After our horse adventure we went on a ranger led hike through the Grant Grove sequoia grove. We got to walk through the middle of a sequoia tree that was used as a hotel and a bar in the late 1800s. We saw the General Grant tree which is currently the second largest living thing on the planet. The largest is the General Sherman tree which we have not seen yet. Costal redwoods are taller than the sequoia trees but the sequoias are much bigger around making them much larger by volume.

Gav also made a friend on the hike see the picture below.

Tristan, Gavin, and I went for a hike today. We bought a Grant Grove hiking map at the visitors center and Tristan plotted us out a nice hike. We saw wild flowers, birds, and butterflies.

The hike got a bit adventurous when we switched from on trail to a second trail. Apparently the second trail is not used often and had gotten very overgrown. Somewhere along the line we lost the trail. Fortunately we spotted a RV through the trees and headed off cross country. It was at the employee residence area for the lodge that is by us and we were able to follow the road there back to the main road and our camp. Overall our hike was about three hours.

Here’s some more pictures of our campground

After getting the kids up at 4 we finally made it to the Azalea campground at kings canyon-sequoia national park around 11:30. Tristan plotted out our route and for a while we traveled down the twistiest road every.

We setup camp and then headed over to the Grant Grove Village to hit the visitors center for jr ranger stuff. While we were there we stopped for lunch and found out the lodge has free Internet allowing this update

The boys started off their week by heading off to Disneyland and California Adventure with me.  Disneyland was starting a new show, and for the first week only after the show you got a map to do a kind of scavenger hunt around the park.  First stop though, was California Adventure to get fastpasses for the Radiator Springs Races, a ride both the kids really like.  The normal wait time is upwards of two hours though, so we only go if we get there when the park opens or get fastpasses.  We then ran around DCA for a while before heading over to Disneyland and the new show.  The kids both really enjoyed doing the scavenger hunt map later, which involved locating seven different compasses hidden around the park.  The reward for completing the hunt was just a sticker, but doing the hunt was a lot of fun.  We headed home soon after as Tristan was getting tired, though I think Gavin would have been willing to stay till close.

Tristan and Gavin on the Jumping Jellyfish ride

Up in the air

Tristan on the Golden Zephyr ride

Gavin on the ride

All of us on the ride for the 2nd time (line was really short)

Gavin in the caboose on the train

Memaw got a groupon to tour the battleship Iowa, which is docked at San Pedro and is being setup as a museum.  It just opened earlier this year and they are still fixing up the ship and only have one tour open right now, with five more to come.  The boys were very impressed with the ship, especially when they read that the main guns can fire a shell 26 miles – they figured out that the ship could shoot Disneyland from where it was.  One interesting fact we learned, the ship is still considered part of the reserves and the museum is not allowed to do anything to the ship, like cut the armor, which would prevent the ship from being returned to active duty if needed.

View of the ship from the parking lot

The boys in front of the forward turrent

Walking down a hall on the ship

View of the ships wheel, which is inside a giant metal tube with walls of steel over 12 inches thick, the hatch weighed 3000 lbs.

Tristan and Gavin outside the bridge

A drink set with the presidential seal on it. Three presidents sailed on the ship – FDR, Reagan, and Bush Sr. The ship has a bathtub, installed for FDR. Its the only ship in the fleet with one.

View of the aft gun turret from the ships aft