Counting my Blessings and Adventures

We were very excited to see my cousin Elizabeth get engaged and invite us to the wedding, (especially since they have always lived in CA but we had never been to visit). So in family style we decided to jam pack it full as a vacation. We saw a lot of fun things, but my favorite part was being able to do it with groups of my family.

Group#1

Being off for the summer I wanted to go up early and "explore." My dad at the time didn't have a job, so he booked his ticket to come with me. When my brother learned about the plans t

o visit Yosemite, he decided to change his flight times and come along. What a blessing to spend the time with these men who I love and value so much!

Did I mention that my dad got laid off from his contract job and asked to interview for another company with a permanent position in the same day. MIRACLE! because he had to go back for a second interview, he had to delay his flight that Monday, so Phillip and I visited the Golden Gate while we waited for him. The clouds were hanging low that day and the wind was very cold.

That night dad got in sooner than expected because he got to the airport early, so we made our way to the hotel. Did you know to get good hotels you have to plan like a year out to stay anywhere near Yosemite? This was another huge blessing because during the planning we went back and forth about what we wanted to do for the three days. Well the week before we left, I got back online to look one more time (the guys said it would be fine to sleep in the car and while I am okay with that as a last resort, I would rather a good night's sleep) Low and behold, one of the hotels that was 10 minutes from the park had one room open that was not unreasonable. Here's the view from the balcony:

Amazing adventure #1

We started at Glacier point that morning and while taking pictures a man told us we should hike up to the waterfalls. So we did...

Amazing adventure #2

Who knew repelling into a cave and crawling around would be something I enjoyed! This was so much fun and again a somewhat unplanned blessing. My dad had found Moaning Caverns online, we planned to go, but then my brother had us talked into white water rafting. (Did you see the river in the picture above?) Every place we called first of all said "Today! You want to book something today?" Guess we have always sort of planned in the moment. The second thing they would say is that the river was too high from all the snow run off. To top it off it was raining that morning. I secretly was glad because the big rapids scare me and who wants to raft in "ice water" with no wet suit gear. So as we stood shivering in the parking lot they called off the trip. This did lead us to another unplanned find...the biggest redwood I have ever seen. And after walking through the forest to find the river we came to a sign that said 3 more miles. Phillip and I without needing to have a conversation turned around and walked back (we had spent the whole day at Yosemite doing the same thing)

Another blessing how we got our own private tour of the cave. This was her first group and we beat getting lumped with the girl scouts by a few minutes.

Dad got to repel down into the cave after we finished our climb out...so much fun and a memorable experience.

Amazing Adventure #3

Group #2 and 3

I thought this was just going to be another check the box I have done it tourist thing, but this was so cool. The way they have the prison set up with self guided audio tour makes you feel like you are the only person in the area. Good facts and history about the whole island. Biggest things that stands out to me is how daily the prisoners could hear/see the sounds and joy of life happening just across the water.

As you can tell by the pictures, by this time everyone else had joined us and it was fun to still be enjoying the different groups of my family. Phillip, Erin and Bailey shared a suite with us, so we got some one on one time. Amy and Andrew joined up with us each day on the adventures. After the island we spent some time walking on Pier 39.

Then off the see the Golden Gate Bridge with everyone. Bailey loves the wind, so she was in squealing heaven. I wish we had more video that captured her delight. This girl is going to be one whirlwind of a roller coaster rider.

Amazing Adventure #4 (although there really are more, but who really wants a page full of pictures :)

Another great find by dad, the steam locomotive. He has always love the train since my grandfather worked for the railroad company. This was something we talked about doing, but almost didn't have time for...sure glad we did. The cable car was really the last family thing we did, but that's a whole adventure for it's own post and my sister has the pictures.

They had the area set up like a small town, so it included a school. I just had to ring the bell.