Disney

We were only in Anaheim for 2 days and 2 nights but we made the most of it! The first day we arrived we went to Downtown Disney and shopped and ate. We got back to the hotel and swam for a short time and relaxed until it was time for fireworks. Because we stayed on Disney property you could see the fireworks from the parks and they piped in the audio too! The next day we got up early and went to Disneyland! It was interesting to see the differences between Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. We spent all day there and left after the last fireworks and I think we got to 95% of what we were hoping to do. It was so nice being on Disney property even though the hotel wasn't very impressive. Made it so easy to get to the parks and kind of fun to be immersed in all things Disney!

 

Monterey

After San Francisco we drove a couple hours down to Monterey. I think if we had known what it would be like we would have spent the extra day in San Francisco. The traffic was terrible and it was so crowded. I’m sure a lot of that was because it was a Saturday because it was a recommended stop from a lot of people we talked to. We got tickets for the aquarium and it was just so busy you couldn’t really enjoy it. Honestly the best part was watching the harbor seals stretched out on the rocks and the sea otters playing in the kelp. The kids also liked putting their feet in the freezing water. 

 

 

San Francisco

Our next stop was San Francisco! We were there for most of the day and then left the next morning so we tried to get to a lot of spots in a short amount of time. We had lunch in Chinatown at Dim Sum Corner and ordered way too much food but it was delicious! We also stopped at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company and bought some cookies. We walked up a bunch of hills so we could walk down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. Then we checked in at the hotel and rested our legs before heading out to Fisherman’s Wharf where we had ice cream sandwiches for dinner and the kids picked out a ton (1.4 lbs) of gummy candies. We went over to the water and watched some sea lions stalk some swimmers and walked down a sketchy pier that needs some restoration. If we had more time we all would have loved to take the ferry out for a tour of Alcatraz!

 

Yosemite-Park Edition

We took so so many pictures in the parks and almost none of them do it justice. It was so beautiful and like nothing I’ve seen before (technically I have seen some of this before when I went with my family as a young child but I was too young to remember most of it). 

Driving into and around the mountains got better the longer we were there but felt pretty scary! Most of the time you’d be driving on a cliff with no guard rail or protection in sight! It was scary but it also meant you could see beautiful views everywhere without being blocked. In the park you could normally see Half Dome or El Capitan from wherever you were. 

Everyone but Paige’s favorite spot was Yosemite Falls. We climbed up rocks and boulders to get closer to the water. Pat also loved getting to see the giant Sequoias (the walk back up not so much!). Paige’s favorite part was YARTS, the Yosemite transit system. Like I said, we did A LOT of hiking so she appreciated the break when we figured out the bus on the last day.

 

Yosemite Non-Park Edition

Vacation time! We’re usually pretty lazy about planning trips but we put some effort in and planned a long trip to California! We started in Yosemite and I took so many pictures that I’ve divided the posts into park and non-park pictures! The kids were nervous for the plane ride but did great and it didn’t feel as long as I thought it would. As we flew over we could see the Washburn fire by Mariposa grove. The trees are going to be saved but they were still trying to contain the fire while we were there. 

Our first stop was at In-n-Out for lunch and it was delicious. Then we had a three hour drive to our lodge. The lodge was probably one of my favorite places we’ve ever stayed. It had beautiful views, a large pool, tons of play areas/zip lines, a game room, general store, free nightly s’mores and the room was nice too! We liked playing the table top shuffleboard the most!

We spent most of our time hiking but we also signed up for horseback riding and star gazing. The horseback riding lasted about an hour and was fun but very very dusty! My horse and Owen’s horse kept trying to veer off to munch on plants. Paige’s horse had trouble keeping up and Pat’s horse was very well behaved but got a little too close to my horse for his comfort. Also now I’m being reminded they were mules and not horses. 

The star gazing was good too, we got to see the sky far from most light pollution and were shown some galaxies and nebulae in a high powered telescope. The full moon made it too light to see the Milky Way so we’ll have to try to find another dark sky another time!

Fire seen from the airplane

Muleback riding?

First stop!

Shuffleboard was a favorite

Zip lining at dusk

The lodge had a great pool

Lots of cozy fires around the lodge!

Ready to get on the plane

S'mores

Stargazing