Are you getting tired of our travel log yet? No? Good because you have two more posts to go. It was a big trip and at about this point I was beginning to wonder if Andy and I were completely insane for thinking we could pack it all in. I began to have nightmares about the drive home and how all the good behavior we had gotten from the kids was going to run out and we'd be left with 4 little devils...but it was too late to turn back at this point so we pushed on...
Channel Islands National Park. I didn't really know what to expect here. It was beautiful but probably better suited for slightly older kids. We were the only family going to Islands on this day. But we did get to see lots of amazing things - hundreds of dolphins, a seal that came right up to us on the beach, a silver fox and incredible views of the ocean.
The ferry ride took about an hour. We left our hotel in Anaheim 3 hours early. 1 hour of California traffic later and I realized that I had looked at the time wrong and we were supposed to leave 45 minutes earlier than I had anticipated. There is only one boat a day and if we missed it that would be it. One stress filled hour later we made it - with 5 minutes to spare!
Channel Islands is isolated. We set out on our own and made the kids do a hike. Only 600 feet up. Luckily, they found "walking sticks" along the way to make there journey easier.
Walking sticks doing double duty as swords.
It was steep. The kids tried to be troopers but it was pretty rough :)
This is where the seal popped up. He was probably looking to relax on the beach only to be confronted with 4 crazy kids!
Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park.
We stayed in these awesome little cabins in Kings Canyon. The first night we got there a raccoon popped up on our porch as we were unpacking. Andy and I are not "raccoon" people...a little intimidated we did what any self-respecting parent would do and pulled out our light sabers. Andy unpacked while I stood guard. Unfortunately as we were unpacking the door shut and locked on us. The kids were sleeping (we couldn't wake them up no matter how hard we knocked) and the keys to the suburban were in the cabin. Luckily, we found a key to the suburban and Andy was able to go to the front desk and get a spare key while I stood guard...with my light saber.
In front of the General Grant tree.
Can you see the mommy black bear and her two cubs climbing this tree. We were driving through Sequoia and they ran right in front of us. It's the first time I've seen a bear in the wild and it was awesome!
It's impossible to capture the magnitude of these trees on camera. But we could have built a cozy little cabin inside of this one.
The kids were sleeping for this National Park sign picture and I vetoed Andy waking them up so it's just the two of us :)
