Picnic W/ Family and Mendocino Lake

After the San Francisco experience, we headed toward a Walmart parking lot in Santa Rosa to spend the night. Unfortunately, it was one of the Walmarts that have started disallowing overnight parking. Thankfully though, there was an enormous casino right next door where we were able to park for free in their 'back 40'. The next morning we contacted my mother's husband's family who lives in Santa Rosa and were able to connect for lunch at a park.

 

 

After the picnic with Maia's family we headed to Mendocino Lake. Because of the draught in this part of California, the lake was down to barely bigger than a large pond. We had planned to let the boys fish for a while (we had purchased a 2 day fishing license for Ryan and this was the last day to enjoy it!) The girls made dinner and we had planned to head into Ukiah to sleep at the Walmart.

Grady took the little girls down to see the boys fishing as well as the hundreds of Canadian Geese which were hanging out at the lake. They sure love their Daddy! :-)

Mandy makes a scrumptious fruit salad with the yummy fruit that we had purchased the day before in Salinas. Cherries, strawberries, cantaloupe, oranges, grapes, bananas.. it was delicious!

Ashley, whips up some guacamole to serve with tacos!

It is such a blessing to travel with a trailer. Potty breaks and meals become a breeze- with 8 people in the family, these stops can be very frequent! Hee hee

Yummy!

 

 

While we were eating dinner, a local couple told us about a very inexpensive camp ground on the other side of the lake. I hadn't seen it on the map or camping websites. It sounded much better than the Walmart parking lot (come to find out later that they didn't allow overnight campers either!)  And since it was the army corps of engineers' campground, we got it for 50% off! In addition, it ended up that the park ranger gave us  the first night free because the phone number to pay for the site was down. We  ended up staying 2 nights at Mendocino Lake which turned out to be a nice break from the travelling. The place was pretty empty and we had a great site- right on the lake.

 

 

 Grant and Ryan discovered a small creek which feeds into the lake. At the mouth of the creek Grant caught this huge catfish!

 

Best friends

The girls enjoyed riding their beach cruisers on the dry lake bed. It was a relaxing time for all.

 

Downtown San Francisco

Ok now, we had promised the kids we would be able to cross over the Golden Gate Bridge.. and we *tried* to set out in time to get there before dark.. and we *thought* it would be easy to find, you know being the Golden Gate Bridge and all! Well, what we didn't realize is that Highway 101 to the Golden Gate Bridge happens to take you right through DOWNTOWN San Francisco! Now normally that wouldn't be an issue.. had we not been pulling a 27' trailer! It all worked out ok.. the buses and Grady were courteous to one another and would take turns in their lane positions. (the trailer and bus couldn't fit side by side in the 2 lanes of traffic heading toward the bridge!)

 

 

(who woulda thought Highway 101 takes you through SF? ;-))

It did get a bit dicey though when the traffic signs told us to curve to the left with the rest of the traffic and the GPS said to keep straight at the curve. We ended up in a tight, hilly area.. but after some positioning and making a 4 block 'around the block' we got back on the right track. We decided after that to go with what we see, not necessarily with what the GPS is telling us! LOL!

 

It was dark when we crossed and there was road construction everywhere so it was a bit anti-climatic. But for Grady, he was just happy to get out of busy down town San Francisco!

California Coast!

Heading from the Grand Canyon to the California Coast was a fun drive. The first few hundred miles were just dry and barren desert. We stayed in a Walmart parking lot near the San Bernadino Valley and headed out toward the coast the following day.

I see palm trees!

We headed to 101..

and enjoyed the lovely scenery

We decided to take Highway 1 for a more 'scenic route'.. it ended up being quite windy and steep but after the 65 miles of white knuckles on dad's part, we all agreed that the view and drive were worth it!

Even Brighty, first time out of the Grand Canyon, enjoyed the view

We had many chances to stop and whale watch.. that was probably the children's favorite part of this leg of the journey.

 

We finally reached the Monterey area.. passed Salinas and found a nice RV Park. It had been a few days so it was nice to fill the water tank, empty the septic and recharge our batteries! literally :-) The place had a nice duck pond, playground and even free laundry and shower services. Pretty good for $30 per night!

We found this great produce stand and stocked up on inexpensive locally grown grapes, watermelon, strawberries, and much much, much more! All for under $30! Much of the things we found were considered past date and therefore only .50 per lb! Mmm!

What a great find! Now if I only I hadn't sold my Vita-Mix at the garage sale in BZ>>>>>> :-)

 

Desert View Drive & Watchtower

Days 2 and 3 at the Grand Canyon included staying at the campground while Grady rewired a few corroded brake light wires.. and just relaxing in general. On day 4 we went back out and into the Park, taking the Burb down the Desert View Drive which is east of Mather Point and follows the rim for 25 miles out to the Desert View Watchtower and East Entrance. Along the way, six developed canyon viewpoints, four picnic areas, and five unmarked pullouts are accessible with private vehicles.

Ok Grant, outta the tree! We're heading back to the Nat'l Park for more exploring! :-)

We enjoyed stopping along the Desert View Drive and looking at all the different vantage and viewpoints.. each had their own unique look and view of the magnificent canyon

 

Rye, Grant, Grace and Laura head up to the Watchtower

 

 

 

The view from the Watchtower is amazing! Reading about Mary Colter and her influence on the Grand Canyon's 85 year old buildings was very interesting. The children enjoyed the Hopi art and the winding staircase.

 

 

The gift shop on the bottom floor was amazing also. Filled with native-made gifts and treasures

 

Very cute Rye! A little over your budget though.. :-)

 

 

We shoulda listened to a full time travelling Mama who recently warned on her blog NOT to let children wander into gift shops (tourist traps!) We fell into the trap and bought the girls these cute native-made dolls...

The boys with their official Grand Canyon walking sticks

Ashley poses with Dutch.. a lady who saw this shot gasped and ran off.. we weren't sure if she were worried about Ashley or the dog.. lol!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every place we stopped, someone else would ask to take the girls' photo. This couple from Italy in particular just fell in love with them. We ended up exchanging information and talking with them for over a half an hour. It was such a blessing to meet them.

 

 

 

We all hiked down a path at Grandview to watch the infamous Grand Canyon sunset.. it was definitely worth the wait!

 

 

Gorgeous!

Goodbye Grand Canyon! We hope to come back for a visit! Maybe to the North Rim and onto lovely Utah......... It will have to wait till next trip!