Big Bear for Christmas

We dropped the RV off at an RV Service Center, and drove the CR-V up to Big Bear.  There is no way we would have been able to get the RV up there!  maybe during the summer, but the snow showed up at about 5,000 ft, and we were staying at about 7,500 ft!  By the time we drove up the street where the house was, the road was covered.  The kids had  a great time sledding, thankfully the house had a good selection of sleds.

 

 On the day after Christmas we got 4" of fresh powder, that made everything look so peaceful!

The house was really great, it had a very cozy living room.  We were able to find a tree, and I brought some ornaments with us, so we were all set as far as that goes.

 

Genny gets a fresh baked Ginger Cookie - yummy! Mario is convinced we need to get a wood stove like the one here.  It kept the entire house comfy cozy warm.

 

 Christmas morning before the opening of presents, don't they look so excited - not like they're tired at all, getting me up before 7am!!










Michael with his new train, this was before he set it up under the tree! 

The trip back down the mountain, beautiful snow in the trees.

From here we went to Anaheim, where we spent nearly three weeks.  We had a great time there, and the kids really got comfortable riding around.  I'll have more about the Rose Parade and Disneyland next time!

Pismo Beach

In Pismo Beach we stayed at an RV park that was right on the beach.  It was a really nice campground, and the sunsets were amazing!  

The kids once again found all the good places to bike to.  They've all been biking a lot, and are getting more comfortable finding their own way around.  Of course, they always wear helmets, go in groups and have a cell phone with them.

For Hanukkah, on two of the nights, they got gift cards to Starbucks and Subway, and they really enjoyed the opportunity to go out for lunch on their own!

Thanks so much to the Phillips family for our RV menorah, a little bit more secure with the flames contained!

From Pismo Beach we moved on to Bakersfield, to a campground that we had stayed at on our 2008 trip.  It has a restaurant that is well known in the Bakersfield community, and one of very few where there are regulars that come to it from outside the campground.  Mario and I had a great dinner out there, and spent a few cocktail hours chatting with the locals.  Mario also really enjoyed the hot tub they had there after his run! 

We moved to Malibu Beach after Bakersfield, and had a site overlooking the ocean,

...which led to some more beautiful sunsets.

While we were there we also got to see a group of dolphins swimming by. 

Malibu had some great shopping, which was good since Christmas was fast approaching.  We left Malibu on  Sunday, the 23rd to go up to Big Bear, more on that soon...

Watsonville and Monterey

Okay, so I've been bad again...I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post, but the holidays got in my way (I know, it's no excuse)

When I last posted, we were in Watsonville, at a charming little town campground.  Pinto Lake Park had  a nice lake, a playground, and a baseball diamond.  We had a couple of fun games while we were there.

Baseball was fun, and on Saturday (Dec 8th), we went into Monterey and wandered around.  There's a large park in the center that was created by Dennis the Menace creator, Hank Ketcham.

The Dolphin statue was down by the bay, the lion water fountain was in the park.

On Sunday, we wandered down highway 1, along the coast of California.  It was a beautiful drive, and we even saw a pod of whales off the coast as we were driving.  Some beautiful coast photos, with seals too.

 The whales were a bit hard to see, but the spouts were unmistakable.

We also got a nice glimpse of Hearst Castle.

Next up is Pismo Beach, and Hanukkah, I'll try to get that in tomorrow...

San Francisco!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we were able to go into San Francisco to see the sights.  On Saturday we drove in, and stopped first at the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was a beautiful day, and we had wonderful views.  It also meant that everyone else was out!  We lucked out and found someone pulling out of a parking spot that no one else was waiting for.   Great picture, huh?

We had a map that had a 49 mile rout on it, which we followed to some extent.  Unfortunately I wasn't thinking about routing, and had the stops mixed up a bit.  We wound up trying to go to many of the spots in reverse order, which would have been fine, except that there are a lot a one way streets that we were trying to go the wrong way on!  Oh well, we had a nice drive around anyway.

On Sunday we walked to the Larkspur Ferry, about a mile from the campground, and took it in to the city.  it was a great ride, and took about an hour to get there.   It was nice inside, but we were only able to get a table for 4.  Ryan really didn't want his picture taken!

We walked from the Ferry building down to  Pier 39, where all the touristy shops are, to do a bit of shopping.   We also looked at the sea lions, and had some lunch.  It was another beautiful day.

On the walk back from the ferry, the kids had fun waving to the cars.  They even got a few beeps from the drivers.

On Monday I traveled up to Guerneville, about 60 miles northwest of where we were staying, to do some onsite training at two of our properties, West Sonoma Inn, and Applewood Inn.  While I was there Mario had some alone time with the kids, and they played a great game of Monopoly.

Over the following weekend we took a break from the RV and stayed at the Hyatt in Santa Clara.  It was great to not have to go anywhere with all the rain we've been having.  We really lucked out in that it hasn't affected us too much.  The one crimp it did put in our plans is that we had planned to stay this week at New Brighton State Beach, near Santa Cruz.  They had had quite a bit of rain, and there were a lot of trees that had come down, so the campground was closed.  We moved on to another small town, Watsonville, and are now staying at Pinto Lake Park, which is a town park.  It's a pretty park with a lake, playground, and a ball field.  Next weekend we're going to visit Monterey.

The Redwoods

On November 17th we made our way to California's Redwood forest.  On our last cross country trip in 2008 we went to Sequoia National Park, which is home to the largest tree by mass, the General Sherman Tree.  It was enormous, 45 feet across at the base and still growing.  It adds about another large tree in width every year.  The Redwoods are home to the tallest trees, some reaching over 300 feet. We stayed in the park, and had a fabulous campsite with some old growth trees in it. 

 Driving through the groves makes you feel really small!  We had some great photo opportunities, and Ryan found a great use for the panoramic photo option on his new Ipod!  This was Stout Grove, named for an explorer by the name of Stout, but the trees seemed pretty stout to me too!

We found another great spot for photo ops...

I love this one, I think it's going to be our album cover!

Apparently this is where they filmed Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - this was the Ewoks' home.





All the kids had a great time climbing and exploring.  Ryan really liked this action shot
       
 

Our time in the Redwoods was short-lived, though, not long after this photo the rain started and didn't stop for three days.  We wound up leaving the park early to try to escape the rain.  We found ourselves arriving in San Francisco a few days early, but at least we escaped the rain!

Seattle then Portland (again!)

On November 10th we left Lakebay to go to Seattle.  Mario, Ryan, and Michael stopped at the American Automobile Museum and had a great time looking at all the cars.

Genny, Jason, and I went to the King Tut exhibit.  It was really cool to see all the things they found with him. Apparently since he died so young, he wasn't very well known in his time, which is why thieves didn't rob his tomb as much as the other Pharaohs.  We spent about an hour and a half going through it...well worth the price of admission!

On Sunday, we robbed our own piggy bank and got tickets to the Seahawks game.  It was a bit chilly, but we bundled ourselves up, and enjoyed the game.

It was a good game (the Seahawks beat the Jets 28-7 - sorry Josh), and we were plenty warm.  We wound up parking across the street from the stadium, and getting there and back was relatively painless.

On Monday we left the Seattle area for Portland, Oregon.  Tuesday was Michael's birthday and he had asked to go out to an Italian restaurant.  We decided to back to Portland to go to this little Italian place that Mario and I had tried (and loved!) when we were in Portland in October.  It's called Abella Italian Kitchen in Wilsonville, and if you're ever in the area, we highly recommend it.  Mario and I even went back there for dinner on Friday!  You can find them online at www.abellaitaliankitchen.com.

We left Portland on Saturday, the 17th to go to the Redwoods.  It was rainy, but still beautiful.   I'll post about that tomorrow, with lots more pictures!  Sorry for the lack of them today!

Lakebay

On Monday, November 5th we boarded the plane to head back to reality, ie northwest Washington.  I think we all wanted to to stay a bit longer, except for Mario who was feeling a bit warm since the humidity had picked up.  

Karl, Robert, and Mario

While in Lakebay, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a college friend of mine, Becky.  It was really great to see her.  On Wednesday, Mario's brother Karl joined us.  We took advantage of the cool nights to have a few bonfires, which of course led to some photo opportunities.

We also had dinner with Mario's nieces, Sam and Keri, Sam's two boys, and her husband.  It was great to see them all grown up!!

Sam, Brandon, Sean, and Devon

Genny and Sean

Jason and Sean

On Saturday we left Lakebay for Seattle, Mario, Ryan, and Michael heading to the Car Museum, and Genny, Jason and I to the Pacific Science Museum for the King Tut Exhibit.  More on those tomorrow...