2010 Road Trip: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, CA

The next stop on our trip is Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The drive from Yosemite to Sequoia is really beautiful!
This is Kaweah Lake that is the lake that is formed from the snow melt. It was really high and the recreational areas parking lots were under water and people were swimming in the parking lot. This was right beside our campsite and Jeremy had fun playing near the water... but it was way to cold to get in!

Uncle David got us this log earlier in their trip (its called a Stump Stove) and it takes a lot longer to burn than a regular campfire.

The next morning we got up and went to into Sequoia. They have serious roadwork going on which meant we had thirty minutes walk around. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we got to get out of the car and wander around on the side of the mountain... and Wanda and I got to take a few pictures.

Jeremy worked on his Junior Ranger book. Just a note, if you email the parks ahead of time they will mail you all their information including the junior ranger books. I used them to start working on them in the car as we are driving from our campsite to the Visitor Center at the parks.

This is one of the top four largest trees in the world.

We went for a short hike around this meadow and found a few baby bears near by.

This IS the largest plant in the world: The General Sherman tree. It is almost a football field long weighs as much as 10 blue whales. Jeremy thought it was the Avatar tree.

As we were leaving, we saw this bear wandering around. I thought the guy on the other side is kind of funny.

Jeremy earned his Junior Ranger badge for both parks.

On the way out we hit the construction again.... so, more pictures. I love all the new plants!

Next stop, Las Vegas. Here are some more photos from the road of things you don't see every day in Florida.

2010 Road Trip: Lake Tahoe

We had been off the plane for about an hour when we had to stop to see some snow. In true Floridan fashion, we were wearing tee shirts, shorts and flip flops because, hey, isn't that what you wear in June, right? Well, I had no idea that it would be in the sixty's!We stopped at the top of this mountian to change clothes so that Jeremy wouldn't freeze... I'm pretty sure sixty is an average winter day in Tallahassee.We hit a couple of Geocaches on the way to Lake Tahoe. We are putting out a set of three travel bugs that we are trying to "race" home. This spot was a half a mile walk across the snow!
This was our first glimpse of Lake Tahoe. It was amazing! I've never seen water so clear before! We talked to a local who said that you could throw a rock and see it for 125 feet down.

Red Hills, part 1

Last Sunday afternoon was a perfect spring day, so we set off on a hike with my mom and Ray-Ray. My favorite part of geocaching has been just giving us a reason to keep going out and exploring our city. Really, there are just tons of parks that even though I've lived here for 26 years, I had no idea they were here or had just never been. This park, actually is special to me because when I was in high school and ran almost every day, this is where I came to run and pray. It is only 3 miles from where I lived!I thought Jeremy would love climbing on this old fallen tree, but he was more concerned about tiny spiders!Jeremy officially named this bridge "The cool bridge!"I promise we didn't plan it, but Joey, Rachael and Jeremy were all wearing their matching Guy Harvey shirts. Ha ha!