travel with kids – Page 3

Our family had a amazing two weeks in California; we covered so much ground–literally–that it’s going to take me a few posts to tell you all about it! From the time we picked up our rental car in Los Angeles to the morning we turned it back in, we drove about 2,500 miles. We knew that we were going to have to drive a lot, but we also had a couple of setbacks.

Our plan was to drive from San Luis Obispo to the south entrance of Yosemite, drive north through the park, and take Hwy 120 to our rental house. As we were driving to Yosemite, Ed noticed some interesting cloud formations. “What’s that?” he said, pointing. I, of course, said it was nothing.

We arrived at the Ranger’s station about an hour later. Ed asked the ranger how it was going. “Okay, except for the fire that started two days ago. The road to Hwy 120 is closed.”

It was early enough in the day that we had plenty of time to see some of Yosemite before we heading to our lodging for the night. Ed looked at a map, and we would have to backtrack out of the park and go north on a different road. It might take us a little longer, but it didn’t seem like it would ruin our trip.

We didn’t have to drive far into Yosemite to see the fire. As we stood at a viewpoint, about seven green firetrucks drove by us, the firemen waving at the girls as they passed by. Many of the fires that start in Yosemite are named. This was the El Portal fire.

It’s hard to describe driving into Yosemite Valley. As we drove, we were surrounded by these breathtaking walls of granite that reached up into the sky, almost higher than you could image. If anything makes you feel small, it’s entering that majestic valley where the Merced River flows. The smoke made everything hazy and a little surreal.

Ed, Lily and Emmy were thrilled because there were rocks to climb on. Climbing rocks makes them happy. I may have also climbed on a few rocks.

And then my sister and I took a selfie. Which Ed and Lily tried to photobomb.

After exploring the Valley for a little while, we decided we’d better get back on the road. It’s a good thing we did. The section of 49 from Mariposa to Coulterville is one of the scariest roads I’ve ever been on. It twisted and turned along the sides of the mountains, and as soon as I said, “Now that’s a hairpin turn if I ever saw one,” there was an even tighter hairpin turn! Ed couldn’t drive more that 15 miles an hour, and when the section of road is 13 miles long…it takes an hour to drive it.

When we finally arrived in Coulterville, we breathed a communal sigh of relief! We ate dinner at Hotel Jeffery. The service was slow because the men were all out fighting the fire, but once we got our food, it was very good. Hotel Jeffery is a historic building, and it still has hotel rooms you can stay in. We were staying six miles up the road. As we found out later, finding places to eat was a challenge in some areas on this trip.

In the next few posts, I’m going to include some links about where we stayed and ate. Maybe this will help you if you plan on traveling to Yosemite!

Where we ate: The Historic Hotel Jeffery in Coulterville

Where we stayed: When we travel, Ed loves using VRBO (Vacation Rent By Owner). This time, we rented a beautiful house about six miles north of Coulterville.

More posts about our California trip:

Meeting Gretchen from Second Blooming in Los Angeles
Hiking the Lemon Grove Loop Trail in San Luis Obispo

Long drives and little children do not get along very well. When Ed gets the itch to go on a road trip, we usually break up the drive into shorter segments to keep the children happy and the parents sane. We spent a leisurely three days driving from Chicago to Estes Park, Colorado. We were also just as leisurely driving to Niagara Falls, with a stop in Pennsylvania’s Cook Forest. Our last long drive was during our vacation in Alaska. We wanted to drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks, which is about 359 miles…not much farther than our usual road trip to Des Moines to visit my family. But we were in Alaska! We definitely wanted to take our time on this long drive.

The morning we left, it was a typical June day in Anchorage: chilly and wet. My aunt, whose house was our headquarters, urged us to borrow her umbrellas for our trip. They definitely came in handy that day! Not far out of Anchorage was our first sightseeing stop: Thunderbird Falls. By then it was officially raining, but that didn’t stop us from hiking up to the falls. We couldn’t get close enough to feel the spray from the thunderous waterfall, but since it was already raining we could use our imaginations.

After shaking ourselves off, we got into the car to dry off and head to our next destination: Independence Mine and Hatcher’s Pass. This is a little side trip off of Parks Highway, and well worth the detour. I have been there twice before, but unfortunately the weather was colder and foggier as we drove up into the mountains. We went as far as we could go before we reached a gate. The pass was still closed; too much snow. We got out of the car to stretch our legs and the air was definitely wintery.

As we headed back to the highway, a cow and calf crossed the road. The girls were so excited! It was our first moose sighting in Alaska!

We spent the night in a very small, very cute cabin in Talkeetna. Talkeetna is often referred to as the backdoor to Denali. Sight seeing flights for Mt. McKinley take off in Talkeetna. Mountain climbers gear up and start their journey to the tallest North American mountain in Talkeetna. It’s a very interesting little town. Our cabin was just a couple miles outside of town in the woods.

Talkeetna Cabin — Our little cabin in Talkeetna

The next day was our second leg of the trip…on to Fairbanks! We started the day with some hot chocolate from a little cafe down the street and stopped to buy some smoked salmon for our lunch later on. As we drove further north, the rain clouds began to dissipate and the sun started to shine. We stopped a few times to take pictures, but we didn’t take any hikes. We passed Denali National Park…we were going to stop there for a couple of nights on our way back to Anchorage. We kept driving North.

Although this was my third trip to Alaska, I had never been up to Fairbanks. As we left the mountains behind, the land became flat and all we could see were spruces for miles and miles. For lunch, we pulled off at a spot by the side of the road and had a picnic in the back of our rented minivan. Triscuits, smoked salmon and cheese!

picnic in a van — Nothing beats lunch in a van!

While driving through miles and miles of spruce trees was not that exciting, it was still better than the miles and miles of corn fields we drive through to get to the Mississippi River. We reached Fairbanks in plenty of time to enjoy Pioneer Park and have dinner at their famous Salmon Bake.