Important Notes
Remember, if you click on a picture, then it will open up to a larger view
Hopefully, we won't confuse you, but I (Mike) am making this massive post, but Leslie has done most of the typing. For this combined post, I'll write in the sub headings who is writing the text.
Also, I am going to begin using Picasa Web Albums to display the full set of images. This blog will be used to highlight some of the best, but if you prefer to view all the images, then you are welcome to visit the web albums.
3, 2, 1, begin! by MADCookie (6/21/06)
And I have to get all this stuff into the minivan. Sure, I can do it. We prepared the night before to reduce the time it took to leave in the morning.
Fossil Falls by MADCookie (6/22/06)
We saw cinder cones, volcanic craters, ancient lava flows, and even stopped & did a little hiking, an area where the Owens River used to flow through the volcanic rock (a VERY little hiking--it was 102 degrees!).
Bishop by MADCookie (6/23/06)
In Bishop, we started our day with a visit to the best bakery
Eric Schat's. Our goal for today was to go to South Lake, Les's Uncle Keith recommended that we check out this water reservoir. Now I pass it on to you. If you go to Bishop, then go to South Lake. It was great! Depending on the time of year, take bug repellant.
Along the way, we saw this beautiful house with a great view. The last time we were in Bishop (2002, for our 5th wedding anniversary), this house was under construction.
We stopped to play in some water. The water was so cold, that Rebekah never felt the splinter the size of a toothpick go into her big toe. We spent over 45 minutes trying to get this out.
We reached South Lake. Simply breathtaking.
From the parking lot, Elijah, Rebekah and I took a little trail down towards the lake. Our hike began with a little snow hill.
The trail took us to one of the inlets of the lake which was a snow-melt stream.
The stream opened up and cascaded down about 100 feet over rocks into the lake.
In this stream, Rebekah was the first to see and pick up the trout that thought they were salmon going to spawn upstream. It was quite amazing! There were over a dozen fish jumping from the little pools of water to work their way upstream.
Mono Lake at Lee Vining by MADCookie
Our Bishop time was over. It was time to move onto Mono Lake at Lee Vining. We made it in time for sunset.
With all the activities for the day, it was no wonder why the kids crashed out.
Our vacation (or "the blog post that never ends") by Leslie (6/24/06)
First thing the next morning (first thing for the Adams Family means about 10 am), we headed west up the Tioga Pass Road toward Yosemite. Wow. We quickly climbed in elevation, and were "wowed" at every turn at the waterfalls cascading down the hillsides, at the snow hiding under the trees, and at the amazing views of the granite domes & cliffs. The only damper in our drive was Rebekah, who occasionally has issues with heights, and who would scream in terror every time I pulled over into a turnout for a photo op--she'd beg me to stay on the road! (I drove most of the way so that Mike could take pictures, and boy did he take pictures! We came home with over 900 pictures!) We prayed with her & asked that God would take her spirit of fear from her, and other than a few other incidents, she did great the rest of the trip (which was good, as we did a lot of turning out!).
There was an amazing waterfall just outside the eastern Yosemite Park gate that we couldn't find on any map. It was gargantuan, and parts of it were covered with a snow bridge. The thundering could be felt & heard by us at our vantage point high above the falls. Amazing, just amazing.
Once we got over the Tioga Pass (9945 ft elevation) into Yosemite, we gradually started going downhill, through beautiful pine forests, with the Tuolumne River rushing beside the road. We stopped at Tuolumne Meadows for a short hike, and had a nice walk through the grass to a little stream with wildflowers blooming all along it, and even saw 3 deer!
We stopped at Tenaya Lake for a picnic lunch. The trail down to the lake was too boggy to maneuver with our brood, but we had a nice lunch under the trees. We had to stop at the turnout to capture some photos of the beautiful lake with the mountains behind. There was snow all around the lake & people were fishing from the shore.
Ellery Lake
I was very appreciative of all of my Uncle Keith's suggestions regarding our trip. One place that he recommended stopping was Olmsted Point. We did, and were very glad! We got a unique perspective on Yosemite Valley, with Half Dome on the left and the Valley curving away behind it. We also got to see a badger (at least, we think that's what it was) cruising around in the trees beneath the point.
There was a neat afternoon thunderstorm that we enjoyed as we drove across the high Sierras, especially since it cooled things down a bit. Then the road turns & starts heading more steeply down toward Yosemite Valley. It was a bit toasty down in the valley (in the high 80s), but there was SO much water that every time we even approached a waterfall, the mist blew over us & cooled us. I've never seen so much water in Bridalveil Falls! We stopped there for a walk to the viewpoint & photo op. The mist blowing up from the base of the Falls was quite refreshing! We let the kids play along the creek for a bit and cool off. There were a LOT of people there, it being Saturday afternoon. After doing a short drive around Yosemite Valley to gawk at the sights, we headed to our hotel. To get there, we took the road that follows the the Merced River, which was roaring & foaming with all the snowmelt. What an awesome sight & sound! After we got checked in, we explored the grounds of the Cedar Lodge & bit, and got some dinner at the on-site diner, then went swimming. The river was just across the street from the Lodge, and we could see it from our second floor balcony, and hear its roar. What a great day!
Our vacation, part 2 by Leslie (6/25/06)
Back to the story of our vacation. After a great breakfast at our Lodge in El Portal, we headed back into Yosemite. Right after the entrance station is a huge boulder that is tipped over & touching another rock, forming an arch, so that Park entrance is called Arch Rock (inventive, isn't it?). It was really cool to drive through that. The Merced River flows right alongside the road pretty much all the way into Yosemite, so we enjoyed the sound & sight of the water, as well as watching the thermometer reading of the outside temperature decline as we got closer to Yosemite Valley!
We took some pictures as we drove through the Valley, then we stopped at a meadow near El Capitan & Yosemite Falls to have our picnic lunch. We saw this really neat bug there, carrying a caterpillar about as big as itself, and burying it in a hole it had dug. Then it covered it, just like a dog covers a bone! Amazing...
After we plastered on the insect repellant, we walked to the base of Yosemite Falls. Well, we attempted to anyway. You'd think that we'd have learned by now that when one child has to go to the bathroom, we should go ahead & take them all as a preventative measure. We wasted WAY too much time walking back & forth to the bathroom that day! Well, it was a good excuse for the parent staying with the other kids to take a lot of pictures. We came home with over 950 pictures. Gotta love digital! It was a good thing Mike took his laptop, so he could upload some of the pictures partway through the trip, and delete them from the memory card too. I have such a smartie-pants husband! (and he's cute too, but I won't talk about that too much)
The kids weren't so thrilled with our time at the base of Yosemite Falls. There's been so much snow in the high Sierras this year (one report I read said that it was 179% of normal) that the snowmelt is huge, and all the waterfalls are flowing like crazy. The mist was billowing up from the base of Lower Yosemite Falls, and creating a wind of its own, which blew the misty air all over the base viewing area. Rachel in particular was NOT thrilled about that! (I thought it was really cool standing on the bridge & being soaked, but then again, that's how I am!)
Because of the dampness, the mosquitoes were particularly vicious here. I learned the hard way that I shouldn't have bought a new type of insect repellent without trying it out before our trip! I was practically eaten alive, and very cranky about swatting away all the mosquitoes. I vowed then & there that I didn't care how bad DEET is for you, I was going to the Costco in Fresno & buying some no-messing-around bug spray before we went on to the next leg of our trip!
After slogging back to the van, we headed over to Yosemite Village for some pizza at
Degnan's Loft, which I had read about on an informative website called Yosemite Fun (
click here for link). The pizza was very good. I decided to be "nice mom" and allow the kids to have caffeinated beverages with dinner (they've never had caffeine before). Bad move. We headed to the gift shop to pick up some souvenirs, but Joanna decided to show us that caffeine is indeed a diuretic, and had to go to the bathroom at least every 10 minutes (I'm not exaggerating!). So I didn't get to do much souvenir-shopping, but that's a good thing, as I hear that there were very large bears there that tried to eat Rachel (you can see that she doesn't look too happy about it).
After dinner, we headed back to our hotel in El Portal, to get ready for our "early morning" departure the next day. Yeah right. Anyway, the drive between Yosemite Valley & El Portal is lovely, winding along in the Merced River Canyon. The river is so high that the roar of the water was never far from our ears. Unfortunately, all the rain & snow contributed to the instability of the soil, and in May there was a landslide about 7 miles downriver from our hotel. It flowed over the road & into the river, and is still so unstable that removing the debris to re-open the road isn't an option. Want to see the landslide? Click
here. So for now the road is closed between the hotel & the outside world, leaving us to have to drive into Yosemite Valley & then south on a terribly winding road to head for our family reunion in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks.
(8/08/06 note: there has been a temporary bridge built on Hwy 140 & it just opened for limited trips)
Day 5: Headed to Sequoia-Kings Canyon by Leslie (6/26/06)
We rolled out of the hotel parking lot around 9:30 Monday morning. As I explained in the previous post, we had to drive back into Yosemite & then south toward Sequoia because of the landslide. The road was SO winding! Back & forth, back & forth, all the while with nothing but trees lining the road. The Tioga Pass Road was MUCH more interesting!
It was interesting to watch the thermometer rise as we headed out of the Sierras & into the Central Valley. Thanks to a fellow homeschooler who lives in the area, we had wonderful directions to the nearest Costco & all the other retail establishments in the area. It was great to be somewhere familiar again, have some of that great Costco pizza, and escape the heat--it was 102 in Fresno, yikes! My sister Jaime called me while we were trying to decide which cake to get for my cousin Summer's birthday that day, and it turns out that she & her husband Mark were nearing Fresno on their way from San Jose, so they met up with us at Costco! What was even better was that they took the older 2 kids with them in their car the rest of the way to Sequoia--and the baby & Joanna slept the rest of the way, so Mike & I had some blissful time "alone". What a blessing!
We finally arrived at Cedar Grove Village in Kings Canyon around 5 pm that afternoon. We found the rest of the family, sorted out which family was going to go where, and started moving our stuff in. With 22 of us, that was quite the process! Altogether, we had 5 cabins, and 2 rooms in the Lodge. It was nice to have Jaime & Mark in the cabin sharing a wall with ours (it was a duplex), as the kids could run back & forth between the 2 rooms. They were happy to give Auntie Jaime her early birthday present, and were glad to hear that cousin Amanda was going to stay in Jaime & Mark's cabin too, especially since she'll read to them! (Our kids have a well-deserved reputation for accosting any unsuspecting visitor to read to them!)
The cabins were very rustic--just 2 beds, a small closet, and a very basic bathroom. That was fine with us--it was clean and had just enough room for all of us. We were especially grateful for the generosity of Gramma (my mom's mom), who subsidizes these family reunions by covering the cost of the lodging. What a HUGE blessing! We are also thankful that our kids are still small enough to share a bed, so we just pile the 3 older kids into one bed, and the baby sleeps in her playpen--when she sleeps. To say that our vacation got her a bit off-schedule is being generous. We're still trying to get her back on-track!
We went up to the John Muir Lodge for a quick visit with cousin Summer, her son Josiah, and Uncle Sterling & Aunt Tammy. It was cousin Summer's birthday that day, so we gave her her gifts, but didn't tell her that a big chocolate cake awaited her for after dinner! Josiah liked his little gifts too, as he would be turning 2 just a week later.
We all walked down to the dining hall together and saw some deer in the meadow. Little did we know just how many deer we were to see that week!
The family meal in the dining hall was quite the experience. For some reason, the staff acted like they didn't have groups of 22 come in very often! :) They did very well for such a big group, and the food was good too. All of the "adults" sat at one table and we "kids" sat at another (never mind that I'm the oldest at 33, and mother of four children myself!). What fun! Auntie Jaime, of course, had to play the "Is there something in my teeth?" game with Rebekah.
Joanna tried to get in on it too, but was a little unclear on the concept.
Rachel & Josiah had fun sitting at the end of the table together & stealing each other's food--well, it was more like Josiah stealing Rachel's O's and her looking at him, wondering what he was doing!
It was a bit much for her, and she ended up getting her thumb in her mouth & her other hand in her hair, and nodding off. That got a lot of smiles from the other diners!
After dinner, we headed back to the Lodge, where they have a big "living room" complete with lots of tables, couches, and board games. We got out the big chocolate cake we'd gotten earlier at Costco, and sang to Summer. She couldn't wait to dive into the cake! Of course Aunt Tammy & Amanda wouldn't let her have it all to herself! Finally she agreed to share, and even Rachel tried to get a piece, young as she is! She had to be content with crumbs from Dada's mouth... Everyone else stayed up to play games, but we grabbed our kids & headed back to our room--it had been a long day, and we had big plans for Tuesday!
Day 6: Sequoia National Park by Leslie
After breakfast in our room on Tuesday morning, we packed up to head to Giant Forest in Sequoia. We still hadn't seen any Sequoia trees, so we were pretty excited. The whole family piled into vehicles & headed out. It was about an hour's drive, but took us longer since we had to stop for pictures, and to let other cars pass our caravan!
It was a little drizzly in the Giant Forest area, but it was a nice light rain, and made the day actually quite pleasant. We first went to the Giant Forest Museum, which used to be a gift shop way back when there were cabins in this area (this is where our family used to stay before they tore down the cabins in the late 90's to protect the Sequoia trees). The Museum was neat; it had an exhibit that showed how big a Sequoia is compared to other "big" things, and even showed a Sequoia seed. It's amazing how the world's largest living thing can grow from such a tiny thing--God is so amazing! Elijah found a Sequoia cone, and shook out a seed so that we could see how little it was.
Rebekah also enjoyed checking out the books, as she did everytime we went somewhere with a book section!
We took some pictures in front of the Sentinel Tree in front of the museum,
then walked across the street to Round Meadow. This was so odd for me--the last time I was here almost 20 years ago, the dining hall looked down on the meadow, and our cabins were a short walk up the hill. Now there's no trace that any buildings ever existed. The dining hall was right between the two big trees in the following picture. It's cool how the forest reclaims its own.
It was also neat to see my kids doing the same things I did when I was a little girl: standing next to a Giant Sequoia tree & seeing how big they were in comparison!
Of course, the adults have to do the same thing!
We walked around the meadow & Elijah read the signs to us (he's such a great reader!)
and Mark showed off his Kung Fu moves
After we all got back together, we took a family picture before walking back to our cars.
Rachel was a little trooper all through the transfers between car & stroller, etc. She loves to see the camera come out!
We drove by Morro Rock on the way from Round Meadow on the way to Crescent Meadow, but decided against climbing the rock this afternoon. Something about an exposed rock outcropping & a thunderstorm doesn't mix!
We couldn't miss driving through the tunnel log on the way either! How many people can say they've driven through a tree & lived to tell about it?!
Our next destination was Crescent Meadow. What was lovely about most of these places was that there were hardly any other people at any of them! It was just the 22 of us, and about a kajillion mosquitoes! Uncle Matt showed Elijah how to use his binoculars to check out something far off (who knows what?)
A huge tree had fallen across the meadow and we used it to shorten the hike around. Check out how big the root system is!
We saw a few deer on this hike, and a VERY good-looking couple too! :)
We hurried to get back to our cabins in Kings Canyon, to get everyone cleaned up so that we could grill out for dinner. Rachel was pretty happy to get all that insect repellant washed off!
My dad entertained the girls while we all worked to get dinner on, while Elijah found his own entertainment!
We had a great dinner of carne asada that Gramma had brought, and everyone else pitched in a dish. Once again, the kids crashed out after a very busy day!
Day 7: Cedar Grove & Family Dinner by Leslie
Well, we have had some techinical issues here at the Adams Family Adventures server room. Thanks to Jer for making this blog a reality. We are finally back up and we can now post more to you -- our fans! :)
Sweet sisters!
Today we all planned to explore Kings Canyon. We caravanned through a beautiful gorge that the Kings River has carved out. The drive was just amazing as we descended down into the canyon. There were waterfalls alongside the road, and tantalizing glimpses of the river as we got lower & lower. We stopped at almost every corner to hop out & take pictures!
Here are Jaime & Mark in their rental car. I think it suits them well, and they should buy one. Don't you?
What a curvy road!
We stopped to look down into the gorge, and it was amazingly deep, with the Kings River white with froth at the bottom. Joanna was the only kid brave enough to get out & look into it!
Finally we reached the bottom of the gorge & stopped to take more pictures at a spot where the road crossed over the Kings River.
Our next stop was a lovely place called Grizzly Falls. The falls were pounding down on the rocks, creating a lovely mist blowing through the area. We all enjoyed the coolness!
OK, maybe not all of us enjoyed the falls breeze!
Ah, finally caught the photographer in action (isn't he cute?!!)
After a brief pit stop in Cedar Grove Village, we drove to Zumwalt Meadow.
Mike & Jaime took the older kids for a hike while I stayed back at the picnic area to feed the baby & protect our gear from the intermittent rainstorms. They hiked down to a footbridge that crosses the Kings River.
The view downriver
and upriver
Fooling around in the ICE COLD water!
After the hike & our picnic, we all had to high-tail it back to our cabins to get cleaned up for our big family dinner at the fancy Wuksachi Lodge near Giant Forest, back in Sequoia. Since that would involve an hour's drive back to Grant Grove, clean-up time and then an hour's drive to Giant Forest, we weren't able to stay at Zumwalt Meadow for very long. The Lodge was lovely though, and we had a fun time all having dinner together.
Here, wanna blow a bubble?
Mark stays entertained while waiting for his food.
We got everyone together for a family picture. Night had fallen by the time we got everyone in place & looking the same direction!
Day 8: General Sherman and River Fun
Mike the Chef prepared us a wonderful breakfast on our last full day in Sequoia. He's such a great cook! (and cute too!)
We hadn't yet visited the General Grant Grove of trees yet, even though we were staying in Grant Grove Village, so the Adams Family made a "quick trip" (as though anything we 6 could do would be quick) to see the General Grant tree and finish up the requirements for Elijah's & Rebekah's Junior Ranger program. Some of us were not as happy as others to pick up trash!
You just can't get a very good idea of how big these trees are unless you stand next to one. This was a little one!
This downed tree was used as a stable & saloon a long time ago. Amazing, huh?
A settler's cabin, still around for our enjoyment!
After our trip through the Grant Grove, we drove back to Giant Forest for the requisite family picture in front of the General Sherman Tree. This tree is the largest living thing on our planet--it's HUGE!!
Our new Junior Ranger Rebekah poses with the Ranger who went over her paperwork. They took the Jr Ranger program very seriously -- going over each page & making sure each child met the requirements before giving them their patches & signing their certificates. It was really neat!
We had fun playing at the Kaweah River near the Visitor Center.
Oops, looks like someone is looking for trouble!
Oh, you don't mess with The Mama and not expect revenge--you're getting thrown in the river!
The kids are in "turtle mode".
Day 9: Last Day
I guess their position doesn't matter as long as they're getting some sleep, huh?
The cousins (and second cousins!) pose for some getting-ready-to-leave pictures
Auntie Jaime works her magic on Baby.
A farewell glance at our cabin. Goodbye, Sequoia--till next time!!
We took our time getting home to make the most of our vacation. Again, Auntie Jaime & Uncle Mark took the 2 older kids in their car & we met up with them & Uncle Matt's family in Fresno to have some yummy Mexican food. Then we gathered up our clan, said our goodbyes, and headed south through the Central Valley ("America's Bread Basket"!). We only drove as far as Tehachapi, where we had a lovely evening swimming in the hotel pool, eating freshly-delivered pizza, and watching cable TV. Gotta love vacation! The drive home the next day was the easy part--then we got to unpack & start laundry!
Thanks for joining us on our journey. We hope you enjoyed it!
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