutes. The pictures are a bit blurry because I was on super-duper zoom. We weren't all that close and that was just fine by me. At one point he noticed us, got scared & went up in a tree. Then I guess he decided we weren't going to do anything so he came back down and started foraging again.



We saw another bear from further away, but he was on the move and we didn't get to see him for long. That one had an ear tag, which means they've already caught him. They don't try to catch bears unless they've been getting aggressive, so were were perfectly happy to not see much of that one. It's a shame. When people are careless with their food, then the bears realize that it's much easier to get food that way than to forage. Then they get aggressive and sometimes end up getting killed.

petrographs at Hospital Rock

sliding on Hospital Rock

We drove out to the Mineral King section of the park. More remote, less visited. We didn't see many people at all. We pulled into a campground that was closed for the season thinking we might picnic there. Then we saw this guy and changed our plans.

After Mineral King, we stopped in town to get gas & ice and use the library and the phone. We didn't have much cell signal in the park. Mike used the internet to find a mechanic and a hotel in Fresno so we could get the air conditioning on the Escape fixed. What's a Gilbert family vacation without a little car work? Mike used the internet, Thomas skimmed through several non-fiction titles. I flipped through magazines. When we left, the librarian let Thomas pick a book out of their give-away box. Very kind of her since he had already finished the books we packed with us.

goofing around at Tunnel Rock

atop Tunnel Rock

We went back into the park for one last hike before we headed to Fresno for a hotel and car repairs. We chose Crescent Meadow.

This was officially off the trail, but it was really hard to resist walking on the log that went across the entire meadow.

chimney tree

This reminded me of a scene in that movie First Knight with Richard Gere and Julia Ormond, where they hide under the ferns in the forest.

We headed to Fresno with no a/c, checked into our hotel, cleaned up & cooled off. Then we went to dinner and to Target. Mike got a car charger for his cell phone, Thomas got a new book, having finished the one the librarian gave him that day. Me? I got a razor so I could shave without having to unload the entire car to find the one I had packed.

yet another camping trip, part 2

Second full day in Sequoia and King's Canyon

We went to Boyden Cavern. Crystal Caverns was closed due to the forest fire. We hiked around Zumwalt Meadows and then to Roaring River Falls.

King's River

Grand Sentinel, I think

walk softly and carry a big stick

Roaring River Falls

And yes, more macro shots: