Grand Canyon

December 27-28, 2010 (yes I know I am WAY behind on this!)

My Mom & Dad, my sister Chantelle, my brothers David & Chris, and Jordan hiked the Grand Canyon December 27-28th. They hiked down the South Kaibab trail, stayed the night in dorms, and hiked out on the Bright Angel trail. They enjoyed the hikers stew dinner at the Cantina at the bottom, hot showers and warm beds. In the morning they had breakfast at the bottom and then ate their sack lunch at Indian Gardens, about half way up. The timing ended up being just right and they enjoyed perfect weather both days. They day after they got home, we were hit with a huge snow storm. Over and over they commented on how glad they were to not be hiking out in the bitter cold weather. We made the reservations over a year ago so it was fun to finally get to go on this much anticipated hike. They had a great time and are looking forward to hiking down the North Kaibab and up the South the next time they go to the Grand Canyon.

All Pictures courtesy of Chantelle & Jordan... mostly Chantelle. :)

Getting started...

Almost there...

Done!

(If you don't feel like you've BEEN to the Grand Canyon after viewing all these pictures, you must have missed a few. And I even cut over 200 out! )

Last Visitors

Well, we've had our last visitors here in Northern California. Yep, we're moving! Jordan will be working on a project in San Diego so we will be moving south in the fall. We are all excited for a new place to explore. We will still be about 13 hours from Jordan's parents (go figure) but we will only be 9 hours from my parents instead of 13, which is perfect timing for our drive home for Christmas this year with a 7 month old baby!

We really enjoyed having my parents and Dustin & Chantelle visit us for Max's blessing. This was Dustin's first time visiting us and they were here for a full week. We did some sight seeing (of course), relaxed a couple of days, blessed Max, and celebrated McKay's birthday. As has happened whenever anyone leaves, McKay goes through withdrawals and asks me to play with him all day every day. And no prayer is complete without saying 'please bless Nanna, Papa, Dustin Chantelle to come back soon.'

Uncle Dustin and Max

Grandpa and McKay reading 'The Gruffalo'. I think my Dad spent the first hour of each day reading books to McKay. And everyone got the opportunity to read 'The Gruffalo' to him!

McKay decided to lay on Grandpa instead of next to him to watch a show. He seemed to think on Grandpa was also the best place to be when he was helping him get ready for bed. Silly boy!

We went to Monterey/Carmel on Wednesday and did the 17 mile drive with them. The weather was much better than when we went in November!

Cannery Row in Monterey.

We are sitting on a bench made of rocks.

Chantelle, McKay & Nanna 'by' the Lone Cypress

Thursday we went to Big Basin. Dustin & Chantelle had not seen the majestic redwoods, which is a definite must when visiting Northern California!

We did a beautiful 3 mile hike to see some waterfalls. McKay is a good little hiker.

Exactly 6 weeks after Max was born. I was glad McKay was setting the pace. :)

On Saturday we went to the city. Because it was the 4th of July weekend, it was more crowded than we've ever seen it - people everywhere! We still managed to see everything and ended up at Ghiradelli Square. Man, thats good chocolate!

Sunday was the 4th of July. That evening we walked 1/2 mile to Central park for a fireworks show. McKay is still talking about it and asking for Nanna Papa, Dustin Chantelle to come back and take him to see more fireworks.

Monday was supposed to be a perfect beach day so we headed out to Santa Cruz. Well, we never did actually see the sun. The waves were enormous and the water was frigid, as usual. The ocean really is calming and Max slept the whole time, minus the few minutes he woke up to eat.

We just got this lovely sports-brella and I am a fan! I wanted it to protect us from the sun but this time it was the wind. Love it!

The rest tried out a skim board and found it is MUCH harder than it looks. They've got the bruises to prove it!

I think his eyelashes grow every day!

McKay loved flying the Buzz Lightyear kite he got for his birthday. The wind was perfect! He didn't quite understand that it isn't something you fly and then come back to later and often left Grandpa or Daddy holding it while he played with something else.

McKay sang the whole way to the beach. He gets his song making-up skills from his Daddy. He was SO excited and still talks about everyone coming back to go to the beach with him. In fact, when we leave to go somewhere, he points the opposite way and says that is the way to the beach.

Castle Rock

February 27th was a rare spring Saturday when I didn't have taxes to do so we decided to take advantage of the day and go for a hike. It was threatening to rain but we decided to take our chances and wear hats and rain coats. We haven't ever been to Castle Rock State Park, about 30 minutes from our home, near Big Basin, so we decided to check it out. It sprinkled on us a little right when we got there but that was about it.

We loved all the waterfalls along the way. We've had a really wet year so there was a lot to see. It was beautiful and great hiking weather. McKay got a little cold since he wasn't walking most of the time but it wasn't too bad.

There was moss everywhere!
Most of the hike wasn't too bad but there were some spots where we had to climb using the rocks as steep steps or climb over big boulders. That part wasn't too fun for me but the rest was great.

29 weeks or about 6 months

Our destination waterfall is behind us. Too bad you can't see it. :)

McKay enjoyed hiking for the last 30-45 minutes and did quite well. Here he is walking 'over the bridge'. I was trying to take his picture and he was looking at the bridge so Jordan told him to look up. He did!

McKay loves to hike! We made the mistake of calling it a park though so he kept waiting for the playground to show up. We made another mistake by telling him we'd go to a playground after we were done hiking and he held us to it. So, even though we knew everything would be all wet and it was dark, we stopped at a park for 5 minutes while he confirmed that everything was indeed 'all wet!'

One view of 'Castle Rock'. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was huge.

McKay has decided he is done sleeping during the day so whenever we go out and he is in the car for more than 10-15 minutes, he falls asleep. Any suggestions on how you convince a child to take a nap when he really really needs it, would be great. He still takes a 'rest' in his room most days but it is usually very interrupted by trips to the bathroom. Sometimes he does have to go and other times he doesn't. I never know whether he really needs to or not. *sigh*

We were glad we took advantage of the break from the rain and the great hiking weather, especially when Jordan got injured playing basketball the following Tuesday. More on that one of these days when I get around to it!

Labor Day Weekend: Yosemite

September 4-7 we went camping. In April, Jordan made reservations for us to stay in the Diamond-O Campground, a mile outside of Yosemite. We were a day and a half late making reservations and all the campsites in Yosemite were taken and we got the last site in our campground. About a week before we were supposed to go, we found out that the entrance closest to us on Hwy 120 was closed due to a wildfire. The wildfire was caused by a controlled burn that got out of control within an hour of starting it. Remember this was 2 weeks before a major holiday. Anyway, we debated on whether or not to even go, figuring we had a pretty good reason for canceling and finally decided we might as well go and camp. Hetch Hetchy was only 30 minutes away from our campsite so we could go there for one of the days and see at least some of Yosemite. We could also drive around the park and enter at the Hwy 140 entrance. On the map it only looked like a couple hour drive. We had options.

We talked to the camp host when we arrived and found out we had a 3 1/2 - 4 hour drive on a very windy road to get from our site to the 140 which would take us into Yosemite Valley. Thanks to holiday traffic, getting to our campsite took us 5 hours when it should have taken about 3. Needless to say none of us were anxious to get back in the car to drive for 4 hours, see the valley for 4 hours and drive 4 hours back to our campsite to sleep in a tent. So we decided to just hang out and relax the first day. After all, we were on vacation!

Just down from our campsite was a beautiful river. It was nice that it was a short and easy walk so McKay could do it himself. 'ME' as he always says.

I love that when he wants to he will smile for me on demand!

We all found 'comfortable' rocks (or laps as the case may be) to sit on by the river. McKay was anxious to keep moving until we suggested he throw rocks in the river. He had so much fun he didn't want to leave!

So beautiful and relaxing!

After lunch we weren't too sure how to continue our relaxing day. We weren't planning on 'relaxing' and didn't bring anything to read or do. So we decided to take a nap with McKay, since we were all tired. After the nap Jordan and I almost took and the nap McKay didn't even try to take, we all got up and ate dinner, fighting the bees and squirrels that came out of the woodwork every time we ate. The food was good though!
Every time Jordan or I would come back from the bathroom, McKay would come running to us and give us a big hug (squeezing our legs) like he hadn't seen us for days. Made it fun!

Apparently Gatorade powder in a bag is very mesmerizing and entertaining for a 2 year old to watch go from end to end. McKay was constantly asking to either eat or go 'bye-bye' so it was nice he found something to keep himself occupied with for a while.

The next day we went to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir which is on the northwestern side of Yosemite and supplies drinking water to the San Francisco Bay Area. When we entered the park, Jordan asked the attendant if Hwy 120 was still closed. She said it opened that morning but that Big Oak Flat Road, which takes you from 120 to Yosemite Valley, was still closed. Hwy 120 is Tioga Road in Yosemite and takes you through the high country of Yosemite.

We decided to hike to Wapama Falls, about a 5 1/2 mile hike round trip. It was a pretty hot hike with very sporadic spots of shade. They suggest hiking it in the spring or fall for that reason. I think it also would have been very pretty at sunset.

Don't get me wrong. It was a beautiful hike. Just hot.

We talked about continuing past Wapama to Rancheria Falls (13 miles round trip) but I convinced Jordan that if we went and drove Tioga Road rather than walk another several hours, we could get our 'money's worth' out of the $20 entrance fee into the park (thank goodness!)

McKay was a good 'hiker' and even took a short nap (his ONLY nap for the 4 days we were gone) until Jordan slipped on a loose rock and fell. Jordan's knee was sore for a few days after that. The majority of the trail was very rocky.

Pretty waterfalls huh?! We need to go back in the spring when there is more water. That is part of the reason we entertained the idea of continuing on to Rancheria Falls; it wasn't nearly almost dry like Wapama was. We passed a backpacker who had come from Rancheria and he said it was a long, hot hike with much of the same views we had already seen. Made up my mind!

There were signs all over the place about not getting into the water yet there were still people in this little pool. It did look very refreshing and tempting but com'on, we drink this water!

Tioga Road is only open June-October. The rest of the time there is too much snow. We drove for a good hour before there was something to stop and see. It came just in time too because Jordan was starting to get loopy; too much time in the car I think.

Olmsted Point
You can see Half Dome behind me. Clouds Rest is behind Jordan. We stopped for a few minutes to look around and take a couple of pictures and then kept driving.

Tenaya Lake
This place was beautiful! There were picnic tables in the trees near the lake so we stopped and had some delicious stew with a great view. It was the best, most enjoyable meal we had the whole time we were camping.

The water was a beautiful clear blue and there were lots of Stellar's Jays to watch. We wished we could stay longer but knew we had to move on to see more of the park before sunset.

Tuolumne Meadows
This meadow is 2 miles long and is pretty amazing to see as you come around the corner. McKay was DONE being in the car by the time we got here (no naps remember) so I jumped out to take a picture, and we began the 2 hour drive back to our campsite. If we had known they would open up Tioga Road we would have done Hetch Hetchy our first day (instead of 'relaxing') and spent all day in the high country of Yosemite our second day. There were hikes all along the way with varying levels of difficulty and distance. Now we know what it is like, we will make an effort to make it back there and try some out. Yosemite Valley is the most visited part of the park and if we had been able to go there we may not have ever known how beautiful the northern part of the park is. So I guess the wildfire burning half the park was a blessing in disguise.

We stopped again at Olmsted Point to do the .2 mile walk out to get a better view. We were all glad we had our sweaters because the wind up on those rocks was chilly!

Perspective.
You can hike from Olmsted Point to Half Dome but it is a really rugged 10 miles so you really need to know where you are going... and have lots of water. I don't think we'll be doing it anytime soon.

The trees grow in and around the rocks, as you can see in the above pictures. Everything is always so beautiful at sunset. The sunset as we drove back to our camp was b-e-a-utiful but of course all the pull out points were at the wrong spots! The smoke from the fire made the sunset even prettier.

This is the tree framing Half Dome in the above picture. Jordan and McKay were picking out the best looking boulders as we walked back to the car. This one with the tree growing around it was a favorite.

When we got in the car to come home, we hadn't even started the car yet and McKay asked for a book. With all the driving we did, he had looked at each book over and over again, not even looking at the whole book. At that point we knew it was going to be a long drive home. And remember holiday traffic? It was a long drive! Contrast this with how excited he was to go. All day Friday he kept asking me to go 'bye-bye' and when we were loading up the car he was running all over the house excitedly saying 'hi' to Jordan and I over and over again. When we got to our campsite and had the tent set up he was running around there saying 'Mama, yay!'. Jordan and I looked at each other and said 'THAT is why we do it!'

Even though our weekend didn't turn out the way we had planned months ago, it was still a great weekend together in a beautiful and fun place. That makes for a good weekend! There is something rejuvenating about being in nature. (It's almost as rejuvenating as taking a nice shower at the end.) I think McKay is learning to love it as much as we do.

BTW: if you didn't click on my links, you really should, unless you really don't have time. Some of the descriptions of the hikes are funny to read and other sites show what the places look like when there is actually water falling or snow etc. Plus, it is educational, if you want to learn about Yosemite. Enough said. :)