well, when i last posted, we were in the redwoods area of way northern california. from there, we moved up the coast a bit, crossing into oregon for a week on the coast. originally, we had planned a bit more time in another part of the redwoods, but we were worried about the internet, so […]
food
non-redwood themed activities and adventures.

from lassen volcano, we traveled back across california, all the way to the coast, amidst the cluster of redwood national and state parks. after our considerably frustrating internet situation the previous week, when we found a campground with decent cell signal, we plopped down the cash for a solid two week stay. we did a […]
lake tahoe with the grandlidboms.

it has been a LONG time since our last visit from the grandlidboms. we spent christmas in san diego with them, so it had been over six months by the time our lake tahoe visit rolled around, and the kids could barely contain themselves. we arrived and set up a little before they were able […]
sacramento-ish.

here we go. another mad dash round of bloggy catch up. when i left off, had stopped to visit the jelly belly factory on our way from point reyes national seashore to a little spot just north of sacramento, in nicolaus, california. the place was a thousand trails campground, which usually means there’s not much […]
some random stuff without a home.

during our last few stays, we have kept pretty busy with epic adventures, necessitating their own blog posts. but there’s been a bit of fun stuff happening in the downtime, so i’ll try to catch all of that up here. firstly. when we find ourselves at a boring spot after weeks at epic spots (and […]
yosemite. part two.

our first four days of derek’s time off in yosemite had been packed pretty full. we learned a lesson that maybe we should scatter his time off, because we were all pretty exhausted from the long drive in and out every day, not to mention whatever adventures we partook in. for the last of his […]
alabama hills adventures.

after cutting our death valley stay considerably short, we needed to find somewhere nearby, with good internet and preferrably cheap. somehow, derek happened upon this little slice of heaven, an $8 a night campground, nestled on the eastern side of the sierras, with epic views on all sides. the temperature change was dramatic. as was […]
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 […]
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 […]