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This
past week we made a trip out of state for our "family vacation
2014". Call it tradition, call it torture, but what ever it is,
Terra and I have found a desire to take the kids a go for a road trip
around the country. One of our favorite destinations is
California. There are many attractions there (including the
ocean) and we have ventured out many times to experience them.
This trip was no different. We decided to head up to Yosemite
National Park. As part of the trip we ventured through the town
of Wikieup, AZ. I have never traveled this road before (between
Kingman and Phoenix) and found the scenery to be very pleasing. |
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of this road is called the Joshua Tree Scenic Highway. As the
name implies there are many different joshua trees
along the road. I can't remember ever seeing one of these trees
before, but they are very unique. They are the size of a mesquite
tree, the bark is similar to an oak tree, but instead of leaves on the
different branches, they have little yucca trees there. They are
not spiny or thorny with the exception of the "leaves". After
seeing them pass by in abundance on either side, we decided to stop and
take a photo by a few of them. |
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If
you are familiar with our house, we have some prickly pear cactus in
the front yard. I have really never been a fan of the prickly
pear cactus (especially as a yard decoration), but the question was
what do you do with it. If you remove it, how, and then
what? Well I think I have finally found my answer. The
joshua tree would make a great addition to my cactus selection in my
yard. Also I have two prickly pears and I could take one out and
put one of these trees in its place. Judging from the surrounding
vegetation, it should grow where I live, particularly if I watered
it. What do you think, yea or nay? |
| When
we drove up we took the scenic route and went through Las Vegas then up
through Nevada and into California. We entered California near
Bishop, CA (roughly 150 miles south of Reno, NV). I say scenic,
but the drive through Nevada is not rather scenic. It is easy to
see why people are calling for a nuclear waste storage facility to be
located there... Bishop on the other hand was a neat little town. It was located at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada mountains at 5,000 feet. We found this little bakery there. What a neat place. It was jammed packed with breads, cakes, pastries, sweets, and everything you would think a bakery should have. I would have loved to stay there for hours, but with 4 little kids running around time would not have been well spent staying there for any length of time to take in the smells. We drove up the back way through Nevada to travel through the entire park of Yosemite. The pass over the mountain was at 9,950 feet in elevation and the peaks went up on either side of us from there. There was still snow present on the mountain peaks. When traveling to Yosemite, you go through many tunnels on the road through the rock. After coming out of one such tunnel this is the view of the rock formations (below). |
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| This
large granite monolith is what is known as El Capitan. It is the
largest freestanding granite monolith in the world. There were
many different water falls falling off the rock faces down to the
stream below. Some were running better than others, but the
larges water fall has a drop of 2,450 feet. It was a very
impressive view. I think it was well worth the drive. I am
not sure if the kids agree, but my goal is really not to get their
consent, but to expose them to some of the places that I want to see,
and tell them that they will enjoy it. |
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Truth
be told, the kids would be perfectly happy just playing in some mud
puddles along the way and calling it good. They really don't care
for the long drives, but I think the drive is a small price to pay for
the scenery. The trip out and back added 1,923 miles to the car's
odometer. Our van performed wonderful and didn't give us any
problems. We did roll over 210,000 miles on this trip though. |
| Here
is a view of one of the waterfalls in the park. If you look
closely in the large photo, there is another fall to the right side but
it was not running very fast. We should have tried to go up in
the spring to catch the water falls running at their peak, but with
school and work, it just wasn't feasible. Here is a little path
that wandered down to the stream. People were rafting down the
creek, but the kids wanted to play in the water. We let them and
they had a ball, got soaking wet, but released some of their stored up
energy here. |
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This
is just before they jumped in. They at first tried to be careful,
they removed shoes and socks, then rolled up their pants, and before
too long they were soaking wet. We had to go back to the car and
change their clothes, but they seemed to have a good time. |
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fact when asked, they said this was the best part of being in
Yosemite. They just don't appreciate the magnificent beauty of it
all. I suppose they won't until they have to make the drive
themselves to see it again. We debated about where to go this summer, and we almost joined Mia for a trip to San Diego, but I am really glad that we made it to Yosemite. It was a very impressive place. We also debated Yellowstone, but the kids decided that was too far. So maybe next year. It should be closer by then. |
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In
other news, as we were sitting home Saturday night (6-28-14), Terra was
playing the cello and I was in the bedroom, then the strangest feeling
occurred. There was an earthquake located south of Duncan, AZ
(5.2 magnitude) and the house shook. First the floor moved and
then the walls shook and the roof creaked. I could hear the
wrenches in the garage hanging on the wall swing back and forth.
This is the first earthquake I have experienced, and it was a very odd
feeling. Then it happened again and was slightly stronger the
second time with the entire roof moving slightly and creaking and
cracking. Our house is built with insulating concrete filled foam walls.
I wonder if the stiffness of such construction is not very forgiving to
earth movement, as others nearby didn't experience near the movement in
their homes (of course they have a different point of view than I). |