Category: Adventure Reports

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Utah

The Utah Bonneville Salt Flats & Speedway

The drive through Nevada on I-80 is definitely not listed on America’s Top 10 Scenic Drives. Boring, flat, and fairly ugly: I usually try and sleep through most of it while my husband drives and the kids lounge in the backseat reading or playing games on the tablet. This last time through, however, we purposely decided to spend the night just outside of Wendover, Utah and check out the Bonnveille International Speedway. Specifically, I wanted epic photos of our Airstream on the Salt Flats. At first glance, the speedway isn’t much. The pavement ends with only a bullet-riddled, paint covered sign explaining that the wide expanses of salt stretching out to the horizon are used to test the speed of some of the fastest vehicles in history. Undeterred, we set about exploring and making a quick dinner while we waited for the light to get good. Once the sun starting dipping towards the horizon, we slowly pulled our 2008 Airstream Travel Trailer off the pavement and onto the salt flats. Tag-teaming with my husband, we angled the truck and trailer just right to capture the setting sun behind it, grabbed our cameras, and then let the kids play while we furiously took photos from every angle possible. You can’t camp right on the Salt Flats, but the speedway borders some BLM land and we just pulled off there for the night before continuing into Salt Lake City the next morning. Utah Salt Flats_21Utah Salt Flats_23 The speedway is definitely an impressive site, but probably only worth the stop for the photos– unless you go during Speedweek. THEN it would be simply amazing!

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Selling Our Stuff Utah

We No Longer Live In a House?

We did it. We are out! We still can’t believe everything came together so perfectly. Other than the fact that we are still fairly exhausted, we couldn’t be happier. I don’t do many “real time” posts to the blog, but this one is pretty important I think.

For starters, we are extremely grateful. Grateful to friends, family, neighbors, ward members who helped us clean, our Instagram traveling family, and to the many people who bought our stuff. 🙂 We couldn’t have done this on our own. Taking 10 years of married life, kids, and a house full of belongings down to a 188 sq foot Airstream, the back of a truck and a 5×10 storage unit was a lot of work.

We’ll have more detailed posts in the future (final post about the remodel, our House Cooling Party, the Storage Unit and still many, many backdated adventure reports) but for now we are relaxing in Bryce Canyon for a week for some much needed decompression and recovery. What a perfect way to start this new chapter of our lives!

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California National Parks

We Get Soaked at Muir Woods National Monument, California

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The skies looked threatening. My sister-in-law and I kept looking at each thinking “Should we go?” “Should we stay home?” I’m not one to call it until its raining cats and dogs, so with just a possibility of rain, we packed our kids into two cars (would have been so much more fun had we fit in one!) and drove the hour from Green Valley, CA to Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco, CA.

When We Visited: March 2014

Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 3

Tips: This monument is tucked into a valley outside of San Francisco. The drive is steep and windy but worth it!

We got lost on the way there – turns out this one is pretty hard to find if you don’t trust Google Nav. After a false turn or two, we got back on track and finally made it only to discover pouring rain and a parking lot full of cars! In addition to being a premier tourist destination due to its proximity to SF it was also Spring Break for the local schools. The perfect combination to make the Monument a popular spot despite the weather. Once we got there, we piled into the back of Jaime’s mini-van to eat lunch before setting out to explore.

The ranger at the front desk wasn’t the most…. helpful. She wasn’t going to give our 3 year olds their own Junior Ranger books (something about “We try to conserve paper here at this park”) and that didn’t go over well, especially for Cara who is used to doing her own. Somehow Jaime managed to talk her into it though. Maybe the ranger became tired of dealing with us? Who knows. In addition to the Jr. Ranger program, Muir Woods has a shorter fill-in-the-blank-from-different-signs scavenger hunt that we also did. Both were great.

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My kids loved hanging out with their cousins, and although we got pretty wet, the towering Redwood Trees were a beautiful sight. There is basically a paved walkway throughout the trees with information about the forest, when it became a National Monument, and details about the Redwoods themselves. We also learned how to tell the age of a redwood branch (or spray) by the number of nodes on it.Very cool. There also seemed to be a few trails leading elsewhere, but we weren’t exactly in the extreme exploring mood.

The best part about this particular Jr. Ranger program is the badge! Carved out of redwood, each badge is individual and unique. We love them!

IMG_20140325_133115_1Muir Woods is definitely a beautiful place. I can’t wait until we can go back and spend a bit more time exploring!

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California Featured Destination National Parks

They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To – Point Reyes National Seashore Lighthouse

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Imagine yourself out at sea on a small boat. Suddenly dark clouds gather on the horizon and the wind starts to whip your hair around your face. Moving too fast, the storm envelopes you and suddenly you aren’t sure which way is the shore. Then, a beam of light from the nearby lighthouse cuts through the storm giving you direction and guidance back to safety.

American lighthouses are iconic. From the sweeping coasts of New England, to the rocky shores of California, lighthouses have saved hundreds of lives as they’ve warned sailors of dangerous shores. Point Reyes is no exception. Jutting out on a peninsula just 10 miles from San Francisco Bay, Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest on the North American continent. It is also my favorite lighthouse we’ve visited to date.

When we visited: March 2014

Ages of Kids: 8, 6, 3

Tips: The drive out to the lighthouse is not a short one (40 min to an hour depending on where you are staying), but is beautiful nearly any time of year. The road can be a little rough, though any standard passenger car should be able to make it, and certainly any tow vehicle. While there always seems to be an RV parked out there, I would advise against it. The weather can be rough as well. If the winds are strong enough, they close the stairway down to the lighthouse. Even when it’s open, it is worth bringing jackets to survive the weather.

Because there wasn’t a good location for a lighthouse on top of the bluff, engineers blasted a level spot 300 feet below the top of the cliff. This put the lighthouse below the level of the fog, making the light more effective as a warning system for ships. Supplies and materials for construction took 6 weeks to lower down from the top. Luckily, we didn’t have to be lowered by rope. Long ago, stairs were built into the side of the cliff, allowing visitors to travel down to see it.

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Retired in 1975, the National Park Service maintains the historic building and surrounding area and even has a ranger on site (and inside) the main room. Andrew was insistent he wanted to go inside, only when we arrived the door was very visibly locked. As we wandered around, ate our snacks, and generally tried not to get blown out to see by the gusty wind we noticed just as we were about to leave that the door was open! Andrew raced excitedly raced ahead only to find a room crowded with people and a ranger given a “tour”. Much to his disappointment he had to be quiet and not step on anyone else in the room. Poor kid.

We loved hearing the ranger talk about the lonely and secluded life of the lighthouse keepers, the operation of the lighthouse, how the Fresnel (frey-nel) lens was made in France and then brought over, transferred ships, and then brought by ox cart overland. We learned that the lighthouse and all of its parts are original. Many retired lighthouses have been converted into museums, have replicated parts, or are now restaurants. This one is completely original which adds to the romanticism of it all.

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Keeping up with safety and technology, the Coast Guard eventually automated the light, and then later decommissioned the lighthouse entirely and  installed an LED light on top of the nearby generator shed. Yup, that’s it. That tiny thing poking up from the roof with the solar panels attached. For me, having lighthouses reduced to small blinking lights makes original lighthouses like this one a real treat! If you are a lighthouse person, you’ll love it. If you are not, you might just become one during your visit!

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In addition to the lighthouse, the view out at Point Reyes is simply fantastic. After our climb back up the stairs, we took a small trail at the top to look out over the ocean and bluffs. Despite the wind and the cold it was a great day!

 

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Featured Destination National Parks New Mexico

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

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Layer upon layer of gypsum sand scattered across miles of sweeping dunes. With promises of sledding and fun we excitedly geared up for an afternoon of exploring.

When we visited: January 23, 2014

Ages of kids: 8, 6, 3

Tips: Plastic bottomed boogie boards work really well as sleds.

“Mom? Is that snow?” One of the kids called from the back seat. “It sure looks like it!”

And it did. There was a even a plow.

The kids had begged and begged all winter to go someplace with snow. This was their first year away from Utah’s snowy, wintery, weather and I think they were feeling the lack of powdery goodness. However, with a promise of  “sanding” at White Sands National Monument, I think we kept them more or less at bay.

When we arrived mid-morning, it was cold enough outside that we bundled up. Coats, scarves, hats, and even gloves were employed to combat the New Mexico chill. Once the kids stepped out onto the crisp, white, sand however, all thoughts of shoes were forgotten. The ranger had even told us to make sure we took our shoes off to feel how delicate, fine, and soft the sand felt compared to the beach. Having just come from Florida a few months earlier we definitely wanted to make that comparison. The shoes never made it back on.

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Cara was content to sit and play with her sand toys, not really interested in the activities of her older siblings. Somehow Rachel became determined that Cara needed the experience of coasting down the white dunes, and gently prodded, coached, and enticed her on to the front of her boogie board turned sled. And then halfway down, Andrew had to jump on the back as well.

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After a few minutes of play, I retreated to the Airstream to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch while watching the kids out the kitchen window and listening to their screams of delight through the cracked door.

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Although we did one short hike, earned a Jr. Ranger Badge, and even met up with the coolest British traveling family, sanding was definitely the highlight of our visit.