So, my dad always talks about this cabin in Kings Canyon and Sequoia Nat's Park that he went to when he was a kid and how we wants to take us there... so we decided it was time to take the trek (and a trek it was!!) to the cabin... I think my parents were having doubts as we were crossing the Oregon border and realizing we were about 1/3 of the way there but us kiddos had faith we'd make it... we just peppered them with "our we at the cabin yet" every few minutes to push their buttons a bit... hehe.
What we didn't know was that we'd get to stop at this hotel (that happened to be hosting the "Home Schoolers of California") where we'd get to go swimming till 11pm at night (ok, so we didn't get to the hotel till 10pm), run around a lake full of geese, check out a koi pond, give the kid area for convention a trial run AND get free breakfast. Score! Day 2 in the car consisted of us sleeping pretty much the whole way (well played 'rents!)
We did FINALLY get to the cabin and it was awesome... There's a older red cabin and a new cedar cabin. Caits and I had fun checking out the cabins (i.e. we jumped on all the mattresses upstairs in the new cabin for about an hour)... Then we all headed out for a little wander on the trail behind the cabin with Patrick, Candice and their dog "Julep" who I got to walk. (I'm a future dog walker for those who are interested...)
That was just a warm up though.. they next day mom, dad, Caits and I did a 3 1/2 mile hike called "Little Baldy" (no it was not named after my dad...) It was pretty cool, we got to see marmots, grouse, butterflies, and an amazing view from the top! We did another fun hike all through huge granite boulders the next day too to another amazing view - it was awesome.. for real life. I even brought my notebook and markers with me in my camelback so I could write all about what I saw on the hike when I got to the top (DEER, PRAIRIE DOG, ROCKS).
But of course, you can't leave Sequoia Nat'l Park without seeing the big Sequoia trees! We checked them out and they were the biggest trees I've seen in my whole life. One was 1700 years old, 30ft in diameter, and 267ft tall. We're talking huge!!! We even got to walk through a tree that was laying on the ground.
We also had good fun playing in the dirt, watching humming birds, and eating by the camp fire. The cabin was pretty fun and we weren't ready to leave!! But it was time to head back... Caits and I decided to take it easy on my parents this time around behave ourselves for the 14+ hour drive home. I think they appreciated that :).
