I must say first and foremost we had an amazing time on our trip. There is always so much to discover out in the Eastern Sierras. Family, food, fishing, hiking, old gold mines , hot showers and the scenery is just breathtaking. We did however hit a few little "bumps in the road" and so the "adventure" begins.
We got to camp only to find out our electric wasn’t working, but we shook it off. Then Day 1 of our trip I got super sick and ended up in the ER and was treated for strep and pneumonia. I had one day of rest but didn’t let getting sick stop me. We enjoyed Lee Vining went on a few hikes with the whole family, it was a blast!
Our girls had a blast with all of their cousins, we had Jason's entire family there this year. This was my parents first trip to Lee Vining so we wanted them to see a little bit of everything, Yosemite, Lundy Lakes, Mammoth and more. An interesting fact, the water levels were higher than they have been since the 30’s, many of the campsites we have stayed at in years past were under water this year. Only downside was Yosemite was CRAZY BUSY because the falls are so huge.
Day 3 Jason ended up in the ER for the same reason I was there, then it rained for the first time taht we have ever traveled to Lee Vining( I'm going on 7 years this year) We made a day out of it in Mammoth though ( trying to entertain three kids in a trailer for an entire day to escape the rain is nearly impossible). We even ran into some friends of ours from Ramona who happened to be on their family vacation at the same time.
My parents left on Saturday, Sunday we went to church in June Lake then headed on the Rainbow Falls/ Devils Postpile hike, it was beautiful. And while we were in Mammoth we ran into a good friend of ours David Porter who joined us on our hike.
Monday we celebrated the 4th of July in Bridegport, as always. We enjoyed battling it out in the Mud Volleyball tournament, playing on the jumpies at the courthouse and eating yummy food. It was here we decided that we would try something new, pack up Tuesday morning and head to Lake Tahoe. Jason had fun childhood memories there, floating down the Truckee River, eating breakfast at Ponderosa and taking the cable cars up to Squaw Valley. So we made the trek, found a great camp spot right by the beach, set up the trailer, swam in the lake for a bit and had a relaxing night with our girls. The next morning we found out that Ponderosa closed in 2004, Jason was bummed. At least we had the rafting trip. So we headed up to the Truckee River, stopped to buy Selah a life vest discovering there was a bunch of money missing out of our account. All of it to be exact. We were in Tahoe with no money, no gas and three kids. See what I mean about adventure. Praise the Lord for free wifi at McDonalds, I jumped on the internet, found the problem, Chase fixed it and we were back and ready for action! We FIANLLY made it to the rafting company only to find out IT WAS CLOSED FOR THE SEASON! AH! Apparently because of the high levels of water this year the base of the river was flooded so they had the dam closed not allowing any more water down the Truckee.
At this point Jason and I questioned why we ever came to Tahoe. As we headed back to camp feeling stressed and defeated I received a text message from a dear friend Lori Bassham inviting us for dinner in Tahoe.
They were on their family trip only 15 minutes away from us. ( Her Mom Ginny read on my Facebook Profile that we were in Tahoe and gave Lori a call)We were THRILLED!!! And to make this dinner date even better, they had coordinated with our friends Aaron and Carol Gayden who live an hour away, to meet up with us as well. These folks are some of our FAVORITE people ever. So we got ready, spent the afternoon with our girls then headed for dinner. It was loud, crowded, a little chaotic with all our kiddos but we had a blast! That dinner made our Tahoe Trip! We decided to start our way home the next day to break our drive into 2 (6 Hour) driving days allocating time for a few stops along the way. First stop was a cable car trip up to Squaw Valley which is some one the best Ski area ever. They hosting the Olympics there in the late 60’s. It was really fun traveling up the cable cars, a little freaky, but our girls absolutely loved it. Second stop was supper at Aaron & Carol Gaydens house where we grilled some carne asada, visited Aarons studio and just enjoyed each others company for a while. We made the trek down the 101 and stayed IN A HOTEL! It was heaven after camping for over a week. We swam in a pool, slept in a super comfortable bed, woke up and ate a breakfast I didn’t have to prepare, it was great! Then we started the trek home. Not a lot to say accept our 6 hour drive home turned into a nearly 12 hour drive home because of unexpected traffic and another ER pit stop. Jason was suffering from a weird unexplainable fever. So we made a pit stop in San Marcos then I drove the rest of the way home ( driving a trailer is scary.) As soon as we pulled into Ramona a sense of peace came over me. It felt so good to be home. So that was our adventure. Life has a way of creating challenges and adding a few bumps in the road. We got to a point where we just looked at each other and laughed. We may have had a lot of “issues” with this years trip but we still had an amazing family adventure. Dare I say, I am looking forward to what God has in store for us next summer!
