Our Great Adventures: Memorial day in Cali

Over Memorial Day our little family decided to go to California! We had big plans to pick up our rv as soon as we could, hit up three national parks and follow it up with a chill day in Monterey (all of this would be covering about 1000 miles). I think next trip we will have learned to moderate our expectations a little bit!

We got up at 4 in the morning in order to make it to our flight on time. Quick layover in LA and then on to Oakland. Five hours later we land, and we are pretty tired but excited to pick up our RV. We catch an Uber over to the rental place. It was nice, it had a huge kids play area and couches everywhere. That should have been a clue that we were in for a long wait. Almost three hours later and we finally got the keys. By this point Rhys (who hasn't gotten a nap yet) is a puddle of emotion and I wasn't much better. Lewis was chipper enough for the both of us and after some amazing mexican food in Manteca we were excited to get on the road again.

Three hours later just as it was getting dark we pull into our camp spot. We had an unceremonious dinner of mountainhouse but couldn't even get up the energy to have a fire. We all passed out. Rhys woke up several times in the night, finally ending up in our bed and waking us up bright and early at 6. It was another hour to get to Yosemite valley and we wanted to beat the rush, so we hurried to get ready, clean up, and go. Rhys got a few minutes to play with the neighbor kid and then back into the carseat he went.

Yosemite was a blast, we walked up to bridalveil falls and hiked El Capitan. A vast majority of that time Rhys spent in the carrier. He clearly wasn't having as much fun as we were and he just wanted to get down and pick up sticks. After we finished the hike we realized that we were going to have to hurry and get on the road if we wanted to make it down to Sequoia before it was fully dark. Again, Rhys went into the carseat as we settled in for an almost four hour drive. He was frustrated. I was nervous and stressed because we hadn't been able to get a reservation anywhere down there and we were hoping to luck into a first come-first served place. Poor Rhys had been confined for two days strait and the next two days would be more of the same.

We discussed and decided to pivot our trip. We stopped in Oakhurst at a park and let Rhys play for hours while we tried to figure out where we would stay that night. I had heard that casinos sometimes would let RVs boondock so we decided to give one a shot. The Chuckchansi casino was right down the road and Success! A whole corner of the parking lot was dedicated to boondockers! Our poor neighbors probably didn't appreciate our screaming toddler or the fact that we set off our smoke detector three times while attempting to make smores on the gas stove.

The next morning we woke up, enjoyed hot chocolate while watching the sun rise over the rolling hills, and then headed toward the coast. Sometimes when you are booking last minute you can negotiate with hosts at AirBnb or HomeAway to get a better deal. We were nervous because we also hadn't been able to get a reservation anywhere near Monterey, so Lewis rented a house for cheap and we got to park in the parking lot and stay right on Cannery Row! We went to the aquarium, drove down 17 Mile Drive, spent a day at Moss Landing, and spent a whole lot of time at the beach. It wasn't the vacation we had planned, but it ended up being the one our family needed. Rhys got to be his adventurous, independent self and Lewis and I got to relax together.

We did notice at the the aquarium that our kid will not be intimidated and knows how to be assertive! There was an exhibit that they kids could play with involving putting balls (eggs) into tubes and having them roll out somewhere else. Rhys was by far the smallest kid there and the bigger, faster kids kept getting all of the balls and kind of pushing him back from the exhibit. He kind of squared his shoulders and dove in, pushing his way to the front and snatching a ball from this boys hands (the kid had four balls, so I didn't feel too bad for him). I admire Rhys' assertiveness but I worry that we are going to have a hard time teaching him the line between being assertive and aggressive and teaching him how to share.

Rhys was asleep in the RV so we ran out to take this picture

One, Two, Three, SWIIINNNGGG!

The lunch that got away... Last time we were here we couldn't afford a hamburger so we sadly ate our cheese, crackers, and salami that we packed in. Which made us horribly sick.