Family Road Trip

Last week the family got together and went on a short road trip.  Short as in the amount of time but not short in distance.  We drove a lot of miles.  We were going to head up to Yosemite but we decided that we would do that another time when we could be gone longer.  So we spent the first night in Bakersfield at Janet and Brads bed and breakfast.  Friday morning we got up and drove to Sequoia National Park.  The weather was around 108 in Riverside when we left home.  Bakersfield wasn't very different.  As we got closer to the park the temp started dropping.  By the time we got up there it was somewhere in the 70s with a thunder storm looming off in the distance.  We had a little bit of rain but for the most part it was just about perfect.  Those giant redwoods were just amazing to look at.  I was a little sad to leave there so soon.  I think I would have liked to have a few more hours to wander around and see more but we had to go find someplace to stay.  We drove down to Fresno for dinner and to look for a hotel.  We stopped at an Applebee's and were just seated when the power went out in the whole intersection that we were at.  We sat and hoped that the power would come back on but it didn't.  All the waiters and waitresses were so excited because they were obviously going to get the night off.  We ended up at Chilis.  We got a nice room and got to spend a little bit of time in the hot tub before we went to bed.

 Here are some shots of the wildlife.  We had some veggie straws that the little critters just loved.  The chipmunk and squirrels were dainty little eaters.  They would nibble on them and store them in their cheeks.  The seagull on the other hand just swallowed them whole.  We even had a black bird/crow that was hanging out by us waiting for a handout.  The deer was just chilling on the golf coarse at Pebble Beach.  In the Sequoias we saw a deer that crossed the road and right after David looked in the rear view mirror and saw a black bear cross the road and go up the hill.  He was the only one who saw it.

 

The Next day we drove over to the Coast.  We started out in Carmel and took the 17 mile drive.  As we were driving along I kept thinking that I had done it before and then it came back to me that Craig and I did that drive on our honeymoon.  31 years later some things looked exactly the same but some things had changed a lot.  One thing that changed is the quality of pictures as you can see here from a picture from our honeymoon in 1979 and then when we were here again  in 1981.

Our plan was to go to Hearst Castle but we got there after the last tour and when they were closing up.  We were going to try and find a hotel close by so that we could go in the morning but there were no vacancy in anything for about 2 hours away.   So Hearst Castle will have to be some other time.  Holly finally found a place in Lompoc which was good because our next stop was Solvang.  The last time that Craig and I were here in Solvang I saw people riding around the village in these cute things called Surreys.  I have been wanting to bring the kids here for years so this was #1 on the list of things to do here. 

Do you feel safe putting your money here in the "Rabobank"?  Chad and Hans (below)

And here are the before and afters.  We were here in 1979 on our honeymoon and then we came in 1981.  I was looking for the red shoe and wanted to take a picture with Jarom.  In my mind I remembered taking this picture with Jarom when he was a baby and then when I got home I looked for the picture it was with Craig.  Darn....... Oh well they say that the mind is the first thing to go. 

And last but not least..... I had to take a picture of this.