Day 1 in Yosemite National Park, California

Hello Everyone,

After we checked into our campground in Yosemite Valley we went to Yosemite National Park on Sunday, 9/19/11. Yosemite NP is a beautiful place, mountains, valleys, wilderness and just hard to put into words! Here's what the National Park Service says about Yosemite: "Not just a great Valley...but a shrine to human foresight, strength of granite, power of glaciers, the persistence of life, and the tranquility of the High Sierra.
Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States, is best known for its waterfalls, but within its nearly 1,200 square miles, you can find deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, a vast wilderness area, and much more." This says it all.  We drove for about an hour to get to the good part of the park. As soon as we drove out of a tunnel, we saw many beautiful waterfalls as we looked at one, it made a sort of rainbow that was hard to capture on film. Next, we went to Yosemite Falls, where all of us but Mom went climbing on the rocks.  After Yosemite Falls, we headed to Bridalveil falls where all the boys and Annie climbed on the rocks. Afterwards, we headed back about an hour to our campground, had dinner at Jack in the Box, and went to bed. 

Part of the view out of the tunnel, you can kind of see the rainbow made by the waterfall.

A Mule Deer just walking along the road.

Yosemite's famous Half Dome.

Bridalveil falls, isn't it gorgeous?

Lions and Tigers.....and Ursus Americanus?

No, we didn't see any lions or tigers, but we did see a bear in Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP.  Ursus Americanus is the Latin name for American Black Bear, and he was so funny.  At first he was scrounging for food, ripping apart logs and eating the grubs inside.  Then he crossed the hiking trail and proceeded down the hill across the trail, when he crossed in front of us, he was only about 30 feet away! After he looked for some food down on the hill he got an itch on his left side.  He went over to a small tree and proceeded to scratch it for a good 5 minutes.  After a good scratch, he headed down the hill and we didn't see him again! Here are some pictures of him. I got a video of him scratching against the tree, and uploaded it to youtube, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDFU1ztadzY

Scrounging for food

He had a tag: it was red and his number was 41!

He almost knew that we were taking pictures of him!

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, California

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We got to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on Friday night, 9/16 and stayed at the Azalea Campground in Kings Canyon National Park Friday and Saturday nights. As Josh, Ben and Daniel were hunting for firewood, they got into a yellow jacket nest. Daniel got stung twice on the leg and Ben actually got stung on the tongue!  We made our dinner and went to bed. The next day, Saturday, 9/17 we got up early, about 6:45 and by 8 o’clock we were headed out to see the Giant Sequoias.  First, we saw General Grant Tree, the second largest tree in the world, and a fallen tree called Fallen Monarch, that was used as a home for many different people! At one time it was a hotel, sometimes it was used as a campsite for travelers, and the US Calvary used it to stable 32 of their horses. After lunch we hiked to see General Sherman, the largest tree in the world in total volume. General Sherman is 274.9 feet tall, the diameter of the base is 36.5 feet, General Sherman's volume is estimated to be 2,105 tons! This tree is, in short, HUGE! Here are some pictures of the trees!

General Grant Tree, second largest in the world!

We can't get our arms around it!

General Sherman Tree, largest in the world!

A Haircut, McFarland, CA

Hello All You Blog Followers:

On Friday, 9/16/11, the day after Ben’s Birthday, we headed towards Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. About halfway to the park, we stopped in McFarland, CA so Dad could get on a call for work.  Ben spotted a barber shop, and needing a haircut, suggested that they go in. They went into the barber shop and had all three of the boys cut at the same time.  Anthony, Richard and Sal were the barbers, and they did a good job, and were very friendly! Dad even decided to get a haircut too, now all the guys look better, not so shaggy!

Josh, Ben and Daniel all getting haircuts

Ben is almost done!

Daniel is almost done!

Now Dad's in the chair, along with Ben and Daniel!

Ben's Birthday!!

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Thursday, September 15^th, was Ben’s birthday! We did school in the morning, Ben, Daniel and Anna decided to do their school at the pool. After lunch we headed out to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, CA. Presidential Libraries, for those who don’t know, are pretty much like museums, there are many of the Former President’s items. The presidential library was wonderfully done, we learned a lot about Ronald Reagan.  Some of us didn’t know that he was an actor, Chicago Cubs baseball announcer and had a ranch in California. I hadn’t known much about Ronald Reagan, yes, I knew he was a president, but didn’t know much more. I remember watching his funeral on TV a few years ago, but I didn’t know what was so great about him.  He was an amazing, Godly man! He came into government in America when we were in economic downfall, during his administration he turned this country around economically. Here’s an interesting fact: President Reagan was a smoker, Nancy Reagan, his wife, was disgusted by this habit. So, President Regan started eating Jelly Beans, he had them in many parts of the White House and in Air Force One. Here’s a funny quote from President Reagan: “You can tell a lot about a fella’s character by whether he picks all of one color [jellybeans] or just grabs a handful [of jellybeans].” We even got to go inside of retired Air Force One that John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr. used. It was pretty cool to see the inside of the plane where our Presidents rode. We also went to the memorial of Ronald Regan outside the Presidential Library where he is buried.

After the Presidential Library we drove for about two hours to Bakersfield, CA. Ben decided that he wanted to eat at Olive Garden for his birthday dinner. We ate a nice dinner, and afterward Ben opened his cards. Mom and Dad gave him some Presidential Jelly beans that they picked up from the Presidentail Library. There are 49 flavors of jelly beans in his and headed to the RV Park where we spent the night. Here are the pictures from the Presidential Library and Ben’s birthday dinner. 

Getting ready to go inside Air Force One

Waiting for dinner at Olive Garden

Ronald Reagan's Memorial and Grave

Daniel's odd combination: pizza and mashed potatoes?

Castaic Lake, CA

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After the tour of LA on Tuesday, 9/13/11 we drove for about 2 hours (now keep in mind that it’s about 10 o’clock at night, Pacific Time) until we reached Castaic Lake, California.  We had the address of the State Park’s campground in our GPS, but it took us to a swimming and park area where the gate was closed. Oh, great, now what were we going to do? Well, here came a Sheriff of Los Angeles County (Castaic Lake city is in Los Angeles County)! She saw our huge rig, and our van licensed from out of state and figured we were lost.  She took us over to the real campground and told us that if we were out by sunrise, we didn’t have to pay. She also told us that many of the residents of Castaic Lake area had lost their homes, so they were sleeping in their cars in the campground overnight and then would head out before sunup. We stayed the night and in the morning, Wednesday, 9/14/11, did school and the boys and Annie went fishing.  The lake was beautiful, so clear with the mountains all around.  Around 1 in the afternoon we decided that dad had to have power to work, so Dad drove the RV, mom drove the van and us kids rode our bikes about 5 minutes away to an RV park. We checked in at the park, got dad set up with work and headed to the pool. We had a nice afternoon on Wednesday just hanging around the campground, swimming, riding bikes and playing on the playground for some of us! Around 4:30 we went back to the RV and made our silver turtle dinners. Since the campground didn’t have a grill or fire rings, we went back to the State Park to grill our dinners and eat. While our dinners baked over the coals, Annie played on the playground, and Josh, Ben, Daniel and I threw the Frisbee.  After enjoying our turtles, we headed back to the RV to shower, watch some Andy Griffith and head to bed.  Sorry we didn’t get any pictures!

A Tour of LA!

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Yes, we got to go on a tour of LA on a Double-Decker bus. We started near Hollywood, saw Grauman's Chinese Theater, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive (including the most expensive shop in the world!), the La Brea Tar Pits, Paramount Studios, the famous Hollywood sign and restaurants where celebrities eat fairly regularly.  It was a really interesting tour.  We got off at the Tar Pits and saw all the ice age animal bones. We even got to see where archaeologists are working even today to pull more animals out of the tar.  We also watched the volunteers label and log the bones. Here are some pictures we took!

Grauman's Chinese Theater

Beverly Hills, California!

Zed, the once-was Woolly Mammoth!

404 Dire Wolf Skulls

During the tour, if you look in the back, you can see the Paramount Studios water tower.