#97. California Dreamin'

It seemed like ages (thanks to Covid!) in the making, but on June 22, we embarked on our first BIG family vacation, to California!

It was only a short stop (and place to pick up our car), but we arrived in California in San Francisco...

...where we grabbed a sandwich and ate lunch taking in beautiful views from Crissy Field of the...

...beautiful Golden Gate Bridge.

Surely we will come back to explore this city someday!

After our quick San Francisco check-in, we headed south on our way to Santa Cruz,

and made a stop at the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve, to participate in our trip's first (of many) hike up the hill.

Windy Hill is the only treeless spot in the area.  Once on top of the hill, we looked inland and spotted Stanford University, 

looked back towards where we came from (San Francisco),

and the twins took in their first ever views of the Pacific Ocean (when Luke had his eyes openn!)...

 

...which we drove to shortly thereafter for a breezy, chilly first encounter!

Santa Cruz was mostly about the Beach Boardwalk...

...which had a full amusement park and arcade!!

Thank goodness these two were tall enough to ride all the rides!!

This was the twins' first roller coaster, the 'Undertow',...

...which Luke rode like a champ!!

Other fun rides included the 'Cliff Hanger', 

'Bumper Cars', 

the popular and wet 'Log Ride',

and an even bigger roller coaster called...

...the Giant Dipper!!

Wow that was fun!!

Roller coasters weren't the only highlight of Santa Cruz,

there were also tall redwood trees to admire in a state park on the Redwood Grove Trail.

The trail was nice,

the trees were magnificent,

and there was even some wildlife (deer and woodpecker) too!

After the short hike we visited 'Roaring Camp', 

and hopped aboard the 'Dixiana' steam locomotive for a ride through the Redwood Grove.

All aboard!!

This time we weaved through the giant redwoods,  

and got out for a stop at the top of Bear Mountain,

where we de-boarded the train and walked amongst the grove.

This cowboy and cowgirl had a great time visiting the trees!

After leaving Santa Cruz, we took a short drive down Route 1 to our next destination, the beautiful Monterey Peninsula.

We arrived on a perfect day, so the first thing on our agenda was...

...kayaking in Monterey Harbor.

A recent shark attack in the harbor area didn't allow us to kayak too far into the harbor, 

but it was far enough to see and hear (play video below) piles of sea lions from a close distance!!

We floated past basking harbor seals, some 'floating' on top of the water and others atop harbor rocks, before paddling back to shore. 

After kayaking, we walked the Recreation Trail along the coast of Monterey Bay,

which led to beautiful coastal views, 

and a walk through Cannery Row.

Back toward the water, we followed the trail, 

past more beached seals, 

and picture perfect scenery.

We ended our walk at Lover's Point Park,

which afforded us some great family, 

photographic opportunities...

...including these 'glamour' rock shots!!

The next day we took a stroll through Carmel, 

which was quaint, 

but a shopper's paradise wasn't quite our scene.

So, we checked out the Carmel Mission, 

and found someone to take our photo!

Next, we headed just outside Carmel to Point Lobos, a beautiful coastal state park,

and hiked the Cypress Grove Trail where we saw...

you guessed it...a lot of cypress trees!!

There was also a lot of beautiful coastal scenery as well, 

including this big rock full of...

...nesting cormorants...

...that look very cool close-up!!

The twins took part in a trail scavenger hunt, 

and got to cross off sea lions from this viewpoint!

Point Lobos was definitely a great place to visit.

After leaving the park, we got back on the road and drove and spent the rest of the day driving down Route 1,

and soon reached the iconic Bixby Bridge.  

Despite the coastal fog, it was a beautiful view, 

and even more so on the other side looking back to the Pacific!

After seeing more beautiful miles of coast we made it to 

McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park,

and took a short hike to this coastal waterfall in the park.

It was a day of so many stunning, coastal views!

The next day, before heading out of town, we made one last visit to the Pacific Ocean

to say goodbye for this trip.

The twins took one last walk in the sand and rocks, 

and one last photo with the Pacific Ocean backdrop.

As if we hadn't experienced enough, we next traveled 4 hours to a more central part of the state to visit 

Yosemite National Park...which proved to be an unforgettable experience!

On our first day in the park, we drove north of the Valley along the Tioga Pass Road.  

Our first stop was at Olmsted Point which was just the beginning of some incredible views!!

Who posed at Olmsted Point better?!?

We enjoyed gazing at Clouds Rest (with no clouds resting atop those peaks today!)...

...and the 'backside' of Half-Dome in the distance.

Half-Dome framed nicely with the pine trees.

We hopped back in the car and a few more miles down the road reached...

...Lembert Dome...

...and our first hike in Yosemite National Park.

It wasn't easy, but 'some' of us made it to the base of the dome (see tiny climbers behind the twins)...

...and one of us made it very close to the top (when it's crazy windy and you have a 7-year old in tow on a surface where one bad step might be your last, sometimes it's ok to settle for 'almost'!). 

We got an even better view of Cloud's Rest from Lembert Dome, 

and our first look at Cathedral Peak.

These two were spent, but mighty impressive completing their first big girl/boy hike!

On our way back on Tioga Road, we saw more of Cathedral Peak. 

the extremely high elevation Tuolomne Meadows, 

and took a mini-dip in Tenaya Lake.  

After a long day in the park, there's no place like home (or our cabin at the Evergreen Lodge)

and catching the sunset steps from our cabin door.  

On Day 2 at Yosemite, we headed to Yosemite Valley on a boiling 95+ degree day!

Waterfalls quickly became the theme of the day.  Unfortunately, due to park construction, this was as close as we could get to Bridalveil Falls.

After finding parking (which took longer than we would have liked), and a 0.75 mile walk on an unshaded trail (it was hot!), we made it to the Mist Trail trailhead.

This is labeled a must-do hike at Yosemite, and the beginning of the hike sure was an uphill challenge. 
 

It wasn't easy, but somehow we made it to a footbridge for this view of Vernal Falls.  We could have stopped here, but the twins decided to climb the 600 steps to the top of the falls... 

...and we are glad they did, because we quickly found out why they called this hike the 'Mist Trail'.

It may have been 600 steps, but the mist coming off the falls helped us forget about the challenge (and heat!!),

and focus more on the amazing journey and its views.

Hiking to the side and up to

the top of the waterfall, was an amazing experience!!

After a break and some lunch, we checked out Yosemite Falls...seeing Upper...

and taking the short hike to see the Lower.  

With hiking done for the day, we spent the balance of our time taking in more scenic views...including El Capitan (from El Capitan Meadow), 

Yosemite's famous 'Valley View', 

followed by postcard picture perfect 'Tunnel View',  

which helped us complete our two perspectives of Half Dome (left seen on previous day from Olmsted Point and right from Tunnel View).

We could have easily spent more time at Yosemite, but sadly our time was coming to an end.

Before checking out of our lodge, the kids took one last swim (Clare in middle, Luke jumping on the left side), 

had one last ride on the zipline, 

played one more game of chess, 

and climbed the rope course one more time!

On our way out of Yosemite, we drove to the Hetch Hetchy entrance, 

and saw the amazing O'Shaugnessy Dam built to provide water for the residents of the San Francisco area (it was once a big battle between conservationists and politics, which the latter won).

We walked across the dam, 

checked out this waterfall, 

and enjoyed our final Yosemite views.  

The final part of our California Adventure led us to...

...the state capital Sacramento!!

We were so excited to visit Great Aunt Trish (GAT), Great Uncle Terry (GUT) and their dog, Finse.

GAT & GUT showed us around town and we realized Sacramento was a pretty cool city.

GAT & GUT were also gracious enough to care for (and spoil!!) the twins so their dads could spend a couple of days exploring Napa Valley.  

Sacramento was a great city to end a fantastic trip to beautiful California.  We will definitely be back and look forward to future family adventures!!