Filed under: Caitlin, Christian, Family, Jason, Jennifer, Jessalyn, Trips
Well we’ve been home from our week vacation for a full day now and I’ve got a lot to do around here. We spent yesterday pretty much avoiding any actual work aside from picking up our camping gear from my (ex) ‘rent-in-laws. I’ll get to that later. So if you’re interested in reading about our first ever real vacation as a family,read all about it below.
Friday - The Day Before
Friday night was spent with Jason taking the kids and our big equipment, such as the tent, dining shelter, bbq and other large items to Eddie and Rose’s (these would be the ex ‘rents I mentioned) and I went shopping for a few pairs of shorts. We met up and ate a quick dinner and then started packing up the car. We tried to get to bed at a decent hour because we had an early start on Saturday.
Saturday
The alarm went off at 5ish and we showered, finished packing up what we used that night, and were on the road by 6:30. We wanted to leave by 6, so that wasn’t so bad. All we did with Jess was take her out of the crib and plop her in her seat. We drove for 2 hours and stopped at a Burger King in Kramer Junction for some breakfast and to feed/change the baby. Off we went again. While on the road, we kept seeing a sign that said, “Fresh Jerky” and however many miles to the place. We got near it finally (no idea what town we were in, I think that was the only thing around for miles, and made a stop there. We didn’t stop for jerky, but to change the stinky diaper we started smelling. From there it was off to Bishop. We needed gas and a recharge since we’d been in the car forever. Jason got gas and I got some ice cream at McDonald’s. Jess had reached her limit of sitting backwards in the car and needed to stretch out. We found a really pretty park and stopped. Jess ate her lunch, and we ate the ice cream. Jess got a chance to sit on the grass and was totally interested in the ducks that came close to see what food we might have.
After hanging out there for a half an hour or so, we decided to head on up to Mammoth. An hour later we arrived and checked out the camp spots we got. They were pretty nice. Got a call from Sarah (ex sis in law) saying they were all stopped in Bishop for lunch, so we headed on over to find lunch for ourselves. After eating, we went back to the campsite and met up with the kids and the rest of the family. It took several hours to set up camp and by then, we were all pretty wasted. Dinner was made and a campfire, then bed for everyone.
Sunday
After breakfast, the family said they were off to find and attend church, and did we want to come along. Jess didn’t have her name so we laid Jess down for her morning nap and just relaxed a while. When everyone came back, we piled into our cars and headed up the mountain to the Twin Lakes area. First stop was the Twin Falls which is just beautiful. The amount of water in the area is staggering. All lakes are filled to capacity and the falls were raging. From there we went on up to Lake Mary and Lake Mamie where Eddie and the kids got wet. We found a pile of snow and the kids and Eddie used it as a slide. We drove through the old Horseshoe Lake camping area which is no longer being used for camping. Back in the late 1990’s, CO2 started coming up through vents in the ground and killed all the trees and made it hazardous to stay there. It’s an odd site to see a huge area of dead trees, nothing green, in such a lush area. After checking that out, we drove into the Twin Lakes campground to get a close up of the area and see the falls from the bottom. Dinner was on us that night so when we got back, we made chili cheese hot dogs., sat around a campfire, and crashed out early again.
Monday
After breakfast and morning naps (Eddie and Jess took them daily) we went over to the Cast-Off. It’s the only thrift store in town. We picked up a few things like a blanket for the bed, a clip on high chair, and a few books. From there, everyone else went off to other things and Jason and I went on the hunt for our first letterbox. We followed the directions and hiked about an mile and half to the rock where it was supposed to be. We much have searched for a good 20 minutes and never found it. At this point, we were pretty dissapointed. While walking back the the car, Caitlin called saying her aunt Carie and Catherine (Catherine is Carie’s daughter) and Carie’s friend Beth Ann arrived from Washington. Rather than head back to the campground and stay there the rest of the day, we made a quick stop to the big crack in the ground. This is where the San Andreas fault runs and split a big crack in the ground. There was a letterbox planted there, and the fault is a quickie thing to check out. We found the box with ease, looked at the crack, and headed back to camp. Dinner, fire, bed.
Tuesday
The Devil’s Postpile area opened to visitors and so we all decided a trip was in order. The roads leading there were closed for the season until Tuesday. You used to be able to drive there, but now there’s a mandatory bus ride to get to the postpile and Red’s Meadow/Rainbow Falls. We took the bus down and got to the picnic area just before the .4 mile walk to the actual postpile. We had another 2 letterboxes to find over there and started our search. It was supposed to be around the picnic area but we were having issues finding it. I stopped by the ranger station to ask if there was another picnic area closer to the actual postpile and they said yes. We headed onwards and found the picnic spot and 15 minutes later were stamping our log book. Success. I had another clue and we found the area that was described, but no box. Strike 2 of the 9 we had listed to find. Later we all boarded the bus and took off. When we got back to camp, the rain came in. After waiting it out a while, we realized it was dinner time and there was no way we could cook dinner at the camp, so we headed into town and ate at a local pizza joint. The rain finally stopped and we had our fire and then off to bed.
Wednesday
It had rained all night and was still raining in the morning when we woke up. Eddie went to McDonald’s for breakfast and we decided what we should do. This was the day we were supposed to go take boats out on Convict Lake, but decided that was a bad idea. Metal boats, big lake, lightning, not going to happen. We came up with the idea of a photo scavenger hunt in Mammoth. We had silly things like take a pic of someone sticking thier foot in a lake, pic with a ranger, a pic of a horse, a snowman (yes there was still a lot of snow), a pic of a chipmonk; 11 tasks to complete and have photo proof of. There was a 3 hour time limit. Our group came in dead last but we took our time doing it. We got everything on the list, but we lost because we didn’t rush through everything. That was a lot of fun. So anyhow, the rain stopped for a bit but we knew there was more on the way. It was our night to cook dinner and I didn’t want to have to go buy dinner when I had already purchased everything we needed to cook it. Jason and I went to a little hardware store and picked up a tarp that we put up over our kitchen area. While making dinner, the rain started again. Jason commented on how big the raindrops were because it got really loud. I looked out on the ground and saw it wasn’t rain at all, but hail. No worries because we were all covered with the shelter and tarp. Once again, the rain/hail stopped after dinner and we had out fire and then off to bed. We froze our butts off all night long though.
Thursday
Thursday morning was beautful. The sky was clear and we were ready to get out and do Convict Lake. I made a quick trip to the thrift store for a blanket because we had been so cold and I didn’t want to spend another night frozen. After that, we packed up the bbq and went off to Convict. We got 3 boats for all of us and cruised around the lake. One thing Eddie does is rile everyone up and get as many people to jump into the middle of the lake off their boats. Jason wasn’t going to go in, but he wasn’t about to be made fun of for the rest of his life because he didn’t go in. Eddie, Beth Ann, Carie, Jason, Chris, and Caitlin all jumped in. There was no way I was going in. the water was freezing cold. Afterwards, we boated over to the south shore where another letterbox was located. I stayed in the boat while Chris, Jason, and Beth Ann all went for a short hike to the box. After that we had a while before the boats had to be back, so we just rode around a while. All I can say about that was it was beautiful, but Jess hated every single minute of it thanks to the stupid life vest she had to wear. She was absolutely miserable.
Once we returned the boats, we drove over to the picnic are and fired up the grill for hot dogs by the lake. Caitlin was walking across a log over the stream and basically busted her ass. She slipped off and twisted her ankle something fierce. She scraped herself up pretty good too. We loaded everything and off we went. Everyone went to the camp but me, Jason, and Jess. Instead, we drove on up to the June Lake ski area to find the last letterbox we would have time find while up there. I stayed back with the baby since she had to eat and there were too many mosquitos out to take her out of the car. Jason found it and came back so we could go back to camp for dinner. I went to the car for a few minutes and the next thing I know, Jason’s telling me we should go to San Francisco from Mammoth instead of going home. WHAT?!? Are you crazy? I told him I wasn’t going unless there was a room waiting for me when I got there. After everytong was getting ready for bed, he took off to find open WiFi in town to book a room. He got back rather late but told me he booked something.
Friday
This was pack it up we’re going home day. We packed what we would need for SF and when we got home, and put everything else in Eddie and Rosie’s van for them to bring back here. We loaded up the car and were off on another adventure. We drove the Tioga Road through Yosemite which was just gorgeous. We stopped a few times on the way there and pulled into SF around 6 p.m. We found our hotel, showered, changed, and went to explore the city a bit. We took the cable car to the Fisherman’s Wharf where we had dinner at In n Out. I opted not to eat that because I thought I could find someone selling clam chowder in a sourdough bowl along the walk. After they all ate, everthing went to hell in a handbasket. The kids were dead tired, it was freezing cold, and Caitlin got one of her famous nose bleeds that last forever. We nixed trying to find me food, and decided to head back to the hotel. A wrong bus ride and several blocks of walking later, we were close to the hotel. It was after 11 p.m. and the sketchy people were out leaving us some of the only tourists out that late, and with 3 very tired children. We just wanted to get to the room and collapse so I skipped dinner.
Saturday
I woke up before everyone and went out in search of Jess’ breakfast of baby cereal and juice, and Starbucks for my coffee. With all that done, I went back to the hotel and woke everyone up around 8:30. We packed up since we were going back home after sightseeing and headed off to breakfast at Mel’s Drive-in which isn’t a drive in at all. Good food though. Then we did a Jason centered activity at the Sony Metreon and decided we’d better get on with the rest of the sites if we wanted to make it home before midnight.
We drove over to check out the place they filmed the opening of Full House since Caitlin loves that show. From there we drove past Haight and Ashbury and told the kids about all the hippies. 
Then it was on to Fort Point to see the Golden Gate Bridge in all its foggy glory. After the pics there, we went to Ghirardelli to get chocolate and ice cream. Then we drove over to Lombard Street to take that silly crooked drive. Once we drove it, Jason and the kids got out to take pics so they could see what we just did. After that we headed back to SoCal and home. Pulled in around 11:15 p.m.
