junior rangers

Geeking Out

1 Comment

img_3994Our time on this journey is sadly coming to a quick close and times like these in the picture below I am savoring and getting super sentimental about. My prayer is that we don’t fall into the ways of this world, the “normalcy”, or the busy busy life ever again. The connectedness we have alongside the unbusy is what I’d like to maintain when we return “home”. The “norm” will never be our norm again, with the grace of God!

Off to Washington state we went after Oregon. Once again, I couldn’t have imagine the gloriousness of another state in our great country. At this point I don’t think I would ever have the desire to travel abroad…well except for a warm island with drinks in coconuts or pineapples of course.

I’m going to totally geek out here, but we stayed in La Push, Washington. Anyone catching on? The Quileute tribe from Twilight that Jacob Black was from is real tribe located in La Push just like the movie and next to Forks where Edward Cullen, the vampire, lived. We used hipcamp.com to make our reservations and stayed on someone’s land (with electric and water hookups) there for super cheap which was awesome! While staying there we visited the Olympic National Park. What a surreal place made up of four ecosystems: coast, forest, rainforest, and mountains.

Our first day in the park we hiked through the rainforest and up into the mountains, two of four ecosystems. The water was a light turquoise color. We learned that the color is caused from the snow melting on top of the mountains, flowing down toward the river and bringing sediment into the waters…wow mind blown! Our second day we went to the coast, three of the four ecosystems, at Rialto Beach to see Hole in the Wall, Haystack rock, and the driftwood made of whole trees. We collected rocks from the shore, putzed along the tidepools stemming with ocean life and balanced beamed along the driftwood. The third and final day we went to Second Beach and to get down to the beach we entered the fourth and final type of ecosystem, the forest. We hiked one mile through forest to get to the beach which was super cool and a little bizarre for this East Coast fam, especially when we saw a banana slug on the trail. This beach had bigger tidepools but less beachcombing to be done but was a fun finale.

Next, we headed to Whidbey Island to our campground so Shaun could paraglide along a most spectacular state park bordering a bay in Fort Ebey. Long story short, the wind was sadly not with him during our time there so no paragliding happened. We checked out a pier and tried crabbing, investigated Fort Ebey, an old fort used for coastal defense during WWII, and drove over Deception Pass (not for the bridge hater like me!).

Next a super duper shmooper exciting mention in this post…we headed to Glacier National Park to celebrate Brie’s EIGHTH birthday!!!!! How my baby turned 8 is so beyond me because in my mommy mind she was born two years ago and should still be in a stroller when we go places. We surprised her with our friends, the Youngs, showing up to join in the fun. On her actual birthday we rented kayaks and enjoyed the glacial waters on Lake McDonald. Brie and I even swam in the crystal clear and freezing glacial waters! Then we got ice cream (Huckelberry is the specialty flavor of everything in these parts and is even an ice cream flavor), bought some souvenirs and headed back to the campground. She opened presents and enjoyed her double chocolate cake with dark fudge icing and chocolate sprinkles.

The following day in Glacier NP we also hiked to three different waterfalls in one trip: Baring, St Mary and Virginia. They were all different from each other but St Mary Falls had the most turquoise water I’ve ever seen inside the US and Virginia Falls was tallest and went down along the rocks in a picturesque way. Our final day we took the kids into the park to get their Junior Ranger badges, shopped a bit around St Mary and got the kids ice cream. The whole park is astonishing and it was such a blessing to see the glaciers because they predict that in ten years they’ll all be gone unfortunately. If you get a chance…GOOOO!

This was the end of our time in Washington and Montana. Next we headed to Yellowstone, which is mostly in Wyoming but some parts are in Idaho and some in Montana as well. Deets on our time here in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in the next post because we are still here and there’s so much to tell!

img_4481

CaliforniA-dieu, HellO-regon

On June 9th our BFFs/family came out to meet up with us from Tampa, FL to San Francisco, CA. Not only did they fly in but they drove straight to us from the airport to snuggle, eat cheese, walk along the ocean side, and get some quality time in. My BFF, Dani, and I even managed to get the dads to walk with the kids to the store to get slime makings while we sat on a bench looking over the ocean and get some quality time together. We make lots of friends along this journey and I get some girl talk time in here and there but nothing like sitting with your BFF in sweats just dishing and listening.

We spent our first day going over the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping for the inaugural pix, heading to Sausalito for some shopping and eating, back along the Golden Gate Bridge, hit the world-famous sour dough bread maker Boudin, and wound up eating at their hotels comfy closed restaurant (and we ate it alllllll!)

Day 2 we went to Alcatraz and it was awesome! This sounds weird but the flowers on the island were so beautiful and I took so many pictures of them it was kind of odd. The history was surprising since I didn’t know about eighty percent of what had occurred on the island except that it was a jail. I highly recommend going if you can or reading a book on the history of the island because it wasn’t just a jail by any means.

After Alcatraz we grabbed lunch, and don’t judge, at Boudin again. Most people like to try different places when they go somewhere new but it was sooooo good we couldn’t not go again. Afterwards, we hopped on the bus and headed to Haight and Ashbury. Now, I know people might not always be jumping to go to the hippiest location and especially with kids but Dani and I were dyyyyyying to go. We arrived, started putzing the fun and quirky stores, did some killer people watching, and then headed to the park to bring the kids to the play area. We couldn’t find the play area and this might not’ve been the most kid friendly place so we all ubbered home ready for the next day.

This was my most excitable day because we were going to Muir Woods National Monument. On this journey, especially since Kings Canyon, I’ve become a biggggg fan of John Muir and couldn’t wait to see “his” woods. When we got there with our parking reservations, which is required and has never happened in any other park we’ve ever been to, checked in, and met up, I was ready and raring to go. It was so lush, green, the redwoods were so tall, and it was all breathtaking. Dani, who isn’t a nature/hiking person, even loved it! My niece and nephew, earned their first Junior Ranger badges which was super exciting for us and the girls.

After we drove to Stintson Beach, grabbed a delicious lunch near the beach, dipped our toes in the sand. Brie and RJ collected sand crabs while Natalie and Emmy did “sand gymnastics”. It’s a pretty magical thing to spend the afternoon on the beach with four kids who love the beach and never complain!

Next day, NAPA!!!!!!!!!!!!! We met at their hotel, then to the family pool, then….wait for it….Dani and I left to go to the adult only pool to then go to the spa!!! Holy awesomeness! There’s really no words. If you’re a mom, especially one that lives in 300 sq ft with your family, you get it! Then all eight of us went to dinner at Oxbrow Market where we all grabbed food we liked from stands, ate outside and enjoyed each other’s company.

Our final day together we hit the vineyards. Who knew Napa was so family friendly and we could not have been more thankful. Silver Oak was our first stop. They had a big open grassy area the kids just loved and the adults enjoyed our wine tasting. After that we went to the Hall vineyard. There they had comfy living room style setups outdoors, along with corn hole, bocce ball, and more. We tasted, played, and enjoyed our last day together. Lastly we went to V. Sattui for lunch at their amazing deli along with cheeses and wine and then self-toured and learned how wine is made. Lastly, we took the kids for ice cream and took a picture to savor at the infamous Napa sign. We said a sad goodbye and they went on to visit family.

It was hard to say goodbye to our family and friends in NJ when we left on this journey but we were excited to see the USA. However, saying goodbye to our BFFs/family without a set time to see them next weighed on my heart. They’re our people and we miss them so much when we are on opposite poles of the East Coast but we usually have an until date. We know we can NOT go long without seeing them and the eight of us as a force will make it happen sooner than later. My heart was full of love, laughter, and memories from our week together.

The next day we said our final farewell to the great state of California with its varied terrains, amazing beaches, giant trees, awesome cultural diversity, amazing wine and it’s most apparent liberalness. Off to one of my most anticipated states, Oregon. In case you’re wondering it is not pronounced or-a-gone, it’s or-gan with a soft i in between the two but said almost as one syllable. We hit the coast first and stayed at South Beach State Park Campground in Newport. This was hands down my favorite campground ever!

Why? We were in the trees and could hike among them. The roads and trails were paved and we could bike everywhere. The beach was within a half mile and it was gorgeous. The facilities were clean, there was a ranger station and hospitality center, kids state park badge earning program, huge sites, and it was safe. We met a great family and the girls quickly made friends. Our time here was spent crabbing (Hint: it’s cheaper to buy the supplies at Walmart than rent) and eating crab, especially Dungeness crab, beach combing for agates, sea glass and other treasures, finding and exploring amazing tide pools, especially along the outer parts of the jetty at low tide, walking the beach, bike riding many miles, earning junior ranger badges and awards, having big fires with our new friends, creating our own rock polisher for all of our beach findings (thank you Pinterest) and visiting the amazing Hatfield Marine Science Center (Hint: this is donation based as opposed to the costly Oregon Coast Aquarium and it goes to a good cause).

After we headed up to Mount Hood National Forest and back to our trusty Thousand Trails campgrounds. A beautiful campground, dream like scenic views, hiking trails that always exceeded our expectations, local places to get what we needed, and best of all we met great friends in the Young family! An awesome couple and their two boys who are the same age as the girls and by an act of God, literally, we all clicked in a million ways and taught each other a few things. It’s easy to make friends along the way but rarely do all four of us click but we knew we were meant to meet and it was easy to be together, shared a lot of the same values and parenting styles, our kids enjoyed some of the same things while also enjoying learning new hobbies from each other, and we all just happily jelled together.

While in Mount Hood we hiked the Old Salmon River Trail, Ramona Falls Trail, Mirror Lake Trail and, from our campground, the Cascade Streamwatch Trail where there was an underwater viewing area and then stopped at the Mountain View Recreation Area for a snack and playground fun. All of these hikes provided us with exposure to and views of God’s amazing creation. I expected Oregon to be lush and gorgeous but I am truly in awe! We also spent two days in Portland. Our absolute favorite was going to Powell’s Bookstore, the world’s largest independent bookstore housing new and used books, and we went both days we were there. The first day was a Saturday so we went to the Saturday Market, ate some food truck finds, listened to some live music and shopped/putzed. The second trip, after Powell’s, we hit the city block full of food trucks a few blocks away and then Voodoo Donuts (Hint: I think that the Old Dirty Bastard and Voodoo doll were the best) and both were amazing. Both days were enjoyable and we felt like we’d seen most of what we needed to.

Next we move on to Washington and I can not wait to spend time exploring this corner of our country but will greatly miss the Youngs! (The picture below is Brie crying as well pulled away from our new friends…little does she know what’s too come…stay tuned!)

img_3972

 

Arizona to Utah-mazingest!!!!

1 Comment

Although we had great fun in Phoenix chillin’ like villains, we had even more fun in the coming days. Still in Arizona, we hit the Grand Canyon. I feel like this was a big milestone in our trip because it is one of the most iconic, most visited, and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

Honestly, Shaun and I expected to get there, look out at the canyon, be in awe of it’s largness, and that be that. Once again, to our surprise there was so much more to it than that. It was sooo much larger than we’d ever imagined, so much more beautiful, and had so many different facets to it. It literally moved me to tears the beauty and overall momentous experience of our being there.

Day 1 we arrived early at the park, hit the Visitor Center for our Jr Ranger books, and decided to conquer the whole red trail of the South Rim, approximately 5 miles. It was a little brisk as we started the day but figured we have NJ blood and can handle it! Two miles in the wind picked up a lot and it became unfun. We, along with everyone else at the park, rushed to the shuttle bus lines to get the heck out to there. What we had seen and experienced already had left us pumped for Day 2.

Day 2, we got there a bit late, waited to get through the ranger check-in for an hour, it took us another hour to get the shuttle to pick up our hike where we’d left off, and by the time we arrived to our start point it had taken us three hours. So we have learned to get to the parks earlllllly!!! We finished our hike and felt great about it! We also saw a lot of elk which was killer!

img_0498Day 3 we woke to watch the sunrise. Running a little bit late, we rushed leading to a speeding ticket in the Grand Canyon by a Park Ranger. Buuuuut we made it for the sunrise and it was spectacular! After attending a fossil trek, the girls earned their Jr Ranger badges. MOM TIP: If I haven’t mentioned it before, the girls love earning their Jr Ranger badges at the National Parks/Monuments/etc…  Not only do they learn so much while we are in the parks, Shaun and I learn a lot too. It’s a great way for the whole family to learn about the place you’re in, be engaged, and collect something memorable.

We loved watching the sunrise so much that we went to watch it again Day 4. Thankfully we did so sans a speeding ticket and, again, it was totally worth the early alarm. Two early mornings led us to a nice down day. Hanging at the campground, going to watch the IMAX Grand Canyon movie (TIP: the movie is dated, like from the 80’s, and a waste of money), and some family fun card games rounded out the rest of the day.

A little insider info…we have really learned to love playing card games together and do it a lot in our evenings. Finding card games that keep Shaun entertained (yes, that’s my husband), while making sure the girls (ages 10 and 7) can grasp the concept and abilities is a bit challenging but doable. We have a few favorites, Quixx, Dutch Blitz, and Phase 10 are our favorites right now. I am also working on teaching them how to play Rummy to get to 500 Rummy which is my favorite card game and Shaun and I play that a lot.

img_0592After the Grand Canyon we ventured out of Arizona to Utah. What did we know of Utah…NADA! No expectations, real bucket list items or high hopes. With that said we headed toward the MOAB area to check out Canyonlands and Arches. I’d seen lots of pictures of Arches and knew that our pictures would be epic but other that than that’s that.

Day 1 we headed to the Canyonlands…WOW! It blew us away! We took the Grand View Point trail and the views, terrain, and overall greatness of this park surprised us in a most pleasant way. We drove through and stopped at some of the view points which were more and more breathtaking each time. Lastly, we hiked the Mesa Arch trail to see one of the most famous arches, the Mesa Arch, our first arch of the trip, and it was a definite highlight of this day. Then the girls earned their Jr Ranger badges, I bought our magnet and our post card, and we got our signature pic in front of the park sign to end the day.

Day 2 makes it to one of my top days on our journey and made me well up multiple times. We woke up our girls at 4:30am but they weren’t complaining because the Easter bunny had come. After finding Easter eggs and checking out their baskets we all dressed in hiking clothes to head to the Arches. We arrived at La Sal Mountain Overlook at 6:15am to attend an Easter Sunrise Church Service. God was most present on this Holy morning with his astounding creation surrounding us while the sun rose, singing beautiful worship songs, and being able to start the day remembering how good God is.

After the service, we drove to, ironically, a 4 mile trail called the Devil’s Garden. This trail was marked, and not mis-marked in anyyyy way, difficult. The hike itself was amazing, maneuvering up boulders, fancy footwork, and sandy slickrock was required, and we were super impressed how well the girls did. Along the path were a few arches, but most magnificent was Double O Arch. Determined to see the most iconic arch of all, Delicate Arch, we made our way to the next trailhead. Thinking it was 2 miles out and back only to arrive and find out it was 3 miles out and back, we were still going forward. Unknowing we started the 1.5 miles to get to Delicate Arch  which was a 600 foot elevation increase and there was no shade at all as it was almost all slickrock. Wiped from the first hike, now hotter out, and having gotten up at 4:30am..it kicked out butts As we rounded the narrow trail along a mountain with a very far drop down, the view of the arch made the hard work totally worth it. The hike back was a dream and I finnnnnallllly got to see some petroglyphs en route. We arrived home, yes to our home on wheels, to enjoy some much deserved Easter bunny treats and libations/lemonade and enjoy our glorious God given day. Thankful for our abilities to do what we did, free to celebrate our King of Kings, and blessed to rest together as a family living life to the fullest on this journey.

Day 3 in MOAB, aka Shaun’s favorite day, we rented an ATV and headed out to the trails. We saw some real dinosaur bones off of Dinosaur Trail, the gorgeous Uranium Arch, and had a BLAST!!! Uranium Arch was one of my highlights of the day because in the National Parks you are forbidden to climb on the arches but being out in the desert without anyone around, the girls and I climbed onto the arch and got the coveted arch picture that I will definitely treasure forever. Bahaing through the lands just the four of us, barely seeing anyone, surrounded by some of the most beautiful views, we couldn’t be happier. A lot of whooping, hands in the air, and screaming fun was had.

Day 4 we were beat! We brought the Arches Jr Ranger books to the Visitor Center, the girls received their badges, we putzed the shops in MOAB and got a yummy lunch. Unsure of one of our stops I asked the ranger for advice and he was so knowledgeable and patient. The rangers are usually a wealth of knowledge but this ranger was super. Thankfully I asked him, got his advice and went home to cancel one our reservations, made another one and did a bunch of research for our new stop en route.

This morning we are setting off to another local in Utah, which has quickly become one of our top states. However, before our departure we had a HUGE RV life fail. Our toilet overflowed in our master bathroom penetrating other parts of the RV and there was a lot of overflow! This required a Walmart stop before arriving at the next campground since I used all of our bath towels, beach towels, throw blankets, door mat, paper towels and kitchen towels to clean up the mess and a lot of extra time out of our day. Our second mishap of the day occurred when we were about 10 miles from our campground, ready to settle in and chill out. A sign stating “small tunnel ahead” appeared. After asking a ranger he said you needed a permit to go through annnnnnd it already closed for the day. Long story short we had to drive a big loop around Zion to get to our campground that took another 1 1/2 hours. I always check the campground websites because sometime they give you tips for driving a big, heavy, long vehicle but this campground failed me. We did arrive to the best site they had, the clearest, starriest night we’ve ever seen, and just peace. You live and learn and recover from the hiccups in life!

Here’s some fun normal life pix of our life this week!