Family Vacation

(In-N-Out, Redding,CA)

2 weeks ago we went on a family road trip to Tahoe and Yosemite! This was Hazels first long car trip so we decided it was time to face her carseat forward. She wasn't as amazed as I thought she would be, but she was definitely not as fussy as she was on our Seattle trip. My favorite times was when she would nap though :)

The first night we stayed in Redding, CA. That was a rough night, because Hazy was not used to the pack n play crib and she was just not liking the hotel I guess. We ended up taking turns driving her around and eventually she passed out of exhaustion, and so did we!

The next morning we started our drive to Tahoe. We went through Lassen Volcanic Monument, but I missed most of the drive through it because I had horrible sinus pressure and just reclined my seat to try and sleep. The rest of the drive was very scenic, we watched the sun set on Lake Tahoe as we ate pizza for dinner. It was dark by the time we got to our hotel. Hazel had another rough night.


(South Lake Tahoe)

We stayed in Tahoe for one week at the Marriott Timber Lodge. It was a nice hotel, had a heated pool and 4 hot tubs, which we used each night! During the days we would drive around to scenic places and take pictures of the beautiful fall foliage. My favorite place that we saw was Emerald Bay. We saw the sun set one night there and it was totally my colors - pinks, blues and purples, fading in to dark blues.

One day we went to Mono Lake and spent some time at the visitor center and we even walked on this nice boardwalk down to the lake's edge to see the "tufas" (salt formations).



(Lily Lake, South Lake Tahoe)

I brought my spinning wheel along and used almost every night for an hour, I even finished 2 skeins of yarn! I used my wheel more than I worked on all the knitting I brought. I had a chance to visit the one yarn store in town (Wool Tree) and spent an hour chatting with the people in the shop and knitting a bit.


(Tunnel View, Yosemite NP)

On our way home we stayed one night in Yosemite's Curry Village. Our "room" was a tiny cabin that had 1 double and 2 twin beds, inuslated canvas walls and a heater. Can't say it was the best night ever, since the 3 of us squeezed onto a double bed, and Hazy got the prime sleeping space (the middle, with both of us hanging on the edge of either side). The whole place is covered in "Be Bear Aware" signs and making sure all food and toiletry items are stowed in the bear boxes. We didn't see any bears, but they neglected to warn us about mice! We had a mouse that chewed through a bag of chips, a granola bar and couple other things.

I have been wanting to go to Yosemite for years now to re-visit the place my family went camping every year when I was little. Unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy for the two days we were there. This was the first time I had not seen Half Dome! That's ok, we had fun hiking in the Tuolomne Meadows and checking out the Visitor Center and Village Store. On the drive out we took the road up to the Hetch Hetchy Dam. The weather there was not too bad and we could see all across the lake. I bet this place was so pretty before they dammed it up. It was supposed to be like the Yosemite Valley.

We stayed in Redding on the way home again, and by then Hazel was used to the pack n play so the night was easier on us. The next day we drove home in a huge rainstorm. We stopped in Ashland for lunch and for a walking break, that happened to include a Starbucks and Yarn Shop :) A few nice things came home with me! Our final stop was in Salem for dinner with Owen's brothers and then finally we made it home!

Seattle Trip

Last weekend we went on a small road trip up to Seattle! Hazel did really well in the car! On Saturday we left in the afternoon from Owen's grandma's house in Camas, and had a 1 hour stop at Shipwreck Beads. Then stopped for dinner in Tacoma - we got Olive Garden to go and went to a nearby park/duck pond to eat, but it got windy and cold as soon as the sun went down. We made it to our hotel by 8pm and had time for a swim in the pool, before putting all of us to bed early!

Sunday we went to the Chittenden Locks - Hazel had a blast! She loved walking around, waving to the boats and checking out the fish ladder. She was so cute walking with her backpack leash, and she tolerated it really well! Hazel got a bit of a nap while we drove around in the car. She did wake up when we got to the U Village to get Trophy Cupcakes. So she got to play in the playground there and in the turtle fountain! After that we drove to the MOHAI museum and walked on Arboretum Waterfront Trail - it has bridges over the water and onto the marsh islands of Lake Washington, it was really cool and a moderately easy trail to follow (There was a little bit of mud on the trail and some of the wooden walkways were slick from the water splashing up). We had dinner at the Red Robin in Bellevue. We got back to the hotel and swam a bit, then headed to bed.

Monday was another jam packed day! First we had to check out of the hotel. Then we drove to downtown Seattle and parked at Pike Place Market. I got my pic taken with Rachel the Pig, Hazel went to the First Starbucks and we walked to the downtown westlake mall to go to Daiso (a Japanese store) then headed back to the car. Hazel bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers from the market! One of the things that we made sure to do was take Hazel on her first WA Ferry ride! We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, which also has a bridge back to the mainland and we drove down to Tacoma, over the Narrows Bridge (galloping gertie). We stopped in DuPont for Starbucks and our last stop was in Kelso to have a snack and let Hazel run around on the playground for a bit. She fell asleep from there and we drove over the Longview Bridge and took Hwy 30 home.

Stuff I learned:
This was a quick weekend, packed with so many things! The next time we go it'll be for a week! Every yarn shop I came across was closed on Sundays or Monday for the holiday - LAME! I did not allow enough time in Shipwreck Beads to take it all in. Hazel does well in the car for long periods when she's sleeping, but if she's awake, we do have to take time to stop so she can run around and play. This was good practice for our road trip down to Tahoe in a few months!

9 months old and Hawaii re-cap

We had a great vacation in Hawaii. We stayed at the Marriott Maui Ocean Club, it was awesome.

There were 3 pool complexes and the one we were parked at for most of the time was shady and not crowded. It was like we had the place to ourselves. Each night we grilled our food and had grilled fresh pineapple for dessert!

Hazel did so well on both plane rides and adjusted to the time change ok, but now that we're back home, she is still on island time :( She made friends with everyone she met and knew almost everyone there. She loved swimming in the pool, but did not like the ocean so much, and she did not like the sand.

Half way through our trip, my mom and aunt arrived, so we spent a lot of time with them. We shopped in Lahaina, we drove to Haleakala and we lounged at the pool.

It was such a great trip. However, I don't think that I want to take that long of a plane ride (7hrs there, 5hrs back) with Hazel until she is a little older. Like I said, she did great and did not cry hardly at all, but the stress of making sure she was occupied and not crying was the hard part.

Maui yarns

If there was yarn on this island, I was going to find it. Locally dyed here on Maui. 

Colorways:
Is a green sea turtle really green and whale watching. 

Aloha

from Maui!!

In-n-Out

Last in n out of the year

Goin' to the chapel

at my cousin's wedding.

Trio of Turtles

Water baby

Hazel loves going for her nightly swim. The pools here are gorgeous! she also likes getting dipped in the hot tub

Street fair

Went to the palm springs street fair tonight and found some spinners! too bad i left my turkish delight at the hotel and lucky there was an extra spindle in the booth. hi to leslie of lollyarn!

Salton Sea

View of the salton sea from the top of keys point

Sunset

Sunset from the top of keys point in joshua tree.

Joshua tree

Listening to U2's Joshua Tree album in Joshree Tree. So awesome!

Gingerbread latte

First gingerbread latte of the season. and It's 91 degrees outside!

Joshua tree

Hazel got a national park passport book and her first cancellation stamp today (they even had a tortoise regional stamp)

View

The view from our living room. Complete with a mini cactus.

Long day

Made it safely to California. Can't wait to see what this place looks like in the daytime. Our suite is so nice and it even has a kitchen.

Hazel was such a good traveler that we got complimented on how quiet she was on the plane!

Vacation

Sitting at the airport waiting to board an airplane to go to sunny palm springs! I couldn't believe that I got on the free wifi. Every other time I've been here I only got the paid access wifi and was very p.o'd. I'll try to update with pix messages this week!

California

We went down to So. Cal last weekend to have a mini family reunion, but also to clear out my grandparent's house. My grandfather died in January and my grandmother was moved into an adult foster home (because she has dimentia and no one in the family could give her the care she needs). They had sooooooooooo much stuff that was just junk that we got rid of. I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted us to deal with their stuff, but that's how life is. It made me realize that some day I will have 2 houses to do that to since my parents are no longer together. Also, Hazel will have to do this some day as well! Made me take a look at all the stuff we have in a different light. Just to let you know, however, there will be no yarn destashing any time soon! I ended up shipping home the items that I took (a set of Christmas china and a porcelain doll - pictures when they arrive :) )

We were there for 5 days, but it felt like 3 weeks. Each day was very long and very tiring. I did get to meet up with a few of my friends that live in the area and so that made the trip not as sad as it could have been. I held up really well considering all the crying that my mom and aunts were doing.

Hazel was such a good baby on both of her flights - I worried for nothing about her having a melt down. I am so proud of her :) I did do some research on traveling with babies so I got some good tips. The best one was taking along a "mini" diaper bag that had: two diapers, a disposable changing pad, a few wipes, purel and a onesie in case of an accident. It worked great on the plane so we did not have to get out of our seats to change a wet diaper during the flight :) Our airport has a special family security lane and I didn't have to worry about making the people behind us annoyed at us because we had so much stuff going through security and taking a little longer to get it on the x-ray belt. Oh, and we proved to ourselves that we can indeed travel with 2 carry on suitcases, a diaper bag, a stroller and a car seat. It did help that we had access to a washing machine, otherwise it would have been a little more difficult.

a few photos:

On the train headed to the airport. Hazel loved looking at the bridges over the Willamette!


The family line I was talking about


She got to meet her great grandmother. It was very sweet seeing them interact with each other!


Finally got that Italian Margarita from Olive Garden. The last time I was there I was still pregnant and couldn't have one!


Art-O-Mat. It's an art vending machine, it was also addicting, because I didn't know what I was getting.

Rahel's Ethiopian restaurant in L.A. Very tasty!!

Owen's balancing act with the hotel breakfast.

Wings

She earned her wings! She did not fuss at all