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nwhikerWe're in Kingman Arizona...
What day is it again? The day after waking up in Fresno... so Tuesday, I think. Hee.
Anyhow, yesterday we left Fresno and headed out to Sequoia National Park. It was an incredibly beautiful morning and there were flowers in bloom and all that. Reminds me why people live in California! Fresno itself isn't real pretty -or at least the areas we saw weren't- but as soon as we headed out of town to the Sierras... Wow. Just wow.
We passed orchards and fields etc. I got a kick about seeing a grape orchard that grew grapes for a raisin brand I recognised. Doesn't take much to amuse me, alas.
Head up and up and up... the road gains quite a bit of altitude quickly. We listen to the first chapter of Deathly Hallows and I am rapidly in tears (no spoilers, just me).
Get to the park entrance, get maps, start mapping out what we want to do/see. Good so far. We talk about bears in the park and the kids, especially Perry, are enthralled.
Comment by Perry, in a gleeful, but not mean at all, tone: "Bears eat meat, Linnea... and you're meat!"
Everyone must remember that Perry is Mister Doom and Gloom. Take him over a bridge... "What if the bridge sinks/collapses?" (less funny than it was last week. And we live in the land of floating bridges. My kids think that bridges float.) Drive along a cliff: "What if we go off the edge?" Or "what if a rock falls down the mountain and crushes the car?" It's not that he's worried about something like that happening, he just seems to... enjoy mulling over the possibilities. So Perry relishing the thought of bears thinking Linnea is a tender juicy morsel is totally in character.
We stop at a campground, hoping for bathrooms, but there are none. There is, however, a neat ranger (aren't all park rangers neat?) who takes the time to chat with us, especially about bears. Perry is more and more excited at the prospect of maybe seeing a bear and is delighted when the ranger confirms with a laugh that Linnea is just snack size! Hee! We find out, to our surprise, that you must remove kid carseats from the car too... I guess they are so permeated with food kids drop that they can't be left in the car. All food must be locked up etc. The ranger remarks at how utterly cute Linnea is. Of course, we think she's cute, but so many people say the same thing to her... I think it's how much her impishness shines through.
And then for the major excitement of the day... no, it's not seeing the big trees. We stop at one of the park lodges for a bathroom break. When I come out with Linnea, David is sitting on a chair and Perry is sitting on a bench across from him, about 3ft away. Linnea joins Perry on the bench (we're waiting for Anne-Chloe), I lean over to check out a copper lampshade... and Linnea apparently (I have my back to her) stands up on the bench and... pulls the fire alarm!
Immediate noise and lights.... Linnea has a serious alarm phobia and is mute and paralysed in total terror. David rushes over to tell the lodge people that it's a false alarm.
Alas, no matter. It's an alarm, so the lodge must be evacuated while we await the fire department.
The waitstaff and the cooks. People in the middle of their meals. The lodge staff. Random visitors. Us. All out. Oh the total and utter shame of it all. I'd focus more on that, but my main concern is Linnea. She is not doing too well. We can still hear the alarm from outside the lodge, so that's not helping. She did make the connection that what she did had caused the lights and noise... she also seemed to think that she'd caused a fire and was horrified. Ooops. We dispelled that idea quickly.
We waited for a while til the alarm was reset. David talked the lodge manager, to apologise. She said that, hey, her staff needed a break and that it wasn't the first time a child had pulled that alarm... umm... maybe relocating the bench....
Anyhow, good think Linnea is cute, or I don't know that one of the other guests wouldn't have come after her with a fork.
We went on to picnic, Perry still hoping for a bear sighting. The campground at Lodgepole was full, so that was out. The kids really really wanted to camp, which we were hoping to do if time/schedule/space permitted.
We "hiked" down the trail to see the really big trees. Wow. Big trees! Very big trees.
About 3/4 of the way down, Linnea announces that she needs to pee and poop. Argh. It's not a long trail, but it is a steep one. David takes her back up to the trailhead and they then hike back down. She'd been asked if she needed to go before we set out, btw.
Near the biggest tree (General Sherman, it's called), we stop to listen to the ranger talk. Linnea says "that's a big tree", causing everyone to laugh. Perry is being an annoying brat, I must admit, pushing every single limit.
We hike back out... we stop at one point near a small foot bridge. We sit on the benches for a short rest and Linnea does what she calls a "bridge dance" which seems to consist of jumping up and down across the bridge. Very cute.
Anyhow, it was great park trip. Nice big trees. We like trees around here.
We'd hoped to get a park campground, but the ones that we open were pretty far out of the way or in the opposite direction of the one we were going... so we told the kids no dice on camping (to their great distress) and headed out of the park, intending to get a hotel somewhere on 99.
Then we happened upon an Army Corps of Engineers campground near a lake/reservoir. Score! We pick out a campsite and quickly set up the tent. Linnea is asleep in her carseat but the other two can barely contain their excitement. It's warm and clear so we don't put up the rain fly... and right as we are looking up at the sky, showing the kids the Milky Way, a meteorite flashes by, the everyone's delight.
We slept ok, considering. I was more worried about Perry freaking out (he can be a bit chicken at times) and David's back, but all was well. We broke camp quickly this morning (wow! that was this morning!) and headed back to civilisation, or at least a cell phone signal.
South on 99 then east on 58... to Tehachapi. We wanted to see the Tehachapi Loop, which is a train track that loops on itself to gain altitude on a grade that is too steep for trains. And not only do we get to see the loop, we get to see three trains on it, two of them long enough to loop around on themselves, which is incredible. We took oodles of photos, hopefully some will show the magnitude of this.
Eventually we got to I40... cross the Colorado into Arizona, though not before stopping in Needles and being absolutely floored by the heat. How are we going to cope with Albuquerque and Phoenix?
Right after crossing the bridge we veer off of I-40 and onto historic Route 66. It's beautiful and the kids were totally unimpressed... I think Perry only looked up from Mario on his DS when we forced him to look at a "wild" burro in Oatman! Anne-Chloe finally "got" what she was seeing.... I guess the lesson from "Cars" did stick after all. There is a price to be paid for progress and 66 is one.
One more thing. If you ask Linnea about the fire alarm incident she's likely to deny it ever happened. Or ignore you. Or say "I don't want to talk about that poopy butt alarm." Umm... right....
Tomorrow... Flagstaff, maybe the Petrified Forest and then Albuquerque.
What day is it again? The day after waking up in Fresno... so Tuesday, I think. Hee.
Anyhow, yesterday we left Fresno and headed out to Sequoia National Park. It was an incredibly beautiful morning and there were flowers in bloom and all that. Reminds me why people live in California! Fresno itself isn't real pretty -or at least the areas we saw weren't- but as soon as we headed out of town to the Sierras... Wow. Just wow.
We passed orchards and fields etc. I got a kick about seeing a grape orchard that grew grapes for a raisin brand I recognised. Doesn't take much to amuse me, alas.
Head up and up and up... the road gains quite a bit of altitude quickly. We listen to the first chapter of Deathly Hallows and I am rapidly in tears (no spoilers, just me).
Get to the park entrance, get maps, start mapping out what we want to do/see. Good so far. We talk about bears in the park and the kids, especially Perry, are enthralled.
Comment by Perry, in a gleeful, but not mean at all, tone: "Bears eat meat, Linnea... and you're meat!"
Everyone must remember that Perry is Mister Doom and Gloom. Take him over a bridge... "What if the bridge sinks/collapses?" (less funny than it was last week. And we live in the land of floating bridges. My kids think that bridges float.) Drive along a cliff: "What if we go off the edge?" Or "what if a rock falls down the mountain and crushes the car?" It's not that he's worried about something like that happening, he just seems to... enjoy mulling over the possibilities. So Perry relishing the thought of bears thinking Linnea is a tender juicy morsel is totally in character.
We stop at a campground, hoping for bathrooms, but there are none. There is, however, a neat ranger (aren't all park rangers neat?) who takes the time to chat with us, especially about bears. Perry is more and more excited at the prospect of maybe seeing a bear and is delighted when the ranger confirms with a laugh that Linnea is just snack size! Hee! We find out, to our surprise, that you must remove kid carseats from the car too... I guess they are so permeated with food kids drop that they can't be left in the car. All food must be locked up etc. The ranger remarks at how utterly cute Linnea is. Of course, we think she's cute, but so many people say the same thing to her... I think it's how much her impishness shines through.
And then for the major excitement of the day... no, it's not seeing the big trees. We stop at one of the park lodges for a bathroom break. When I come out with Linnea, David is sitting on a chair and Perry is sitting on a bench across from him, about 3ft away. Linnea joins Perry on the bench (we're waiting for Anne-Chloe), I lean over to check out a copper lampshade... and Linnea apparently (I have my back to her) stands up on the bench and... pulls the fire alarm!
Immediate noise and lights.... Linnea has a serious alarm phobia and is mute and paralysed in total terror. David rushes over to tell the lodge people that it's a false alarm.
Alas, no matter. It's an alarm, so the lodge must be evacuated while we await the fire department.
The waitstaff and the cooks. People in the middle of their meals. The lodge staff. Random visitors. Us. All out. Oh the total and utter shame of it all. I'd focus more on that, but my main concern is Linnea. She is not doing too well. We can still hear the alarm from outside the lodge, so that's not helping. She did make the connection that what she did had caused the lights and noise... she also seemed to think that she'd caused a fire and was horrified. Ooops. We dispelled that idea quickly.
We waited for a while til the alarm was reset. David talked the lodge manager, to apologise. She said that, hey, her staff needed a break and that it wasn't the first time a child had pulled that alarm... umm... maybe relocating the bench....
Anyhow, good think Linnea is cute, or I don't know that one of the other guests wouldn't have come after her with a fork.
We went on to picnic, Perry still hoping for a bear sighting. The campground at Lodgepole was full, so that was out. The kids really really wanted to camp, which we were hoping to do if time/schedule/space permitted.
We "hiked" down the trail to see the really big trees. Wow. Big trees! Very big trees.
About 3/4 of the way down, Linnea announces that she needs to pee and poop. Argh. It's not a long trail, but it is a steep one. David takes her back up to the trailhead and they then hike back down. She'd been asked if she needed to go before we set out, btw.
Near the biggest tree (General Sherman, it's called), we stop to listen to the ranger talk. Linnea says "that's a big tree", causing everyone to laugh. Perry is being an annoying brat, I must admit, pushing every single limit.
We hike back out... we stop at one point near a small foot bridge. We sit on the benches for a short rest and Linnea does what she calls a "bridge dance" which seems to consist of jumping up and down across the bridge. Very cute.
Anyhow, it was great park trip. Nice big trees. We like trees around here.
We'd hoped to get a park campground, but the ones that we open were pretty far out of the way or in the opposite direction of the one we were going... so we told the kids no dice on camping (to their great distress) and headed out of the park, intending to get a hotel somewhere on 99.
Then we happened upon an Army Corps of Engineers campground near a lake/reservoir. Score! We pick out a campsite and quickly set up the tent. Linnea is asleep in her carseat but the other two can barely contain their excitement. It's warm and clear so we don't put up the rain fly... and right as we are looking up at the sky, showing the kids the Milky Way, a meteorite flashes by, the everyone's delight.
We slept ok, considering. I was more worried about Perry freaking out (he can be a bit chicken at times) and David's back, but all was well. We broke camp quickly this morning (wow! that was this morning!) and headed back to civilisation, or at least a cell phone signal.
South on 99 then east on 58... to Tehachapi. We wanted to see the Tehachapi Loop, which is a train track that loops on itself to gain altitude on a grade that is too steep for trains. And not only do we get to see the loop, we get to see three trains on it, two of them long enough to loop around on themselves, which is incredible. We took oodles of photos, hopefully some will show the magnitude of this.
Eventually we got to I40... cross the Colorado into Arizona, though not before stopping in Needles and being absolutely floored by the heat. How are we going to cope with Albuquerque and Phoenix?
Right after crossing the bridge we veer off of I-40 and onto historic Route 66. It's beautiful and the kids were totally unimpressed... I think Perry only looked up from Mario on his DS when we forced him to look at a "wild" burro in Oatman! Anne-Chloe finally "got" what she was seeing.... I guess the lesson from "Cars" did stick after all. There is a price to be paid for progress and 66 is one.
One more thing. If you ask Linnea about the fire alarm incident she's likely to deny it ever happened. Or ignore you. Or say "I don't want to talk about that poopy butt alarm." Umm... right....
Tomorrow... Flagstaff, maybe the Petrified Forest and then Albuquerque.
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