Mom's turn: On our way HOME!

We headed for that long trip home and the temperature started off at 38 degrees this morning. We were going to take a different route back, through Colorado, however plans were changed due to road closures from snow!! Hello – didn’t anyway tell these people it was almost summer? So we headed back through Texas…oh joy.

my RIGHT arm got fried...and my LEFT arm is still pasty white :-/

We got to see the Mojave desert, again, Arizona, again,

our friend, the Giant Roadrunner

and skirted Mexico – holding our breath the entire time to avoid the dreaded swine flu!

Christina got the giggles...over SOMETHING

The return trip was not all that…you’ve seen one cactus, windmill, dust devil, you’ve pretty much seen them all.

Mao slept...again :-D

One new spot we found on the way home, thanks to the iWant app on Travis’ iPhone – cool, was a coffee place called Kinley’s House. They had a drink called a white elephant…and yes, naturally I had to get it! It was the most delicious drink I’ve ever had and it’s a very good thing they are so far away or I would be the size of an elephant having within my grasp! My other favorite buy of the trip, aside from my (4th) elephant purse found on Haight St. of course, was my awesome $3 shoes with sparkles!! Truly a favorite

SPARKLES...I love sparkles!!

Overall, the trip was phenomenal! 15 days, 5 states, 4 people, two dogs, and one truck driven approximately 5,000 miles, with 26.2 miles ran, 16 miles biked, 5 miles hiked, and several more miles walked – we saw the United States in a way most people never get to experience it and we are very grateful for the opportunity.

Mom's turn: Oh, BAT was cool!

On our last night in a hotel we were accosted by bats on the way to our room. Once we got over the shock factor and got our stuff deposited in the room, we crept back out on the balcony to watch them. We even tried to feed them some dog food and scare some moths off of the walls. It was awesome…they flew within centimeters of our faces over and over again! NO pictures of mine, however, because 1) it was dark and 2) those little guys are FAST!

picture from: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ihavebats.info/images/Bat-Flying.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.ihavebats.info/&usg=__sphDsjevM3ZUPyDwli12PeokwLQ=&h=506&w=500&sz=151&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=uOQLIUgV1ics9M:&tbnh=131&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dflying%2Bbats%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1

Mom's turn: Walking Among the Giants

Day 12 We left Monterey and headed to go see the giant old trees…I was so excited! We missed this part of California the last time we were here. On the way, Travis had to stop for a conference call – just a little bit of work on this trip, not too bad. And if you have to stop while someone works…what a view!!!

Samson said he wanted to go for a walk...

We pulled over on the side of the mountain and watched as hawks soared and, wait…what’s that…a storm of paragliders!!! We later identified it as something to do with some sort of national paragliding championship going on in the area. They were everywhere and it was amazing to watch.

We finally moved and we were in the Land of the Giants at Sequoia National Park. Amazing…words and pictures cannot even begin to convey the magnitude or majesty of these giant trees! They reminded me of huge cinnamon sticks that felt like driftwood or papier-mâché. We were at an elevation of 7000’, so the other surprise we got was snow! The girls had fun with that – tossing snow balls at each other. BRRRRRRRR. We also saw some deer enjoying the new spring grass on the roadside as well.

You are looking at the world’s largest grove of the world’s largest tree – the giant sequoia. The Redwood Mountain Grove of giant sequoias covers almost five square miles and sweeps from the east side of Big Baldy Ridge on your left to the west side of Redwood Mountain on your right. It contains over 2,100 sequoias larger than ten feet in diameter.

The Redwood Mountain Grove wasn’t always the world’s largest. At one time the Converse Basin Grove 10 miles north of here held that title, but during the early 1900’s most of its trees fell to the lumberman’s saw.

Not all threats to the giant sequoias are behind us. Scientists today are studying the effect air pollution from the San Joaquin Valley has on the giant sequoias. Eternal vigilance it appears is the price of preserving our natural treasures.

You can differentiate the mature giant sequoias from other trees by their greater height and rounded tops. Giant sequoias range up to 310 feet in height and 40 feet in diameter. If you wish to visit the secluded giants of the Redwood Mountain Grove check with a ranger for information on hiking trails.

We drove on to see the General Sherman Tree:

In front of you stands the General Sherman Tree. Its claim to fame as the biggest tree in the world comes from the volume of its trunk. A few other tree trunks are bigger around. Some trees are taller. But no other tree has more wood in its trunk than the Sherman Tree.

The Sherman Tree’s top is dead, so the tree’s trunk no longer gets taller. However, its volume keeps increasing. Each year the trunk grows wider, adding enough wood to equal another good-sized tree. Check out the life-sized “footprint” of the Sherman Tree’s trunk on the ground behind you. It gives an idea of the tree’s girth – 109 feet (33m) around at the ground – and its irregular shape. Natural growth patterns and fire scars cause the uneven shape. Compare the fire scar on the tree (the same black scar visible behind the cavalry in the historic photo below) with the indentation the scar makes in the trunks’ outline.

The hike to get there was .5 mile with over a 200’ change in elevation, so there were warnings everywhere, but it was really a very easy path.

they paved the "footprint" of the Sherman Tree so you could get an idea of it's diameter!

It was wide, paved, and had stairs to make it even simpler.

Teeny & Mao

It was so awesome to see the oldest living, to be a part of something so grand is indescribable! It sure lets you know just how small you are in the whole scheme of things, though…in a very splendid way.

Samson was overwhelmed...he didn't know where to begin ;-D

As we were leaving the part we saw some black bears in the woods.

Travis read somewhere that black bears can actually be black, brown, or blonde – which explained why we weren’t sure what they were to begin with as the ones we saw were blonde. One was a mamma with two cubs and one was a larger, single bear that jumped down from the cliff right in front of the car in front of us. Good thing the speed limit was only about 15mph, so it was easy to stop!

see the winding roads...there was no way to go faster than 15mph!

The car scared him about as bad as he startled the driver and he quickly scampered back up the mountainside!

We drove on into Bakersfield, CA for the night to rest and start the long drive home. The drive was lined with olive and citrus trees in full bloom and the air smelled like perfume, so the ride was pleasant one with all the windows down.

Mom's turn: Finishing what we started.

Day 11 Words can’t describe how proud I am.
Wonderful, magnificent, breathtaking, superb, amazing, astonishing, fantastic, brilliant, great, outstanding, superlative, bravura, glorious, splendid, out of this world, spectacular, incredible, awesome, awe-inspiring, excellent, terrific, fabulous, marvelous, miraculous, remarkable, startling, astounding, astonishing, beyond belief, shocking, exceptional, admirable, commendable, praiseworthy, laudable, exemplary, impressive, striking, exciting, electrifying, thrilling, exhilarating, moving, rousing, gripping, enlivening, elating…and the list goes on!

Travis completed his first marathon, the Big Sur, a 26.2 mile run along Highway 1 in Monterey, California in 5h32m19s. He got up at 3am to walk down to catch the shuttle that brought him to the beginning of the race, which started at 6:45a.

there were over 4,200 competitors at the starting line

That, in itself, is commendable – especially since the temperature was in the low 40’s!!!

Still smiling...that's amazing!

Teeny filming her Daddy coming across the finish line - was caught on camera herself!

The girls and I went to the finish line to wait for him at a much more reasonable hour! That’s where we saw him finish with a huge smile of gratification on his face. He said, “hills were brutal, but the wind was worse. I met a lot of interesting people along the way and the scenery was great!” This was punctuated by his 101 pictures that he took along the route. He saw various bands, but his favorites were the Japanese drummers encouraging him up to Hurricane Point and the piano player.

We ditched the post-race food for something much better. On one of his co-racers recommended some clam chowder from Fisherman’s Warf, so that’s where we headed. You can walk along and sample the various restaurants until you find the one that’s perfect. We found our favorite, along with some killer calamari, roasted garlic with toast, and a shrimp and crabmeat ravioli covered with creamy pesto sauce. We sat next to the window so we watched several more albatross and a few sea-lions while we ate and left no room for dessert!

We took Travis back to the hotel where he promptly passed out! At the race registration the day before we learned that the Cirque le Masque was performing that evening and participants in the marathon could get 2 for 1 priced ticket. Travis said he would treat us for cheering him on…more likely because he wanted a quiet room to recover in. So I took the girls; Teeny was excited to introduce Mao to this type of show. It wasn’t as big as a Cirque du Soleir, but they still had several very entertaining acts. Our favorites were:

Mao – hand to hand balancing by the Garzas
Teeny – risely by max & Roberto Laurino
Me – the German wheel by Andrei Roublev and cube juggling by Danny Perez

Unfortunately, as in most performances, photos were not allowed.