Simon's art

 Simon doesn't draw very often (especially compared to Alice), but it's always fun to see what he comes up with when he does.

The car he drew on his own. The shapes were for art class, I think.

Easter (a week late)

 Since we missed Easter while we were in California, we did a little egg hunt the Sunday after we got back. Even although by this point the kids know we hide the eggs, they still love it. Then I give them a treasure hunt with clues for them to find their baskets. It was a fun morning and a beautiful day!

Here's a 16-minute video Zac made of Easter Morning.

This little lizard was camouflaged!

The kids are starting their gardens again.

Sera turns 42

 Every year gets easier, right?

Zac made a strawberry pound cake from scratch. Unfortunately it wasn't very photogenic. I also included this picture because it accurately reflects what living with Alice is like right now. She takes delight in being obnoxious.

The cake was delicious!

The big box is our new Yeti cooler (we decided to upgrade our cooler situation for our longer camping trips.)

But the best gift of all was the necklace Simon made me from the washer he found on the ground at Yosemite near El Capitan. Plus a light-up ring. I think he also gave me a keychain he bought at a gift shop.

CA day 14: Flight home

On Tuesday morning it was time to head home. We woke up at 5:30 am and by 6:15 we were heading down the hotel corridor, once again traveling nimbly with just our backpacks and carry-ons. The Styrofoam cooler and bags of snacks and extra water bottles had all been compacted into our luggage or abandoned into our overflowing hotel room trashcan.

We waited outside for the shuttle bus and it came around 6:30. We arrived at the airport by 7 am.

After we checked our large bag and the booster seat, we found our gate and had some time before boarding, so I went and got us all some breakfast from the airport Burger King. The breakfast sandwiches weren't too bad, actually.

Our flight home was a brisk four and half hours long. Thank goodness, because this flight had a bunch of babies and kids going bonkers on it. It was so noisy. Also, the federal mask mandate on public transportation had been overturned by some judge a day or two before, so masks were optional now, as the pilot happily announced "for all those who had been living under a rock for the past day." We still wore ours though. 

We got to see the Rockies as we flew over them.

We arrived back in Raleigh around 4:30 pm. Our friend Jess picked us up at the airport in her truck. Then we picked up some Chinese takeout on our way home. Rosa and Anna met us at our house and we all had supper together and shared stories from our wonderful trip. Then I ran out to Aldi for groceries and I was so grateful to once again know right where everything was. It was good to be home.

CA day 13: John Muir Woods

This was the last real day of our trip. All we had left for tomorrow was the early morning flight home. Needless to say, the last day brought a mixture of feelings. I love traveling and never wanted this amazing trip to end. On the other hand, there's nothing quite like traveling to help you appreciate all the conveniences of being home.

The plan for the final day was to go to John Muir Woods and see some tall redwoods one more time before leaving the west coast. This place is so famous and popular that I had to buy an entry ticket and reserve a parking spot in advance. I was a bit worried about it being overcrowded, but it was a Monday morning and Zac and I had long ago figured out how to escape crowds: simply leave the main path and go uphill.

There was a sign near the entrance to the park that was quite interesting. It showed how the way we tell history is changing to reveal a more complete and accurate story. For example, surprise, surprise, John Muir embraced a lot of racist ideas. It's funny, in a tragic sort of way, that the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 resulted in almost no actual police reforms, but lots of signage changed as people suddenly realized that white supremacists, racists, and slave-holders had their names on just about everything.

As we focused on the tall trees throughout the day, Simon continually found small creatures along our hike. Perhaps because he is closer to the ground. Perhaps because he spent his formative years training his eyes to find every creeping critter during his bug-obsession years.

The park was designed with a main, flat path through the middle so visitors could easily see most of the large redwoods along the creek, with lots of other trails going up into the surrounding hills. I felt conflicted because wanted to see the big trees along the middle, but also get away from the crowds and have a proper hike.

We started along the main path's boardwalk.

The trees were big and tall, but our perspective was warped by having seen the sequoias. Although the redwoods are taller, you can't really see their full height from below, as the canopy often obscures the crown. And perhaps I'd just embellished Methuselah in my memory, but these trees just didn't seem as big. I guess what I'm saying is we'd gotten used to the giants and the trees along the boardwalk actually didn't seem that impressive anymore. So, we took the first opportunity to leave the main path and head up into the hills. I'd read good things about the canopy trail, so when we saw a sign for it, off we went.

I was immediately happy. Now this was a trail! No more wide dirt roads and paved paths for us! And there were still plenty of giant trees to admire.

We are inherently slow hikers. But the nice thing about taking so many breaks is we just get to relax and enjoy the environment. I was ready to be done with eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for lunch though.

Like I said, Simon was focused on the little critters. He was so happy when he spotted these lady bugs, he immediately asked for my phone so he could take a picture.

It was only about 12:30 pm when we finished the canopy trail loop and reconnected to the main trail. This was our only event for today, so we could stay for several more hours. The area was beautiful and we were enjoying the trails and woods. The kids had been doing a pretty good job hiking, so we took another loop trail off into the hills in a different direction.

Alice was not impressed with the "Alice Eastwood Trail" sign.

This was really the best hike. The trails were so beautiful and we didn't encounter many other hikers. I can't adequately describe why I love being in a forest so much, but it's just so peaceful and gorgeous. Being outdoors with nature always makes me so happy. It's music for my eyes, food for my soul.

We completed the second loop hike around 4:30 pm as it started to rain. It had taken us seven hours, but we'd hiked 10 miles that day, a new world record pace and distance for us. It felt good on the last day of the trip to leave it all on the field. The secret to success was giving Simon lots of gummies. He'd get a sugar rush, run ahead on the trail for a while, smack talking all of us for being slow pokes, then he'd crash at some point. We'd give him another sugar-laden snack, and he'd zip off again.

Video of our walk out of the woods in the rain

At the very end of our hike I probably would have had a more sentimental departure from my tall trees except I was wet, cold, hungry and desperately seeking a restroom on the way out. Also, the hike was so long and beautiful that I felt a deep sense of satisfaction. In my world, there is no better way to spend a day.

We had a few things left to do that evening. First of all, we needed to eat supper. Because it was convenient and delicious, we returned to Tommy's Wok to dine again. The bright red corvette was in the parking lot again. The restaurant wasn't too full, since we were there early again. Simon would've been filthy again, but Zac had gotten clean clothes out of his suitcase and made him change in the car before leaving the park. This time we ordered four dishes instead of three, and easily gobbled them all up. I was still too embarrassed to take a picture inside the restaurant, but we took one outside before leaving.

We had one last exciting event: driving over the Golden Gate Bridge to get back to San Francisco.

After driving through a bit of San Francisco, we arrived at our hotel, the Waterfront Marriot, the same one we'd stayed at the first night of the trip. But we were different people now, having experienced a whole new set of views and adventures. 

We unloaded all of our belongings from the rental car, careful to remember Simon's booster seat as well. Zac took the rental car back while the kids and I took the luggage cart to the room.

Preparing and packing had been a major stressor, but in the end all of our luggage held up fine and we mostly had everything we needed the whole time. The task tonight was to condense, repack, and reorganize everything for the flight home tomorrow. 

I need to take a moment here to commemorate our Styrofoam cooler. It was our least favorite travel companion, but it was a crucial part of our survival over the last two weeks as we lived out of our rental car. The cooler had squeaked and leaked and the top barely stayed on. It was a piece of crap. We had to put the ice (taken from each hotel's ice machine) in ziplock bags to slow down the moisture seepage. Then each night in the hotel we'd put the food in the mini-fridge and dump the ice in the bathtub so the cooler wouldn't leak on the floor all night. Upon our departure, we simply abandoned it in the hotel room along with lots of food packaging and other trash, with a note and an extra tip for the unfortunate cleaning person that had to cart it all away.

This room had a great view of the mud flat and an airport runway.  The tide was always out when we had a hotel with an oceanic view of some sort. 

We stayed up late getting everything organized (knives and liquids in the checked bag; lots of snacks in the backpacks...). We set multiple alarms on our phones for the morning, since we needed to catch the shuttle bus to the airport around 6:30 am. After all that hiking, we slept well once we finally got to bed.