Let me first say, planning this trip was very last minute. In like- less than a week- last minute. Ethan had been wanting to camping which is something we planned on doing. That was going to be the extent of our vacation for the summer. But we decided since the boys are a little older now and we hadn't gone on a legit vacation since Caleb was 2, that we should do something more exciting.
Also, because we've been saving money each month for exactly this reason. And since we had a pretty good amount saved, we figured we should do something this summer. I will say now that we've taken this trip, we plan on doing a family vacation every year. 1 week each summer, we are going to go somewhere and take a vacation. We need to build memories and have a tradition that will live on and one they will enjoy and remember. Who knows, maybe when they have their own kids, it'll be a tradition of the Everts family to still do a family vacation each summer.
Anyway, we had gotten some input from Fred's boss who has 2 boys about what things they'd like to do. We really wanted to see the Redwood and since they were both in the Sequoia's and the actual Redwoods, we'd do Sequoia since it was a lot closer. It was perfect. We stayed at each spot long enough to enjoy it and for them not get bored. Our first stop was Visalia. On the way there we also stopped in SCV to say hi to family. We stayed in Visalia one night so the next day wouldn't be a long drive into the National Park. We swam, ate, played at a park, relaxed and the kids loved the hotel.
Then it was onto Sequoia National Park. We spent all day exploring, hiking and visiting General Sherman (the largest living tree). It was a long full day but really fun. The sun was shining, it was such beautiful weather and wasn't too hot. We hiked around Crescent Meadow and on our way there we saw a baby black bear cub, who we found out was right where we peed in the forest and didn't even know until we got to the car, a mule deer, and Tunnel Log. On our way into the park we drove past Tunnel Rock. The whole drive was gorgeous. This was my favorite day.
That night we stayed at the John Muir Lodge and we woke up to rain and a huge thunder storm. It was pretty neat and LOUD. We saw the General Grant tree which is the 2nd largest tree, climbed around some fallen trees then we headed out to Monterey Bay. It was roughly a 4 hour drive. Not too bad.
When we got into Monterey Bay, it so was beautiful. We went swimming, had dinner, walked about Fisherman's Wharf and geared up for the next day. Asher did some light reading as well. It was nice to have cell phone service again!
The next day we went to the Aquarium, Cannery Row and did some exploring at he beach. Then did some more swimming at the hotel and ate a HUGE dinner at Benihana's. It was a really fun day. The aquarium was cool but I thought it would be bigger than what it was. It was not a full day's worth, that's for sure.
The next morning, we slowly made our way home. We drove along the coast for most of the way home. It's such a pretty drive. We saw whales, sea lions and dolphins. The kids did really great the whole time. We stopped in Solvang and tried some ebelskivers, got some candy and looked at our names in a big book of Dutch names. All the boys names were in there including 'Everts'. Fred and I have Dutch ancestry and wanted to incorporate that into Ethan's name. The book we were looking at
was the same one Fred and I looked in almost 8 years ago when we went together. I was hugely pregnant with Ethan at the time and I found the name 'Kyler' in that book. So, he became Ethan Kyler. I just loved the name. I also took a picture next to the red shoe they have in Solvang when Fred and I were there so I took another picture with it and all my boys. It was all so nostalgic for me. A lot has happened in 8 years. It was a good break to get wiggles out, they enjoyed looking at everything and especially loved picking out candy. After this short stop, we drove straight home.
It was a fabulous trip and everyone had so much fun.
I slept very well in my own bed that night.
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