SEQUOIA!!!

Okay, so...we may not have gorgeous, fantastical old structures like my blog friends Hannah and Simon in the UK...and we may not have a whole lot of history here in CA like my friend Marcus in VA...and we may be shy a few temples like Cory and Adrienne have in UT...or beautiful, wide open spaces like Kelly has in TX...but we DO have something that no one in the world can claim because they only exist in a very specific part of California, in a few small groves at a specific altitude: Sequoia trees, the biggest trees (not by height like Cameron has in Northern CA or by circumference like my blog friend Denis in Africa, but by VOLUME!!!) in the entire world. CHECK OUT THIS PUPPY:

So Jay and I took the kids for a family vacation to Sequoia National Park. We spent the first night "down the hill" (ie MOUNTAIN, 7000 ft down!) at the Lazy J Ranch Motel, a PERFECT place for a family reunion: it had a playground, a swimming pool, individual cabins (some with kitchens that sleep 8 people!), the Kaweah river next door, the family's animals (for a mini "petting zoo"), tether-and-volleyball and badminton and charcoal barbeques for making dinner outside your cabin (we cooked our Hobo dinners that I'd made up earlier in the day), and a continental breakfast to boot. It was great, reasonably priced, and the kids had a blast...plus it broke up the 5 1/2 hour trip nicely, so they only had to stick out 4 hours in the car.


The next day was perfect; it's about 70 degrees up the mountain, and the kids were wowed by the giant trees. We climbed to the top of Moro Rock (slowly...for our sakes) and Jay made super-delicious bratwursts over a charcoal cook stove. We checked into our room at Wuksachi, the "resort" up there (read: moderate-to-expensively-priced basic hotel) and then went exploring, running into some deer...the kids were thoroughly thrilled. Jason made dinner again (grilled bbq chicken drumsticks, grilled veggies, and roasted red potatoes), and we crashed that night...late. The kids went without a bedtime the entire trip; they just had to go to bed when Mom and Dad did. Surprise, surprise...they LOVED it.


So we also went for a hike around a big, BIG meadow, past some controlled burn areas, to Tharp's Log, a fallen Sequoia that a man with the surname Tharp had once hollowed out and lived in every Summer (with fireplace, bench and table, and bed!) and cooked the requisite hot dogs for lunch, then headed down to the King's River for some rock hopping, butterfly petting (I kid you not!) and fish spotting (meaning "OH, LOOK! THERE'S ONE!"), while Mikayla walked into the river up to her knees...with her pants, socks, and shoes still on.


We had dinner one night at the restaurant (which is incredibly overpriced but very good) and then went out to Sunset Rock (Beetle Rock, according to signs, but Sunset Rock for, well, the Sunset) for...the sunset. Jay and I took turns hiking the kids up and down the rocks and we'd planned to hang out and star gaze once the sun went down...until a mama bear and two cubs sauntered past a hundred or so feet away. Minutes later, a papa bear appeared and then swung around toward the parking area, so we decided it was best NOT to be on the rocks out in the open in the pitch blackness, or trying to find our way back to the car in the dark - flashlights or no (but we DID have them) - with a papa bear around. Jason took Tyler out later for stargazing after we'd returned to the hotel.


All in all it was a wonderful time, and when we were driving back down the mountain and I told the kids to say "Bye, Sequoia!" to the video camera, Mikayla yelled, "No, I don't WANT to!" In other words, we ALL had a GREAT time...and will certainly make that beautiful, peaceful, undertrafficked corner of the world a recurring theme in future Bradshaw family vacations. Enjoy the photos!