Heading South

It was time, yet again, for our annual pilgrammage to San Diego to visit Aunt Karen and her family. So, we loaded up the mommymobile for another day-long drive to the Southland.

We made our regular stop at Fort Tejon on the Grapevine for lunch. They'd installed a new, rather impressive flag in the middle of the grounds since our last visit.We also used the occassion to check on one of our letterboxes, which is always kind of fun. There have been a least a dozen "finders" since I planted it there.If you've noticed that I don't mention letterboxing much anymore, it's because we don't do it anymore. After I'd thoroughly annoyed my family with my letterboxing fervor, I had to cut it out, at least for a good long while. I may be back to it someday, but someone else is going to have to express interest first!

We arrived in San Diego around dinnertime. The kids were overjoyed to see SPENCER! again. Aunt Karen is now 8 months pregnant, so it was really their last opportunity to see "Spencer, the only child". Somehow, the idea of a new baby in the family failed to excite them, however.

We spent our first day kinda hanging around the house and then, while Daddy went to tour the U.S.S. Midway (again), the rest of the adults took the kids to the fun park with the great water feature.It was a nice day, a mellow day. Aunt Karen, Uncle David and I sat there under our SportBrella and the kids ran around like crazy.

Mam ended up losing her Crocs, which was annoying. I have to imagine someone stole them...since we went back for them to no avail...but they were so disgusting and dirty that it's hard to imagine. Whatever. Not enough to ruin a relaxing afternoon!

Much, Much Mulch

I've been suggesting politely to Daddy...for a couple of years now...that we replace all the mulch that's been blown away over the last five years of mow-and-blow gardening in our yard. I don't know exactly what possessed him to get this job done, but he carefully measured all our garden beds and went and ordered 25 cubic yards of minibark. It arrived a couple of weeks ago in a big dumptruck.Naturally, this beast of a truck couldn't back into our driveway...because we have a tiny rivulet of a street and because of that lovely tree in the middle of our driveway. So, they did the best they could.

The truck arrived while I was still in my pajamas, so the photos have been supplied by Smunch, who is still fascinated with dumptrucks, especially if they're halfway in his driveway.That little pile of bark wasn't a whole lot, but by the time they were done?MULCH! Way, way too much mulch actually. Our whole yard was done by the end of the weekend, but I think at least half of this pile was still left. At least it won't be so much trouble to re-mulch in a couple of years!

Happy, Happy, Happy

In case I haven't mentioned it previously, it's been a rough summer. The kids are constantly bickering when they're together. Someone wants to use the iPad, someone wants to watch baseball, someone wants to watch Electric Company, someone poked someone, someone hit someone, someone kicked someone, someone said something mean. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it. No one is happy...although I don't really think the kids are all that unhappy while bickering. They live for it, I think.

So, Friday I took the kids back to a place they hadn't been in some time. In my defense, it was closed for over a year for renovations. But that made it fun to go back and see what had changed.First off, the kids' demeanor changed almost immediately. Thank goodness. Even the few hours at home in the morning had been torture. But the sight of a few new rides can work miracles, apparently.There was never a rollercoaster there before. And naturally, that's where the kids headed first, although the wait was long, at least for a little amusement park like this one.Mam loved it and if there had been no wait, I'm sure she would have gone again and again. Smunch seemed to think once was quite enough. So did I, really. I've never liked roller coasters a whole lot.And there were tree swings that both of them enjoyed although they're hardly a thrill ride.Although this looks like one of those free-fall rides, it's been modified for young children, so it just goes up and bounces around.You could dig up the bones of an Allosaurus and they might've done that all day if I hadn't pulled them away.These are funny little playthings for the kids to sit or stand on. Some bounce, some rotate. Some do nothing at all.And there's a magnificent new carousel with endangered animals in place of horses (mostly). Smunch chose a rather magnificent dragon to ride on while Mam had a dolphin.Despite the relative splendor of this carousel, I'll always miss the "Snail-Go-Round" that we took so many pictures of Smunch on (actually named King Neptune's Carousel). It was a casualty of the remodel.

And, of course, no trip to the little zoo is complete without brushing a goat. Right?We barely made it out before closing. Ah, how lovely. One day with both kids. And it was FUN!

Plugged Back In

While we were camping in Lassen, Smunch was constantly frustrated by the lack of reception on Daddy's iPhone and iPad. There wasn't just a little. There was NOTHING. So, everytime we took a little drive around the park, he had Daddy check...you know, just in case he could find out how the Giants did.

So, it was no huge suprise when we stopped for dinner at the Olive Garden in Redding that we had to get the lowdown on the past couple of days while the Giants were playing the Dodgers. And we listened to bits of the game (which they lost) all the way home, in between listening to the entirety of The Incredible Journey on the car stereo. I think Daddy and I enjoyed it more than the kids did.

Not too long after we got back, however, Smunch and I were back at the ballpark to root for our team in person. I dropped Mam off with my mom for the day and Smunch and I headed to the train station.I got our tickets and it was still another 15 minutes until the train, so over Smunch's protestations, I stopped at the café on the corner and got a cup of coffee. When it comes to timing, the little guy gets super stressed. He was very concerned that stopping for coffee was going to make us miss the train. But it took about 5 minutes. No problem. We headed back across the street, to the tunnel under the tracks. As we were going under, I heard a train whistle and mentioned it to Smunch. He didn't believe a train was coming. I knew better, but I was a little concerned, especially when I saw the train pull up at our platform. Smunch started to run. Weighted down by a backpack full of water and sloshing my coffee everywhere, I tried to follow him.

He jumped on at the first door he came to. I was still a ways behind. The train didn't stay long. I got my hand through the door as it closed and pushed my way in...then had to pull my backpack in after myself. We both sat down immediately and I tried to chill out for our ride to the city. Turns out, of course, that the trains were running really late. So, the reason the train was early was that it was the train before our train. Our train was only moments behind and the engineer blew through all the stations the way he had at ours and even expressed through the last few. We weren't going to miss the train after all.

But, we got to San Francisco with lots and lots of time to spare before the game started, so I stopped at Panera and picked myself up some lunch to avoid scarfing too much ballpark food. Smunch got himself a little treat (a "pumpkin muffie") too, of course.It was foggy when we got there, but I've been around long enough to be prepared. It's late July in San Francisco. Don't forget the sweatshirts!

We kept our sweatshirts on for most of the afternoon, but we had great seats in front of the visiting bullpen out in "Kville" where we could easily see how many stikeouts Madison Bumgarner notched. And it turned into a beautiful day.Well, beautiful as far as the weather went anyway. The Giants were playing the Florida Marlins. And that part didn't go so well. This guy, Anibal Sanchez, was fantastic. He's one of their pitchers and that kinda meant the Giants didn't really hit the ball. And that they lost 5-0. Bleh.

But an afternoon at the ballpark with some PB&J (he's decided he doesn't like ballpark hot dogs...say what?) and an astronomically price carton of Dibs...and some parental attention all to himself, does make for a happy Smunch. And a happy Smunch? Makes for a much happier Mommy.

Lassen Flowers

One of the great things about mid-July at Lassen, when there was still snow and it felt like spring, summer and winter all at once was that there were bazillions of wildflowers of all different shapes and colors everywhere we went. I don't know what kind of flowers most of these were, but I thought I'd share them anyway!

Fly Away Home...and Fantastic Lava Beds

If this has the look of someone planning...possibly plotting...there's a reason for it. Just because we needed to go home on Wednesday, I wasn't about to give up on seeing something else awesome on our trip. I'd had my sights set on Boiling Springs Lake or Devil's Kitchen, but the ranger told me that was a two hour drive from Manzanita Lake and I'd promised Daddy we'd get home before midnight. So, we opted instead for the trail to Cinder Cone and a nice little swimming lake just 45 minutes from our campground...or so they said anyway.So, first thing in the morning, we packed up our cheerful little campsite. It always makes me a little sad. We'd had so much fun already and I wasn't ready to go. But between cooking breakfast and loading everything into the van, we were out before 11 o'clock. Not before another cool bug sighting though.I couldn't help noticing the similarity between this:and this:Both taking off for home.

But we had more adventures ahead before we got there. First, we stopped by the visitor's center, where Mam got her Chipmunk Club sticker and Smunch was roundly applauded by all vistors as he was declared an official Junior Ranger. Very cute, but so unexpected that there are no photos. Then we got on the road to Butte Campground, where our next trailhead began. We got confused and thought we were lost. We turned around, then determined that we were just confused, not lost, and turned around again. We missed the turnoff for the campground because I couldn't believe it was a gravel road.

It was.

It was not only gravel, but super bumpy too...for six miles. And I'm sure I'd still be feeling those bumps today if the trip hadn't been worth it and then some.

We arrived at Butte Lake, a pretty lake on the edge of an area called Fantastic Lava Beds, right around lunchtime. It's a very cool lake with green-colored water, forest on one side and massive beds of lava rock on the other.And by massive, I mean unfathomably large.

We began our hike down the cinder trail, alongside the lava beds. They looked more like a construction zone than lava, if you asked me. Smunch said it looked like a big junkyard.But just seeing the kids stand next to the giant pile of rocks made an impression as to just how microscopic humans really are on the grand scale of things geologic.There was no snow here, so it was a warm hike, but not terribly steep and the kids did pretty well. Mam was kinda whiny...again. But Daddy magically placated her by inventing a game where they counted sticks on the trail along the way. I think they counted about 1100 sticks all told.

We saw a bunch of grey jays along the way. I don't know why, but I have a particular fondness for these birds and we hadn't seen any anywhere else in the park. I had to take a picture.The culmination of this hike was Cinder Cone. Which is...well...a cinder cone. It's actually one of the most remarkable vistas I've ever seen and I'm not sure I photo can really do it justice. Cinder Cone itself is more than 800 feet tall and a tremendous moonscape of a thing.And that squiggle up the right side? That's a trail to the top. We didn't go.But plenty of others did.What's even more impressive is that this cone is surrounded by an area called Painted Dunes...sand dunes (or probably cinder dunes, I'd imagine) with really amazing bands of color. And beyond those dunes, you get a much greater picture of what the Fantastic Lava Beds are really like and how truly extensive they are. It's really, truly awe-inspiring. A photo does it no justice.After some snacks, we headed back to the van where we had lunch and changed into our swimsuits for a shorter hike just over the hill to Bathtub Lake.The lake is named for the fact that it's warm...or at least warmer than some. I got cold pretty quickly, but having not showered in a few days, the swim was awesome and refreshing. Having left the goggles at home, Smunch was not at all sure about this whole swimming-in-a-lake thing.He didn't want to put his head in if he couldn't open his eyes. And, well, one can't open one's eyes without goggles on, right?

Mam, however, was eager to give it a try and did pretty well. Daddy swam out to the middle and hauled in a long tree trunk for her to ride on. She had a grand time.She even tried swimming after a bit and did a great job.Tooling around on the bank, I found a little group of reeds where a group of iridescent blue damsel flies had "docked"...for lack of a better description.It was kind of a funny sight and reminded me of some kind of insect space station.

Daddy hung out in the water with the kids for a while. Since he's by far the stronger swimmer, I guess that was appropriate.Although he occasionally walks on water, he's just sitting out on a submerged tree here.

And, after trying for some time, I finally got a shot of this guy...not really as handsome as my own, perhaps, but kind of magnificent nonetheless.Once we were all cooled down and slightly less stinky than we had been, we headed back over the hill to the van.We all changed into dry clothes and bumped back down the road...towards home.

Yeah. I promised Daddy we'd be home before midnight. I know he had designs on leaving Lassen by 1 or 2. It was after 4 when we finally hit the road. We were home at 11:30. Promise kept.