Some Big Trees

 In conjunction with the unpredictable stops in San Francisco, I really went above and beyond to try and make my friends feel like their visit was worth their effort and took them to the Calavaras Big Trees. (a family favorite and please excuse the run on sentence). Knowing that we couldn't go to Disneyland, we made some arrangements to bring Disneyland to us and borrowed our friends Astro Van for the 2 hour trip. If 3 minutes of the Indiana Jones ride makes you weak, try 2 hours in the back of the Astro! Wouldn't have it any other way.

Angles Camp proved as wonderful and relaxing as always. I love the closeness of it, yet the resort makes me feel like I'm states away from my real life. Again, neglecting my desires to photograph more frequently, I have no documentation of this portion of the trip.

The next morning we were off to the Big Trees. Although the North Grove Trail always catches me by surprise in its length-it is quite beautiful. Note to self, bring a stroller - or turn around after the walk through log. 1.5 Miles is NOT four quarters of a mile as we overheard another group saying. But the trees really were lovely as I remembered.

 

 I had plans to have a lovely picnic at the river, which turned into a picnic with the bees, which evolved into scarfing down your sandwich and running back to the van. Eh-can't win them all. But we were all pretty bushed from the extra long walk, the sun beating down on us, carrying the babies, chasing down/dragging the babies along, and looking for Dora, that heading back to the resort and kicking it by the pool sounded like a better option.

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And like any good parent would, we dipped Cameron's toes into the water. Couldn't have him miss his chance at his first swim! I think he was confused between this and bath time, so it only lasted a few minutes before he wasn't enjoying it anymore. But it was a start!

We love a good reason to get away, and visiting with the 'chardses is one of the best reasons there is. Once again, thanks for the visit. Be seeing you again soon we hope.

**as a completely unrelated sidenote. I am lovin' the iPiccy.com website that makes the photo collages for me. Makes me not give up on blogger while I wait for it to upload a picture or two. Perhaps a few more blog posts will come out of this.**

Washington DC - Part 1

As promised, although slightly delayed, the remainder of our trip to Washington. We were very lucky to have such great weather the entire week we were there. Missing the rainstorms almost entirely. And let it show that this picture was taken at the end of a very long walking day, and Mark made me jump way too many times. It is only a thousand times harder when you're super tired. So...there you go.

On our first day, we went to see all the sights on the Mall. Naturally. Having always studied the great history of our Nation, I was thrilled to see the Declaration of Independence on display in the National Archives Museum. Although it was a lot more faded then I would have expected, it was still neat to see!

These were the original entry doors. Since increased security, guests now enter through small side doors, which make the photo op in front of the big doors that much more exciting.

How impressive the structures were. Both in size and in details.

Mark's highlight of the trip also came on our first day. Having tuned into Top Chef for several seasons now, he had researched which of the contestants had restaurants open in the DC area.
Just our luck, Chef Spike had 2 located on top of capital hill. So we walked up there to feast at We the Pizza and the burger place next door. After we had ordered our food and sat down outside Mark saw Chef Spike himself walking around checking on his restaurants. Trying not to be paparazzi, we just watched from a distance. That is until my celebrity magnet was overwhelming. I tried the I'm-conveniently-going-to-the-bathroom-and-passing-you-and-wait-i-can't-believe-its-you tactic but to no avail. I then ordered another shake to stall our departure. And then my moment presented itself. I was waiting for my shake, he was waiting for his burger, and BAM-"Excuse me Chef Spike, would you mind if I took a picture with you?" Embarrassing? perhaps. Pushy? maybe. But my philosophy is, if you're going to sign up for TV, be prepared for a little invasion of your personal life. Ya know? So here you go...we saw Chef Spike in DC.
We then walked over to capital hill. To see the capital building naturally. Although we did not take a tour inside, mostly because I was too stubborn to give up my water bottle, it was neat to see outside. We even cornered a small group who fell for the old I'll take your picture swap.

Here is my I'm-too-lazy-to-edit-my-pictures picture. With my friends who we weren't quite sure if they were celebrating a wedding or a quinceara. But enjoy their celebration as well would you?

With the Washington Monument closed , we made our way to the old Post Office to see the skyline view. A slightly unknown place, we enjoyed no lines and a quick ride up for a 360 degree view of the Mall and DC area.

Our first few days, we had the Jeep Liberty with us, so we took advantage and drove up to Gettysburg National Park. Again, with the fall colors. Gettysburg was absolutely beautiful. Although we didn't really know what to expect, it turned out to be one of our favorite memories. If only we had a little more time to really enjoy the battlefield. It was really remarkable.

Gettysburg National Cemetery was also very cool. The monument was not finished when Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address, but it was so cool to see the spot where he stood, and tread the words of the address more carefully. So very cool.



Not exactly a stone throws away, Philadelphia was the next stop on our list. We had to ditch out on Gettysburg earlier than we wanted to ensure we made our afternoon tickets.

We got there in plenty of time, so we went through the Liberty Bell exhibit first, and then walked the 3 blocks to Benjamin Franklin's gravesite. Much to our dismay, there was a 2.00 charge to go in the cemetery!Unacceptable. So we peered through the iron fence to get our glimpse of the stone. Trying to be clever, I said, "why are they throwing penny's on his gravestone. This isn't Lincoln!" Mark's response, "did you expect a bunch of Benjamin's?" Why yes smart Alec-I did.

Independence Hall was really small. But neat to stand in such a notorious place. The building itself was under restoration so our outside pictures are not that exciting. But the inside was grand. And it was here I realized my dream job would be a tour guide of a place like this or at Mt. Vernon.

Now, of all DC, Mt Vernon is probably the only place I would want to revisit. Well, this and Gettysburg. But I am IN LOVE with Mt. Vernon. If I lived near there, I would have a season pass. It is just a fantastic estate and I would say it is a Must See when visiting the area.

Almost everything on the estate is original to Washington's time. And the views are to die for!

I was most astonished by the portrait of Martha Washington when she met George. I've only seen pictures of her old, frumpy, white haired self. But she was a beautiful woman! And it was really fun to hear the stories about their lives together and her cute little personality.

And our last stop with our car was to the Washington DC temple. This was just beautiful. No crowds, no noise, no hustle and bustle of the world. Just fabulous as always.

Once again, we feel so lucky to have the chance to take this trip and see such marvelous things. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering the trip.

Walking in History-Part 2

Being that it is taking near a millennium to upload all these pictures, I'm going to just start with the second half of our trip so at least I can say I've started. And it doesn't really matter what order you get it all in, right?

I have always wanted to visit Washington DC, ever since I was in high school and learned that I had a love for History. Lucky for us, we were able to take our trip there just a few weeks ago. And top off the perfection of it all, we went during the peak of "fall week" when the leaves were perfectly changing, and the weather was really quite lovely. My 2 of 3 favorite parts were done in the first half of the trip (so you'll have to wait in suspense for those) but here is a good sampling of some other thing we did!

The first half of our trip we had rented a car (to facilitate in driving to locations where the metro didn't run). And don't you just love it when the rental car company runs out of the size you reserved, so they have to upgrade you for free? And I love that? We rented the cheapo economy car-but ended up driving the Jeep Liberty. Perfect selection given the topic of our trip. We decided to take the car and drive over the the Iwo Jima memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Although Iwo Jima was well worth the drive, the parking fee at Arlington was a little steep.

And Might I just point out-how awesome were the colors? I know right? ok - proceed.

We did as any tourist would do and stopped to watch the changing of the guards. An interesting tradition. We considered jumping the rope just to see what would happen, but decided a safer bet was the Internet. (from our research, it appears the guard only yells at you and slaps his gun, fairly anti-climactic in my opinion). But it was neat to see the symbolism of everything, and how very serious they take their positions.

Once we dropped off the car, we took the metro back to the Mall and started our grand tour of the memorials. Starting with the white house. It was a lot smaller then I had anticipated, but it was still white and still there. Which was neat. I was disappointed that in all the literature they say the white house belongs to the American people and yet you can't do more than take a distant picture. We even tried to procure a tour 3 months earlier, but to no avail. This is the back side of the house which personally I thought was more exciting than the front.

We did venture around to the front, and then around again to start the monument tour, which in hindsight was a big commitment! Its about a mile all around that whole thing! Wow.

We were disappointed to see the reflecting pool was drained. I really was hoping to be able to see what Dr. King saw when he and the protesters marched to Washington. Alas, another time.

The "Black Wall" in memorial to the Vietnam War veterans. Again, with the fall colors, insane.
WWII memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.
President Lincoln. I think that he is probably 1 of only 3 presidents I find the most interest in. Probably because he was killed during his presidency. Cuz I like Kennedy as my third-and he was also shot dead. I see a pattern. anyway - i digress. Seeing the monument wasn't anything like I anticipated. It was HUGE, that I did anticipate, but I did not expect the enormous crowds that clog the stairs, and the monument itself. Its not like that in the movies! So, although it wasn't like you couldn't get the grandeur of the structure, the crowds of young people was a little distracting. But it really was inspiring. Just a really neat thing to see.
After Lincoln, we walked all the way back up capital hill to hit up "We the Pizza" - a restaurant opened by one of our favorite Top Chef contestants from a few seasons back. By the time were were done walking, we calculated we had gone near 11 miles that day. Holy goodness. But the pizza was well worth the additional 2 miles. I'm just saying.

On our 5th day on the East Coast, my Aunt and Uncle were kind enough to take us into West Virginia to Harper's Ferry. Although I knew very little about this particular spot, by the time we left, I knew more about John Brown's raid than I ever knew even existed.

One reason we enjoyed the town was the Morrell's were mentioned!

And in following in their footsteps we would happily host vacationing boarders and provide a lively center of dance and music here....I digress. More fall. Seriously, I couldn't get enough.
And some fantastic authentic 1800s stairs, carved by 1800s people.

This is John Brown's Fort. Where he was finally captured. This building has been moved a few times, and so it doesn't sit on its original location, but it does sit so there you go.
After we had taken in all the John Brown museums our brains could take, we headed back to the Mall for our much anticipated Segway tour. Compliments of Aunt & Uncle again as Mark and I are too cheap for such a tour. However, you may see us on one again in the future, as Mark really enjoyed them. I was never super comfortable on them. It always just felt really unnatural even though I look like a pro as we practiced in the dark, abandoned ally way. That wasn't creepy at all.

If for only this reason - the segway tour was amazing. The Lincoln memorial at night. Just as majestic as I always knew it would be.We spent the entire next day touring the Smithsonian Museums. The American History Museum had a ton of neat things that are a part of our history. My favorite was the original Star Spangled Banner and the first ladies exhibit with many of the first ladies fancy gowns. We were again bombarded with the loads of buses of school children which made me realize why I get the response I do when I tell people I teach high school. Yuck. Insane. I hate kids on tours. The end.

Our final stop was to Ford's theater. One word - delightful. It has been restored to the date that Lincoln attended that fateful night. And, as you can imagine, I just loved it.

I took about 30 pictures of the presidents box, assuming my next picture will show something different. (strangely enough they all look identical) The seats inside are original, with the exception of Lincoln's which is now at a museum in Illinois-where he is buried. The curtains are reproductions, but THAT painting of Washington was in THAT exact spot when Booth killed Lincoln. How can people not be interested in this kind of stuff!!! And then downstairs they have a museum with all kinds of cool stuff - including THE ACTUAL GUN THAT KILLED LINCOLN!!! We saw that hat he was wearing in the Smithsonian the day before, and his suit is also in the basement museum of Ford's theater.
For those who have forgotten the story, Lincoln was shot point blank, the bullet traveling behind his ear, and stopping just behind his right eye. Following Booths escape, a surgeon on attending the play that evening rushed to the box to help; and soon knew the president would not wake up. He was then carried out to the street-in an effort to find a comfortable place for him to rest. The boarding house owner across the street was outside to see what was going on and motioned the men with the president inside. This back bedroom was the vacant at the time-the tenant out for the evening-so it was here he was brought and died the next morning.It was awesome. All of it. Totally awesome.
And hopefully before the week is out I can catch you up with Part 1 of our trip. Including Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Mt. Vernon, and the temple.

Home again. Home again. Jiggity-Jig

It had been a long time since we had taken a trip out to visit our friends and family out in Utah. And although the state and I seem to have a love-hate relationship-I am always very nostalgic and sappy when I return.

The weather gave us quite a run for our money! We left in the wee hours of the morning (a habit I picked up from my mother) and headed straight into the 1st storm of the season. Getting over the Sierra's required chains; a task neither Mark nor I had ever preformed. Luckily, my mom had just given us a set of chains a week earlier so we were happy that at least we were prepared. That is, until we realized the chains we had procured from mom were the wrong size. Thankfully, there were some for sale at an astronomically high price by the chain instillation workers. But I guess we are glad that at least there were some for sale.

After an hour of learning how to get them on correctly, and only minimal paint damage when we realized we had done it wrong, we did in fact get through the 9 miles that required the chains. Another 10 hours in the relentless rain across Nevada made us more then thrilled to finally arrive. We suppose that a boat would have probably been a better mode of transportation.

Our delayed arrival resulted in a very quick rest, and then we dashed out to meet up with some of our delightful vacation buddies with whom we cruised with last year. And delightful company they are. We laughed about new stories, and reminisced about our days on the boat. And Mark and I were sly enough to entice them to "commit" to another vacation package in a years time.

The purpose of our trip was to attend one nephew's baptism and his younger brother's baby blessing. It was so fun to see the Bouches' again. They are a riot of boys in every sense of the word. Mark played go fish about 20 times, and just laughed at how funny they are.


After another spectacular trip to the BYU bookstore where we shamefully purchase the only new clothes we ever get, we joined the crowds at the stadium for the BYU vs. San Jose State game. It was a chilly night - at about 43 degrees, but there is something fabulous about sitting in the stadium with all your BYU gear, just being a fan. It really was great, and BYU gifted us with a win which was very much appreciated.


Being back on BYU campus brought in a roar of good memories and feelings. Each time we get to go I just smile thinking about my years there. 'sigh'. Anyway-it was a fabulous trip. We ate way more then we should have - but in our defense, there are so many delicious restaurants in the valley, and such little time, you just gotta cram it all in. Quite literally. Hopefully our trips will be more frequent, because quite frankly, we just really like the people there.

Beach Run

It is official. I need to live by the beach. It would greatly increase my weekly miles.

This last weekend Mark and I were in Monteray for his annual Pool and Spa Convention. Our hotel was delightfuly just a stone's toss from the beach. Not only did we enjoy walking around downtown Monteray, but I enjoyed my much needed Long Distance Run. Which to most of the running world isn't that long, but being that I was coming off a "no-run" coma-my little 6 mile jaunt was spactular. Right along the surf, as the tide was coming in and the sun was rising. The mist was just perfect. The best hour spent running in my life.

Quite certain I would run more frequently if this were the trail I had to run on.

(P.S. this picture was actually taken As I was Running. Hence the blur. That's how good the running was, didn't even want to stop to take the photo)

"Hey you Guys!"

If you could imagine one weekend filled with one-liners from any given movie, which movie would you choose? Hands down, Goonies has more fabulous one-liners then any other movie I can quote. Even though my movie repertoire is rather limited, it still says something about our undying devotion to Mikey, Data, Brand, Chunk, Mouth, Andy, Stef, and Sloth. So when we found ourselves just a stones throw, plus a hundred miles, from the hallowed Goonies ground, we couldn't resist a visit; because "its our time, its our time down here".

Opening Scene: Clatsop County Jail. Recognize this?Perhaps some props would help. "You schmuck. Did you really think I'd be stupid enough to kill myself"

Followed by a quick exit to an "Old RV. BULLET HOLES"

Once we discovered the Fratelli's had escaped, we rushed over to Mikey's to alert the Team. I tried to rig together something Data would be proud of, but with only an empty OJ bottle and an overnight case, I gave up and headed over.

We considered using the zip line from Data's window into the screen, but decided we didn't want to have Mrs. Walsh remind us to "use the door next time"

Mouth: Do it Chunk: Come on! Mouth: DO IT!

Morrell's love Sloth.

Goonies never say Die!

Just for kicks and giggles - a few other one liner favs.

"Andy! You GOONIE" ~Troy

"Um...Brand...God put that rock there for a purpose and I...um...don't think you should move it" ~Stef

"Dat's what I said...I said Booty Traps." ~Data

"Oh Come on. Come on. Where are you? You are in the clouds and WE are in a basement" ~Stef

"then everyone started puking" ~Chunk

"Kiss me Mikey, make me feel like a woman" ~Mouth

"Hey Mikey. Gotta go to the bathroom?" ~Mouth

"This isn't the kind of place you want to go the bathroom" ~Chunk
"I'm takin' it back. I'm takin' 'em all back" ~Mouth
"She's out buyin' Pampers for all us kids" ~Brand
"Martin Sheen? That's President Kennedy you idiot." ~Stef

.Change Scene.

So after we finished gallivanting around the Goonies sites we saw a little of the rest of the quaint little town of Astoria. (which we later learned is pronounced Ass-tory-a; not Uh-story-a) With my overbearing history interest, Mark followed me to the Flavel house; built in 188-something by a rich man who did something with boats. Not really sure - but it was really neat to see it all. I just love experiencing walls and rooms where people of yesteryear lived. So interesting to me.

We then took a journey up to the Astoria overlook tower. (that has a fancy name I also have forgotten). With free entrance, we thought this was a great way to see the lay of the land and enjoy the beauty of the Earth. That was until we saw what it took to get there. Eeek. 168 steps up!

But we did make it and what a view it was. 360 degrees of pure Oregon coastline beauty. We got up there just after the morning fog had burned of and what a truly beautiful sight it was. Props to the Great Creator for a job very well done.

We were even offered a friendly "do you want me to take your picture?" Perhaps I should have mentioned I would have liked more scenery and less rails and post, but at least you get we were both there together.

A quick trip to the beach to finish off our afternoon before we were due to head back. Even though it was a VERY quick trip, we found a bunch of other things we want to see, and even some things we want to see again. I've always heard from Lauren how beautiful the Oregon coast is, and now I can say - it is worth every penny. So beautiful and worth a re-visit very soon.