Trees, Camping & Bears--Sequoia

Earlier this month we took a week long trip to California. Josh, myself and my brother Jimmy came along. My parents were nice enough to come out here to watch Jackson, and they got to spend a week vacation with him, double bonus!

In Idylwild, CA at our campsite with a Sugar Pine Pinecone

The trip was Josh's idea, for his birthday he wanted to do something big, so we did. We went to see the biggest trees on Earth: Sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park. It is an understatement when you say these trees are huge. They are almost fake looking due to how big they are. We all were in awe as to how big they were.

We spent 7 days out there, with no shower. No big deal. We camped in tents, and even a few nights the boys didn't sleep in the tents, just out under the stars in their sleeping bags. We camped by the beach in Malibu, CA, spent a night in the mountains east of San Diego near Hemet in a little town called Idylwild and camped in the great Sequoia National Park the rest of the time. 

We drove through parts of California I'd never known about. Lots of agriculture land and fruit and citrus groves that stretched for miles and miles. Yes, this was California. We even drove, ahem, I drove through the great Los Angeles. But not during rush hour. We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway along the coast for a while and got to see the rolling hills against the Ocean. Can I live there? So beautiful.

We saw so many deer they became like birds, just naturally around. Not afraid of us, but we became curious why they were so relaxed with us. One time a deer came so close to my brother we all thought she was going to charge him. Josh and I even saw a bear on our last day hike there. He kept his distance, but now I can say I saw a bear in real life (not just at the zoo).

General Sherman, the biggest tree & living organism in the world. Sequoia National Park, CA.

The road trip was great. We three had a great time together being silly, helping each other cook, clean, search for firewood and navigate as we drove to places none of us had visited before. 

The Auto Log that you used to be able to drive on. 

Look at that root base compared to the size of the car! 

The brown bear we saw on our hike.

Thanks boys for a great trip! 

Easter in California

We decided to take a road trip out to California for the Easter weekend to visit my brother. It is kinda nice that it's only a 6 hour drive. Not the most exciting drive, but nonetheless it wasn't bad at all! Got to see part of Arizona and California we'd never seen before. Josh had never seen the Pacific Ocean nor been to California before so it was a very much needed trip. We spent Saturday - Monday out in Oceanside and Carlsbad, California. It was great to see my brother, Jimmy. We ate dinner at a little restaurant in Carlsbad (I forget the name now, but I want to say it's something like Ray's) only about 100 feet or so from the Ocean. It is a very small little place but very home-y and home-cooked meals for sure! It was so green everywhere we went down there. On our drive out, we drove through Temecula which is a BEAUTIFUL wine country part of the area. I could definitely live there! Here are some photos of our trip.

The view from Jim's front door. Lucky!

A pretty intense storm moved in while we were on the beach. Looked cool, but we didn't stay for any lightning!

It was a great trip and we were so happy to see family. Been getting a little homesick here and there, but soon enough we will be back to Colorado to visit and our parents will be out here to visit.