By the time we got back from vacation our two little chubby puppies had turned into smallish dogs, all their chubby puppy look is gone. At their last set of shots, Max was 31 lbs and Dori was 27. Don’t know why I don’t have any single pictures of Dori, she must not have been cooperating that day. I’ll get some next time.
They are both doing well, but they are getting a little rambunctious. It’ll be good when they get their next set of shots and we can take them out on walks.
Max
Max
Max
It’s been two weeks since the last update. I think we all had to take a breather after our vacation. Right after we got back from the gold country Brenda went to Atlanta for a week for a writers conference and they boys went with Memaw and Pepaw to Catalina. After that we all just wanted to relax a bit I think. In case your wonder what I did home all alone, I got to do some delayed water heater maintenance, turning the water off so I could drain it and fill it with vinegar to get rid of the built up hard water deposits.
Anyway, back to the fair. We went on Thursday, since that is kids get in free day. They also offer an unlimited ride wristband for $30 dollars on that day, which seems expensive until you see the ride prices. For example, they have this log ride that the kids liked, it’s 14 tickets if you don’t have a wristband, and tickets are 50 cents each, 7 dollars a ride. I’m just mentioning this because I feel the need to get out an ‘OMG the fair is expensive’. You have to work hard to make Disneyland seem cheap, but they manage.
The boys had a lot of fun though. We broke even on the wristband cost after about 30 minutes. They went on rides for over six hours, so I can only shudder at what the cost would have been. It would have been seven hours of rides, but our neighbor decided to drain his pool into our backyard and we had to deal with that before we left. To be fair, he didn’t mean to drain his pool into our yard, but water flows down hill dude. Physics learn it.
They didn’t have the dog show this year, much to our disappointment, but we did pay a buck to see a giant horse, a giant steer, and a giant crocodile.
We didn’t go nuts on the food, but the kids did have fun marveling at all the things you could buy fried, including a five minute discussion on just how one would fry cool aid and why people would eat that kind of stuff anyway. They did have giant pizza bread, cotton candy (there was bacon cotton candy available but they both passed), and caramel apples.
In addition to the rides, we went and saw all the animals, little chicks, goats, sheep and cows. The horses were missing this year for some reason.
There was an old time dress up picture shop we though might be fun to do with the kids, but we found out is was $30 per person in the picture so we passed.
The kids also went on this bubble pool ride. They put the kids into a giant ball and blow it up, so it looks like they are in a giant hamster ball then they put them in a shallow pool. They kids then spend their time spinning around and trying to stand. It’s a lot more fun than I’m portraying here. They both love it.
Giant sand castle. This was made with just sand and water, no glue.
The giant Alligator
Giant Steer
Fun house ride
On the bumper cars
Gavin in his bubble, Tristan is on the left
Gavin on some twirly, spinny ride
Bubble ride
For our last day of vacation we went over to the Jamestown train museum. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Gail drove over from Elk Grove and went with us. We took a tour of the museum but unfortunately the trains only run on Saturday and Sunday.
After the museum we went into Jamestown and had a nice lunch followed by a stop at the fudge shop.
The boys spent the rest of the day in the pool.
At this point I think we are all looking forward to getting home tomorrow and seeing our puppies again. We have no particular deadline but I think we all want to get going early. It’s been fun.
Today we drove over to Sutter’s Mill to see where gold was discovered. We saw the reproduction of the mill and went on a one hour guided tour of the area starting at the visitors center.
Afterward we drove to a town called Placerville where we had lunch. After lunch we went next door to a candy shop that had a bunch of retro candy which was cool for me and Brenda. Gavin made his own pucker powder candy which is basically a station were you make your own pixie stick from the flavors available. He had fun since he got to make it.
After that it was back to the condo and another couple of hours in the pool. Gavin says he feels like a fish.
So yesterday we went to Columbia state park which is an old gold rush town made over into a state park. The kids panned for gold, rode a stagecoach, and had ice cream. We also had lunch in a saloon and had sasperilla (spelled wrong I know) which is basically root beer. We went into the museum there and they got to dress up in old time clothes.
Once we got back to the condo they spent about two hours in the pool, which made them happy.
We started off yesterday by going to coffee with a ranger which is held in the camp campfire area. You get to ask questions of the ranger and they supply coffee and hot chocolate. You have to supply the mug.
Right after coffee with a ranger we went on a one hour hike about life at 8000 feet talking about the plant and animal life that lives around white wolf.
During the day we went back to the valley to go to the gift shop. We were also going to see some waterfalls but it was so hot and crowded we decided to skip that. Instead we went to Curry Village for ice cream.
That evening we went to a twilight ranger hike around White Wolf and learned more about bears and about how park management has changed over the years
We left Yosemite today. We got in one last ranger hike this morning all about geology. The ranger did an exercise where he handed out cards with different geological events on them and we had to put them in order. Tristan got to be the forming of magma pockets which later became the granite seen all around Yosemite.
After that we packed up camp and headed off to Angels Camp where we are going to see the gold country. Tristan just studied all this in 4th grade so he’s interested in seeing everything. It’s a balmy 102 degrees right now so his enthusiasm has waned a bit. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit cooler.
We started off yesterday by going to coffee with a ranger which is held in the camp campfire area. You get to ask questions of the ranger and they supply coffee and hot chocolate. You have to supply the mug.
Right after coffee with a ranger we went on a one hour hike about life at 8000 feet talking about the plant and animal life that lives around white wolf.
During the day we went back to the valley to go to the gift shop. We were also going to see some waterfalls but it was so hot and crowded we decided to skip that. Instead we went to Curry Village for ice cream.
That evening we went to a twilight ranger hike around White Wolf and learned more about bears and about how park management has changed over the years
I forgot one of the coolest things we did. We signed up for a ranger night hike that we went on last night. It was a hike through the forest off trail at night with no lights. The purpose was to get us to not fear the forest at night.
We hiked around and the ranger taught us about using our other senses to hike in the dark. We had an activity where he hid something in the dark and we had to find it using our sense of smell like a bear. Gavin kinda gave it away – I was waiting my turn to try when I heard Gavin say “what is that coffee smell?” I smelled it on my turn anyway but I knew what to smell for. The amazing thing is that a bear could have smelled the coffee 3 miles away. We averaged about 2 to 3 feet.
At the end of the hike we walked through the forest for about 100 yards by ourselves. To put our new skills to use and to get a feel for what it’s like in the forest by yourself.
We ended up at a sloped piece of granite perfect for lying back and watching the stars and satellites go by. We even saw a couple of shooting stars
Overall this was one of the coolest ranger walks we’ve done
No pictures we weren’t allowed to take out our phones or to have a light during the walk.
So today we headed into the valley. We figured that most of the Fourth of July crowd would be leaving today and based on the crowds it looks like that was true.
First stop was the Merced river for rafting. It’s about a 3 mile trip with views of all the best features in the valley. The river was getting a bit low due to low snowfall this year so we were dragging a bit in some spots but we never actually had to get out and walk. The boys insisted in being in their own raft and soon left us behind as we were more interest in floating and watching the scenery than paddling. At the end the boys had lunch and played in the river while I took the shuttle back to the car.
After rafting we headed over to another of the valleys best features – showers. Camping really makes you appreciate the feeling of clean cloths after a shower.
Them we headed off to the visitors center and the boys turned on their jr ranger packets for Yosemite. This time they got wood badges instead of plastic which was really cool.
We stopped at the pizza place for dinner and then it’s back to camp. They are having a ranger lead star gazing talk there that we are looking forward to.
