Road Trip - Day 2

There are so many stories from this trip that I'm hoping not to write an entire post for each day, but I'm not overly optimistic. Sunday was another big day of driving. It went something like this:

And then, where two highways diverged, we decided to take...well...probably the one more often traveled, so that we could drive through here:

I was a little sad we didn't have more time there, to be honest. Zion is very pretty and it was a beautiful day. I'm sure we saw very little of the park, all told.

Met some nice folks from Colorado on our way out and had them take a picture of us at Checkerboard Mesa.

Oh, that's a lotta orange. Smunch and I will endeavor to coordinate outfits in the future.

And then it was back to Arizona...

and our final destination. We got out of the mommymobile when we got to the park boundary. It's always fun to take pictures of the kids with the sign, right? But the scene behind us seemed pretty spectacular too.

Still, I kinda couldn't believe we made it...like I got kind of teary taking this next picture. Oh. My. Gosh. We're here!!!

And, so we were. I flashed my newly-minted (at Zion) National Parks pass and we headed for the North Rim Campground, where we received the welcome news that despite the robocall I'd received weeks earlier saying the fire danger was too high, the alert had been cancelled and campfires were indeed allowed. There would be s'mores. Thank goodness.

I guess I should stop here and say that the North Rim is not the favored side of the Canyon. Most people head for the South Rim. It's easier to get to if you've flown, but driving, there didn't seem to be a big difference. And if you're going to book your trip in June, you're NOT going to book a campsite on the South Rim. It suited me just fine, even though I still had to book two different campsites to stay for four consecutive nights.

We had a great spot among the aspens and ponderosas for our first night. The campground is great for car camping. The sites are big and the store is nearby...which is important when you've got constantly thawing coolers. We unloaded our stuff onto a big tarp and I sent Mam to the store for some firewood. While she was gone, I realized it was getting late. The sun was setting and we had yet to catch a glimpse of the Canyon. So as soon as she got back, I piled the surprisingly willing kids back in the car and drove the mile to the rim to watch the sunset.

And what a sunset it was!

If you look closely at the previous picture you can see a faint rainbow angling down from the clouds toward the Canyon. That's because there were thunderstorms rolling across the South Rim, treating us to a spectacular thunder and lightning show, as the clouds turned orange and the rain came down in pinkish cascades.

The rain and clouds also provided for a beautiful sunset.

And about that time, I took note that the rain wasn't just moving along the South Rim of the Canyon. It was moving across the Canyon. And that was O.K., but wait... All our stuff was sitting out on a tarp in our campsite. We hadn't even put the tent up yet.

I grabbed the kids and we rushed back to the car, zipping back to the campground and racing the growing thunder to get our tent up. To their credit, and despite my lack of patience, the kids had never been more helpful. I can't get the tent up on my own. I got the poles in wrong and had to re-do them, but we finally got the poles in their sleeves and arched just right. With just a minute or two left to spare, the rain fly went on and we threw everything in the tent. Phew!

That just left dinner. *sigh* Their quota of helpfulness having been met for the day, the kids hung out in the tent while I put on my rain jacket and went out to heat up dinner in the rain. To their disappointment, I ditched the plans for spaghetti in favor of heating up the pre-made taco meat I'd brought. And we all squished into the tent's small vestibule and ate our tacos while it rained. I wish I had pictures. I suppose I'd left the camera in the car at that point.

Sometimes the memories are better...and funnier than any picture could ever be...

Road Trip!

Growing up, my family never really went on a road trip. Getting from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe was about the most we did. And that was fine. What kids enjoy sitting in a car for hours on end? Well, it turns out that mine don't mind it all that much, as long as there's a good audio book for everyone to listen to, we're all pretty happy.

Back in June, when Mam was still finishing up her travel softball season, I started feeling a little antsy about having so few plans for the summer. I'd tried to book the kids in as much camp as I could stomach, just so I could go to work. But summer shouldn't be about work. We should be able to do something awesome. They should have something to write about when they returned to school and had to write the latest installment of What I Did on my Summer Vacation. And I needed to indulge my sense of adventure, at least a little.

So, on August 10th at 5:30 in the morning, I packed the coolers, stuffed them in the mommymobile with a ton of other stuff that I'd packed the day before and we set out for Rose's Donuts and Cafe...a mere 15 minutes away at that hour of the day.

It didn't look like this. For starters, the sky was dark and the place was empty. We were the line for donuts and we could have whatever the heck we wanted. Yummm. I don't indulge in donuts often, but it was a nice start to a long day. Donuts and coffee. Of course, coffee.

And then we drove South. And then East. And finally, around 2 in the afternoon, we reached Mojave National Preserve.

It was hot, but not as hot as it could have been in the middle of the desert in mid-August. I whipped out the smallest cooler and made everyone sandwiches. I'd been a little worried about camping here in the middle of the desert. You couldn't reserve campsites. It was first-come-first served.

We were second to arrive at Hole-in-the-Wall Campground that day...a campground with more than 35 campsites. Camping? No problem. The kids found the only available shade alongside the minivan and dug into their lunches.

We paid for our campsite. We went to the little visitor's center for a moment and then took a little hike, climbing down the holey rocks

(with iron rings implanted in them for such adventures)and wandering through the open desert. It was hot and beautiful.

When we got back, we went for a little drive to see Kelso Dunes and the other side of the park. I'd misjudged just how big this park is...and how lousy some of the dirt roads are. It was a neat drive with views of rocky mountaintops, Joshua trees and sand dunes,

but it was also near dark when we rolled back into our campsite.

Fortunately, I'd planned ahead for something like this and although I'd scheduled us for a stirfry dinner, everything was in the cooler, cut up and ready to go. The only thing I hadn't really planned on was the volume of moths in the desert. There are moths of every size and shape. Some of them are plain enormous and all of them are, stereotypically, attracted to light. So it was hard to keep them at a distance. They crowded around the lantern, flew into the camp stove and doubtlessly into our food. Who doesn't like a little moth stirfry?

At one point, Smunch said excitedly that a BAT had landed on the side of our table. That seemed a little strange, but I went around to look. Wow. There was a tiny bat hanging on the side of the table. But then, on further inspection, it wasn't a bat after all. It did look like a bat, but it was just another huge bat-colored moth.

A little kangaroo rat peered over the edge of our campsite, just to see if our meal looked interesting.

Smunch and I set up the tent. I'm not sure why. Mam slept outside and seemed perfectly comfortable. The campground filled up a little as evening fell and at one point, an anonymous neighbor told us there was going to be a meteor show that night. How cool. A meteor shower would be awesome in the desert. But I'd gotten up at 4:30am. The meteors wouldn't show up until midnight. Not happening. Oh well...

Still, I've spent very little time in the California desert and I was happy to be there...away from everything, with two of my favorite people.

We were up early the next morning, shoving everything back in the van and on our way to greater adventures...

Images of Summer

Heh. I didn't write a single post for the entire summer. It was a busy season...and it honestly seemed really long. I can't believe the kids are back in school. My life suddenly seems a little more sane, even if there's more work involved. But the summer deserves some thought. We packed a lot in those few weeks when I didn't work. And the kids were in camp the rest of the time. It was busy at the office too, so I was glad to have planned ahead. But enough of that. On with the pictures!

Smunch played on the PONY in-house All-Stars team, which plays a single weekend tournament against the other in-house teams. His team won again!

Best baseball season EVER.

Mam continued to have a successful Nova season all the way through June, although they won no more tournaments. She was often one of the stars.

We went to see the big boys play. Shocker huh? Wasn't a shocker when they lost in 13 innings either!

As soon as Nova was done, we went camping in the Redwoods...with banana slugs.

We did some hiking in the forest, including fording the little river

The kids enjoyed themselves

Best Ranger Program EVER

With a little guidance, you can find all kinds of stuff in the creek!

Aunt Karen came to visit with Spencer! and Lucas! Lucas was more lively than this most of the time.

And then we went to San Diego to visit Aunt Karen..and Spencer! and Lucas!

We went to Anza Borrego State Park on a particularly thundery day. The kids learned about flash floods!

We went to the water park...apparently water slides are exhausting!

We went boogie boarding at the beach. The kids LOVED it!

Did I mention that they LOVED it??

O.K., I thought it was pretty fun too.

And we all took a falconry class at the La Jolla Gliderport. Smunch with a Harris' Hawk.

A week later, Mam and I decided to do something Giant

...and completed the Giant Race 5K right on the field at AT&T Park.

And would you believe, that wasn't the end? We still had one more Grand adventure in store....but that requires its own post or five.

Feeling Giant

Back in March, I wrote about Smunch's latest PONY baseball team. He is now in the Bronco division which spans 5th through 7th graders. He was visibly the tiniest player on his team.

The team had a good season. They finished with a win percentage a little over .500. That's respectable. They played some great games. They played some not-so-great games. Through it all though, they were a great group of boys. The superstars on the team were also good leaders. They picked each other up. They encouraged each other. They made room for everyone. I have to believe that it started with a really good coach...who managed to draft really great boys, with great families in the stands.




The Bronco season ends in playoffs...three games of "pool play" for all 10 teams, followed by semifinals for the top four finishers and one championship game. All of these games are smashed into two weeks. For the Giants, that meant games on Wednesday, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday followed by possible games Friday and Saturday. Ouch. There are strict pitch counts for the boys at this age, so it also involves some planning by their coaches.


There were some really good teams in the Giants' division, including the feared Cubs and Indians, who were first and third, respectively after the regular season, and the "hated" Mets. And there were the pitiful Pirates, who had a rough season and came in last place. The Giants were ranked #6 after the season. No one was counting on them to get past pool play. And that was O.K. The baseball season is long and busy. Folks are usually ready to get back to their real lives by the end of May.

But the Giants had other ideas. Those Cubs they were so afraid of? They beat them 17-4. The Mets? Well, that didn't go so well. They lost 12-7. And they crushed the poor Pirates 17-2. Their last game was against the Indians. Whoever won would go to the semi-finals. The loser would go home.

Our coach had our very best (by far) pitcher primed for the occassion. He pitched 5 innings, using up half his allowed pitch count. And the Indians couldn't keep up. At the end of the 5th inning, they were down 9-0. Smunch came in to pitch. He struggled. The defense struggled behind him. They gave up 4 runs. He was replaced for the 7th and final inning, by another good pitcher, having a bad day. He gave up 3 runs, but the Giants were the home team and in the end the Giants beat the Indians, just barely, 9-7.

You might think Smunch would make the most of his baseball off days. It's the end of the school year. There isn't much homework. But making the most of those days, for him, meant going to watch the other teams' playoff games when he wasn't playing himself. So, we learned quickly that the Giants would be playing the Nationals during the semifinals on Friday. Smunch's Mavericks coach was the Nationals coach and one of his buddies from school is their first baseman much of the time, so this would be a fun game. The Giants had trouble with the Nationals during the season, however.

Against what might have been his better judgement, but at the urging of the assistant coaches, the coach put the Giants' ace pitcher back out there on Friday. Perhaps it was the only way the team could win against a team like the Nationals. The big guy (seriously, the top of Smunch's head doesn't reach this guy's shoulders) threw 5 more shut-out innings and he was out of pitches...for the rest of the season. He came out of the game with the score standing at 7-0. If the Giants reached the championship, they would be without his pitching services...although fortunately not without his hitting. This kid is really phenomenal. Smunch did NOT want to pitch again. Fortunately, the kid who went in next was good and Smunch wasn't slated to pitch regardless. The Giants won 7-2.

In a big surprise, over on the other semi- field, the Rangers beat the oh-so-feared Cubs. And the match-up for the championship was forged.

Serendipity was also on the Giants' side when it turned out that the San Francisco Giants' mascot, Lou Seal, had been hired to appear at grad night for the junior high school where the semi-final game was played. After the game, all the kids went out front and had their pictures taken with the big guy. Who knows? Maybe the magical 2010 and 2012 seasons of those "Big Giants" would rub right off Lou Seal and onto these guys.

When it came to Saturday morning, Mam had to be in South San Jose by 10am for a weekend softball tournament. Her games were at 11, 3:30 and 5. The Bronco championship game started at noon. I was exhausted just considering it. But I wasn't going to miss the first championship game Smunch ever played in. It was just NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN. Period.

I drove Mam to San Jose, pawned off the scorekeeping on a willing grandparent, pawned Mam off on one of the team managers, watched the first half inning of her game (leaving when Nova was up 4-0 and Mam already had an RBI) and jetted home, reaching the ball field during the bottom of the first inning. The Giants had already shelled the Rangers' ace pitcher and the score was  7-0 in the Giants' favor. It was a hot, hot day and the fans (aka parents, grandparents and siblings) were roasting. The kid who had closed out the semi-final game the day before was put in as the starting pitcher. He wasn't having such a good day on Saturday. He worked hard, but the defense failed him over and over and they gave up run after run until he finally ran out of pitches and left the game with the score at 10-9, in favor of the Rangers. I'm sure Smunch was grateful that it wasn't him. And hopefully, it helps him maintain the perspective that it's O.K. to have a bad day in baseball. It  happens. One day can be stellar and the next can be disastrous. At any rate, the whole thing was stressing me out far more than should be allowed. It's a kids' baseball tournament for goodness sake! I considered driving back to San Jose and avoiding the torture.

I haven't said a whole lot about Smunch's personal performance in these games, aside from his rough couple innings pitching in the last game of pool play. He had a few hits, but didn't touch the ball in the outfield in either that game or the semi-final game. He didn't have many opportunities for heroism and I think that was just fine with him. He maintained his position as lead-off batter. I think he was proud of that. He should have been. It meant that he made it to first base more often than not. He probably walked to first as often as he hit the ball. His strike zone is that small. The championship game was different, however, with their ace pitcher done for the season, there were a lot of hard-hit balls that went to the outfield. Smunch fielded several of them. It wasn't always beautiful, but he got the job done. His best play was on a fly ball where the crowd held its breath as he looked skywards, taking a few steps this way and that before the ball finally landed in his glove as he fell over to one side. He's a good base runner too, so while he didn't have a single hit in the championship game, he scored two runs and even had an RBI. 

Despite being a little guy, he knows what he's going out there, even when it isn't done to his own satisfaction.

Don't think he had any problem with scoring that run there though!

After the starting pitcher left the game, things started picking up. Although the Rangers had their ace pitcher available, the Giants hit him so hard that they were forced to replace him. Their next pitcher fared better, giving up only a couple of runs, but he was Smunch-sized and throwing his entire body of the mound to throw fast, beautiful strikes. He could only last so long. As soon as he was gone, so were the Rangers' chances of winning. A game they were once leading 10-9 became a smoking crater that they lost 23-11.

And that is how a really fantastic group of boys with four phenomenal coaches became the 2013 PONY Bronco Champions. And I'm so sad it's over for them, even though it ended in the best possible way. I spent too much time at softball and missed too much of this awesome group of boys. Any one of them would be welcome at my house any time.

On the way back to San Jose for the rest of Mam's softball tournament, Smunch commented on what a weird feeling it was to win...not just a game, but the whole championship. "It's a feeling I've never experienced before," he said. 

I hope he knows how special and rare that feeling is for most people. It's something you have to appreciate in the moment so you can look back on it and remember just how that felt. If you're lucky, you get to feel it again (and again and again), but you might not, so it's worth taking stock when it happens. Smunch got to be an integral part of a team where he got to play a sport he loves with great teammates and great coaches, including his own grandpa (who's pretty special all by himself). He may not have grown in physical size compared to his teammates (as evidenced above), but he grew so much in skills, confidence and experience. 

Championships aside, I wish every baseball season was just like this one.