Every year when it starts warming up after winter (we had some chilly 50 degree days!) my mind starts turning to summer, when we’ll hit the road for our annual summer roadtrip. We’ve done the trek from CA to MN 2 or 3 times now, and it seems like I never get around to posting the pictures. So in honor of the warmer weather, and in anticipation of our next trip, here are some photos from Summer Vacation 2015:
We started out by visiting family in Thousand Oaks and had a surprisingly restful night on two twin beds pushed together.
Next stop: Atwater, to visit Kyle’s grandma and other kin. Great-grandma gave Augie an apple to play Mr. Apple Head.
Then we went up to Sacramento to stay with Kyle’s parents for a few days and prepare for our big trip.
Did some thrift store shopping, but our best find was this truck:
We got to go to Tahoe with Kyle’s brother’s fam. Always a good time, even when the lake is less than full…
We traveled to South Lake Tahoe to see Kyle’s cousin and her fam, too. We got to see their new place. Here’s Kyle with baby Hazel and baby Olive:
We spent a beautiful day at the beach with cousins and second cousins. (Or is it first cousins once removed?)
We popped into a thrift store before leaving Tahoe. While I tried on dresses, Adelaide sank herself into a beanbag chair with a book about pirates. We bought a few things, and the shopkeeper said we could take the book with us, too. I never would’ve picked out “Piratepedia” for her, but that book was the unlikely hero of her trip, keeping the kids’ interest for the whole 4,000 mile round trip.
We said goodbye to family and officially set off on our adventure. We got to the Sequoia National Forest in late afternoon and found a campsite.
This was our first big trip with our Land Cruiser and she made herself right at home up there in the mountains.
We spent one very cold night under a million stars and a bright shining moon and awoke to a pink-orange dawn.
We were the first ones to Sequoia National Park and enjoyed a quiet walk in the woods, just us and the deer.
We posed with General Sherman.
We looked at fallen trees.
We visited Bethel Church in Redding on Sunday. It was over 100 degrees that day, and we had to turn on the heater as we climbed through the hills into Oregon to keep the engine cool. We hit Portland at night and drove straight through to our free campsite at Jones Beach.
On to part 2 >
