From WA to TX pt 3: Nature and Nurture

After a long pause in blogging, I am finally finishing the series of our cross country move. After leaving Sunny, Southern California and good friends, we headed toward the dessert. We actually passed through three kinds of dessert in a short period of time by going through Joshua Tree National Park. These are Joshua Trees. It was our first trip into the dessert, not including stays in Phoenix, which we flew into and out of four years before. The scenes are truly amazing and like nothing else I have ever seen. I especially liked this one.

We saw many other kinds of cacti and made a nice friend. My husband saw a tarantula hawk, which is a very large wasp with one of the most painful stings of all stinging bugs. He back away. We had a little adventure of almost running out of gas and having to leave the park via the northeast gate rather than the southeast. It was good that I turned that way because there were no gas stations out the southeast gate, so had we made it to the gate we would have still been in trouble! But we lived and continued to drive all the way to Phoenix, to see Aunt Lucy and Uncle Jonny! Also, Hans and Tivo.

This is Milli looking at Hans. She loves puppies!

Milli was a little water baby! She was completely unafraid.

Besides swimming, we also hung out with our favorite southwestern family members and ate some really good food! This is Pappadeaux's- Cajan seafood. So good. It's both these boys' favorite. Milli really liked the baskets hanging from the ceiling. 

Jonny and Lucy always treat guests like they are running a resort- wonderful rooms, a workout room that is open 24 hours, a pool and spa, great food, relaxing atmosphere, good conversation, and some entertainment.

Milli showed off her mad walking skills a little reluctantly. She was a big hit with the aunt and uncle, who are about to become grandparents, so they needed the practice! The dogs were a big hit with Milli. She giggled and squealed ever time one came into the room. They are giant dogs but so gentle with her. 

Notice that Milli is moving in both these pictures. She is at that stage now.

Edward had some downtime with a video game. Now that is a vacation!

The last time Edward and I were in Phoenix was the year before we got married. That was also the last time I saw my aunt and uncle. It didn't seem like three years had past, but so much has changed. We have texted a bit and talked on the phone on holidays, but there was so much more to say and catch up on. Lucy and I were almost always talking and Jonny tried to get a few words in, too. Ed was happy to be alone or with the dogs, although he told me later that he really felt closer to my uncle this trip. Maybe because the first time he was the boyfriend being judged!

Lucy turned 50 while we were there, so we got to celebrate with her. There was a pre-present of flowers and a devotional but the real gift was under the box: a family Bible with Lucy's name embossed on the front! It was opened to this page, which is just my uncle's sense of humor. There was also a lovely book stand for it to sit on. Lucy was pretty excited about it. It was the one she has asked for. We spent the evening with her brother and sister celebrating the wonder that is Lucy! We also went out for some Italian food, of course.

 

After five days with our beloved family, we continued our journey East. We drove through the Guadeloupe Mountains and stopped at the national park office there. We have really collected some national park visits over the past 2 years. I should have bought one of their passports- it could be 1/3 full by now. Oh well.

Our next destination was Carlsbad Caverns. We had to swing into Texas for a night first and heard our first "Ya'll." But more on Texas later.

Above is the opening to the caverns. What is really amazing is that they were discovered by a 16 year old boy in 1898. He went into them, built ladders and lit torches to see. He explored the caves for years before anyone believe they existed. It made me wonder what his parents thought when they discovered where he had been going and what he had been doing! If Milli tries anything that crazy on her own, I think we will have to have words- and some grounding! As it was, Milli was not having much fun in the caverns. And they echo. But there were lots of teenagers there that day, so she was not the noisiest.

It took me awhile to figure out how to get good pictures in the caverns. If you remember, we bought our camera on day one of our trip, so I didn't know how to use all of its settings yet. Also, I have never been in caverns like this before. Some of the pictures came out pretty good. And some of them showed colors you couldn't see with the naked eye.

We spent all afternoon in the caverns, watched several hawks circle outside and then headed back to Texas, due East this time.

We stopped to eat in Odessa, Texas. It wasn't originally on our route, but we weren't far away and I couldn't resist going there if only to say, "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" We really went there because the internet told us there was a Red Lobster in town and nowhere else within a hundred miles. Unfortunately, they were without power, so we settled for this place because it had the fullest parking lot. Good choice! After filling up, we headed to Colorado City, to spend the night. That was really the last of our trip. The next day we arrived in Longview around 3pm. It was a long two weeks full of fun and friends. Hopefully, we will be staying put for a while.

On the Road Again Pt. 2- California

From Oregon we traveled into California. The day was cloudy, but that added to our ability to see, so we weren't upset about it at all. We traveled along US 101, straight down the coast. 

We spent the second night of our trip in a cabin in the Redwood National Forest. The cabins were right along US 101 and surrounded by the magnificent, tall Redwoods. We arrived at 8 pm for check in. We had been bumped to an upgraded cabin from the one we originally booked online- it had a memory foam mattress. That was really the only difference from what we could tell. 

All around the cabins were huge banana slugs! Apparently, they are famous there. You could even buy a magnet with a picture of a lovely slug like this one on it. That is my husbands thumb, to give you some perspective.

This is a slightly blurry picture of Paul Bunyan. Apparently, the man was everywhere because they have statues of him in Minnesota, at least one of the Dakotas, and Washington, too. This one is just outside of a hiking and gondola tour that we thought of going on but decided against. It was a little expensive and the day was so cloudy that the gondola ride would not have been worth the price of admission. We planned to spend a few hours here, but since we didn't, we got to do one of the events I had nixed from our itinerary, thinking there would be no time. More on that to follow.

We did drive through a good deal of the National Park, as US 101 runs directly down the middle of it.

This is one of several drive thru trees. Sorry it is so blurry. I got a lovely panoramic shot of its height. We couldn't see most of the tops of the trees as we drove because the cloud cover was so low. But this one turned out.

Daddy taught Milli all about tree rings. He has been showing her trees for months- whenever he would give me a break during my maternity leave, he would walk with her outside and let her touch park and leaves.

We stopped at one point to get a picture of an elk. We were on a narrow stretch of road, not quite wide enough for two cars to pass quickly, completely surrounded by dense trees. We had just left an elk pasture lookout which was completely empty, when my husband spotted antlers peeking out of a small gap in the trees. I let him out and drove off to turn around, praying that he would be careful and cars would see him in time to give him space. He took a couple great shots of this lone elk and two minutes later we came upon this...

 After the Redwood Forest, we headed for the previously deleted destination...

For those of you who don't know, Frances Ford Coppola's Merlot is my favorite wine (my apologies to any of my dry friends- not trying to be a stumbling block, and we can chat about wine and the Christian in person if you want to). My original itinerary had a biking tour of Napa Valley on it, but Milli is too young for the bike trailers they have- or, at least, too young for their insurance coverage. So the bike tour was nixed and the hike was its replacement. without the hike, we had time for lunch and a tasting at FFC! FFC is not in Napa Valley or Sonoma- it is just off US 101, making it a very convenient stop for us. The place was packed, it being a Sunday, but we had a very nice lunch and the tasting was also good. We bought a bottle to take as a hostess gift to our next destination: the Senior McWhirter house in San Jose.

We don't have any good San Jose or San Fransisco pictures as we were busy driving. We also have no Sr. McWhirter pictures, as we were too busy enjoying the good conversation.

I met the Sr. McWhirters in Michigan at their oldest son's college graduation. He was the guitarist on the worship team I was on and his roommate was the pianist. They are two of my favorite people and they married two wonderful women who happened to be best friends. I was involved in their lives throughout their college experience and am still close with all four of them and some of the extended family. I hadn't seen the Sr. McWhirters since their son's wedding, but they remembered me and were willing to feed us and give us a trailer to sleep in for a night of out trip. Jim McWhirter is a physicist like my husband. He used to be a professor in New York and is now in industry. He and Ed had a lot to talk about because their two passions are science and theology. They talked for hours, which is pretty amazing if you know my husband. He doesn't usually talk much and almost never with strangers- but they were bonding.

Carol McWhirter and I had a great talk, too. We talked about children and homeschooling as well as some social issues and family background. I had forgotten how much I really liked her. It was a late night for all, but a really good one. I'm hoping to keep up the relationship with them.

Next morning, it was on to the shore! We took highway 1, one of the most beautiful stretches of road I have ever seen! Edward was really surprised by the drive. He had seen it on the map, but I think he expected to see more beaches and fewer cliffs, more houses and less wild sea. It was a lovely drive.

 

We stopped for lunch at a cute little park. Ed took Milli to see the ocean up close before we ate. The waves were impressive, even on a calm day like this one. It was much cooler than we expected it to be, I went back to the car to fetch jackets and hats- IN JULY! I had a little bit of a flashback to our moving experience two years ago, when we essentially winter camped in Yellowstone in August.

Milli s can be a messy eater. She had a bit of Daddy's pb and j.

Milli's first experience in the ocean! The "sand" was really rocky, so it wasn't really fun to have our feet on it. Plus, the water was fairly cool and very rough. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but she is unafraid of anything. She let me dip her repeatedly in the water with no cry, just a curious face.

After lunch, we kept driving. This is a theme. We drove around Santa Barbara and had seen Northern California turn to Central California and then into L.A. It is truly amazing how one state can hold so many different forms of beauty. 

.

Note our new sun glasses. Milli doesn't have hers because she just chews on them. But we are cool!

In L.A. we stayed with the Junior McWhirters. Daniel and Bethany have two and 1/4 lovely children: Annika (my second favorite girl's name), Eliot, and to be named. We stayed with them for two nights. Daniel was only home in the evenings, so Bethany took us on a nice hike to the observatory. We each carried a kid.

Note the sign above Bethany's head.

Bethany said this would make a super cute picture- so we let her take one.

I discovered that it is very difficult to get a good picture of a Tesla coil going off. All of my pictures look kind of like this. But, still, it was cool to watch and Milli was fascinated. Annika knows all about the Tesla coil, and she is only 3!

Annika thought I was the best thing ever, so she wanted to lead me all over the place. We ate lunch together on a hill under a tree while Bethany and Eliot ate on the grassy lawn in the sun because Eliot kept trying to run off the edge of the very steep hill! Then Annika took me to the roof to see the view. 

Edward took another hike that began on the other side of the observatory parking lot and was much longer than Bethany had remembered. He did finally return and we hiked back down, tired and thirsty and a bit sunburned. 

It was a nice day.

We spent the rest of the day indoors. Milli had a lot of fun playing with the other kids. She was a little wary of Eliot, though, because he played by swinging and throwing things a lot. The funniest moment for me was watching her sit with her arm hanging over that basket to the right. She had been reaching in to remove toys from it but stopped to watch Eliot swing a rubber snake. She watched him very closely with a slightly worried expression on her face; "I think that might be dangerous" was the thought she seemed to convey. This thought did not translate, however, to "I think I should move my arm out of the range of that snake." Within a minute, he had hit her arm with the snake and she began to cry. But this did not stop him from swinging the snake nor make her move her arm. He hit her three times before I picked her up. A mother shouldn't laugh at her child in pain, but it was very hard not to. Poor thing is going to be emotionally scarred for life.