Debbie was off enjoying her vacation, and now I’m home from our fun and crazy road trip. Can you believe our bosses let both of us take a vacation at the same time? Ha ha! We appreciate your understanding as we were a bit slower to respond than normal.

My family and I headed to Lake Tahoe in California for a family reunion. We took the scenic route there through parts of 6 states! (Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada). We all enjoyed Crater Lake and Redwoods National Parks, and ocean beaches that thrilled and entertained our landlocked boys.

We saw Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, Idaho. The Shoshone Falls are nicknamed “The Niagra Falls of the West”.

It’s a long trip, but I enjoyed the car time to slow down and connect with my family. While at the California coast we visited Battery Point Lighthouse. Fascinating history and you can only reach it at low tide. At high tide, the lighthouse is an isolated island. We also enjoyed the incredibly blue water at Crater Lake, the majestic Redwoods, and lots of beach time at the ocean and Lake Tahoe.

We visited Trinidad Beach and the boys had a blast playing keep-away with the waves and building a sandcastle.

They had quite an engineering feat with 4 sets of sea walls to protect the castle from the waves.  It survived high tide, so maybe it’s still there.  Ha ha!

Trinidad Beach was beautiful!  I loved the soft sand and the craggy rocks.  Here the guys were timing the tide to get through these rocks.

What you don’t see in this photo:  I went rushing after them and felt my phone about to bounce of my back pocket, so I stopped to rescue it.  Yep, I got caught by the wave.  My capris were wet from mid-thigh down.  Probably an odd site at the pizza place where we stopped for dinner.

It was so peaceful and yet energizing to watch the waves come in and crash against the rocks.

The Redwoods were so majestic.  They were so tall I couldn’t get a photo with the whole tree in it.  This one I used the panorama feature on my iPhone.  It’s a bit wonky around the middle, but it does show the full height of the trees.

We visited the grove of trees where the Ewok village from the Star Wars movie was filmed.  My boys are huge Star Wars fans, so this was a must see.  I think I see an Ewok in this photo!

Here’s another panorama photo from my phone.  Pretty amazing how good these devices are getting.  Crater Lake is an absolutely beautiful place.  Peaceful and such an un-real blue.  We hiked the mile down to the lake and the boys jumped in.  The water was only 56 degrees, so I did not!  That mile hike back up felt a lot further than the mile down, but was totally worth it.

Thanks for letting me share some of my adventures with you.  If you get to chance to visit any of these places then do it!

-Amy