Day 11 - Big Sur, CA

Our night at the Red Roof Inn in Lompoc was our first disappointing motel stay of the trip.  What a bummer!  I won't relive all of the details here, except to say that at approximately 11:30 p.m., we woke to a large group of foreign tourists trying to enter our locked room.  They even yelled and banged on the door when their key wouldn't work!  When I called the main desk, they gave a short, annoyed apology - they had made a wrong room assignment.  Ugh!

Suffice it to say, we were anxious to get out of there and head up the Central Coast!  We were headed to Big Sur and we couldn't wait!

One of our first stops was Montana de Oro State Park.  We hiked down to Sandspit Beach.  It was awesome!

The view from the top.

The beach path heading down.

We couldn't believe how empty this area was.  It was amazing!

We walked the beach and enjoyed the views.  We found sand crabs and kelp.  We EVEN found a sting ray carcass!

Look what we found!!!

This was a little boys' dream beach hike!  

Next, we hopped back in the Suburban and headed to the Elephant Seal Rookery! On the way, we stopped at a beach on the roadside to search for beautiful rocks with some other rockhounds.  

It was very cool to see the elephant seals at the Rookery!  They are in a protected place, so we couldn't get on the beach, but we were close enough to see their cute faces and hear them "talking!"  They didn't seem fazed by the people checking them out and taking photographs.  They just relaxed on the beach, sleeping, talking, and periodically throwing sand onto their own back and bellies to cool down.  

After the brief stop to check out the wildlife, we headed north, again, on Highway 1.  Next stop: Big Sur Campground! 

We couldn't believe our eyes when we pulled into the Big Sur Campground (www.bigsurcamp.com/).   This is a privately-owned campground between Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean...and right on the Big Sur River!  It was gorgeous!  

This family-friendly campground has great campsites, the coolest forest campground EVER, free coffee and tea every day, and nightly quiet time that is actually observed!  It was BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING, LOVELY!  We can't wait to go back!  

Big Sur was our first real introduction to the redwoods....and they were AWESOME!

And, how's this for a playground in the forest?!

The playground had a REAL treehouse too!  All natural!

We ended our first evening here by dipping our toes in the Big Sur River which meandered its way through the campground.  It was shallow and cold and felt refreshing after a long day of adventures!

Day 10 - Santa Barbara, CA

We spent my birthday exploring Santa Barbara!  What a beautiful place to spend the day!  We got there around lunch time and headed to the Bay Roadhouse for a delicious lunch and a birthday margarita! 

Afterwards, we rented a surrey and rode up and down the beach path with the boys! 

We saw a marina full of sailboats, kite surfers, oil rigs off in the distance, house boats, beach bums, sand sculptor, a busy skate park, a very unique bus, a drum circle in the park, beautiful flowers, lifeguard towers!  And, that was just on the beach path surrey ride!

sailboats at the marina

kite surfer

oil rig

cool, old houseboat

sand sculpture

crazy bus - thousands of toys & figurines were glued to the outside

drum circle in the park

Birds of Paradise

lifeguard tower

The surrey ride was great exercise for Dan and I.  It’s not easy work hauling this family around – plus you have to add the weight of the surrey too!  We decided to wind down with a walk to Chase Palm Park.  We found a carousel to ride and the shipwreck playground!

After a wonderful and busy day of play, we headed north to Lompoc to sleep for the night.

Day 9 - Carpinteria, CA

 Although we enjoyed seeing Davy and Curran in L.A., we were looking forward to moving away from the city and toward the ocean today!  The drive to Carpinteria was not long, but traffic was thick for a while.  Soon after things started to thin out a bit, there we were!  We saw the Pacific Ocean on the California coast for the first time!  Horray!

We found our campsite at Carpinteria State Beach quickly.  We were close to the entrance and right on the beach!  The campground had close quarters for what we normally enjoy, but being on the beach and within walking distance to the small town of Carpinteria was very cool.  We set up camp and headed to the beach!

The boys LOVED playing in the ocean waves and digging in the soft beach sand!

After a camp dinner, we walked into town to the Island Brewing Company.  They have a “Buy a Friend a Beer” wall and our friend, Steve, had called from Colorado earlier in the week and bought two beers for us for when we arrived!  What an awesome surprise!  We sat enjoying the views of the Pacific while drinking delicious brews.  The boys liked watching the people there while they ate pretzels.  Then, we found a pretty cool playground on our way back to the campsite!  Fun!

We ended our stay at Carpinteria the next morning (and my 35^th birthday!) with a walk on the beach at low tide, searching for pretty stones and shells to keep as souvenirs.  Oh happy day!

Day 7-8 - Los Angeles

As we drove across the desert from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, we watched the outside temperature go higher and higher on the car’s thermometer.  At one point it said it was 107 degrees outside!  It felt like an oven out there!  We were very thankful for our air conditioning!  We drove through miles and miles of hot, dry desert.  As we traveled, we thought about those who came before us – during the Gold Rush era – without the benefit of plush automobiles, air conditioning, and paved highways.  What a long journey they must have endured!

We were thrilled to finally see green as we neared Los Angeles.  You wouldn’t necessarily think that you would see lots of green as you got close to L.A., but after traveling through the Mojave Desert it was beautiful!  We watched the temperature drop outside and the surroundings grow lush.  We stayed in a hotel in Monrovia, a suburb on the eastern edge of the city, so we didn’t have to contend with horrible traffic on the way.  One thing we were surprised about was the amount of smog – so much so that it obstructed our views of the San Gabriel Mountains.  Although the temperature was perfect in L.A., we like our clear views of the Rocky Mountains much better.

Can  you see that mountain in the background?

We passed by many streets and other locations we had heard about before – Santa Monica Blvd., Sunset Blvd., Mulholland Dr., Capitol Records, Hollywood Blvd., and Dodger Stadium.  

The biggest thrill of our visit to L.A. was visiting our nephew, Davy, who is a grad student at USC.  We had a wonderful visit and a delicious dinner with him the first night we were in town.  The next day, he and his girlfriend, Curran, showed us around Hollywood.  It was cool to see the sights there, but most of all it was fun to hang out with the two of them! 

Curran and Davy

In Hollywood, we walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame and saw lots of “stars.”

Vin Scully - famous sportscaster

Kermit the Frog - our favorite muppet

Along the way, we saw different movie characters roaming the streets of Hollywood. 

Darth Vader

We also visited the famous handprints and footprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Aidan and Ryder had a lot of fun on the musical staircase.

This piano staircase played a different note each time you moved to a new step.

We saw the famous Hollywood sign.

A fun surprise was seeing a Mennonite choir singing on the sidewalk.

We ended the day with a relaxed evening at Davy’s apartment – visiting, playing, swimming, and doing laundry.  It was a great ending to a fun and busy day in the city.

Both Aidan and Ryder say this was their absolute favorite part of the entire trip because they got to see their cousin, Davy, and swim in his pool. 

Day 6 - Las Vegas

It was a long drive from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas.  One of the highlights of the trip to Vegas was a visit with an old friend of mine, so we wanted to make decent time.  We woke up early, packed up the car and headed out as soon as we could.  We were excited to drive through Zion National Park on our way!

Can you see the twisty-turny road?!

We enjoyed a beautiful drive through the park and a short, hot picnic near the Visitor's Center.  It would be another great place to visit when we have more time to explore.

Soon, we drove the short stretch through Arizona and then we were finally in Nevada.  What a long, dry, hot drive.  It seemed to get hotter and hotter the closer we got to Vegas.  At one point we were excited to finally see the city off in the distance - we were tired of being on the road.  Ryder, of course, had to go to the bathroom again, but there was no stop in sight.  We ended up needing to do an emergency roadside potty break.  As I stepped out, I thought I was stepping into an oven!  The heat hit me like a wall.  We hurried to get back into the air conditioned car ASAP!

Vegas was big and bright and there was so much to see!  We gawked at the big buildings as Dan drove us to the strip.  We found Circus Circus pretty quickly.  When I stepped inside to check into our room, I was stunned at the number of people just in the lobby!

Our room was nice and clean.  The shower was the best I ever remember taking!  Three days camping can do that for ya!

We explored the games and rides downstairs, then headed for dinner.  My old friend, Shannon, and her husband Bill joined us.  I have known Shannon since we were 3 years old, but we haven't seen each other in about 11 years.  It was so good to see her and get to catch up!  They hung out with us as we watched the acrobatic act and played some games with the kids.  We headed to bed late that night, tired, happy, and overwhelmed!

The next morning, we decided we were ready to leave the crazy huge-ness of Circus Circus.  We had major sensory overload.  We enjoyed a nice, quiet breakfast at a small Denny's a few miles away.  Shannon and Bill joined us again.  Seeing Shannon was definitely the highlight of my trip to Vegas!  It was so good to catch up with her and introduce her to our boys.  She is one of those friends who, no matter how long we've been apart, it will seem like no time has passed when we finally get together again.  Hopefully it won't be quite as long the next time, though!

The boys loved this little palm tree.

The absolute best part of Las Vegas was seeing my dear friend, Shannon!