with derek’s big test in the rear view mirror, we were pretty excited for the next leg of our trip, a few weeks in sequoia, kings canyon and yosemite. first up, a week in sequoia national forest, sort of in between sequoia and kings canyon, which are two separate parks, but the park service runs […]
derek
bakersfield layover.
[obligatory acknowledgement that i’m super duper behind in blogging. we have been really busy and in some really internetless places.] when i left off, we were traveling from the eastern side of the sierras to bakersfield, california. we chose bakersfield because it was halfway between lone pine and our campsite in sequioa national forest, which […]
manzanar and cesar chavez field trips.
when we moved from death valley to lone pine, and started researching things to do in the area, both derek and i were pretty excited about checking out manzanar national historical site. but then we were planning to leave early, so we had to cram it in on the afternoon before we left, after derek […]
death valley days.
we had high hopes for death valley. the drive in was pretty intense. you have to go over two mountain ranges, which is tough on derek driving this billion ton rv. the road and scenery was exactly how you would imagine they would be in a place called death valley. once we met back up […]
little denmark, usa. (aka: solvang, ca).
while perusing pinterest and other pockets of the internet for interesting things to do with kids in california, a little town called solvang kept popping up. basically, from what i understand, it was settled/invented/created by some danish folks from the midwest, who wanted a winter retreat in warm and sunny california. its now pretty much […]
theannababy turns EIGHT!!
yesterday, this tiny human turned eight. she’s turning into a super cool medium sized human, right before my eyes. she is adventurous and curious and smart and thoughtful and funny and creative. she loves wildlife and nature and art and minecraft and camping and hiking and rock climbing. she wants to be a geologist or […]
whale watching and mission touring.(california adventures with new gramma).
for our big cool adventure while my mom was here, we planned a whale watching trip. derek found a groupon, and even though it was late in the migration season, there were still daily whale sightings and we had high hopes of seeing some cool stuff. look at everyone, all excited for our trip: everything […]
new gramma visits california beaches.
my mom had big plans to come visit us in june in yosemite national park. but, when western new york winter lingered on and on and on, she looked into changing her flight to come see us while we were on the california coast. she joined us while we were at thornhill broome and then […]
channel islands visitor center.
so. the story goes, that anna and i had a trip booked to camp on anacapa islands in the channel islands national park. but, just before we were set to go, we chickened out. an earthquake. no shelter from sun. aggressive birds. no internet. no escape until our ferry came back. winds. low temps at […]
ronald reagan presidential library.
at each new location, we do a lot of research about things to do in the area, and then we plan accordingly, timing the things derek wants to do on the weekends and the things he’s less interested in for our weekday activities. while we were at thornhill broome, the top item on his agenda […]