10 Things I Learned on our Family Trip to California

We bravely ventured out on our first big time family adventure this year. My parents took us on lots of family trips to see America when I was growing up, and I plan to do the same for my kids now that they are finally old enough.

We decided to go to California to see the big trees I've been telling the kids about for so long.

Due to Jason's business, we only had 5 days to cram in as much as we could and 2 of those days were travel days. We were so excited and then right before we left I got really nervous, suddenly doubting whether we would ever survive to make it back home. After a VERY rocky start at the airport, I am happy to say we did survive and had a great time!

Here was our plan: Day 1-San Francisco, Day 2- Yosemite National Park, Day 3- Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park, Day 4- LA/Hollywood.

Here are 10 things we learned on our trip:

1. People in California and a hillbilly cannot communicate without a translator. As we were all sitting in the airport after our flight was cancelled having a pity party, Jason called the rental car company to reschedule our car. They asked him to spell his name, in his usual accent he said "H" - "I" but as he says it it sounds more like "ahhh". The lady on the phone said "R?". He said no "ahhh". R? no "ahhh" R? He looks desperately at me for help. I said "say EYE" pointing to my eye. He said "ahh?" She said R? No "I-YA" I said, trying the phonics approach. "ahh?" Then I gave up on that and said tell her Igloo! she said "R?" Finally he said "ice!" and she got it. We were all rolling on the floor by that point.


2. No matter how many times you tell your southern raised son that there is no sweet tea in California, when the wait staff asks for drinks, he will say "Sweet Tea". Then have your credibility as a parent destroyed completely when you go to a national BBQ chain in Fresno, where they actually have sweet tea. Oh and while we're talking southern, don't order biscuits in a restaurant in a National park in California, yikes.


3. Parking. Resist the urge to grab the first parking space you see when you get close to where you need to be. This will result in LOTS and LOTS of walking, of which 6 & 7 & 35 year olds are not fond of. Go to the place you need to be and then work your way out to find parking. We made this mistake twice and paid for it. As soon as we saw the first star on the walk of fame, we parked. Little did we know that the walk of fame is very, very long and we were at the very end of it. We ended up aborting our mission to make it to see John Wayne's star.


4. No matter how cool the historic hotels or cabins are that you find to stay, the Fairfield Inn with the pool will be the kid's favorite place to stay.


5. When using pay showers in a National Park, take more coins than needed for 1 shower in case the power goes out and your shower turns off and does not come back on.


6. A hike to a waterfall or giant tree in a National Park does not count if the path is paved. There has to be rocks and fallen trees for it to count as an official hike for 6&7 year olds. Heavy breathing and panting on hikes is due to the altitude and NOT because mommy is out of shape.


7. Bribery is a miracle cure for whining kids and will add a couple miles to your hikes.


8. Picky eaters will not eat their favorite food unless it looks EXACTLY like it does at home. 95% of all menus are reduced to one suitable kid item: chicken tenders. It is very difficult to eat healthy on the road. Actual fruit and vegetables are scarcer than hen's teeth, even in California!


9. A GPS has no idea what to do on a winding road down a mountain or in the middle of LA for that matter. I still hear "Recalculating!" and "Lost Satellite reception!" in my sleep. A GPS should be used as a back up for an already planned route. In no way should a GPS be the sole source of guidance, they cannot be trusted and will lead you astray. Resist the urge to yell at the person inside your GPS and/or throw it out the window. If the Exit sign says Airport, take it, regardless of what the GPS says! Use your common sense people!


10. Take your family on a vacation to see America, it is definitely worth it and is great family experience that you just can't have at home.

In a Manor of Speaking

I have just returned from a business trip to the UK where I got to stay in one of my favorite places, The Hanbury Manor. It is actually a renovated Jacobean style mansion that was built in 1890 by Edmund Hanbury for his wife, after she refused to live in the existing home on the 2000 acre property that was built in the 16th century. After Edmund died in 1913, the property was vacant until it was bought and renovated for use as a convent. The Marriott bought the property in the 1990's, renovated it again, and then opened it as a hotel, spa and championship golf course.

The property has a wide sweeping circular drive that gives a good view of the entire impressive structure, which is impossible to capture in a single photo.

I really love the twisting chimneys.

For the first time in my many stays here, I got a room in the older section of the hotel, part of the original mansion. The Marriott added a wing but kept with the original architecture, and added a completely separate building a good walk from the main building, this is where I normally stay.

Here are some shots of the hallway in the older section of the hotel.






The view out of the window of my room. The windows didn't open so I had to shoot through the glass.


There are many other impressive features inside the hotel, but I haven't quite mastered the crazy picture taking blogger "I don't care what you think of me" attitude yet so I went for a walk around the grounds instead. Winter isn't the prettiest time of year to visit, but the grass was still green and the sky was blue that day.

It is hard to adequately capture the size of the trees on the grounds of the hotel, but they are massive. There just aren't trees like this in our part of the U.S.



These are the gardens, surrounded by this really tall wall. The other building of rooms I mentioned above is on the other side of this massive garden. It is VERY dark at night and quite a scary walk from the main building, where all the restaurants are.

On one of my stays in the summer time, I was walking through the garden and found an older man in his bathrobe (with nothing that I could tell underneath) playing croquet. That is an image I wish I could erase from my mind.

Later that day, I was out walking the grounds and had to dive into the bushes when a police car came screeching past with sirens blasting. I have no idea if it was related to the bathrobe man or not.

The next morning, I was sitting in the very impressive hall that sits just outside of the reception area waiting for my taxi. Picture a 2 story high ceiling with dark mahogany features, fireplaces, antique furniture and decor. I heard a bunch of commotion, and in ran a squirrel, followed by several members of the staff with brooms. It was a very entertaining trip. The rest of my stays have been uneventful, in comparison.

On the front side of the building is the beautiful golf course.


After this I went to Barnard Castle, which is in the north of England. I stayed at the Jersey Farm hotel again where I stayed in September. You can read about it here. It was very cold, snowy and foggy, all of their animals must have been in the barn, and I was only there for 1 night and 1 day so I didn't get any good pictures this time.

Over the River and Through the Woods, Part 2

The Thrill of the Hunt

On Day 2 of our trip to the mountains to get our Christmas tree we woke up and headed out to the tree farm. The scenery on the way there was beautiful with snow covering the hillsides. It was 27 degrees so we bundled up in our coveralls and snow boots.

We piled into a hay wagon for the hay ride to the tree location.

Up the mountain we went.

Over the mountain and then down the other side.

Our hunting territory was filled with hunters with long sticks used to measure their prey.

Off we went on our hunt.

We found a good one right at the start but passed it up for more hunting, which is the fun part.
But after quite a bit of searching we decided to return to this tree, only to find it being cut down by other hunters.

We finally found another good one and posed for the required photo shoots in front of it.

One of the best parts is watching daddy struggle to carry the tree. I was fumbling with my gloves to take the picture, screaming "Hold it! Hold it!" "Don't move!" Daddy's love that.

While we waited for the tractor to come pick us up we posed for a family shot.

J.W. was a big help getting the tree to the car.

We got out of there just as all of that frozen mud started to thaw, just in the nick of time.

All in all it was a very successful hunt. The best part is that each time I look at the tree in our living room I'm reminded of our wonderful trip to the mountains.

Over the River and Through the Woods, Part 1

Last weekend we went on our 2nd annual trip to Boone, NC to get our Christmas tree. I have always loved a real tree and have always loved to find and cut one down ourselves. My favorite type of Christmas tree, a frasier fir, does not grow in our part of NC, but fortunately we are able to drive 3-4 hours to the mountains for a fun family trip to get a tree. RRR tree farm in Boone offers package deals for one night of hotel stay and a tree, so we usually go up one day and come back the next for a whirlwind trip.

Last year we were able to go snow tubing during our trip, but this year due to rain earlier the previous week, they were not able to make enough snow to be open. Which was ironic since it was freezing cold and snowing when we arrived.

So we decided to go out to the original 125 year old Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. There are other Mast General Stores all over the NC mountains, but this is the original. It was really like going back in time when I entered the store, I loved looking at all the different items they had.

This is the front of the store.

Lots of canned foods, preserves, syrups, sauces as far as the eye could see.
Well not really. But there were alot.

The store really gave the feel like it hadn't changed much in 125 years.
One thing I found was a barrel filled with different kinds of bacon at the end of this counter.

Inside the store was the Valle Crucis post office, still in operation.

The back of the store, where the parking was. Which they needed alot of that day.

Everything was so pretty with the snow.

The back porch.

This was the Mast General Store Annex. Which had candy and clothing.
We went a little overboard buying the old fashioned candy.

Later that afternoon we went to eat at the Dan'l Boone Inn. We got there at around 4:30pm to beat the rush and had to wait 1 hour! It was worth it though.

They had lots of antiques on the wall as decoration. They serve food family style. There is no menu, just all you can eat good country cooking. The cast iron pot is full of yummy vegetable soup. In the summer they serve fresh salad.

Then they roll a cart to your table and fill it with food.

Fried chicken, smothered steak, mashed potatoes, homemade fried apples, coleslaw, green beans, corn, country ham biscuits and plain biscuits.

And then just when everyone is ready to explode they bring dessert. The choices were peach cobbler, strawberry shortcake or chocolate cake with white icing. I was half way into it before I remembered to take a picture. Oops. Sorry, chocolate cake makes me forget myself.

Come back tomorrow when I will post about the rest of our trip.