Spring Break - Days One and Two: Oregon, Tuolomne Grove, Yosemite

Day One: April 12, 2018 (Thursday)

Eben arrived home Wednesday night from taking the Polar Star from Seattle to Mare Island shipyard in Vallejo, California. After packing up the Durango and a short rest, he woke up at 3:45 AM and left Seattle to return to California – this time with Edison and Charlotte for the start of Spring Break. Having a big school event Thursday night, Johanna stayed in town one more day with Reed and then flew to Sacramento to meet them. By 10:00 AM, Eben had made it to Winston, Oregon, home of the Wildlife Safari Park. They got to see all kinds of animals up close: rhinos, brown bears, cheetahs, ostrich, buffalo, emu, giraffes, and hippos. Charlotte was ecstatic to finally see a cheetah – her favorite animal. Edison was most impressed by the bears. After the safari park, they continued south to Jedidiah State Park to see the massive coast Redwoods. The kids had fun seeing the enormously tall trees and imagining they were in the Ewok village from Star Wars. They then hugged the coast from Crescent City to Eureka and finally back over towards I-5 to sleep that night in Red Bluff.

 

 

Day Two: April 13, 2018 (Friday)

Johanna and Reed flew down to Sacramento early Friday morning and got picked up at the airport by the rest of the family. Reunited, we headed southeast to Yosemite National Park. We drove through verdant, green foothills and mountains on the way, steadily winding our up, up, up until we crested to the top of the granite cliff overlooking Yosemite Valley down below. Before we dropped into the valley, we stopped at Tuolomne Grove to follow a hiking trail through the giant sequoias.

 

 Yosemite Valley was absolutely enchanting. We looked out from Tunnel View and could see Half Dome, El Capitan, numerous waterfalls, and the Merced River flowing through everything. We stopped and had a late snack at the base of El Capitan and marveled at its immense size – apparently it is the largest hunk of granite in the world and is over 3500’ feet tall. We then headed to El Portal to our hotel where we made dinner and then went swimming at the indoor pool. It was a very full day and we slept hard.