We had a blast trekking around California, arriving June 1 and flying home on the 19th. Upon arrival I was quickly reminded how cold it is in the Oxnard/Ventura, CA area. In the morning the cloudy marine layer filled the sky but broke loose around noon and left us with pretty good weather, sunny and 70 degrees.
This was a work related trip for Richard so he was working 5 days a week and we took weekends to visit friends and site see. Our first weekend we drove to Loma Linda to spend the night with friends from Southern, Jonathan and Belen Geach. He has just finished his residency in anesthesiology and Belen is faculty at the school of Dentistry.
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We had a wonderful time at their lovely home. Kaley especially enjoyed the slide and swing in their back yard, their dogs and Jonathan's ukulele. They fixed us gourmet breakfasts and it was good to catch up on each others travels and pictures. I walked down to the hospital and visited with the kids in the PT and OT department, touring their facility. They offered me a job but I was like, sorry I'm pretty sure I won't be relocated right now.
Then we drove to Solvang, a quaint Danish type town in the mountains, where we enjoyed caramel apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. This was a taste of home for Richard and I, reminiscent of Gatlinburg TN.
Our second weekend trip was the highlight of our stay in CA. A marathon expedition that proved to be a bit ambitious but a wonderful experience. We loaded up the minivan and headed for the mountains, stopping first at Sequoia National Forest. It blew my mind to think that these enormous trees have been around since before the time of Christ. The General Sherman tree is the largest tree, by volume, in the world. The winding road that led us 7,000 feet high to see this giant left Kaley and I rather queasy. We spent just enough time to take a few pictures and then turned back down the mountain toward Yosemite.
Yosemite National Park was by far much more impressive then I had expected. I knew there were vistas, waterfalls and wildlife but I was totally unprepared for the scale on which they existed. Driving down the Wawona road that afternoon I was introduced to Half Dome and El Capitan at Tunnel View. I realized then, that I had grossly underestimated this National Park. What an amazing feeling to look up...and up...and up, beholding these uniquely massive rocks.
Richard's idea, to get up at 0400 and drive over an hour to Glacier Point the next morning, made me question his sanity. After prying ourselves and 2 children from warm beds at this early hour we just missed our goal of arriving by sunrise. The impact of visiting at this time of day was nonetheless incredible. I have truly never felt as on top of the world in all my life. It was simply dizzying to look straight down for thousands of feet as the abyss widening beneath me. With Half Dome at eye level the sun rose and the giant rock split it's rays with one enormous shadow. Ten or fifteen hang gliders set up their gear, colorful birds perched and waiting for flight. The previous day a number of climbers had been stranded on Half Dome when the weather turned bad and one man lost his life when he fell from the rocks. We had witnessed the rescue helicopter landing and taking off from the valley and today it was back at work, a disappointment to the hang gliders who were told by radio they could not fly.
By the time we crossed the Bay Bridge into San Francisco and checked into our hotel the day was almost spent. We watched the sun disappear at Fisherman's Warf snapping a few shots of the wooden fishing vessels. After briefly checking out Ghirardelli square we got the kids to bed and enjoyed an eggplant parmesan sub and salad delivered to the room by a local Italian restaurant. The next morning, not to early, we drove across the Golden Gate bridge, had our photo op and took off for Monterey Bay.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium was by far Kaley and Conner's favorite part of the trip, likely the whole trip to CA. Kaley has always LOVED under-water life and this aquarium is designed with young children in mind. Every area has a playground with cool activities like fish stamps to collect, fish outfits to try on and hands-on learning. There are at least 2 touch tank sites and Kaley had her hands all over the starfish, crabs and snails...poor creatures. In one big room, exclusively for viewing the largest tank, the glass came down to the floor and Connor had a blast just crawling around in the semi darkness. At one point he got too friendly with another child and I pulled him back. Two seconds later he high tailed it back to the glass and looked over his shoulder at me as if to say "Hah, I got away". We stayed until it closed and then reembarked on the last leg of our journey back to Oxnard. We chose to take the Seventeen Mile Drive through Pebble Beach, a beautiful coastal drive and saw the Lone Cyprus. At this point we decided that we'd had enough fun for one weekend + Monday. The minivan had 1,200 extra miles on the odometer at our return.
The last five days of our stay in California were spent going to the beach, playground, and visiting with my mom's cousin Jenny and her family. I watched my cousins Lindsey and Whitney surfing and wished I had a better telephoto lens. They made it look easy. Kaley began asking about getting on the airplane and going home. I could tell she was ready.
Looking back I am amazed at all we managed to cram in. I sure wish we had had more time at Yosemite, San Francisco and Monterey Bay. I hope to return someday. It is good to be home but I'm so glad we had this opportunity; lots of wonderful memories and an ever growing archive of photos. Now, if I can just get this house cleaned up.