We took an 11 day summer vacation to California at the end of July. We had the best time. Because we knew we would not be going there for a while (because we have other places that we want to visit), we packed a lot in during those 11 days.
Day 1: to Oakland, OR and Grants Pass, OR
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| Soda Fountain in Oakland, OR |
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| Drive to Grants Pass, OR |
Day 2: to Redwoods, Crescent City, OR, Eureka, OR, and Fortuna, OR
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| Crazy drive from Grants Pass, OR to Crescent City, OR |
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| Cam and Jar by Redwood tree |
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| The beautiful Redwoods |
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| The drive-thru Redwoods (we didn't fit :) ) |
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| Crescent City, OR |
Day 3: to Castello di Amorosa Castle; Napa Valley; Vallejo, CA; Sausalito, CA San Francisco, CA; San Ramon, CA
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| Napa Valley, CA |
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| Castle |
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| Sausalito, CA |
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| Sausalito, CA |
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| Golden Gate Bridge-San Francisco, CA |
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| Palace of the Fine Arts-San Francisco |
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| San Francisco, CA (taken from Mission Delores Park) |
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| downtown San Francisco |
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| Chinatown-San Francisco |
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| Russian Hill (Lombard Street)-San Francisco |
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| Pier 39-San Francisco |
San Francisco is a beautiful city, and it has lots of wonderful sights, but I never ever want to go there again. I do not like the craziness of that city one bit.
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| The Hyatt House Motel-San Ramon, CA |
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| Our motel room |
Day 4: to San Jose, CA; Santa Cruz, CA; Monterey Bay, CA; Carmel, CA; Fresno, CA
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| Santina Row, San Jose, CA |
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| Santa Cruz, CA (boardwalk in background) |
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| Santa Cruz, CA |
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| Marianne's Ice Cream in Santa Cruz, CA (over 100 flavors) |
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| Monterey Bay, CA (17 mile drive) |
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| Carmel by the sea, CA |
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| Carmel by the sea, CA |
Carmel by the sea was one of my favorite stops. I love cute towns a lot, and Carmel by the sea reminded me of photos I've seen of cute towns over in Europe.
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| boys feet in California water of Pacific Ocean |
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| drive to Fresno, CA |
Day 5-7: at Kelly's house in Fresno, CA
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| Cousins |
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| Kelly's house |
The cousins had so much fun together. They played video games a lot, went swimming together, and we went to see Monsters University together. The boys never wanted to leave.
Day 8: to Yosemite National Park, Tioga Pass, and Mammoth Lakes, CA
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| Yosemite-Half Dome |
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| Yosemite National Park |
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| Yosemite |
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| Mammoth Lakes, CA |
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| Mammoth Lakes, CA |
Mammoth Lakes was another one of our favorite stops. The ski town was super cute. Our motel was fantastic. The only thing that was a bother was the altitude. Sometimes it was hard to catch your breath.
Day 9: to Lake Tahoe and Carson City, NV
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| Lake Tahoe, CA |
Day 10: to Virginia City, NV; Reno, NV; Yreka, CA
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| Virginia City, NV |
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| Virginia City, NV |
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| Virginia City, NV |
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| boys in Virginia City, NV |
16 years ago, when Cam was just 7 months old, we made a trip to California for my brother's wedding. During that time, we went with Mom and Dad to Virginia City NV. It was fun to go there again. It is a unique experience.
Day 11: to Medford, OR (Harry and David store); Myrtle Creek, OR; and home. We saw covered bridges.
It was a fantastic trip. We really packed a lot into the trip, but we are very glad that we did. God's amazing world is so beautiful. We saw a lot of amazing sights...some of them even scared us. (like the curvy driving roads, the skinny roads, the huge drop offs--like the drive up to "Dead Man's Drop"--well the name was really Klamath River overlook, but I like my name better. Another crazy spot was Tioga Pass after Yosemite National Park.
We are so thankful that we were able to take this trip. It was so amazing to be able to see all of the sights and also to be able to spend time with family.
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