In and Out of New Mexico

The next part of our trip seemed to happen too fast. We went down to Sedona, after a friend recommended it, and stayed in Page Springs, just outside of town. Sedona is gorgeous! The town is a bit like Carmel, California. The homes seem to blend into the land, it is very expensive and hip, with an unbelievable view. The weather was hot again and it felt really good to us. However, the campground we stayed in was overcrowded with cottonwood trees and it was spring. Even though we left the snow at the Grand Canyon, it was snowing on us again, this time with cotton. After a couple of nights of that, we had to move on, as the cotton was getting on and into everything.

Our next destination was to see the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks, which are connected. Starting at the north end of the park, you drive one way 27 miles into the other park. Since you can not camp in these parks, the closest place for us to stay was Holbrook. This is really not much of a town, except for hotels. Since it is the closest town to the parks, it has tons of hotels, but not much Main Street. We stayed in a hotel for the next two nights and explored the parks. The weather was dry and warm, but they forecasted high winds of 55-70 mph. We decided to go anyway and take our chances. If you have not seen the painted desert, please do. We had both heard about it, but never expected to see the amazing rainbow of colors on the eroding mesas and on the surrounding grounds as far as your eyes can see. The colors are not just reds and whites, but greens and yellows and blues and purples. Fascinating and mind blowing. The wind was definitely high. When we tried to eat lunch in our van up on a hill, we sat nervous as we felt the wind push us and bump us and so we finished quickly to get back down. The winds were moving the clouds so quickly, I imagined the shadow as a giant paintbrush passing by and leaving the bright and bold colors behind. They were also causing small dust storms from the dried up washes below. The desert has many places that they call a wash. Desert washes are dry for extended periods but can receive large volumes of water draining from higher elevations after heavy rains. They look like dried up creeks. At one point we had to run back to our car before the dust storm caught up to us. We drove until we made it to the Petrified Forest. This was also an amazing sight. Here are trees that were growing with the dinosaurs, that were buried and with perfect conditions turned the interior into gems. It is hard to believe until you actually see it. The outside bark looks like redwood or cedar, but the inside glistens with amethyst, quartz, and other gems of yellow, rust, blue, green and more. Definitely a site to see. After being blown around in the high winds for a couple more hours, we had to leave as our heads were getting filled with air. The kids earned their second junior ranger badges and it was time to continue on.

Our next destination was Four Corners and Mesa Verde. By this point on our trip, Husband and I both got a hankering for backroads. The major highways like I-40 are definitely fast, but they are also extremely boring, and when you drive as far as we had, boring is just plain painful. We decided to go up highway 191 to see another national monument, but after driving on it for about 10 miles, we had to turn around. Highway 191 has received our Worst Road on Our Trip Award. Seriously, it was so bumpy and repaired so poorly, that we were sure it wouldn't be like that the whole way, but after ten miles of bump-diddy-bump, we turned the van around and headed through Gallup and up to Four Corners.

Four Corners is on a Navajo Nation Reservation and they charge you $3 per person to go in. Once inside, you see the site where it marks the 4 corners of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, you take your pictures of everyone standing in 4 states at once, look around at the flea market stands of art and jewelry and goods, and leave. It was interesting for me to think about a group of people who have been on the land for thousands of years, who don't believe in owning the land, now make money showing people where white people have put imaginary borders dividing the land. Kind of Creepy.

We were off to Colorado. It seemed almost immediately that when we were in the borders of Colorado, the grass was green (heck, there was grass!) and there were snow capped mountains in the distance. We stayed at a hotel in Cortez, since Mesa Verde didn't have their campgrounds open yet, and we needed a rest. We found it at the Best Western Cortez. Not only did we get a 2 room suite with 2 King sized beds (we even had our own door with a lock) and a giant bathroom, but we had a kitchen! That's right, I was cooking in a real kitchen again! Needless to say our one night stay turned into 3. The hotel space seemed so large, that I felt I could live there forever. Now, it was probably only around 500 square feet, and that is when I realized my first goal. To live in such a small space as our van, that even a apartment would seem like a palace. We were all feeling that wonder when we were living in almost 3000 square feet, just 5 months before.

Our trip to Mesa Verde was another magical sight to behold. It also snowed on us again. This time we would stay warm and dry. We put on our northwest winter gear again, this time adding our raincoat to keep the melted snow from getting us wet. They almost cancelled our guided tour to the Cliff Palace, but luckily our ranger was a real trooper. She was nervous about the huge group making it up and down the ladders you need to climb, in the frozen snow, but she just told us to go as slow as we needed to, take our time, and she was sure we would be okay. We were okay and we were glad we were there. We all marveled at this ancient community. Building their homes in a huge alcove, gardening on top of the mesa, and traveling there by climbing the big rock every time. They didn't have the ladders we had, as they were put in by modern society. You have to see it to believe it, and to see it in the snow, you realize what a great spot this was. With a couple more ranger badges earned by the boys, we left Mesa Verde and Cortez with our next destination in mind, Taos, New Mexico.

We couldn't make it the whole way to Taos that day, so we stopped in Jemez Springs. A small beautiful town surrounded by the deep red rock. It was so beautiful, we wanted to stay, but we had no water and it was a primitive campground. So after one night, we drove up into Taos. It was of course, snowing in Taos. At this point, we have been traveling pretty fast, through high heat and freezing temperatures, low to high elevations and it is dry. It is so dry in the desert, our noses were bleeding a lot. Now we were in Taos with an elevation of almost 7000 feet, in the snow and dry. I had become sick. I was done camping in the elements and I needed to sleep for a few days. So we found a fun hotel called the Sagebrush Inn. Fun because it had the pueblo style building with a fireplace in our room. We stayed a couple of nights, but I was feeling worse, and thought it might be the elevation, so we left for Santa Fe.

Santa Fe, elevation wasn't much better, but it was much warmer. I was too tired to travel again, so we stayed for a couple more nights. We all loved Santa Fe. We took a walking tour and found out so much about this very old and internationally famous city. The weather was beautiful and we just had a wonderful time, and although I was not feeling 100%, I was feeling better. The nose bleeds were still happening and we decided to get out of the elevation. So we made reservations to camp for the week at Brantley Lake State Park which we thought was just 20 minutes (but actually 45) outside of Carlsbad Caverns (south New Mexico.) The park was beautiful and it had shelters to protect you from the sun and heat, there were free hot showers, lots of drinking water, playground for the kids and trails to the lake. There were kids camping at almost every site, so fun and playfulness was abound. It was perfect and we were so happy, we didn't want to leave and it was only $10 a night. We actually considered staying for the full two week limit.

We relaxed for a day, but headed out that night to see the bat flight. If you have never seen 1oos of 1000s of bats flying out of a cave at twilight, you should make an appointment to do so. This private population of Mexican Free-tail Bats astound you as you sit quietly for up to an hour watching them exit the cave like puffs of smoke. We left after about 15 minutes and headed back to the campground. The next day we spent saying things like, "Wow" and "Amazing" and "Wicked Awesome." Carlsbad Caverns do not disappoint curious travelers. We took the walking tour with audio guides for each of us (they even had a special guide for kids), and we had really a good hike. We also took a guided tour which was especially cool when they turned off all the lights in the cave and it was pitch black. We would actually like to go back there when the kids are older to explore the other open trails with more difficult terrain and less lighting.

On our way back to the campground, we were shocked to see a turn in the weather. Heavy thunderstorms were following us back to our campsite. When we arrived, the lightning was a little too close for comfort and we almost left, but we put the children to bed and put out the lawn chairs to watch the show, until we felt it was far away enough for us to go to sleep. The next morning the down-pour came, and we decided we should pack up and leave after only 3 nights. We traveled through a huge storm (which we found out later went all the way to Houston) trying to escape it, but lightning was everywhere and by dinner found out we had just missed a tornado by only an hour. That was okay, though, for we were safe for the moment and already in Texas and heading to visit my husband's family.

The Grand Canyon

When we got to the Grand Canyon, we were so excited. Not only had we committed a whole week to stay in one place, but Husband had never been there and I wanted to see if my memory served me or was it just creating the mystical beauty in my mind since my last visit over 20 years ago. When we arrived, we wanted to go straight for the view. So we parked with what seemed like 1000 other cars and ran over to Yavapai Point to take a look. Yep, there it was, eye popping, mind blowing, breathtaking, overwhelming beauty. We stayed in Mather Campground at the south rim. As we arrived in the campground we realized how tired we were. We thought, 'Let's rest today, and see the Canyon later.' The weather was windy and it felt cold to us as we had come from the desert and 80 degree weather. There were kids camping across the way and the boys were playing with them and having a ball. Mather Campground was a huge place, compared to where we had stayed so far, and we were kind of glad. The weekend was coming and with Spring Break still in progress we knew the place would be packed. We would probably meet some interesting people, make some friends and have a short lived community. Boy, were we wrong!

The people we met at the beginning were all leaving, and before the new weekend people came, they closed our 2 closest restrooms for painting. That's right, they closed down restrooms at the Grand Canyon during spring break season just to paint! Great planning. So after only a couple of days of being settled, we had to stand in line and get a new site, with restrooms functioning. They had a surprising number of options. I wondered why. We found out that day as we shuttled around the park. Snow was expected, of course, only a small chance, though. It was cold outside, but I thought, 'No way.' I countered their prediction, with my own. No Snow.

The next day, we soon realized, I am not a psychic or a good weather person. It was really cold, however, so before we went out for the day just in case, we closed everything up and got ready for possible heavy snow or rain and dressed in our northwest winter gear, gloves, hats, scarves, long johns, and fleece jackets. The snow began mid-day and it was so light, I laughed to myself, "Sure, it is snowing, but hardly anything to worry about." We decided to continue to tour and hike. If you haven't been to the canyon before, it is almost like a small town. They have shuttle buses, restaurants, lots of shopping, a post office and a grocery store. It is a huge area, so you learn to take the shuttles quickly and get where you want to hike and explore. That day we had planned on going to Hermit's Rest. Click here for the map and you will see it is a one way 14 mile, but 75 minute round trip on an old eroding rode along the edges of the canyon. It has great trails and views, and at the end, you can go to one of the famous structures that Mary Jane Colter designed. So off we went, laughing at the small insignificant flakes that fell. We started our hike at one of the first few stops and realized, snow or not, the clouds had made visibility into the canyon, terrible. We could barely see down. That is when we noticed the flakes getting bigger and bigger. Within minutes, they were growing in size from a pea to a half dollar coin. "It won't stick", Husband and I said to each other. But it was sticking and growing. It was so big, that after hiking in it for 20 minutes, we decided to catch the bus at the next stop and shuttle up to Hermit's Rest. On the bus up, there wasn't enough seats for all 4 of us, but with the kids in our laps, we were able to squeeze on. The lines to catch a bus from Hermit's Rest were so long, we were afraid to get off the bus, lose our spots and have to eventually stand in the snow waiting and shivering for the next shuttle out. My youngest was falling asleep on my lap and we were all freezing. The snow was so thick on the ground and visibility was not good, my mind was nervous of the small windy road, remembering that the bus driver had jokingly told us on the way in, that it was eroding and narrow and scheduled for repairs and repaving the following summer. I closed my eyes and hoped we wouldn't slip.

After safely making it back to the main lodge, we realized, there was no reason to go back to camp. At least at Bright Angel Lodge, there was warmth, room to walk, electricity and hot food, that I didn't have to cook. Even though it was 4:30pm we decided to eat dinner at the lodge. We were soaking wet with freezing melted snow and by unlayering our clothes, we slowly began to dry out and thaw. We decided we would sit around the restaurant as long as we could to stay out of the snow, which was at this point, a flurry. After a long gratifying hot meal, we were shocked to see what had happened outside. While we were eating, the storm had passed us by leaving the snow, blue skies with giant puffy white clouds and lower clouds that had gone into the canyon. It was gorgeous. We couldn't take enough pictures. We weren't alone either, people everywhere were setting up professional looking cameras on tripods taking pictures of the unusual event. Better than that was when the sun began to set, sending out the most heavenly warm glow through the snowy tipped tree branches to the eastern side of the canyon walls. Even my digital pictures look like I had some kind of special camera with filters.
A moment of wonder at the amazing beauty of this phenomenal planet.

It was dark and time to face the campsite. Luckily our bus stop is very close to our campsite, and also close to a heated, lit laundry and shower building. Husband bravely told us to wait there, to stay warm and dry, while giving him time to reset up camp. We were mostly worried about the top of the camper. We had put the pop-top down and 3 inches of snow had fallen on it. With the weight of the snow, the top would not stay popped. After about 15 minutes, we headed back to camp in the dark (next time we would remember our flashlights) to find him still working feverishly to get all of the snow off. Not an easy job when you only have a short step ladder, but not a long handled broom. He finally finished and was freezing. We decided to turn on the heater in the van. It didn't work at first, which was normal, so we kept trying and trying and trying. I felt asleep shivering with my arm reaching towards the lever. It never turned on. I woke up many times in the night worried about our children up above staying warm enough. Everytime, I would listen for whimpers which never came and shivered back to sleep again. We gave the children our old sleeping bags which are high quality with a 20 degree ranking. Our double sleeping bag was a lot cheaper and only had a claim to 30 degrees, which I don't believe because it sure didn't feel like it. The next morning, the sun was out and the snow was melting. The children told me they were plenty warm in the night. The temperature had raised considerably and being stubborn, I tried the heater again, this time it turned on immediately. 'Great,' I thought, 'the heater works when we don't really need it, but it doesn't work when it is necessary to stay alive.' Not a great van to snow camp in. We survived, however, our first night camping in the snow.

The rest of our time at the Grand Canyon was really fun and a whole lot warmer. Because of the bad weather, many folks didn't come up for the weekend and the we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We spent a lot of time on ranger walks, the children worked on earning their Junior Ranger Badges, watching an amazing variety of wildlife (including the fantastic recovery of the California Condor) and the rest of the time we stood, with our mouths hanging open, as we tried to embrace the amazing view of the canyon.

On the way out, we left the canyon, with a sense of sadness, so we decided to see the IMAX movie on the canyon, in the town of Tusayan, where the visitor center is located. A must see! It left us with a great history of the Grand Canyon to go along with our fantastic memories.

Finally in Arizona

Leaving Las Vegas was a good thing on the day my husband and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary of the day we met. Why do we celebrate it? Probably because we moved in together just 3 weeks later and for the most part, we feel like we have been married ever since, even though officially it will be only 7 years this August. I suggested to my husband we stay in Vegas to celebrate, thinking that was what he would want, but he said he was tired of the city and wanted to be somewhere natural, beautiful and peaceful. I just love the way he thinks! So off to Hoover Dam and Arizona.

We thought it would be interesting to the kids and us to see this National Historical Landmark. You probably already know that Hoover Dam is a powerful hydroelectric plant that creates enough energy to power all the lights of Las Vegas, parts of Los Angeles and a ton of other towns around the area. You may not know, as we didn't, that since 9-11, it has been on the list for high security, so everyone has to go through a security checkpoint. RVs, trucks and trailers are scrutinized even more. After we drove in stop-and-go traffic for a good 45 minutes on a very hot day, we had to stop, as they wanted us to open our roof carrier. Luckily, after my husband got out to unpack our ladder, I had spoken to the officer for a few minutes and he saw our kids in the back, he decided we were okay and let us pass without having to unpack. So there we were on a Friday, during spring break season, in the heat with a million other travelers trying to get to and across the dam. Let's just say it took awhile. Once we got there, we truly enjoyed our tour. I mean, Hoover Dam is absolutely amazing and it was nice and cool deep inside the ground. We saw the movie on how much man power and cement it took to build that place and all I kept thinking was that humans do some crazy things. I mean they actually built the town Boulder City first, so they could have all the men out there working and have a place to go home to. It was interesting to find out more of what they had to do and sacrifice to create this monstrosity. They are doing it again, too. Since the traffic at Hoover Dam is basically a nightmare, they are building a suspension bridge high above it, so that people can commute and travel a whole lot easier. It was half done while we were there and it will interesting to see it finished, because, as in Hoover Dam style, it is HUGE!

After our tour of the dam, we continued on the road towards the Grand Canyon, though we didn't want to get there for a few days, at least until after Easter weekend was over. The traffic coming from the East into Hoover Dam was even worse than our journey from the West and we counted 6 miles of almost stopped cars. By the fifth mile, we were waving people to turn around, trying to tell them it may not be worth it. We were just glad it wasn't us, and that we were on our way. We were on our way, alright, but did you know there is almost nothing between Hoover Dam and Kingman? It is not a short drive and there is really nothing in between, so we are booking down the road to try to make it to Kingman for dinner. As the sun was setting, we noticed, we couldn't see very well, even though our lights were turned on. Or were they? As it got darker, we realized that we had no headlights. So there we were... driving in the middle of absolute nowhere, a 45 minute drive until we reached Kingman. It was getting really dark (because the middle of nowhere has no street lights), we could barely see the road and we were really grouchy from needing dinner. Not a great time of centered thinking. It was then we noticed our emergency brake light was on. That seemed strange, since the brake was off, not on. We jiggled and wiggled the brake handle and wondered what was happening to our electrical system. Husband decided we needed to stop the car and check it out. I thought, 'No way!' We had little precious light left and losing one minute was less driving visibility for the night and my crazy mind was determined to make it to Kingman. Kingman or Bust! However, once I truly could no longer see, I did pull over and my mind began to imagine us camping on the side of the road. We stopped, and restarted (or should I say rebooted) the car and immediately the brake light was off, and the headlights were on. Our Spirits Renewed! We were going to make it afterall! We found a great hotel, got ourselves some 8:30pm pizza and settled into our place for the night.

Kingman is on historic Route 66, is in the song, "Flagstaff Arizona, don't forget Winona,
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernadino..." and they make sure you know it. Our hotel lobby was plastered with old memorabilia and some of the rooms had plaques that had the names of the famous people of yesteryear who had stayed in them. The breakfast room was like a 50's diner, which the kids thought was pretty cool. It was the Saturday before Easter, and although it is not much of a holiday for us, I was feeling the need to take the kids to a community egg hunt. Something about being on the road and having premium entertaining activities to do and awe-inspiring sights to see all the time, makes one miss the days when just taking the kids to the park with green grass and a fun play structure was the highlight of the week. I longed for community and so that morning I got on the hotel computer and Googled 'Kingman Egg Hunt.' As luck would have it, I found one at 12pm. Plenty of time for the family to sleep in and recover from the day before journey. As I waited for the family to wake up, I was striking up conversation with the hotel front desk attendant. She asked me where I was from and when I said Seattle, she said she grew up around there and loved it. I told her this town was beautiful, too, and what brought here to live in Kingman, Arizona. Her reply, which I will never forget, was, "It's easy to be poor here."

At the park, we saw the usual long lines of children carrying their sacks excited to find lots of candy and hopefully the golden egg, which gave the finder a special prize. I saw my children get excited, too, since they didn't know that it was Easter time. We hadn't dyed any eggs, or put out any decorations to signal that information for them. How fun to see the surprise in their eyes that day. As the kids ran out onto the field, I imagined for a minute that we were home, that this was our neighborhood, and after the hunt, we would get together with our friends while the kids counted and opened their eggs, comparing the goodies they found. It was a moment filled with warmth. Afterwards, unlike our neighborhood, they did not ask for the plastic eggs back and we realized we had a nice amount to have our own hunt in the morning. Charlie took the kids for the day so that I could go out and find some Spring goodies to fill their eggs with. The next morning, we told the kids the Easter Bunny had come and for the first time, they went out and searched in the desert for their eggs. They were dodging cacti, walking over the red lava rocks on a background of Arizona's famous mesas in the distance. Definitely an atypical experience for our memories.

After a few more days, our time in Kingman was over, we had made our reservations. It was time to leave the comforts of this very nice town and head off to camp for a week at the Grand Canyon.

The Desert and Vegas

I've heard people say they love the desert for the spiritual feeling they get while there, and I have to say, they are right. I don't know if it is the heat, or the quiet, or the darkness at night, or the lack of green vegetation denying vital oxygen to ones lungs and brain. I am not sure, but I do know that I absolutely loved it. There was a freedom, a peacefulness, and a delirious feeling that helped to center us, especially from all the busyness and overabundance of the west coast. We felt as though our trip had finally begun. Being in a place we had never been before. We were heading "over there."

We left San Diego and headed for Joshua Tree National Park. We crossed over mountains that strangely (for us) had very little vegetation, just big huge dry rock mountains. As we continued through them we were shocked when peaking out from the other side, far below us, was the Palm Desert/ Palm Springs area. A huge community that appeared to us as an oasis. It was fun to imagine what travelers on horse or foot may have thought when they came over these mountains to find plant life and water. Of course in our day and age we found much more, huge shopping centers, golf courses and big fancy houses everywhere. "Okay," we thought, "this is beautiful and sunny, I can see why someone might want to live out here." We had arrived in Palm Desert at about 6pm. The next day we decided they were crazy or sun and heat zealots. Here it was March and the next day the sun beamed down on us with an extreme heat of 91 degrees! We thought, 'If this is the spring, what is the summer like here?' People told us well over 100. (last we checked at the end of May it was 107!) We just couldn't take the heat, and decided to head off for our camping destination of Joshua Tree National Forest. It is at a higher elevation and was predicted to have a cooler temperature than the desert floor. As we drove through each small desert town, we felt the solitude of the homes, with their dirt yards and harsh environment not allowing much green life to sprout and grow. Children's toys in the yard, nothing soft underfoot, no trees to climb, only cacti to avoid.

We began to see the Joshua Trees a few miles outside the park. Then there were more, and more and more and more. The town of Joshua Tree seemed very fun with bright colored buildings and interesting stores and restaurants, but it was late and we had to move forward to put up camp for what was to be one night. We stopped at the information center only to find out that they weren't sure if any sites were available. It was first come, first serve and it was the beginning of spring break season. We felt extremely discouraged, but were told to try our luck if we wanted to and we may get lucky. So we did. We drove to the first campground, which is a few miles inside the park. It is then that you realize you are surrounded by joshua trees, which is unbelievable and beautiful. We drove past one full campsite after another, with our disappointment growing until we went to the Jumbo Rock campground, which is the biggest campground in the park. We found a beautiful spot with the giant granite mounded rocks protecting us from the sun. We found out from a neighbor that the folks in that spot had just left, so we were really lucky. At $10 per day, we decided to kick up our heels and stay for awhile. Here is something I wrote down while I was watching the sunrise:

What can I say? Just breathtaking, unexplainable, calming beauty. The first thing we noticed was the almost deafening silence. We stayed in the park at the Jumbo Rock Campground and the amazing formations of these rocks - mountainous rocks - are mystical and surreal. I sit here and watch the tangerine strips emerge on the turquoise sky as the sun gently peeks it's head. I hear a few birds and wonder how hard it must be to survive here. Right now the weather is 80 degrees during the day and 60 at night. The Ranger told us this is the busiest time of year as summers range from 100-110 degrees. The kids are loving their first real rock climbing experience. They climbed up, came back for what they wanted to fill their backpacks with (such as compasses, magnifying glasses, art supplies, swords and flashlights), climbed up again, came back for dinner, so we packed them some sandwiches and they were off again thrilled at the idea they could eat their dinner on a giant rock. When it got too dark, I called them back and I haven't heard whining like that (at least that didn't include some kind of sugary treat or electronic device.) Hearing their whining to stay on their nature journey, was pleasing to us. We smiled a each other and promised the boys they could rock climb tomorrow allowing them to settle down enough to go to sleep.
Our one night stay has been extended.

The next morning, they immediately got dressed for climbing and again went up into their rock fort. Husband and I enjoyed the quiet of the beautiful morning. As the day went on, we decided to explore more of the park and went on a fantastic rock climbing hike. We stayed until we began to run out of water and headed back to camp. Remembering to drink water is so important in the desert, and as much as you drink, you never feel your quench very long. We enjoyed this park so much, we highly recommend it, however, the new drying heat environment got to us and after 3 days, we decided we had to head for cooler temperatures, against the cries from our boys, who never wanted to leave their rock climbing paradise.

Our next big destination was the Grand Canyon, and we found ourselves driving on old route 66. We drove until we saw the vegetation line completely end and there was nothing but sand. The next place we saw was a dried up lake which created salt flats. Miles of cracking ground where the salt lie on top like snow. Well, we had to try it for ourselves and got out and tasted it. Yep, salt. Crazy cool. We were closer and closer to reaching the California-Arizona border, and then my husband got an itch. An itch to visit Sin City. He was looking at the map, looked at me and said, "Do you want to go to Vegas?" Now I have been to Las Vegas, and since I don't gamble, I have always felt "been there, done that." No need to go again, and my husband, who also doesn't gamble, has always known this. But you see, he had this look in his eye. A look of excitement and wonder. It was too late, he had the Glitz and Glamour Fever. "Sure," I said. So right before we were in Arizona, we turned North for Vegas.

We arrived shortly thereafter and I was absolutely amazed at how the city had grown, of course, the last time I was there was in '93, but they have had a crazy residential home surge. We decided the first thing we needed to do was buy some Vegas clothes. Afterall, we were not planning for many fancy nightlife nights, and most of our things were very campy. After a hit to TJ Maxx, we all donned our new threads and headed to our hotel, which was just a couple of blocks off the strip. We were told to plan to see a couple of free shows, one outside of Treasure Island, where there is a pirate show, and the exploding volcano at the Mirage. After being rested, fed and dressed, we headed into the night. We immediately went to see the pirate show. The crowd was unbelievable and this was a weekday! We squeezed our way into the crowd until we could no longer move, put the kids on our shoulders, and then it started. It started with half dressed "Sirens" luring the pirates to join them with their dance. Husband and I looked at each other and decided, this was probably not a great show for a 5 and an 8 year old. So we tried to squeeze our way out, but as it took so long, the big excitement of a fiery explosion from the pirate ship caught the boys attention and they were not about to leave. So, we decided to stay, trying to focus our boys on the pirates, not the showgirls (especially my husband). Luckily, the volcano was a lot more exciting, without any showgirls. It was late and we decided after a quick drive down the strip, we would head back and put the kids to bed. But as we walked toward our van, something seemed wrong. Yep, a flat tire. A flat tire at 11:15pm in a town we didn't know. Before we had a chance to panic, we immediately called AAA. They told us it would take an hour before the tow truck would show, but he was there in 15 minutes. He was so nice and quick, and told us where to get the tire fixed (it was just a nail) at a 24 hour tire repair shop. At 11:45 we were on the way to the 24-hour tire place (which we couldn't believe actually existed) and by midnight we were on our way back to the strip with kids asleep in the back seat. Found and Fixed within an hour in the middle of the night? Only in Vegas. The sights and lights on the strip were satisfying to my husband and admittedly to myself and we set off to bed.

The next morning, we explored Caesar's Palace, enjoyed the hotel's pool and without spending one nickel gambling, we decided to head out once more towards the Grand Canyon.

Heading Down the Southern Coast

Here is another "in-the-past" blog to catch you all up.
Thank you for all your emails! It really is truly appreciated.


We drove from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara, and spent a few hours at the Mission (not very well run), and spent a few more at their Natural History Museum (really wonderful) and got a chance to get my younger son a new prescription for his glasses, as his vision has improved slightly. I loved the optometrist we had. As I tried to convince her that he may not wear glasses someday, she smiled and gently explained how the chances of that were like winning the lottery. I guess we are still trying to accept them. As every parent of a child wearing glasses knows, it adds an extra responsibility to both child and parent. He tries to lose them every couple of weeks, and we have to find them as he pretends they must be lost forever so he won’t have to wear them. I think it is hard for him that no one in his immediate family wears them. In fact, no one on either side of our family wears them, with the exception of my sister's husband, who always makes sure to tell my youngest how cool his glasses are (thank you!) He also gets a lot of positive attention from strangers telling him he is adorable in his glasses. If only they made Harry Potter style frames for kids, that person would make a fortune. Well, at least they would make one sweet boy extremely happy.

We left beautiful Santa Barbara promptly when we found hotels to be in the $300 and up category. Husband and I just don’t believe anything is that beautiful, so we drove South to Carpenteria. Now, when I used to live in my old Kombi camper, one of my favorite spots was the Carpenteria State Park. Not only are you right on the beach, but you are also just a few blocks from downtown. It was just as I remembered. We found a great spot late at night (we were amazed at how quickly we were able to set up our campsite in the dark) and woke up in paradise. I love the smell of salt air in the morning. The kids woke up tickled that they were on the beach and immediately began playing in the sand. We wanted to stay but found out we could only pay one night in advance and they told us that each night we would most likely have to move campsites. After playing that game one more night, we decided that as nice as the park was, we needed to move on. This was when we realized that making reservations would be a good idea, if we wanted to stay somewhere for the week. Another lesson in commitment.

We headed down the Ventura Highway past Los Angeles (as fast as traffic would allow) towards Carlsbad, which is about 35 miles North of San Diego. My cousin and his family live there and had offered to have us stay in their beautiful home for a night or two. The kids were excited to go to Legoland again, which is located about 5 minutes from their home. My parents decided to meet us in San Diego, so our visit there extended for a couple of weeks. We tried not to wear out our welcome with our gracious hosts, so we moved just down the street to Carlsbad State Park. This time we made reservations, though they only take them with 2 days advance notice. So we camped in the spot we reserved and hoped that we wouldn’t have to move. At most parks there are some sites that cost more than others, and if you are planning to stay at this park pay the extra $10 per night. It is the difference between facing the street or facing the beach. Night and day, pay the money. We loved this site and loved Carlsbad. It has a great town that is just a short bus ride away (so we didn’t have to pack up our campsite) and a beautiful beach, surfing lessons available walking distance away, and of course we had visitors who came to roast marshmallows with us at night, which was really fun. Legoland was as much fun the second time as the first. If you have young lego fanatics, I highly recommend it. Thank you so much to our cousins in Carlsbad for a wonderful time!

My parents met us in Old Town San Diego. Very cool place to visit, as you feel like you are in historic Mexico. People are dressed in period clothes and music is played. We wished we had more time to spend there, but we had to check into our hotel. My father was in the military, so we were able to stay on Coronado Island on the military base. The feeling for both my husband and I was torn. Here on this active base you saw and heard the navy and navy seals training. You sit relaxing on the beautiful long beaches with the grass roof huts like you see in romantic getaways, while the young people around you are training for war. It filled us both with great sadness.

We had a good time visiting with my parents (thank you!) and we were able to go out on a precious date. A date was something we knew we wouldn't have the chance to do again until we made it to Houston. My parents took us all to explore the San Diego Zoo. I have never been to a zoo where the only way to see it all is to take a bus. Yes, it is that big! The kids just loved the zoo and so did the grown-ups. Watching the polar bears, panda bears and elephants with wonder is a great way to feel young again. Of course, at the end of the day, the kids were still filled with energy, while we were all glad to sit down and rest our weary bones on the the drive back to the hotel. We planned to hit Sea World, but we were all tired and my father became ill, so we decided to stick around the beach and enjoy the rest of our time there, while he rested.

My parents left after a few more days, while we were able to stay a couple extra days saying good-bye to the beautiful west coast before we headed off into the unknown of the great wide desert.

Back Online....

Yes! It has been a long time.... We finally have a new laptop after the mishap at BestBuy. We have made it to Houston, Texas and have done so many things along the way. I found the last post I had written and saved on our old laptop before the Chocolate Milk Incident. To get things started for the day, I thought I would go ahead and post it, even though it was a couple of months ago. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me to start writing again. I hope to write often while I catch you up with our trip so far, so please check back every couple of days for new posts. For now, here is that post...

CAMPING AT LAST!
You are not going to believe this. We did it! We spent the night in San Simeon State Park. We camped! Was it beautiful? Magical? Perfect? The beauty was there all right. This park is right on the beach, which you can reach by going under the freeway and we found a lovely site. It had the ocean view and privacy. Everything else seemed frustrating. We couldn’t really level the car accurately, since we had not installed any bubble levels inside the van. The pop-top wouldn’t stay up due to too much weight from Golf clubs, etc., in the roof carrier, so we had to come up with a quick brace solution, so the boys could sleep up there. We couldn’t get the refrigerator going, we had bought way too much food, and it wasn’t all fitting in the cooler. The sun was setting, and we had forgot to pay for the campsite and buy wood at the front kiosk, which was about 1 mile downhill from where we were, so we were unable to have a campfire, which was probably a good thing, since I forgot to buy marshmallows. Worse than anything else, we left our very favorite pillows at the hotel in Aptos, and we were very far from any Bed, Bath and Beyond. It was dark, we were tired, and quite honestly, we didn’t really know what we were doing. This was the first time we ever tried to camp Eurovan style.

Now, I have camped every year of my life growing up with my family. In the college years, I continued camping, even so far as living in my van at various state parks, backpacking in Big Sur and hitching across the USA with a backpack. And here I was 10+ years later, and I had become a whiny non-camper. I had all my worries about failing on this trip culminate into a big giant force that lay over my head telling me I would never be able to be comfortable in this outdoorsy-ness. There were mosquitoes, there was dirt, and there were no lights shining the way to the outhouse, just dark, pitch dark... Had I really become one of those non-campers who complained about cold, and dirt and bugs?

I was a mess, feeling defeated, I wondered why we had come out here in the middle of nowhere thinking it would be fun, and decided to go to bed with my fleece sweats as my pillow. Husband was also overwhelmed at first as we unpacked, but seemed determined to enjoy the night. The boys were all outside in the dark when they called me to join them. I went outside and that was when everything changed. The night was lit up by a mystical full moon. It had been waiting, hidden in the clouds waiting to impress those who might stay up to see it.

“Wow,” I said, “so that is why we are out here.”

A surprisingly good night was spent in the van, and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise. I began to read waiting for the others to wake up. What was this? Fresh air? Quiet? Yes, all that. Heaven. Maybe this was worth the bugs, dirt and lack of bathroom lighting.

When everyone was awake, we had breakfast and quickly packed up to get ready to go to Hearst Castle. We had bought our tickets for the 10:20am tour. New to both of us, Husband and I were absolutely amazed at this castle on a hill. The kids loved it, too. Now we were told that there is no touching, and it is true. No touching anything that isn’t cement or iron railing outside and nothing inside, while staying on the tour carpet. We were warned that this might be very hard for small children and that maybe my 5 year old would be too young. However, we found that there is so much to see and our tour guide moved us through so fast, that there is not really a chance for the young ones to get into too much trouble. Our sons, who are obsessed with castles and knights, thought this was all so cool. Husband and I both felt strange at the end of the tour and movie. This guy was not someone who shared the wealth. His didn’t use his money for good, just for flash. Yet the state park was celebrating him as though he was the greatest man in American history. It was an interesting conversation at the end for the kids. “Yes, wonderful tour to see, though it is too bad he didn’t help people with just a fraction of that money.” Of course, now California State Parks are making a killing. My youngest was free and we still paid $50 to see a small part of the estate, and there are 5 or 6 tours you can see.

Since we needed pillows, we decided to leave our beautiful camping spot, to head to San Luis Obispo. We bought a few camping items, a wooden brace for the pop top, new sandals for our little guy, and made an appointment at our Eurovan shop, Go Westy in Los Osos, and headed back to a hotel in Morro Bay. After a night to get ourselves clean and the food into a refrigerator for the night, we went to Morro Bay State Park the next morning to camp out for the week while we waited to take our van in for a few repairs.

We felt a lot more comfortable camping already. We were so happy to be finally resting for awhile in the same place. We bought tons of ice, since our refrigerator still wasn’t working. This park is great. Close to the beach, a state park run golf course and driving range and a children’s museum that teaches kids all about the estuary and the bay. After two days, we realized our van’s camping battery was dead. So we had no lights to light the night, though the flashlights were fine. Oh, and we finally had our campfire with marshmallows. Though we realized we had no outside lighting either and we needed a lantern. The list of items that needed to be fixed or we needed to camp more comfortably for the week began to grow. In a few days, life got hard. My oldest son got a fever. It was a hot one and he slept for two days. By the third day he felt better and his fever was gone. That was about the same time that my younger son started his fever. He had his for the next two days, and the day we were leaving, my husband started to feel bad and took a 4 hour nap. Also, we woke that morning to find the van not starting. We called AAA and had a tow truck come out to give us a jump start, but it didn’t work. He thought it must be the starter. “Great!” we thought, another item to add to the list. He told us to call him back when we were packed and ready to be towed. We were packing up and waiting to hear from Go Westy about a loaner car, when I told Husband he had to wake up so we could get out of camp ground. All of a sudden like by magic the car mysteriously started up as easily as it had always done. Just a hint to all Eurovan camper owners, you can’t start the car if you have either of the front seats turned toward the back. So we happily skipped the tow truck and headed for the hotel once more. All the sick members of our family were happy to be in a bed watching TV while I was dropping the van off and picking up a loaner car.

Within a few days, the van and the family were as good as new, items were improved and fixed and we bought all the supplies we needed to begin a camping adventure properly without fear.
We love the Morro Bay area, and added it to the list of possible future places to live, as we headed off towards Santa Barbara.

Laptop on the Fritz

We have had a Chocolate Milk Incident with our keyboard. Since it is in the shop, it will be a week or two while we wait for repairs. We will get back to you then and let you know how we are doing!

San Francisco and Santa Cruz

After leaving the foothills of Sacramento, it was late, so we made our way to Vallejo and decided to park it for the night. Yes, I know, Vallejo. Only an hour or so past the Mechanic, but it was symbolic of the fact that we were actually on our way. We found our hotel online while at the mechanic for extremely low points on one of our hotel plans, which was basically free for us. The kids seemed happy that we were on our way and at a hotel again. It kind of shocked me, since they had so much fun with their cousins, but I guess they do have a bit of adventure in them after all. We spent the evening watching the kids doing their usual jumping from one queen bed to the next while we glanced at each other acknowledging our exhaustion, dreaming of sleep.

The next morning, we were ready to roll back up north. No, not all the way back north. On our way to the hotel, we had passed the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. We just couldn’t resist a free tour at a candy factory, so we headed back north for just a few miles and took a tour. What fun! We were greeted at the door by giant Jelly Belly people who gave the kids free Jelly Bellys. There was a visiting company, Longaberger Baskets and the kids got to see and try out how to weave one of these baskets while we waited for our tour to begin. The tour was fun and interesting, however, if you go on a weekend, you see the machinery, but not in action and there are no factory workers. They have videos for you to watch at each station to show how they make the candy with the vacant machines, and it is pretty cool. At the end you get more free candy, while making your way to the sample area, where you can then taste any flavor bean they make, along with a few other candies. If you haven’t heard of Bertie Bott’s Beans from Harry Potter, they are disgusting flavors from the mind of JK Rowling such as earwax, dirt, boogers and even vomit and rotten egg. Jelly Belly decided this was too good of a sell and actually makes these flavors for Harry Potter fans. We just couldn’t resist trying free samples of them. I was only brave enough to try the soap and earthworm, husband (still waking up with coffee in hand) said no way, while the boys were daring each other to eat boogers and vomit. We all laughed so much! How did they taste? Disgusting as promised, with a hint of sugar. The kids each bought a small bag of their favorite flavors, none of which were the Bertie Bott’s, and we all left smiling.

San Francisco was next on our path. Our original goal was to spend the day going to the Exploratorium and then going to the park near Crissy Field, and a stop at Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch. One thing you have to know is our Eurovan is tall and long. We measured close to 9 feet with our rack on top, and with 4 bikes hooked up to the hitch in the back, we are not at a size where we can easily park, especially in garages and parallel parking in the city. It was lunchtime and we were ready to eat. I headed toward the Wharf, but because it was Saturday, it was busy. We all know that traveling to see tourist spots without crowds is always better during the week, but timing had us in one of the world’s biggest tourist cities on a Saturday. At least it was still winter, which definitely kept some of the crowds away. As we explored for a parking space, we headed down a back road and found a metered double spot and parked. Right next to it was a hotel with a restaurant. Not being a tourist destination, it was dead inside at the lunch hour. Perfect, we said, and headed in for a quiet lunch.

Next, we had to find our way to the north end of the city in the Marina district. It was a beautiful day and decided to go to the park first. It was also a bit crowded, but we parked away from the harbor, got out our bikes and took our very first family bike ride ever with the Golden Gate Bridge showing off in the background. It was magical. We road all the way to the end of Crissy Field, stopped to watch the surfers, stopped on the way back to play on the sandy beach and didn’t leave until the rain clouds got so dark and serious, we had no choice. We were all packed up again just in time as the rain began to fall. We all decided it was our best trip to San Francisco. The Exploratorium was forgotten.

It rained our whole way to Los Gatos, a fancy little place that is the last stop before heading over the mountains to Santa Cruz on Hwy 17. We drove into Los Gatos, hoping to find a quick inexpensive meal. Quick and inexpensive are contrary to the way of life in this town, which we realized as we were stuck in traffic trying to drive down main street. Not only was it Saturday night, but it was close to 7. We knew we would never find a place to eat that we could bring our dirty-back-from-biking selves respectfully to. On our way back to the freeway, our lucky stars found us a taqueria. We stopped and ran through the rainy parking lot towards the place and found that this was no taco stand. This was $10 per ala carte plate of food, that’s right, no rice and beans on the side and chips are extra. Everyone was dressed up, even here, but there were a lot of kids signaling to us that this was “Los Gatos casual”. So we ate quickly and drove through the rain, down the winding Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz. When we arrived we drove by a few hotels with the red “no” lit up next to the vacancy signs and having no luck, we began calling hotels. After about 8 phone calls, we were thrilled to find our beds for the night in Scott’s Valley.

The rain was pouring down, and even worse, the forecast showed that it would stay that way all the way down the entire coast for close to a week. Camping was not an option yet. The next morning we began calling around for weekly rates in the area. We found (and highly recommend) the Rio Sands Motel. It is in Aptos, just south of Santa Cruz about 5 miles. It is a quiet town away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Santa Cruz, and the rooms are inexpensive and simple (ours had a full kitchen and two rooms), but there are two hot tubs and what they call a heated pool, and it’s only a block from a fantastic beach. Husband worked hard getting our roof carrier off the top, bikes off the back and everything out and drying under the patio while the rain poured and poured.

Our week in the Santa Cruz area was peaceful and memorable. Husband and I met almost 11 years ago at the Fogbank in Capitola, just a mile north of Aptos, so it keeps a special place in our hearts. Everyday we were able to ride bikes down the beach, sit in the hot tub while the kids swam in the freezing pool. By the end of the week, we were enjoying the warmth of the sun and lying out by the pool working out of our Washingtonian white skin. We spent a lot of time thinking about staying another week. Although our comfort was high, something down deep was pressing us forward. Maybe it was the idea that we were trying to run away from comfort. Put ourselves into simpler situations where we have to try to become more creative and work together to see what else this world is for, besides sitting around the pool, soaking in the hot tub, and riding bikes along the beach. Maybe we have just lost our mind, but we left luxury to try our luck at camping.