Another Great Day On The Road

We started our dayby heading to the pool and only Christopher was brave enough to get all the way in. It was a new level of cold. Then we drove from Modesto to San Francisco. We entered the city thought the Bay bridge. We saw a Maersk ship arriving into the Port of Oakland and wondered aloud if Uncle Lynn had any containers on board? We first went to the Fisherman's Wharf. The parking in SF in horrible ! The people at Hertz let us park in there garage for free because of the arthritis thing and weird handicaped parking. That was great and we parked very close. I think it was the first good thing ever about arthritis. We walked around for about two hours. We saw a WWII submarine, all the fishing boats and bought some Sourdough bread which we ate with our lunch:). Next we drove the worlds most curviest road (which according to AAA is not true). We then went to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked out on it. The view was awesome! We drove to the financial district and rode a street car for the whole line on California street and saw Chinatown. Last we went to Giants stadium and went back to the hotel where we currently are eating pizza and wings from Marina Pizza. Oh - here's trivia. See saw "the famous bird" which can be found on YouTube. We saw it attack a guy and didn't think much about it. Then a lady explained that the bird was known for bombing people and we could see it on YouTube. For another bit of trivia, this was easier than our ( Reeds circa 1979) last trip here. I think a handicap placard, GPS, and no RV makes life easier! Tomorrow, off to Alcatraz. Check back to see if Christopher will return to the main land;)

Today we visited Sequoia and Yellowstone National Parks. We started our drive on the General Sherman Highway. This road has 108 switch backs. It was very curvey. We hiked to the General Sherman tree. This tree is the largest tree in cirmcumfrence in the world! One placard read that "looking up at the tree is like a mouse looking up at a 6 foot person." We found huge yellow pine cones they measured about 8-10 inches in length. Then we left for Yosemite National Park. In the historical town we saw a blacksmith and took a stagecoach ride. We also saw a jailhouse. Then we saw a miniature log cabin made of lincoln logs. We were on the Merced River and it was very cold. We got to see a really neat waterfall. It is the biggest one in the nation and fifth in the world. We drove through a tunnel in a big fallen rock. We got to see a rock slide and there were temporary bridges and the rocks covered the road and went down to the river. Then we left for Modesta. Tomorrow we are spending the day in San Francisco. It was a really fun day!

California and beyond

Greetings from Three Rivers California. We slept in late this morning 7:00 am. Mark, Sarah and Christopher went on a tour of the strip near the Venetian and got lost! Really lost. We had to ask for directions 3 times. Apparently, the Venetian is very large. We had a great time in Las Vegas. I wish I could tell you more but, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I did win 20 bucks and spent it all in the gift shop. Thanks Curtis for the room! It was nice. One of the pics is Brandon sitting at the desk in the room blogging. We drove I-15 across the Mojave dessert into California and into the orange groves. We stopped along the way at a road side market and purchased some wonderful sweet cherries, oranges and corn nuts. We arrived at Sequoia in time to go into the park and grill some hot dogs. We found a Black bear in the picnic area as we were leaving. Christopher and Sarah started their Jr Ranger books for the Park. As we were leaving the park we took a short drive on one of the back road and saw some real rangers going to rescue someone that was hurt in the back country.

Tomorrow we will finish Sequoia and head north to Yosemite NP. Then west to San Francisco. Stay tuned to see if we leave Christopher at Alcatraz....

A few more pictures

We are still in Las Vegas this morning. We will be leaveing shotly for California.

zion canyon and las vegas

It's Renee tonight. The kids are having too much fun being lazy...

Another early start got us to Zion Canyon by 8:00 and we were off and running. I think this was my favorite place so far - maybe because most of it is from the bottom of the canyon and I wasn't afraid the whole time. The tunnel was shorter than it was when I was 7. Strangest thing how that happens. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and were only a few feet from a deer. Of course the ranger badges were completed. After a stop at a playground/picnic area we headed to Las Vegas. We are staying at the Venetian courtesy of a fire dept friends MIL. Christopher thinks the "remote control" blinds and shades are funny. Brandon loves the idea of ESPN in every room. After dinner we went to Hoover Dam and then came back and drove down the strip. Now everyone is getting ready for bed. Tomorrow we should arrive at Sequoia and hopefully will get to cook out and then will spend much of Friday there as well. I think we are sleeping in tomorrow!

Bryce Canyon and North Rim

We started out bright and early to see a not so inspiring sunrise. Clouds just aren't worth getting up at 5:00. After breakfast we spent several hours in the canyon and Sarah and Christopher finished their jr ranger badges. Who knew they were going to be so hard to get? This one recommended 3-5 hours for completion. Anyway, then we were off to the North Rim. We spent a long time there. We went to a ranger program about condors and walked along some short trails. Bison, deer, and odd little squirrels were around there along with some rain and wind. Tonight we grabbed pizza at a local place and have been hanging around being lazy. Cartoons plus the basketball finals are keeping Brandon, Sarah, and Christopher busy. Tomorrow we are going to Zion Canyon and then spending the night in Las Vegas.

We are in Kanab Utah tonight. We have no cell phone service and limited internet. Only One pic today. In Vegas after our night out on the town maybe we will add some more pictures.

Today we left our hotel in Green River around 8:30 for Capitol Reef National Park. Capitol Reef is named after the dome shaped rock the looks like the Capitol in D.C. and the holes in the rocks that look like reefs. We arrived at the park 2 hrs. later and drove through. We stopped at the Frutia school. Which was last used in 1941. The Frutia settlement was very small. Only 10 families ever lived there at any given time. We saw petroglyphs on the walls of some of the rocks/mountains. We drove the dirt road up to Dry Wash. Along the way we saw a abandoned uranium mine. We were going to hike up the Dry Wash trail, but it was looking like it was going to rain, plus, a sign at the beginning of the trail said"do not enter if rain threatening". We did walk a few hundred yards up the trail. We then drove to Bryce Canyon's visitor center and got Sarah and Christopher's junior ranger books(upon completing these books they receive badges with the park's name and a patch). We drove a few miles and found a picnic table to eat dinner at. Christopher and I played football for a little while. Then we drove to our hotel to stay for the night. We went swimming in the pool. Dad and Sarah went to Far View Point to star gaze tonight. In the morning we are going to sunrise point to watch the sunrise.

Also, we have gone around 3000 miles now.

Today we left for Canyonlands around 8:30. We started at the Needles part of the park and drove 6 miles on a dirt road up above the canyons(again, no rails) to a place called Elaphant Hill. We couldn't go on the rest as this mini-van isn't exactly a 4-wheel drive. We then left for the Islands In The Sky part of the park. Sarah and Christopher got their jr ranger badges there and they were really hard to get. After Canyonlands we went to the Arches (got badges there too) and hiked to Widows arches and to the viewing area for Delicate Arch. Arches made us think of roadrunner and coyote - beep, beep!!! It has been colder than normal and the full moon is beautiful!

We forgot to mention some trivia from yesterday. There was a guy in the bathroom playing a violin. He said the acoustics were good there. Go figure.

Tomorrow is the Colorado river (maybe) and Capital Reef. It should be an early night in Escalante before heading to Bryce and the Grand Canyon.