We spent the last three days of our trip traveling back from Austin.

On day 12, we made it from our camp site in Pomona (east of LA) to Tucson, Arizona. The RV park we picked had a heated outdoor swimming pool that we got to enjoy before ending our day.

The swimming pool at Balmorhea State Park

On day 13 we drove from Tucson to Balmorhea State Park in west Texas. The state park, located near the town of Balmorhea, Texas has a giant swimming pool fed by natural springs. We got up the next morning and spent some time splashing around in the pool before heading toward home.

We arrived back in Austin at about 8:30pm Friday night and our vacation was over. We had to clean, fill up and return the RV the next day.

We had a great time on our trip despite some interesting weather. If we did it again, we probably wouldn’t have traveled as far (too much driving!). But despite the long distance and unlucky weather, we got to see some amazing landscapes and make some family memories that we’ll never forget.

The waterfall and beach at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Big Sur

We woke up on day seven and headed north. Our destination: Big Sur, one of the most remote and naturally beautiful areas in California. We had to drive a round-about route because part of Highway 1 was closed due to a landslide. We ended up going north of our destination and coming at it from Highway 1 going south. California State Route 1, which runs along the coast, has some amazing views and historic bridges that we were lucky enough to experience. We arrived at the Big Sur Cabins and Campground at about 9:00pm after a long day of driving. We were out of cell phone range so we had no contact with the outside.

Big Sur is located on a rocky coast line, about an hour or so south of San Francisco. It’s a small community made up of a few rustic restaurants, inns and campgrounds. Our campground was a very well-kept plot of land among the redwood trees along the Big Sur river. We settled in and immediately knew we would like this place, so we added two more nights onto our reservation.

The abandoned cabin in Pfeiffer Big Sur State park

On day eight of our trip, we just hung around our campground. We skipped rocks in the river and let the kids play on the playground. We also caught up on some laundry at the local laundromat.

On day nine, we finally had a chance to do some hiking. We went south along Highway 1 to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. There we found a short hiking trail to a magnificent waterfall. Water came pouring out of the rock onto an almost untouched beach below. After our walk, we ate lunch in the RV and waited for a rain storm to pass (we got a little unlucky with the weather in this location as well). After lunch we walked the Canyon Trail as far as we could go until we came to an impassable place along the river. After our day of hiking, we headed back to our campground and took it easy the rest of the evening.

On day 10, we headed to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, where we did some more hiking. On one of the trails we discovered an old abandoned house, built by the original owner of the land. It was in this very small cabin that John Pfeiffer raised eight children, one of them Julia. We also hiked to Pfeiffer falls, a 60-foot waterfall way up in the hills that we had to huff-it to get to. It was worth the hike though.

Everett at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

On day 11, we decided that we would take the kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on our way out of town. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is supposedly one of the best in the world. We weren’t all that impressed with the wildlife that they had on display, but the aquarium did have many good exhibits and play areas for the kids. They both had a blast. After the aquarium, it was time to start making our way back to Texas. We hit the road for about 6 hours to a camp site just east of LA.

Our plan for today was to spend it at the San Diego Zoo. We arrived around 9:15am and spent the entire day exploring. Eisley’s favorite animal was an orangutan that she sat inches away from as they peered at each other through the glass. We also saw polar bears, gorillas, a cheetah, and the giant pandas that San Diego Zoo is famous for.

A few of the creatures we saw:

A wild cousin of the llama

Two skinks, in the moment of passion

A polar bear

A giant panda

A meerkat

A dozing koala

A yawning gorilla

A giraffe

A fishing cat

An elephant

Two dik diks

A cheetah

A bactrian camel, shedding its winter coat

Day five of our trip was pretty uneventful. We got up in the morning and walked down to the little beach area where we were staying. We let the kids play in the sand for a while before heading back. Then we packed up and left. Our destination was Santee, California, just outside of San Diego.

On our way, we visited the famous In-N-Out Burger. Neither Courtney nor I had ever tried it so we thought we’d give it a shot. In-N-Out earned two thumbs up form us, and the kids liked it too.

Everett playing at the Santee Lakes Recreation Area

We arrived at the “Santee Lakes Recreation Area” where we would be spending two nights. The area has an interesting story. It contains seven small lakes that are filled with recycled water from the nearby water treatment plant. It sounds gross, but the water is completely clean and home to fish and water fowl. People use the lakes for swimming, paddle boating and fishing. Overall the recreation area is a very nice setting with playgrounds and well manicured landscaping. Our spot was right on one of the lakes. After unloading and hooking up the RV, we piled the kids in the wagon and went walking. We found a playground and let them run around for a while.

After exploring our surroundings, we came back to the RV and barbequed chicken for dinner. After putting the kids down, we played a round of Trivial Pursuit before putting ourselves to bed.

The Watchtower and the Palms

Day four started out with the kids waking up at about 6:00am. They were clearly still on Texas time. It did give us an early start to our day though.

The Desert View Watchtower

We ate breakfast and then headed east along East Rim Drive, which traveled along the canyon and offered up some great views every so often. The weather seemed much better today than yesterday. More on that later. Our destination was the historic Desert View Watchtower at the east end of the park. We got there and ascended the stairs up several levels. At the top, we were able to enjoy a 360° view of the canyon and its surroundings.

On our walk back to the RV, the weather took a turn for the worse (again). It started snowing and the temperature dropped. We hurried inside and hit the road. On the way out of the park, we hit some major snowstorms and the ground looked like the dead of winter. It was time to get out of there. We loved the Grand Canyon, but we pointed our RV toward a warmer climate and hit the gas.

We ate lunch near a retired locomotive in Kingman, Arizona

We were headed toward San Diego, where we planned to do a few family activities before we had our reservation at Big Sur. Since we didn’t want to drive all day, we chose a stop about 4 hours west along I-40. The Palms River Resort is a small RV park and community, with some permanent residents, along the Colorado River in Needles, California. We made our reservation along the way and arrived around 4:30pm. We quickly hooked up the RV, then headed for the pool. They had a main pool, a kids pool and two heated jacuzzi pools. We hung out there for a while with the kids. It was very relaxing and the kids had a great time. We laughed when we thought about spending the morning in a snow storm and the afternoon in a swimming pool.

After swimming, we went back to the RV and grilled hot dogs for dinner. Then we put the kids to bed and sat outside the RV, enjoying the amazing weather southern California is known for.

« Day 3: The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather | Day 5 »

Courtney on the trail

The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather

Last night we kept waking up to rain and hail pelting the roof of our RV. The miserable weather continued into day three of our trip. We sat in the RV most of the morning watching hail fall and snow flurries. Finally we decided that we weren’t going to sit around anymore and packed up to go see the canyon.

We took a shuttle bus to a lookout point, called Mather Point, along the south rim trail. We were greeted with some breathtaking views, the ones that make the long drive in a cramped RV all worth it. There were even a few breaks in the clouds and the rock formations were even more beautiful with sunbeams dancing off of them. From Mather Point, we hiked west along the south rim toward Yavapai Point. This destination gave us more spectacular views and a small geology museum, where we took refuge for about 30 minutes.

Nicholas and Eisley peer out at the canyon

After resting up we decided to keep hiking west toward a bus stop along the trail. However, about half-way into the last leg of our hike, we were greeted by severe hail and snow flurries. The temperature also seemed to drop about 20 degrees. At this point we had two choices: turn back toward the museum or press on. We decided to press on, which was probably a mistake. The kids were cold and getting colder. Everett was screaming his lungs out and we were getting strange looks from the few hikers also braving the elements (“why do you have your kids out in this mess?” we could hear them thinking).

We survived the cold and finally made it to a shuttle stop. From there, we headed to a nearby restaurant and warmed up with some central heat and hot chocolate. After getting our body temperatures back up, we headed back to the RV to drop a few things off, then caught another shuttle to the visitor’s center. It was there that we saw a short educational film about the canyon.

A rock formation that we spotted along the way

After the movie, we headed back to our campsite and called it a night. We can only hope for better weather on the rest of our journey.

« Day 2: To the Big Crack | Day 4: The Watchtower and the Palms »

Eisley on her "Rocketship to Jupiter" at the Gallup, NM city park

To the Big Crack

We woke up and headed out at around 9:15am. We drove for about 4½ hours, stopping in Gallup, New Mexico for lunch. We found a little city park where we ate and played for a while. Near the park was a small peak that we climbed to the top of and enjoyed the view of the small town.

We arrived at Grand Canyon National Park (or as Eisley calls it, the “big crack in the ground”) around 8:00pm. As we were approaching the park, we saw two very large elk (we think they were elk) eating grass near the highway. Tourists were standing around taking pictures and filming them, so we pulled the RV over and joined them. After the Elk were bored, they very carefully crossed the busy street and luckily drivers were smart enough to give them the right of way.

One of the elk we saw crossing the road

After entering the park, we found our spot in “Trailer Village”. We had one of about 80 RV spots with full hookups. It wasn’t scenic, all the RVs were kind of stacked on top of one another, but Trailer Village is the only RV park within walking distance of the Grand Canyon.

After settling in, we made leftover pizza for dinner and then put the kids to bed. Compared to how it went last night, tonight was heaven. The kids went to bed with relative ease and we sat and enjoyed a glass of wine before turning in ourselves.

« Day 1: Out of Texas into New Mexico | Day 3:The Grand Canyon in Some Not-So-Grand Weather »

Out of Texas into New Mexico

The 31-foot "Sunseeker". Our home for two weeks.

We left our house at about 5:15am Saturday morning. We had packed up our rented RV the night before. Our destination was the Grand Canyon, then Big Sur, California then, after that, anyone’s guess. We had two weeks ahead of us to enjoy the great American southwest and had hopes of making the most of it.

We drove for about five hours straight and arrived in Lubbock, Texas around lunch time. We located the “world famous” Prairie Dog Town and observed the little critters go about their daily lives for a while. The babies were really cute and Eisley got a kick out of it. Some nice lady came over and gave us some nuts and berries so that we could feed them.

One of the residents of "Prairie Dog Town"

After that, we settled down for some lunch ourselves. We found a shady area where we ate and let the kids run around and stretch their legs a bit. Then we were on the road again.

One disappointing realization we had was how expensive gas was. By the time we hit Lubbock we had already spent nearly $250 on fuel. We did the calculation and figured out that our gas guzzling RV was averaging just under 9 miles per gallon. And with gas at around $4.00 per gallon…well…this was going to be one expensive road trip. Maybe we would stay put at a few more places then we originally thought.

After getting back on the highway, we set our sights on Santa Rosa, New Mexico. We arrived there around 6:00 in the evening and found a spot at Santa Rosa State Park. It was a quiet little camping ground near Santa Rosa lake. We grilled burgers and then attempted to put the kids to bed. I say attempted because they both put up quite the fight.

Our view of the lake at Santa Rosa State Park

After we finally got them both quieted down, something strange happened. I was on my way to take the trash down to the dumpster when I noticed three men approach our RV and knock on the door. I headed back to the campsite to figure out what was going on. They informed us that they had rights to the spot we were in. They had stayed there the night before and were returning from a day of fishing to get some sleep. When we told them nothing was here when we pulled up, they figured they must have been robbed while they were away. One of the fishermen was most perturbed that his bottle of Crown Royal went missing. After cursing about the situation, the three guys decided to move on and find another spot…only to return 10 minutes later looking for an extension cord. When I told them we didn’t have one, they moved on…only to return 20 minutes later asking if they could pull their boat in front of our RV to plug it in for the night. I said sure and we all finally went to bed.

Day 2: To the big crack »