California Adventure with the Rogers boys

Names will not be changed for protection of the not-so-innocent, but it has been long enough that my memory may be sketchy (at best.)

On Tuesday morning around 5:45 I stressfully and with great mathematical planning I attempted to load up my car in the most compact way possible to make room for the boys in my car. I drove over to their hotel to pick them up. My cell phone decided that would be a lovely morning to go berserk. I had no ability to call anyone, text, get directions, or relay and meet up with the boys. Luckily, I was on time and they were down in the lobby right as I arrived; this was surprising as I was supposed to let them know when I was on my way. Good timing all around.

Greg, the boys, and I loaded up my car (and we fit, but the person in the back seat had to beware of hazards falling on them every time we took a sharp turn, which on all of our whip-back roads happened often. Max had a "broken pelvis, legs, shattered knees...." before the trip was done. It is amazing how he could move on those shattered bones (I hope you know there was a great deal of exaggerating in those comments. He was fine; no broken anythings.) We then went to grab some breakfast treats at Starbucks and set off. We were on the road before 7 AM.

Our very first stop was at a solar power plant on the border of Nevada and California. It looked like a shimmering lake, in the middle of the desert. There were huge reflective mirrors reflecting light back down onto the solar panels. We attempted to drive as close as possible to them to see what they were. We wound up not getting very close at all, but we got out of the car for a while and took some pictures anyway.

Then, back into the car until we reached Bakersfield, CA. There we stopped at a Walmart Neighborhood Market to get some groceries for our trip. I reminded the boys, several times, that space was very limited and that they should only pick out food for three days. Whatever they thought they could eat: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. We had a whole system. One child would pick the hiking activities for the day and the other one got to pick the dinner meal. This worked great, until we went to implement that plan - and due to my own failings I had to mix things up. We worked it out, however, I would like to point out that I still have all 3 of the apples Max thought he would eat, and I have about 10 go-gurt tubes here in Karin's freezer. I have untouched hot dog buns, with the help of the Westerens just finished off a container of pringles... In other words, the three day planning didn't go so well. After getting our "goods" we stuffed them in odd little nooks and crannies in the car and set off again.

We stopped at a CA fruit stand somewhere in the mix that day and I learned the fruit an nuts weren't something the boys really desired. The candy and snacks, were more their thing. Um, we decided we could get that elsewhere, so I was going to just buy some oranges for myself. They were amazing! I went to buy my three little oranges and was informed I couldn't pay for them. The owner then went to get MORE oranges and filled a bag. Then, she handed me a flier and said, just order something for someone for Christmas and wouldn't let me pay! Those oranges have been amazing. I still have a few left, but I have loved them. Does anyone need fruit for Christmas?

Finally, we bypassed any of our other stops because we had eaten Subway sandwiches for lunch and were no longer needing a snack or ice cream. I thought that we were very close to our campground when we reached a candy store in Three Rivers (according to Gerty we were only 5 minutes away). I told the boys at that time that when we finished hiking the next day, we could take our trip into town for a treat. They likes that plan, so we pressed on. We entered Sequoia National Park about 4 PM. We stopped at what they term the "Foothills Visitor's Center" to look around and read some signs. It was at that time that I realized our campground was through a whole mess of whip-back roads. I was calling numerous speeding drivers "idiots" and feeling quite green around the gills by the time we finally pulled into our campground. I would truthfully be very happy to never drive on whip-back roads again!

The boys and I decided that we should probably walk around and see the General Sherman tree since it was on the way. We hadn't been out of the car much since lunch and I thought a walk would do us good. Johnny was very nervous that it would be too late; I have no idea what it would be too late for. He is extremely cautious about everything. I have no idea if he just didn't want to take the 1 miles hike, or if he thought I would get lost in the dark, or if he was afraid he wouldn't have time to build a boat at camp, or . . . I don't know, but Max and I had to really convince him that we should do this while we were there. He agreed reluctantly, but I think enjoyed it when we got going.

This, however, was my first experience of Max with a camera. I believe prior to us leaving the parking lot he had taken about 25 photos. To quote Johnny, "He already has his 100 pictures taken." The trees were awe inspiring and I loved the fact that he was interested, however, by the time we got to the VERY FIRST real photo stop, he could no longer locate his lens cover for the camera. We doubled back; we searched; we looked. We went all the way back to the car. I do not know where that lens cap went, but John was quick to point out to me (and only me) that Greg had mentioned that it was OK if Max causes some damage to the camera. He wanted him to have the learning experience of taking photos and caring for the equipment. I didn't get too stressed out at that stage, but I was sad to lose the lens cover. Oh well, we started over again and made our way through the massive giant sequoia trees down to the General Sherman tree and back to the car.

By that time, we had about 25 minutes to our campground, but we didn't know that at the time. We pulled into camp about 8 PM. We learned that our tent site was WAY up on top of a hill. We had to lug all of our supplies up the hill to the spot, but then even at that we didn't have a tent platform like every other site that existed. John and I liked a spot that pretty much covered part of a trail, but Max observed an equally sloping site that wasn't on the trail. His spot made more sense, so we set up the tent. The boys were great assistance. We had the tent up and all of our HEAVY gear pulled up that hill quite quickly. I told the boys that I didn't want to pull out the stove to cook that night, so we all just ate snacks or lunchables or whatever for supper. We were all too tired to even sit by the fire that night, so we just packed everything into the bear box and went to sleep.

That was the night I learned that Johnny grinds his teeth and sleep talks/moves/communicates. Sleep was in rather short supply. Oh, Max had also eaten almost an entire tub of pringles by himself (a mega tube nonetheless); he complained that his stomach hurt some that night. In the morning I suggested that we limit the chip intake from there on out.

The next day, was my first morning with chill in the air. I made a fire for the boys to warm up beside and pulled out breakfast for everyone. At that time I realized that we desperately needed more ice in the cooler to keep the foods safe. So, we drove first over to Kings Canyon, where they were out of ice. We then had to back-track and drive down into Sequoia again to get some ice. We did some shopping at the visitor's center and got the boys some junior ranger books (um, I think I was more into that than they were - as will become evident as this narrative continues.) It was late to mid morning by the time we hauled that ice all the way up the hill to the bear box and got everything situated for the day.

Max was in charge of planning our hikes that day. He wanted to hike Mist Falls, which was an 8 mile hike that started at the END of the King's Canyon road. We had to go all the way through the whole park to get there - all those windy roads...ugh. My teddy bear, Ronnie spoke for me as he complained about the twisting and turning and new to me, his lack of oxygen at the high altitude. Apparently he needed an inhaler.

To my sadness, and Max's, we were completely unable to make it over to the Mist Falls area until about 2 in the afternoon, or later, and it was quite warm by that time. John wanted his Mac and Cheese with hot dogs for supper, but if we took an 8 mile walk AND drove all the way back to camp for supper it would again be 8- 9 PM before we got there! I talked the boys out of the 8 mile hike, which made Johnny VERY HAPPY! We opted to hike about 5 miles along a meadow and along a rushing flood stage river to some waterfalls. It was a beautiful hike. Many pictures were taken, hankies were dipped into the raging waters when I said it was safe enough (both boys I am sure believe that I am TOO CAUTIOUS and I am sure they didn't appreciate my frequent reminders that we were about 3 hours away from emergency rooms, so some added thought thought should go into some of the climbing and jumping endeavors) and an adventure was had. At the end of the hike, I managed to talk the boys into eating burgers at the nearby lodge (discussing all the while that cherries don't have protein nor do chips and crackers - or nachos) and getting an ice cream treat there. I failed at getting them back to the candy store in Three Rivers, but they still got ice cream.

We then drove back to our campground where Max hung around in the hammock for a while and then pronounced he was TIRED! He went to bed. John roasted one marshmallow over the fire and decided he was tired too. We all turned in early that night and even sleeping on the sloped hard ground felt good.

The following day was to be our final full day at Sequoia/Kings - Dorst Creek. I told the boys that I would like to NOT drive all day long. We took the shuttle bus system around into the Sequoia National Park. We hiked a 2 mile loop up in some beautiful meadows - climbing on fallen trees and seeing yellow bellied marmots. The number of people up in the meadow was fewer than other places, so I really enjoyed the freedom we had to play there. The only downside of walking up there was that John wanted to ENSURE that we didn't walk too far yet Max wanted to explore. Then, disaster of disasters, Max's camera battery died. I was very sad for him, but we didn't have access to ANY WAY to charge it, as far as I was aware. He knew his dad had wanted him to charge it every night, but in a tent that is hard to do.

John's second stop for us, after the meadow was to climb to the top of Moro Rock. This was one of the highest points in the park. It offered views in all directions. There was a CRAZY amount of people just in a line waiting to climb. I had to remind a few times that we couldn't just charge in front of people that were already waiting to go where we were trying to go. After just a few reminders, however, both boys started to learn the trail ediquette that most adults could learn. While on the top, I knew that Max wasn't super happy about something; to this moment I don't know if he was tired, hungry, or sad that his battery had died on his phone. He never once complained, but I knew something wasn't quite right. John, on the other hand, mentioned that while he loved the hike the height made him a little cautious. He is not a fan of heights, so this was a pretty big deal for him!

Once down from the top, where there was absolutely NO POSSIBLE place to have our lunch (which was what the boys wanted to do) we found a log and had our lunch. All of our adventurous spirit and good attitudes returned after that.

We boarded the bus at that point and went to explore the "Congress Trail." We did the full loop, which John attempted to talk us out of many times yet he still had the energy to climb almost every rock and stump around.

We went back earlier to camp that night. We had Max's meal (fettuccine) and had some smores when done. We read stories around the fire and the boys played catch some.

The following morning we had to pack up everything and carry it ALL down to our car. I think it took us until almost 11 AM to get out of the campground and on the road up to Yosemite. On the way out of the park, however, we did stop at a Ranger station so the boys could turn in their books and get their junior ranger badges. The only time they worked on them was prior to breakfast in the morning. For me, it was a time where they were sitting still, asking questions, and busy. I thought it was great, but I think they thought it was homework. I will say, however, Max wrote a VERY FUNNY letter about his odd aunt. :)

We drove North in CA until about 1 PM when we stopped for groceries and lunch in Fresno, CA. This was the very first time we had any sort of cell phone service the whole time in CA, so we called the boys' mom to check in. We also got any remaining important groceries. I learned some very valuable lessons the prior three days in Sequoia: 1. I must eat EVERYTHING - I even gave Johnny a hard time because he took one bite out of his "favorite" jerky and threw it away because it was old and hard. Well, I told him that just because it wasn't perfect didn't mean it was garbage. The poor boy looked at me with huge eyes and tried very politely to inform me that it hadn't been refrigerated so it was bad. I scoffed at him and thought I'd try one myself. HA! Um, can you say drier than shoe leather? I had to throw the whole bag away. I guess the heat near the grand canyon, and I less than perfectly sealed bag did those jerky pieces in. NO MORE. I told him I was sorry for giving him a hard time. 2. Crushed pringles can't be eaten. 3. Crushed zebra cakes can't be eaten....basically, crushed foods can't be eaten. We had to be very careful when packing our food so it would remain perfect for consumption. Yeah, that doesn't happen in my world, but I will try to learn to do that for them! Anyway, I got tired of the pringles and zebra cake struggles so I bought travel snack packs for them and that solved some of the problems.

We got up to our campground near Yosemite (again through MANY twisting and turning roads) about 6 PM. Because I had purchased lunch for the boys in Fresno I asked if they would be content to eat snacks/lunch foods for supper. They were happy with that. Then, after setting up camp we had a discussion. We saw how long it took to tear down and get on the road that morning and I realized that it would be VERY hard to get on the road and all the way into San Francisco for the boys' flight home on Monday. The campground we were at had a river to play in, mini golf (which was so poorly maintained that the boys and I called it inim flog to make it a different game all together), pool tables, tether ball, etc. It was also supposed to have cell service and internet. HA! Johnny wanted clean laundry and Max needed his camera charged, so I asked if they could play out at the sports things so that I could work on some of that. I also needed to use some of the time to search for a hotel room a bit closer to San Fran making it easier to get to the airport. ON top of that, none of us had access to showers until this point. It had been three dirty sweaty days and I had two boys with me who had marshmallow and dirt on their faces - and didn't really seem to "NEED" a shower to stay happy. I had told them I wanted everyone showered before bed, but when we saw the terrible conditions of the shower rooms, and felt the CHILL in the air after I finally figured out how to get a hotel reservation (1.5 hours of trying to use internet that was there and then trying to use a pay phone to discover that the kind staff in the lobby would let me use their phone.) I finally managed to get a reservation for us and collected the boys to head us back to bed.

The following morning Johnny got to pick what he wanted to do. We all agreed that we would drive into Yosemite Valley. We wound up hiking up to the top of the lower Yosemite Falls. This was a lot further than John wanted to go, but they hadn't labeled the stop he had wanted us to stop at. We just kept going and had a snack up there. Upon getting down to the valley floor again, we did some shopping and looking around, but then decided we were done! We went back to our campground for the boys' version of olympic games.

While I made John's Mac and CHeese they boys played down in the river (they had all left their bathing suits in Las Vegas, so since we hadn't showered anyway I told them to just wear the clothes they had on.) They then came out to change and warm up some before we started the games. I was handedly defeated in mini golf, and squashed in the nose with tether ball - and again defeated there. I was also defeated in pool and finally I did win in shuffleboard. I could only do ONE THING!

After the major defeats, it was time for bed!

The next morning I promised the boys a mega breakfast. I made eggs, bacon, and pancakes for them before we broke camp and drove over to some town, whose name I have momentarily forgotten, between Yosemite and San Fran. We got a hotel for the night there. We checked in rather early, spent some time in the pool (blowing up my air mattress for the first time in the trip), ordered pizza, and had a movie night/pizza party in the hotel room. It was wonderful!

Monday morning we were in the car by 5 AM (significantly easier to do from a hotel room than from a campground) and we drove to a cloudy, COLD, and overcast San Francisco. We drove our way first to the Golden Gate Bridge. The boys rested in the car. It was a very quiet car ride, but I'm not sure they slept much. John was cold and NOT excited about us visiting and taking pictures of the bridge. He would have been fine with us spending about 5 minutes there, but then he wanted to be done. Max and I kept the poor boy out for about an hour and he wasn't pleased. I had intended to take them to see and feel the ocean, but it really was very frigid. They opted to just go to the airport and rest there. Max got Chinese food and John got something at Wendy's. We sat in the food court until I could take them to their gate. Because they were unaccompanied minors, they had to board the plane last. I thought they would have a lot of questions about the experience, but they seemed quite confident and excited about the whole endeavor. I was nervous sending them off, but it helped knowing that it was a direct flight home to MN, where their dad would be waiting for them.