California Dreamin'

We're back.  From the trip of our lives.  California/San Fransisco was everything I thought it would be and more.  Hubby and I grew up vacationing in very different ways.  Almost my whole family lived/lives in one city and I spent just about every weekend at my Grandparent's house.  I never left Texas except to cross the Mexico border a few times.  Hubby spent every summer in Colorado primitive camping in the middle of nowhere, fishing for their food and hiking the mountains.  It is quite the tradition.  In fact, his parents are there right now.  But hubby's work has been crazy and we couldn't plan the Colorado trip.  We were bummed that we couldn't carry on the tradition another summer.  But plans change and we decided quickly (we just got back 4 days before school starts!) to branch out and see some of our beautiful country.  But here's the thing.  We know how to camp, and fish, and wash dishes in a dish pan, and take showers in a tee/pee thing with a hot water bottle.  We don't know about hotels, plane tickets, eating out all of the time and rental cars.  Thank goodness we went for it!

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

First stop: In-N-Out burger.  

 A little windy but I like the  Golden Gate Bridge right next to us.

 Our condo.  Home sweet away from home.  

But I know that hubby will not miss that dinky grill and I won't miss seeing the coyote walking right by

 The fallen tree in Mariposa Grove with all of the Sequoias.

 LOOK!  Can you see the little people at the base?  Can you even imagine how big this thing is!?

  I wanted to stare at this house for hours.

We climbed up 600 granite stairs and more to see Vernal Falls and stand over Nevada Falls.  

The water from the falls would mist you as you hiked along side it.  It made for a beautiful rainbow too.  I think I may have hollered out loud a few times on this hike out of pure excitement.

  We could have stopped here but they kept going.  All the way to the top of that waterfall behind them.  

After Yosemite, it was back to the coast.  

We saw a lot of these:

And did a lot of this with Mr. Chad:

Alcatraz would have been a lovely place to be, I guess.

When we stopped and took a moments along the way, we realized that God had his hand on our trip to California from the beginning.  We knew it was hard getting lodging in Yosemite but the more people we met and talked to, we came to know that we must have booked our condo right after someone canceled.  No way we got it on the first call to the first number we chose!  And it had a kitchen so we could cook and prepare all of our meals while we were there.  We were worried that our rental wouldn't be big enough for groceries (to bring into Yosemite) and our luggage but we got upgraded to the Crown Vic.  It had plenty of room and leather seats that came in handy with a queasy stomach out of the park.  I'll spare you the details.  Our Garmin was the best $100 we have ever spent.  We drove around San Fransisco like we owned the place and watched it wind us around and around until we reached Yosemite Park. 

 I can't put Yosemite into words and I won't even try.  My pictures can maybe give a little glimpse of its majesty but I'm not counting on it.  I think my favorite part of the trip was seeing Bridalveil Falls for the first time and full out gasping.  Literally breathtaking. 

And my kids?  Please ask me how awesome they are.  We figured out that we hiked 25 miles in 4 days!  We had people stopping us and asking us in disbelief how old they are.  I'm pretty proud of them and us for going for it and taking it all in.  

Thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with me!