Day 39

I woke this morning excited to check out the view of the lake with Lassen Peak. Unfortunately I missed the sunrise so the peak was already lit up with us still in the dark at the lake. I enjoyed my bagel walking on the trail this morning checking out the view.

We are all spoiled with Dave here as he helps the kids pack up their tent and me with cooking and clean up. When it's just mean mom everyone sets up and packs up their own stuff. Must be another reason they look forward to his visits so much!

We got on the road pretty quickly with me & Dave looking forward to the rest of the drive through the park. There was a hike to Lassen peak so I knew we would be seeing it again at some point.

We rounded a corner by a beautiful meadow and there it was! We pulled over to take a picture and the kids spotted a thick snow drift across the street so they had to all climb out and play.

I stayed in the meadow to try out the water in the stream and enjoy the view. I bravely stepped into the water up to my ankles. Within 3 seconds I was in pain from the frigid water - so much pain all I could do was yell, bend over, and hold my knees. I climbed up the bank to look around if anyone saw what a wimp I was.

Grammie climbed out of the RV  with Lola for a walking break and I told her how refreshing it was that she should join me. She called my bluff and said she would after she saw me step in. Of course I did and before I could complete the sentence, "See? It's refresh...!" I was doubled over in pain again and climbing back out. You can take the girl out of Florida....



When we got back on the road Brayden and Ryan were glued to the car windows looking for the next snow spot they could find. There were lots of drifts on the side of the road but no place to pull over. They especially loved the caves the creeks made through the snow. Around a series of s-curves Grammie left us and we stopped for snow. The kids were slipping and sliding all around on flip flops.

Our second snow stop just happened to have a gorgeous view of Lassen Peak with a glass-like lake in front of it. Lake Helen was clear and blue-green reflecting the mountain and trees on the other side.

While we took pictures of the scene, Brayden and Ryan took off to slide down a small snow hill nearby. They could only last a few minutes before their hands and feet started to hurt from the cold. I told them if we didn't keep going we would never make it to our next stop! We found Grammie waiting for us at the visitors center near the exit.













We stopped to enjoy the exhibits on energy and volcanoes. Ever since our very first trip we have seen the works of the Civilian Conservation Corps and this park was no different. They had a notebook used by a road construction crew with a drawing of the road around Lake Helen we'd just traveled. Their hard work was still there after almost 100 years.



















We had a long drive ahead of us so once we got back on the road we didn't stop except for brief gas fillups. Well, of course with Dave along with us we also had to stop for ice cream. He found us a homemade stop in Sacremento that had rave reviews. It was 2pm on a Thursday when we arrive and the place was packed! That's when you know it's going to be good!  It was 103 outside but we found a shady spot to gobble up our ice cream before it melted. Grammie had a little bit of help with hers.






The temperatures were hoverying in the low 90s once we got close so I didn't mind that we were going to arrive and setup a little later in the afternoon for sure. Way back in March when I'd made our reservation for Yosemite in the first minutes they were available I was super excited to be staying in the park at a much sought after spot. Once Grammie started making reservations she discovered a mistake I'd made so we ended up having to stay just outside the park. Reservations for Yosemite are gone within minutes the first day they are available.

Our bare-bones spot was in the Stanislaus National Forest about a 20-minute drive from the entrance to the park and about 10 minutes from Grammie's spot. We set up quickly and opted for a snack dinner to avoid cooking in the sun - definitely not my favorite.

At some point on our drive the kids discovered we had a hitchhiker in the car with us. Brayden felt something crawl down his neck and assumed it was Ryan trying to annoy him. Ryan felt something crawl across her arm and they both screamed when they realized it was a roach. One of the problems with having to store all our food in bear boxes at campgrounds is that the smaller creatures can get in even if bears cannot. It seems this guy decided to explore our crumbs and got taken along for a ride! Ryan tried to catch him but he eluded her Tupperware trap tactics. You could tell Brayden was nervous because he kept talking about it and talking about it. He even lifted his feet off the floorboard of the car as if that was going to help. They named him Neck Armstrong. We tried to capture him again after setting up but he was too quick.

Brayden mentioned there was a lot of activities at Grammie's spot so we headed that way next. The kids raced down to the mini golf course first for their version of the Holey Moley show. They had been looking forward to this place all day! Dave and I played shiffleboard until it was too dark to see and the kids were finished.
































Grammie and I tried to plan out our next day since we had some quiet. We wanted to make it into the park on the day it would be the least crowded for our time in the park. Yosemite is notorious for traffic jams and lack of parking after 9am during the summer. We opted instead for a shuttle bus that picked up at her campground to lessen the stress and maximize our time in the valley.

The adults were all exhausted from the long day so we declared it time to retire to our sites. We were going to have a busy day tomorrow and had plans to be up early!

Day 36

This was my view at 8:00am this morning so I decided to leave the kids in the tent to sleep. They didn't even move with all my noise! Everyone woke up happy this morning either because I let them all sleep in or because we were picking up Dave today! I'm assuming it was mostly the latter.

I make a huge pile of pancakes and the we gobbled them all up. Dave wasn't flying in until just after noon so it was nice to not have to rush through our packing up. I was even able to take a shower - what a luxury! 

We mailed a ginormous pile of post cards then we were off! It was time for an oil change again so that was our first stop once we got on the road. The guy informed me that I got a free vaccuum and car wash with my oil change. He realized the car wash probably wouldn't work with our cargo carriers and I told him I wouldn't torture him vaccuming out the mess that is the car we've been living in for a month. He was very appreciative and wished us, "Safe travels to the south, ya'll" as we drove off. 

We were going to try to fit in a Trader Joe's stop before the airport but I didn't want to be stressed out with Dave's flight arriving a little early so we got gas and arrived a little early to the airport. It was nice to have the kids practice navigating us to where we needed to go from the parking garage. Every airport is different!

After about 20 minutes The Clarkes were all back together! Dave was loaded down with books for Brayden, activities for the girls, and a new sleep mat for me! It's a wonder he could fit any clothes in his bag!

The kids were talking 90 miles a minute trying to tell himi what we'd been doing the last few days. We stopped briefly for a resupply at Trader Joe's then headed to a Portland ice cream shop to celebrate. I'd found Cloud City ice cream earlier that morning and it definitely did not disappoint! I'd found and had recommendations of another Portland favorite I just didn't think my kids would be up for the quirky flavors. This ice cream shop had some delicious stand bys as well as a few quirky ones. Their dark chocolate ice cream is definitely the best I've ever tasted! Unforunately for me it wasn't what I ordered and I didn't even being to ask Dave to trade me! 

We dangerously took our ice cream in the car, anxious to reach our next destination, Crater Lake National Park. We drove through miles and miles of wilderness which seemed to aclimate Dave to the woods just a bit. We kept seeing a glacier-covered peak in the distance and finally stopped at an overlook. We learned it is Diamond Peak, park of the Pacific Coast Trail and thought to be an extinct volcano.

We kept onward and before we knew it we reached the sign for Crater Lake. We had about 30 minutes left in our drive so I just assumed as we climbed up that we would simply be climbing to our campsite. Our jaws dropped as we reached the first lookout point of Crater Lake.  I pulled across the road to stop so we could enjoy the view for a few minutes and take it all in. It was breathtaking and I don't think I have enough amazing adjectives to describe it. 

The pictures can't even begin to do it justice. The water is a shade of blue that I've never seen before. I couldn't wait to see more!

But the kids could wait. They spotted snow and about 100 yards later we pulled over again to let them play in the snow. In August. Yep, it was obvious we were from Florida then! 

Dave challenged them to hit him with a snowball. They tried and tried and as you can see Laney hit me instead!

I believe Ryan finally got him before we left with this throw.

It was very chilly so I grabbed my sweatshirt and hopped in the car while the kids made some kind of snow monster guy. I believe it was supposed to be a snowman but yeah, we're from Florida.

We finally made it to our site and met back up with Grammie. There were backpackers off the Pacific Coast Trail everywhere as this was a good stop for them for food, showers, and laundry. 

We checked in and got set up in record time. Dave got in the groove with helping setup and cooking dinner at the same time. It sure is so nice to have another adult! We had a delicious dinner of grilled mahi mahi sandwiches and salad before we walked over to plan our next day with Grammie. We would be seeing the lake up close tomorrow!