This year we ended our summer with an epic trip to California. We had a direct flight from Boston to San Francisco and though we had to rise before the sun, the kids woke easily and they were excited to begin our adventure. Once we landed in San Francisco and put our things in our hotel room we got right to exploring the city. San Fran has a lot of really fun places to explore. We did not spend a lot of time here but the time that we did spend there was very enjoyable. We rode the ferris wheel by the ocean, checked out the sea lions on Pier 39, put our feet in the Pacific Ocean (it was freezing!) rode a double decker bus across the Golden Gate Bridge, and visited the Academy of Sciences with an aquarium, rainforest and planetarium. The kids had such a good time running around the city. The double decker bus was really fun. The driver kept cracking jokes and had us repeating "Golden Gate Bridge BABY!" in his accent for the entire rest of our trip. Another highlight for the kids was we took a Waymo self-driving taxi car from dinner one night to get back to our hotel. I was skeptical at first but we all agreed it was the smoothest car ride we have ever been in! And the kids got a kick out of the car driving without anyone sitting in the driver's seat. It really was wild. The only hiccup of our trip happened our very first night, which was the fire alarm going off at 3:00am. The kids got to say hi to firefighters and check out their trucks, but of course we would have much preferred to have never met them at all (I mean that in the nicest way haha!)
From there we rented a car and took off towards Yosemite National Park. Because of this national park being so popular, the majority of the summer they require a reservation in order to enter the park, even just to drive through it. We were able to snag a place to stay within the park and that counted as our reservation. Our first stop was at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The trees here were truly enormous. We had fun walking the trails and literally walking through a giant tree. We then headed about an hour north through the park to get to where we were lodging for 3 nights, Curry Village. On our way we drove through gorgeous landscapes. The pictures really do not do it justice. We finally arrived at Curry Village around dinner time. We got our parking spot, got the keys to our tent and settled in before grabbing some dinner. Curry Village is right in Yosemite Valley so it is a very popular spot to be. It has a lot of amenities like restaurants, general store, ice cream shop, mountaineer store and bike rentals to name a few.
Our tent was in a great location. We were really close to the bathroom and showers. Our neighbors were quiet and considerate. Due to bears, each tent had its own bear box. We had to make sure that nothing was left in our car that had any kind of scent. All of our food, soaps, deodorants, etc were all placed in the bear box. The kids each had their own cot with warm blankets. Chris and I shared a double cot and overall the accommodations were comfortable. Nights were cold and afternoons got hot. Since we only spent our time in the tent at night, we were pretty comfortable.
Our first full day we spent renting bikes and exploring Yosemite Valley. It was so fun! They would not let Oliver use his shotgun seat on Chris's bike, so he got to ride in his own chariot. We loved riding bikes through the most gorgeous trails. We were able to ride to trailheads and do a little bit of hiking to do some more sightseeing. We were able to stop and let the kids get their National Park passports stamped. We spent part of the hot afternoon taking a dip in the cool Merced River. That night we ate dinner at a nice restaurant within Yosemite Valley. On our walk back we saw a deer grazing in a meadow and the kids were able to get really close to her without making her nervous. We stopped and watched her for a while. When crossing a footbridge over the meadow, we ran into a family who was sitting on the bridge looking at Half Dome. They told us to wait and watch what happens when the sun sets. We stayed and watched as everything around us got dark except for Half Dome which stood out with a gorgeous orange color due to the setting sun. We stayed and watched the sun disappear on Half Dome. It was really cool. Once it got dark out we ventured back out to that same spot and stargazed. The mountains were lit up by the moonlight and we could see thousands of stars. Personally, it was my favorite day in the park.
The next day we set out early to do a big hike. On this hike we were able to see two major waterfalls of Yosemite Valley, Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. Vernal Falls was pretty popular, as it is the first waterfall you reach and most people hike to it and turn around. We kept going and reached the top of Nevada Falls, a 2,500 elevation gain, by lunch time. We were so proud of the kids and their efforts and others around us gave the kids fist bumps and compliments for their accomplishment as well. Oliver was by far the youngest hiker up there and there were a handful that might have been around Avery's age. We had gorgeous views at the top of the falls and a nice relaxing spot by the water to eat our lunch and rest for our trek down. They pushed through their fatigue coming down the mountain and Oliver was proud of himself for not being carried at all. The whole hike was 7 miles; the longest hike either of the kids have done. It was exhausting but so worth it! We returned to Curry Village and showered then grabbed pizza at a very popular pizza place at Curry. It lived up to its hype! We ended up walking around Curry Village and back around Yosemite Valley (as if we didn't walk enough that day haha!) and did some souvenir shopping. It was a beautiful night and we all enjoyed how gorgeous the scenery around us was.
Saturday morning we got up and packed our things to leave Curry. We were of course very sad to leave but we were all really excited to sleep in a hotel and enjoy our next portion of our trip. On our way to Lake Tahoe we drove through Yosemite National Park and made some pit stops at some really gorgeous areas. We went to El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite Valley View, Olmstead Point and had lunch at Tenaya Lake. It was a great way to continue to enjoy the park before we officially left it. We drove through Nevada for a little bit before coming back into California and arriving at Lake Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe was so much fun! We were just feet away from the Heavenly Ski Resort gondola and because we all have Epic passes for skiing, we were able to ride the gondola for free. We took advantage of that and rode up a few times to the top of the mountain for spectacular views of Lake Tahoe. At the top of the mountain there were all kind of fun summer things to do. We took the kids on the mountain coaster which they LOVED. It went so fast I felt like we were going to fly off the track and I may have screamed in Avery's ear a few times. At the top of the mountain was a big ski lodge with food and games. We introduced our children to "water pong" (though Chris and I had beer). It was a giant sized version which was fun. Girls vs Boys and girls won :) We all hit the cups at least once so the kids were excited they made some cups too! In fact, Avery was hitting cups before me. She's a natural!
Our hotel had a really nice pool and hot tubs, so we relaxed there at some point every day. Avery and Oliver made a friend, Astrid, who was also there every day. A few times Astrid would see the kids in the pool after coming home from dinner or something and run to her room to get into her suit so she could swim and play with the kids. It was really sweet! Another cool thing that happened was on our first afternoon, a dad and his children walked over to us and offered us two pool floats. They said that it was their last vacation day, another family gave the floats to them in the same fashion, and they wanted to see if we would like to use them while we're on our vacation. So we thanked them and used the floats for the week! When it was time for us to go, Astrid still had one or two more days so she took one. Chris and the kids walked the other one over to a big group of people, multiple families, with lots of kids and they were excited to take the float to use as well. It was a fun little "pay it forward" moment for the kids.
The kids were also introduced to fondue. We found a really cute fondue restaurant and the food was excellent. The kids had a blast dipping food into cheese and chocolate. In between we got oil and broth to cook our own meats and vegetables. It was so yummy! We ventured out to a small corner of the lake, Emerald Bay, and kayaked. The water was so crystal clear you could see the bottom of the lake in very deep parts. It was beautiful and sparkling. We kayaked over to a tiny island in the bay and explored. The kids loved standing inside an old structure on the island that they called a castle. We also took some time to find a beach for the kids to enjoy some sand and stick their feet in the lake. The lake was pretty cold so we did not do any swimming in it, though there were brave enough people around us going in! After having a pretty busy first half of our vacation, it was nice to be at Tahoe and just relax and do a few fun things while there.
We flew back home from San Francisco so we headed back that way to drop the rental car off and stayed in the city for the night before we left. Our flight home went as planned and we returned home, back to reality! Like every trip, the kids want to go back. We agree that each place we visited on this trip we could have spent so much more time enjoying and exploring. We continue to try and discover new places but this trip will always have a special place in our hearts!
